by Alicia Wolfe
I took a bit of meat off the stick. The hot tangy flavors filled my mouth, and I washed it down with foamy beer. “So you mean to overthrow the Fae Lords?” I said.
“Something like that.”
“But they seem so goodly! Why would you want to do that?”
“Different reasons, I suppose. With Angela, it’s about religion. Her gods are the enemies of the gods of the Fae.”
“And you?”
His face darkened. “I want revenge.”
I blinked. “For what?”
His expression softened, and he waved it away. “Never mind. A story for another time.”
Before I could follow up with another question, two figures approached. I instantly recognized them as the taron riders, Nevos’s two Fae associates. They bowed their heads to Nevos and one said, “My lord.”
“‘My lord’?” I repeated, but no one replied. So it’s true. They were his knights.
“You are well met,” Nevos said, clasping each of them by the forearm. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to get away from that worm.”
“He was a mighty one,” agreed the female.
“Have you seen to your mounts?” Nevos asked.
They nodded. “We also found yours near the roost, waiting, and saw to feeding and stabling him, as well.”
“Thank you. I’d just been coming to check on him.” I cleared my throat, and he smiled and said, “Lyra and Tae, meet Jade. You remember her from earlier.”
Lyra looked me up and down. “Well met, Jade.”
“Likewise,” I said. They didn’t offer to shake or bow, so I didn’t, either.
“Well, it’s been a long day, and I’m sure we could all use our rest,” Nevos said. “Let’s find Jade accommodations, then return to Angela’s.”
“Angela’s?” I said, as we picked our way through the camp again. Structures blossomed out of the trees around us, not so much like huts as extensions of the trees themselves, only trees didn’t have draped windows and doors. They were much finer and more sophisticated dwellings than those on the lower levels of the colony. More magic must have gone into them.
“That’s right,” Nevos said. “We quarter with Angela. She runs this place, and … well, you could say that I co-rule it. I’m not second in command, exactly, I’m the other first in command.”
“That sounds awkward.”
“It is. Which is why I dwell in the Hamptons or elsewhere normally.” He chuckled to himself. “I say ‘normally’, but really I’ve only been in your world for a few months.”
“That’s amazing. I thought all the Fae crossed over years ago.”
“They did, or most of them. I was late to the party. Here, this should do.”
He showed me to a large structure bristling with windows and flooded with sound: plates clacking, people laughing and music playing. Biker-types lounged on terraces along with scantily-clad ladies, while sorcerers smoking hand-rolled cigarettes with glowing smoke leaned on the balcony of others.
“It’s one of Angela’s nicer hostels,” Nevos said. “I’m afraid it’s the best I can do on short notice … unless … Never mind.”
My cheeks burned. I knew all too well what he’d been hinting at. And it was tempting, I have to admit.
He left Lyra and Tae outside, escorting me into the interior, which was even louder than outside.
“Don’t worry,” Nevos said. “Each room has sound dampeners. You won’t have to sleep with that in your ears.”
“I love magic.”
A woman with a red turban and a red dress stood at the counter, admitting guests and seeing to their needs. She checked me in, then showed me to a room on the second floor. It was small but private, and it smelled like resin. All in all, quite nice. And Nevos had been right, it was very quiet inside.
He paused on the threshold. “It’s been … interesting,” he said, slightly leaning against the doorjamb.
I faced him, standing very close to him. He was still shirtless—didn’t he ever get chilly?—and drilling me with those emerald green eyes. Suddenly I realized how hot it was in here.
“Um, yeah,” I said lamely.
He started to go, but I reached out and touched his arm. He turned back. He didn’t seem as if he were in a hurry to go anywhere. Actually, he looked like he’d rather throw me down on the bed and have his way with me.
It wasn’t a bad plan.
Except … and here I could sense threads of my plan coming back together … it couldn’t be here. It had to be at Angela’s.
“Maybe we could, ah, grab a drink later,” I said.
