by Ciana Stone
Did she stay with the man who had reawakened her desire to feel and love again, or did she return to the man who had been responsible for teaching her how to desire and love? Was she now free to choose, or did her fealty still lay with her liege? If King Michael was dead and Prince Eldric was not here, then who did she answer to?
And why was Severin here to begin with? There were too many questions and no answers.
She supposed she would find out those answers when Lord Severin arrived.
Chapter Seven
Asha Iltani turned her back on the view of the city and looked through the open French doors of the penthouse as he called out to her. Farouk Payne smiled as he crossed the sitting room and stepped out onto the balcony.
“You have the look of a cat who just lapped up the last of the cream,” she commented.
“Or the man who just secured your way into the Legacy’s inner circle.”
“Oh?”
“Indeed.” He offered his hand and when she placed hers in it, escorted her inside. As she took a seat on the sofa, he went to the bar and removed two wine glasses from the rack. He perused the wine selection and smiled as he made his choice. The Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, 1941 had sold for over twenty-four-thousand dollars.
Anyone else would have protested at having the bottle opened. Asha Iltani could not care less. If the truth could be told, the richest people in the world could not combine all their collective wealth and match her.
But then she had been amassing fortunes since the Sumerian civilization. Money was nothing more than a tool for Asha, a means of control, and it was control more than anything she craved.
Farouk uncorked the bottle and set it aside. He would let it breathe while he prepared Asha’s aperitif. “I’ve brought you a special treat, my love,” he said as he left the bar and made his way to one of the guest rooms.
Inside, a young man of twenty-two years, blond, and as beautiful a youth as Farouk had ever seen, lay sleeping on the bed. “Time to awake, pretty one.” Farouk leaned down and whispered.
The young man opened his eyes and smiled up at Farouk. “Is this where the party is?”
“Most definitely.” Farouk offered his hand, and the young man took it. “Now, Damion,” Farouk said. “Look at me.”
Damion did as ordered.
“I want you to take off your clothes and then come join us in the sitting room.”
“Okay.”
Farouk smiled again and pulled Damion to him for a long kiss. His smile returned when he looked down at the erection straining Damion’s pants. “Hold that thought.”
With a chuckle, Farouk turned, went into the adjoining bathroom for a large bottle of oil, and then returned to the sitting room.
“I thought you had a surprise for me?” Asha said when he returned.
“Oh, I do. It will be here momentarily. Perhaps we should prepare for its arrival.”
“Prepare?”
Farouk’s answer was to set the bottle of oil on a side table, unbutton his shirt, pull it free from his slacks, and remove it. He appreciated the admiration in her gaze when he divested himself of the rest of his clothing.
“Hmm, am I to infer there will be a show with dinner?”
“A show if you like, my love. Or you could join.”
Her smile was both sexy and predatory. “Perhaps I will, but you know I do so enjoy a good show.”
“Then we shall endeavor to please, my Queen. Ah, there it is now.”
He watched Asha as Damion entered the room. There was no doubt, from her expression or the darkening of her eyes, that one whiff of Damion had her salivating. Farouk knew her well. That’s why he had selected Damion.
Damion walked over to Farouk and dropped to his knees. Farouk kept his gaze on Asha. Damion took hold of his erection and guided it into his warm mouth. Asha’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Farouk pushed Damion back. It did not profit him for Asha to feel left out. She preferred to be the center of attention.
Farouk pushed Damion down onto hands and knees. “Follow me.” He picked up the bottle of oil and started across the room.
Like a puppy eager to please, Damion followed the order. Farouk led him to the sofa where Asha waited. “Spread her legs,” Farouk ordered.
Asha looked up at Farouk and then at Damion. “Do your master’s bidding.”
Damion took hold of her legs and spread them.
“Now, lift her dress and bare her,” Farouk ordered.
Once Damion had complied, Asha scooted down so that her hips were on the edge of the sofa. “Lick it,” Farouk ordered.
Damion buried his head between Asha’s legs, licking and sucking at her sex.
She watched for a time and then pushed him away. “Give me the oil.”
Farouk handed it to her, and she oiled his penis and then turned to Damion. “Head to the floor and ass in the air, my pretty.”
When he complied, she squirted oil all over his ass. “Now, you’re going to let my friend Farouk here fuck you up the ass while you fuck me. You’ll like that, won’t you?”
“Yes.” Farouk could hear the excitement in Damion’s voice, and it sparked his own. He waited as Asha slid beneath Damion, curling her legs around his back and lifting up to take his erection inside her.
Farouk took hold of Damion’s hips and hiked his ass up higher. “Spread it wide for me.”
Damion was tight and hot, slick with oil, and the lovely groans he offered made it all the better. Farouk took his time, sliding in completely and then nearly out. All the while, Asha’s body milked Damion’s penis. The poor boy was barely coherent from all the pleasure.
Farouk felt Damion’s impending climax, and a split second later, Asha must have as well for she pulled Damion’s head down and clamped her mouth to his neck.
The orgasm that claimed Damion sparked Farouk’s climax and he buried himself deep in Damion’s ass feeling it clench and release around him. It was the expulsion of air that had Farouk withdrawing, for that expulsion was Damion’s last.
Asha shoved Damion’s body aside and stretched her arms above her head, licking at the blood that stained her lips. “A delightful surprise, my love. How can I thank you?”
“Your pleasure is thanks enough, my Queen. Unless there is something more I can do for you.”
“You can clean that rod and come back to show me what he felt when you were buried in his ass.”
“Now that would be my pleasure,” Farouk said and stood to go to the restroom. He did not waste time because she was not a woman to be kept waiting.
She was sitting on the arm of the sofa when he returned. He smiled, oiled his penis and then his hands. “Bend over, my Queen. Over the arm of the sofa will do nicely to put your ass in the air.”
