“You do love to be worshipped, don’t you?” he asked.
“Oh, yes…”
He took my nipple between his teeth and nibbled on it, bringing a little pain along with the sensuous pleasure of his touch. I let all of my thoughts go as Gilbert’s hands stroked along the planes of my body, taking detours to linger on the good parts. His mouth followed where his hands went, culminating in the silken glide of his tongue all over my soft folds, slowly bringing me closer to a climax. I closed my eyes and accepted the reverence of his hands and mouth, making sounds of pleasure.
“I love watching you,” he said.
He brushed my hair back and kissed and licked my ears as he brushed his hand to my sigil and the other hand slipped between my legs again. “Mm…Gilbert…”
“Will you look at me?” he said gently. “I like it when you meet my eyes.”
It was a simple request but it made me blush. It felt so much more intimate to know he was watching me. My eyes met his, such a clear blue. Gilbert looked like an angel, but the more I got to know him, the more I saw his harder side. He would be very easy to underestimate, I thought, but he was as tough as the others.
My core was blazing, but I was having a hard time coming. I started making a little whimpering sound. I had been gone for days and I wanted someone to fill me up inside.
The door swung open.
I jumped. Gilbert slowly peeled away from me.
Niko came over to us and slid his hands on the bedspread. Right into Gilbert’s ear, he said, “It’s quarter after, Gil. I gave you a little extra time. Of course, you’re welcome to stay.”
“No,” Gilbert said. “I’m not breaking my promise again. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right, Gilbert.” I took his hand. “Go be with Rin. I’m sure he needs you.”
Wretch had been sleeping on a nearby chair, but when Niko entered the room, she flew toward him. Gilbert left, casting back one last look, and Niko sat on the bed with a lazy confidence. He was in shirt sleeves and a vest of dark brown velvet, with a black cravat already slightly loosened—halfway between formal and informal. He reached for my shoulders and pulled me up into a seated position, glancing me over. The scarves were still pulled down under my breasts. He brushed a hand across my nipples with a careless sense of possession before dropping the hand down again.
I looked down, deeply aroused and sort of ashamed by it.
Wretch started weaving around between both of us. “Mrow?” She seemed urgent.
“She’s been fed, right?” I asked.
“Astria.” He took a treat from his pocket and held it up above her head.
She swatted his hand and he dropped the treat. She ate it and looked at him expectantly again.
I didn’t like this. “She’s my cat,” I said.
“Priestess,” he said, “I think you need to learn to share.”
“Only if you do.”
“Me? I am more willing to share than anyone here. I am not a possessive man. It would only be a problem if you couldn’t satisfy me, but you can.”
“I—I don’t know.”
“You are a creature of desire,” he said. “Don’t be sorry.” He wrapped a hand around my cheek, plucking my mouth open with a finger and then tracing my lips. “When I was fucking you and you were sucking off Gilbert, you loved every minute of it. You have two shadow guardians to dominate you because you need it. Two humans wouldn’t be enough.”
“I—“
“No?” he asked.
I pushed his hand away, trying to shake off the haze of lust Niko always produced. “Can we just talk for a minute first?”
“We don’t want to keep Sir Forrest waiting, do we?”
“Um—I don’t know, I just—are you always ‘on’?”
He smiled in that way he had, like even his smile was naughty but unreadable. “As far as I know, I don’t have an off switch.”
“I want to talk about the cat for a second. Our cat. Like, if we’re going to share custody we should settle on one name.”
He sat back, palms on the bed. “Astria is a much more dignified name than ‘Wretch’.”
“I think it’s cute.”
“How old were you when you named her?”
I didn’t really want to answer that.
“I’ve heard you call her twenty different names already,” he said, with vague sarcasm. “Surely you can let me have one.”
“Do you know anything else about winged cats? If they’re the companions of dragons, what is it they do?”
“I think what she wants right now is to bring us to Abel, or Abel to us. A priestess can complete the ritual with just one guardian, yes. But in the Era of Elders, that was a last resort if one or more guardians were killed. Abel is my counterpart. He seems like a monster because he is a monster, but nevertheless, he is our monster. And we need him. In the meantime, I need you.”
It was really hard to get Niko to talk instead of heading right into seduction. Even harder to resist Niko, and make him talk.
All my resolve to control him was flying out the window.
He pushed aside the scarves covering my pussy and spread my knees open. “You are so nice and wet. Hungry for me.” Holding my knees wide open and leaning into me, he kissed my mouth. The longer he kissed me and held me open like that, the more I needed him to touch me and fill me. I reached for the buttons of his vest, plucking them open. He pulled apart the knot of his necktie as I did the same to the buttons of his shirt. So many damn buttons. Just a few more now, at his trousers. I released his hard cock and wrapped my hand around it.
“Take me, then,” I said.
He stroked my head a few times, looking at me carefully, and then he guided my mouth toward his length. “This is mine,” he said. “Your mouth. I’ve seen what it can do for Gilbert. Now show me.”
If I could time travel back and tell myself how my summer was going to go, this would definitely be on the ‘hell no’ list. But I was a different girl now. I couldn’t help but take it as a challenge. I wanted to make Niko call out my name.