His eyebrows rose slightly. “A drink?” He paused, ruminating on it, and his gaze penetrated me to the core.
I swallowed. “Yeah. Let me settle in, then I could meet you somewhere.”
He nodded. “There’s a place …” He described it to me and told me where it was, then said, “I’ll see you there later.”
I watched him go down the noisy wooden corridor, my belly churning both in fear and desire. Davril had claimed that I had some game going, and he’d been right. It had been a pretty good game, really, up until the part where Walsh had appeared. That had been something I couldn’t predict, and after that point everything had been a disaster. But there was still a chance to right the ship. Er, flip the game board back up? This metaphor is breaking down. But bear with me. There was still a way to fix this mess, and it involved drinks, and possibly more, with a very sexy, very dangerous man.
“Oh, balls,” I said, and closed the door.
Chapter 12
The tavern turned out to be quieter than I’d expected. Basically it was just a series of terraces jutting out from one of the huge redwood-like trees that composed much of this area of Shadowpark, and its various levels and directions offered delightful views out over the forest. The terraces were high enough to see over the treetops, at least some of them. It was the highest I’d been yet in Shadowpark.
“Wow,” I said. “This is nice.”
A fresh breeze blew against me, and I relished it.
“Yes,” Nevos said. “Very.”
He stood at my side, not quite touching me. Both of us had bottles of beer in our hands. The droplets of moisture from the glass felt cool and nice against my fingers, and I enjoyed the weight of the bottle in my palm.
“Do you drink beer in the Fae Lands?” I asked.
“Ale, certainly. But I mostly drank wine. Although with some whisky and spirits mixed in.”
“Whiskey mixed into the wine?” I laughed.
He laughed, too. “Separate. Usually.”
I allowed myself to lean into him, just a little. I had a part to play, after all. He was very hot. I mean, temperature-wise. But the other kind, too.
He finally wore a shirt, a loose black silk affair that looked like it might have come from the Fae Lands. The wind pressed against it, etching his hard body and flapping the tails out behind him. Black pants encased his long, muscular legs, but his feet were still bare. His soles must be tough, I thought, eyeing the wooden decking. I’d have gotten splinters in seconds.
Music drifted out to us from deeper in the tavern, but we lingered on the balcony, enjoying the magical night of Shadowpark. Fireflies of a thousand colors—red, green, orange and many more—flickered and flew through the high trees, creating amazing displays. I knew the fireflies weren’t your typical varieties but altered with the magic of this place. Shadowpark was dark and deadly, but it was strangely wondrous, too.
“I suppose I’ve adapted to a lot of your ways,” Nevos said. “I mean, the ways of your world.”
“The Fae Lords I see on TV are always so stiff and mannered. You don’t seem like that at all.”
“Ah, it was always my downfall to be different from my brethren. Too impulsive, too rash. Too … other.”
“That must have been hard.” What else is hard, Nevvie?
He shrugged. “I was fine. I’m more interested in you. Jade …. Is that a common name in this world?”
One corner of his mouth lifted up. “Not really.”
“Well, here’s to not really.”
I lifted my beer, and we clinked bottle necks. Drank.
“But really,” he said. “A magic-using half-shifter thief in New York, the hub of your world. You must have had an eventful life.”
“Not so much a half-shifter anymore.”
“But more than human.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” I said. “Call it ‘human with benefits’.” I laughed at my own joke, but he only smiled. I guessed that reference was a little too out there for even him.
“Someone stole your ability to shift?” he said, wrinkling his brow. When I nodded, he whistled. “That’s some serious magic. Especially if it was dragonfire he stole. And I’m guessing it was a he?”
“Yep. You met him earlier.”
Nevos took a sip. “Walsh. Yes, I’d wondered. You seemed to know him.”
I realized I was giving too much of myself away, and he hadn’t revealed anything. “So I understand revenge,” I said. “I’m after it, too. What are you getting revenge for? Being different?” I said this with a smile to show I was joking, but I kept the smile small just in case that was the reason. You never knew, right?