I let him urge me onto my knees. He was too tall for me to reach, but he held up a finger for me to wait and kicked over the ottoman that paired with a chair by the window.
“There,” he said, that one word so commanding. He drove me out of my mind even as he stirred up my stubbornness. Who are you, really? I don’t think he really wanted me to know.
I took the head of his cock in my mouth, licking and swirling my way around the soft flesh. I remembered that Gilbert seemed to like it when I touched him at the same time. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with balls, but I tugged Niko’s trousers down until I could cup them in my hand and gently fondle them. Men were so vulnerable here, really. Everything felt like I just bite it off or crush it if I wanted to.
I don’t know if it was Niko’s intention, but I felt powerful. I wrapped my lips tightly around his shaft and worked his length, slowly stroking him, taking my time with him, but occasionally getting a little rough with him to see if he would stop me. He never did. As always, the taste of him reminded me of some foreign sea. I felt the muscles in his legs growing rigid and he rocked a little on his feet. I took him deeper, trying my best to torture him. I had a pretty good idea of what would torture a man by now. In the end, we couldn’t be that different. When I had him starting to breathe faster, I sped up my pace.
“Mmph…” His fingers wrapped around my hair.
When he tried to take charge, I dragged my teeth up and down his shaft and bit the head of his cock. Not too much, but a warning. I looked at him. I’m in charge of you right now, Niko.
“Priestess…”
He seemed helpless to say more. I knew what it felt like to be stripped down to nothing but pleasure.
I clutched his ass and kept stroking my lips up and down his shaft, swirling my tongue around the tender head, and just when I thought the tired muscles of my mouth and tongue were going to rebel, I had him. He was silent, but he pressed int
o me, his fingers tangling in my hair, panting as his seed pumped into my mouth.
“Ah—“ He made a sound like he was gritting his teeth around the sensation. He gripped my hair until he was done, and then he pulled my head back.
I swallowed like he wanted me to do. But then I looked at him.
“Not bad,” he said.
“Not bad? Give me the name of the girl who’s done a better job.”
He started rolling down his sleeves and carefully fastening the buttons. He scratched Wretch’s head.
“Why are you all being so difficult?” I snapped. “I could be more difficult too, you know.”
“Could you?” He took a step closer, now working his way up the buttons of his shirt. “I told you I will never belong to you. My heart is not for the taking. You’re the one who’s being difficult. You love everything I do to you and you’re trying to test the limits of my control. Don’t even bother.”
“I am your priestess, Niko.”
He fastened his trousers and tucked his shirt in, then sat down next to me and put his hands on my hips, slipping his fingers under the ribbons and pulling me toward him. He circled his thumb heavily around my clit, which was instantly back where Gilbert left it, on the brink of orgasm. He was rough with me as I had been with him, pinching my clit between his fingers and shaking it until I cried out. His other hand slid along my thigh, admiring but cold.
“Say it again,” he said.
“I am—your priestess,” I gasped.
“Yes,” he said. “You give me power, and I will use that power to crush this city, this emperor and all his evils. You are my priestess. Embrace it. You must be a lucky girl, because I’m a very lucky man.”
He let go of my clit and pushed me down onto the bed. “Wait here. I’ll get Forrest,” he said.
“You ass,” I said, feeling confused and annoyed and like—damn it, I still wanted him. Not just Forrest.
He nodded, and left me there.
Chapter Eight
Sir Forrest
“She’s waiting for you,” Niko said, strolling into the room where I was trying my best to compose a letter back home. I had gotten as far as the date and a greeting. I was waiting for her, waiting to comfort her after her trials and love her alone.
“Thanks.” I put the pen down and picked up the lantern.
“And she’s all yours,” Niko added.
“Fine.”
“I would rather if it was just you that she loves,” Niko said. “I turn her on, but she loves you. And I don’t want her love. I just need a release if she’s the only woman I can have.”
My brows furrowed. “You’re not getting out of this, you know.”
“I understand.”
“You don’t want her to love you?”
“Definitely not.” He squinted at me. “So try not to look so sour.” He strolled off somewhere. I was not convinced.
Actually, the opposite.
I wondered what he’d said to her. Something cruel? He’d better not. Phoebe had a big heart. She deserved to be loved.
I already knew Gilbert was struggling with the love he had chosen and the love he’d been forced into. He might have hurt her feelings too, even if he didn’t mean to. I paused at the door, feeling turned around. Maybe I wanted her to myself, but even more, I thought, I didn’t want them to hurt her. How dare they not love her like I love her…
I opened the door and she was sitting on the bed, looking flushed and pensive. Her eyes hooded as I walked toward her. “Don’t tell me you just want to talk about something,” she said. “Niko and Gilbert have already teased me thoroughly.”
My body throbbed with hunger for her, and even at the idea that she had been left teased and unsatisfied. It felt so dishonorable to get right to the point, but as soon as I stepped within reach, she grabbed my collar and pulled me into a kiss. She smelled like roses and she was wearing some sexy outfit that left a ton of her skin bare. I spread my hands on her back. Her skin was so smooth and perfect and so warm.