“Not quite,” he said.
“Well then?”
He shook his head, and the wind stirred his long black wavy locks. “I don’t want to get into all that right now, Jade. Bad memories. I want to think about … more positive things.”
His gaze landed on me, and I felt its force and weight fully. I almost staggered under the heaviness of it. His intensity burned into me, heating me up, and my core turned molten. Sheesh, he should bottle that stuff.
I swallowed but forced myself to match his gaze. Softly, so softly a non-supernatural wouldn’t have been able to hear, I said, “I’m still here.”
That was all it took. His free hand went around my waist and drew me to him. My belly smacked his, sloshing my beer over the side of the railing, but I didn’t care. I lifted my face and met his lips with mine. His were eager and hot. He kissed me passionately and firmly, and my blood raced like the fire I would never have again … unless. My free hand played over his hard abs and pecs, at last cupping his face.
His tongue met mine, shoving against it, and I sucked on it greedily.
At last I broke away.
We stared at each other, panting. The desire was a living thing in his eyes.
“Your room,” I said. “Now.”
I set down the bottle on a nearby table, grabbed Nevos’s hand and dragged him down a ramp. Laughing, he drained his drink and set it down, too. In less than a minute we’d left the tavern behind and were making our way back through the camp toward Angela’s house. Toward Nevos’s bedroom. And the knob.
But at the moment I was thinking of quite a different knob.
The two eyeless witches were on duty beside the treehouse again, but they moved aside as we approached and didn’t even bother to greet us. The door swung open. Laughing and kissing, Nevos and I entered. Now he took the lead. Instead of going upstairs, the direction Angela had come from earlier, he took the spiral staircase down, leading down a tight, winding hall, then another. At last he kicked open a thick wooden door framed by vines and led me into his bedroom, his home-away-from-home.
The bed was large, wooden, seemingly grown from the very floorboard, and festooned with flowering vines. The space wasn’t large, but it was opulent, and the whole of it smelled with the intoxicating scent of those flowers. I’d never seen their like before.
Nevos shoved me up against the wall and pressed his face to mine.
What am I doing? I thought, feeling Nevos’s tongue probe the seam of my lips. He was the enemy!
Davril, forgive me. It’s the only way.
Also, I have to confess, I wanted it. Damn it, I really did. Sometimes you just have to go with your instinct.
I tore open his shirt and ran my hands over his taut eight-pack and muscular pecs. Ooo, he was delicious. I could just about eat him up.
He trailed kisses down from my lips to my neck, and I almost whimpered when his lips touched the soft skin there.
Then, breathless, he pulled back.
“Are you sure?” he said.
I reached down and unzipped him, then pulled out his cock, which had become hard. It was huge and thick, and it pulsed in my grip. I wanted it in me. Now.
“I’m sure,” I said. “Besides, what else are we going to do till morning?”
Nevos grinned ruefully. “A bad girl. Just my type.”
He swept me up in huge arms like I was weightless, pressing me against his chest as though I were a young girl, or maybe a groom carrying his bride over the threshold, then marched to the huge bed and threw me down on it.
He kissed my cheek, then down my throat again, and I hastily shrugged off my shirt. He helped lift it over my head, and I tossed it aside gladly, then reached around and unfastened my bra strap. Sent it sailing on top of the shirt. My nipples stiffened at the contact with the cold air, and goose bumps popped out on my breasts. He kissed them, and I sighed when his tongue made circles around a nipple, then flicked it fast-fast-fast.
“Ahh,” I moaned.
I was in a hurry now. I kicked off my shoes and socks, unbuttoned my jeans and tugged them down. He helped, jerking them off in a rush, then, more gently helped me pull my panties down. Sure enough, they were drenched.