“Forrest… I missed you so, so much…and I’m still so sorry about your great-grandmother.”
“That’s sweet, but you don’t look like you’re really thinking one bit about my great-grandmother.” I half-smiled.
“If I wasn’t thinking one bit, I wouldn’t have said anything, would I? Still…it is hard to think straight. I want you inside me.” Her big brown eyes plucked at my heart, but I’m not sure all the books in the world could have prepared me for seeing the young woman I had been keeping watch over for the past several years transform into the priestess. It was simple magic: her body was a vessel with four channels of magic, awakening to our touch. I should be glad that she was willing, and the book made it clear that this was her duty. It seemed like it would take a lot of mating for her powers to fully awaken and allow us to take on the Emperor, because none of us had demonstrated the breadth of powers from the book yet. But a part of me wanted to slow her down.
“Don’t look at me like that!” She bit her lip. “You all have different ways of making me feel bad.”
That was the last thing I wanted. “No…” I stroked her hair. “I’ll take care of you, milady.”
“Please,” she whispered, tugging open my shirt.
I urged her to lay back on the bed, and I picked up her palm and kissed it. I saw that her scant outfit fastened with a single golden clip and I pulled it away from the fabric, brushing aside the scarves. She was wearing panties that were hardly more than a few decorative ribbons and a scrap of sheer fabric. Gods.
I took the golden jewelry from my pocket. It was marked with my own sigil, and it had belonged to my great uncle, but it looked like the ornaments the Elders put on her during the ceremony.
“Do you think that does anything? It’s probably just a copy of the real thing from the era when priestesses were revered,” she said, as I fastened the clasp around her hips. “All it will do is block me from touching your sigil, like Niko’s headband.”
“That might be so, but I want to be sure. I never got to ask Gran what she knew about it. Anyway, you don’t need to touch my sigil.” When our sigils met, it stoked our desire. She was definitely beyond that need.
Maybe the jewelry was just a replica of the real thing, but the gold had a sense of age. It felt a little smoothed over, like it had been touched and handled often during a long period of time. The marks of the sigil looked handmade. It must have been very expensive, so either way it made no sense for my great uncle to have such a thing. He was a soldier, rising in the ranks, but he had died before reaching far enough to have been able to afford this much gold for his fiancee.
“Ooh, it’s making my sigil warm,” she said, as I adjusted the position of it. When we made love facing each other, our sigils brushed against each other, glowing warm. The circle of gold fell across that point where our sigils would meet. “Maybe there is something to this after all.” She lifted her legs to hug the sides of my body. “Take your clothes off already, big guy, why do you come in here wearing a bunch of leather?”
“I can get it off fast if I need to. In the army, you know, we learn to dress and undress and be ready to go within seconds. But even in this house, I prefer a little protection. Niko has way too many ‘men’.”
My fingers whipped through the various fasteners of my leather doublet and arm guards, the boots, and finally the shirt and trousers beneath. With every passing moment I was putting all the troubles out of my mind and seeing only the girl before me. Troubles could wait.
I dropped onto the bed above her and slid my cock against her slick folds. “Is that better?”
“Better, yes…but come on, I said no teasing. What does a girl have to do to get a cock around here?” She gripped my arms and took charge, positioning herself to take my length inside her. I thrust into her. I was big; I always worried about hurting her, but she let out a ragged sound of relief.
The gold jewelry burned hot between us. Almost too hot, but it didn’t hurt at all. It w
as just…strange, bordering on alarming.
This definitely was no replica.
Well, we’d think about that later. I wrapped my arms around her and she did the same to me, and we kissed as I worked up and down her exquisite channel. It was easy to forget how wonderful this felt. Maybe I had to share her, but at least this was mine. The sweetest spot of all. She was making urgent sounds, and I changed angles a little until I found the one that made her sound the most urgent.
Just as things were going well, damned if her cat didn’t wander over and start purring right in my ear. Phoebe batted her away but Wretch’s response was to circle around to our other side and stare at Phoebe.
“Ignore her,” Phoebe moaned. “Keep—keep doing that—please—oh gods—yes.”
The gold jewelry seared with heat, and something flashed through her and then me. She seemed to glow faintly. She was clutching my back. Suddenly I felt claws digging into my flesh. Her eyes slitted open and her brown irises had turned a strange, translucent color that seemed to catch the lamplight in tiny rainbows.
Even as alarm bells rang in the back of my head, something was happening to me too. I felt ten times more powerful than before. She screamed as I brought that power to bear on her, but it didn’t sound like a bad kind of scream. I felt her inner passage clenching and pulsing around my cock and I growled with barely restrained pleasure. In that moment, I didn’t care about our circumstances at all. She was my priestess and all I cared about was giving her everything. All of my body, all of my heart, all of my strength to defend her to the death.
Her hands flopped back behind her head and they were not her arms. Not human arms. They were covered in translucent scales that shimmered with faint pink and purple hues, and her fingers had grown long and clawed.
“What is happening?” she gasped, through the throes of pleasure.
I couldn’t answer as I came hard inside her. My mind was lost to primal need.
As soon as it was over, all the alarm of this strange moment slammed into me and I pulled out.
Priestess Bound Page 7