His nostrils quivered, scenting the moistness with his supernatural senses, and I blushed. He only grinned wider. He knelt between my splayed legs, his eyes on my crevice. I wished I had shaved my patch before showing up at the rooftop bar earlier today, but that had been the last thing on my mind. At least I’d done my legs. It didn’t seem to bother him.
“Are you really going to … ?” I started.
“You know it.”
He grabbed my thighs and threw my legs over his broad, sexy shoulders, then kissed my belly. His warm tongue made circles around my navel, then trailed kisses down to my mound. My breaths came faster and faster. Am I really doing this? I just met this guy! But I knew enough. He had just saved my life from Walsh, and he had proven himself a fearless, brave hero of the highest order, however rogue. He might be more villain than hero, but he was a worthy bed partner.
I gasped when he lapped my crevice with his tongue, slowly running it up from the lowest part to the highest. Then he started again at the bottom, but this time he pressed his tongue inside me, just a bit. Delicious tingles radiated all throughout me. He lapped me again, and I moaned and squeezed my thighs together, then gripped his wavy black hair in one hand while I squeezed one of my breasts with the other.
“You like that?” he said, looking up from between my legs. Moisture rimmed his lips.
“Uh-huh,” I said, breathless. Nodding.
He held up a thick finger, and a smile played at the corner of his lips.
“Know what I’m going to do with this?”
I bit my lower lip and shook my head.
Amusement danced in his eyes as he placed the finger at my opening, then inserted it inside me—but only one knuckle deep. I gasped and squirmed, loving the feel of him inside me, even just a little. He was such a tease. I cried out as he plunged his thick, calloused finger deeper into me, then I grabbed a pillow and shoved it over my mouth. I didn’t know if Angela or the other Fae could hear, but it paid to be safe. I moaned into the pillow as he thrust his finger into me all the way, and I gripped it with my vaginal muscles. If his finger was this thick, how big would his dick be? I couldn’t wait to find out.
His tongue caressed my clit, and I gasped and clutched the pillow to my chest. His finger pulled out, then plunged in again—hard!—even as his tongue continued to lap my nub, and waves of pleasure coursed through me. I arched my back and moved my hips gently, opening myself to him. One of his hands stroked the side of my face, and I brought his finge
rs to my lips and kissed them. Then I placed that hand on my breast. Getting the message, he rubbed my nipple with his thumb, and it stiffened even more. The pressure built and built in me, and I knew I couldn’t last much longer.
“No!” I said. “Stop.”
He kept doing what he was doing for a moment, then paused and looked up.
“Are you sure?”
“I want you inside me,” I said.
“I can arrange that.”
Slowly, he stood, trailing kisses up my thighs, then my knees and all the way to my feet as he unfolded. When he was fully up, his cock jutted up proudly, and I moaned again when I saw the bead of white fluid gathered on the tip. Impishly, I sat up and brought my mouth to it. Sitting down like I was, I was at the perfect height for what I wanted to do. I didn’t kiss the head of his shaft immediately but kissed its sides, running my lips all the way down to its base.
“What are you doing?” he said, but I could hear the pleasure in his voice and knew what he really meant was What are you doing to me?
I loved it. Here he was, this big, confident, muscular Fae Lord, and I was driving him wild. I had complete power over him, of his pleasure, and he was willingly giving me that power.
I stroked his balls gently with one hand while the other gripped his muscular thigh, stabilizing myself, then licked the bead of pearly white from the head of his dick. It was salty and delicious. As soon as I stroked his shaft with my tongue again, his cock pulsed and another bead replaced it.
“You like that?” I said.
It was his turn to say, “Uh-huh.”
His face had gone rigid, his eyes burning brands. He was into this!
Smiling, I opened my mouth wide and took him inside me. I made circles around the head of his shaft with my tongue, then made my lips seal tight to either side of his enormous shaft. I bobbed my head down, taking him deeper inside me, then back up, then back down again. He moaned above, and I felt his huge, cum-filled balls pulse in my hand. His giant cock throbbed in my mouth, and I could taste more of his pre-cum on my tongue.