He smiled as she gave him a seductive smile. While she would kill anyone who tried to give her an order in day-to-day life, there were times when she longed to be dominated.
“That’s it,” he crooned. “Now reach back and spread it wide for me.”
He dribbled oil down the crease of her ass and used his fingers to work it inside her. One, then two, and finally three.
She grunted and ground back against him. “Do it,” she panted. “Put your dick in me.”
“Beg.” He continued to stroke his fingers in and out of her slick hole.
“Please. Fuck me up the ass. Fuck me, Farouk. Please.”
He was glad she was face down and could not see his smile when he rubbed his penis against her hole and then pushed the length of it inside her. She screamed and bucked back against him. “Do it. Do it.”
He pounded into her, grabbing her hips and pulling her against him, heedless of how much his fingers dug into her flesh or how hard he pounded her. She screamed like a banshee, worked her hands to her sex, and rubbed her clitoris.
When she orgasmed, she shuddered so violently it nearly unseated him. He waited until the throes subsided and then slid out. She moaned appreciatively and crawled onto the sofa, stretching
out in contentment.
Farouk returned to the bathroom and this time got into the shower. He took his time and thoroughly cleaned himself. Once he finished, he wrapped a towel around his waist and returned to the sitting room.
Asha reclined on the sofa, completely comfortable in her nudity.
“Wine, my Queen?” He walked to the bar.
“That would be lovely.”
Farouk poured two glasses and carried them to the sofa, stepping over Damion’s body. She lifted her legs for him to sit, accepted a glass, and propped her feet on his lap.
“Tell me of your plan to insinuate a spy into the Legacy family.”
Farouk smiled and quickly relayed his plan.
She smiled and sat up to clink her glass to his. “And you are certain this woman will obey?”
“Absolutely. She has been in my command for some time and has never failed me.”
“Then by all means set the plan into motion.”
“As you wish, my Queen.”
She polished off the wine and handed him the glass. “You may go now, Farouk. I will call if I have need of you.”
Others might have been offended by her brusque manner, or at being dismissed. But then, most of his people would refuse to take part in what had just happened. They did not understand Asha’s appetites, nor did they understand that the way to earn her trust and her favors was to accept those appetites and fill them as many times as needed.
Farouk not only understood but enjoyed it. He would give her as many meals of pleasure as she needed and he’d fuck her however she wanted to be fucked. And one day, when she least expected it, he’d sink the black dagger of the Scythe into her black heart and kill her.
Chapter Eight
John Luke pushed back from the table, picked up his plate, and carried it to the sink. Like Ily, he’d eaten little of his meal. The conversation had been strained since her revelation about Severin.
He wasn’t sure why he was taking the news so hard. He’d known her less than a week and had just today had sex with her for the first time. It wasn’t as if they had been dating for a long time or were in a committed relationship. He barely knew her.
And yet, the idea of another man’s hands on her raised an ire he was quite unfamiliar with. It was as if someone had tried to poach something that was his. That shocked him. He’d never been that possessive of a woman, never thought of one as “his.” Not his ex-wife Sasha, or Camille, and they’d dated for nearly four years.
He’d broken up with Camille when he retired from the Bureau. She didn’t understand why he would retire. He was young and had plenty of years left to rise in the ranks.
John Luke could not tell her the truth, and that told him more than all the words and shared experiences of the last four years. If he didn’t trust her with the truth, there was no future for them. He had one divorce under his belt. He didn’t want another. And he knew in his gut that he and Camille were not made of ‘happily-ever-after’ material.
Yet here he stood, damn near vibrating with tension over the idea that a woman he barely knew had once been lovers with a man he’d just met. What the hell?
“A concubine isn’t quite the same as a mistress.” Ily’s voice had him turning to look at her.
“Oh? What’s the difference?”
“Well, a concubine isn’t a love interest.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sit, please.” She said and waited for him to do as she requested. Once he was seated, she answered. “Among my people, it was considered an honor to be requested by the Prince of a Clan. I was eighteen when Lord Severin requested me.”
“So, he asked to take you as a mistress?”
“As a concubine. He promised to teach me and then extend his protection over me and my Clan in return.”
“Teach you?”
“The ways of love—the physical ways.”
“And?”
“And he did. He would summon me when he wanted to be with me but other than that, my time was spent in training and in service to my King. However, my place with Severin helped to forge a tighter alliance between King Michael and Severin’s Clan.”
“Then you were just a pawn, used the way so many women have been used throughout the centuries.”
“No. I wasn’t used. I could have said no.”
John Luke considered what she’d said for a few moments and then asked the question he dreaded. “Did you love him?”
Her gaze met his without hesitation. “Yes. In a fashion. Think about it, John Luke. I was eighteen, still in training, and was requested by a Prince. Someone powerful and handsome, someone any of the women in my Clan would have gladly given themselves to. He wasn’t a monster or someone who had a reputation for mistreating women. He was…he was royal, and millions adored him.”
He had to admit that he admired her. She didn’t balk at answering, and to all appearances, answering honestly. He could hear the ring of truth in her words, and he could relate to what she said. That didn’t, however, stop the jealousy.
“So you fell for him.”
“Yes, I did. At least at first. Isn’t that fairly typical? For a girl to fall for the man who takes her virginity? We’re not so different in that respect from humans. But by the time I celebrated my nineteenth birthday, he had already taken another concubine into his harem and he called for me less and less to share his bed.”
“So he wasn’t in love with you?”
“No, he cared for me but he was definitely not in love with me.”
“He just…used you.”
“No. Don’t make it sound ugly because it wasn’t. It was our way, John Luke and there was nothing sordid about it. He didn’t abuse or humiliate me. He taught me and he was kind to me. And when the time came that his interest turned to another, we remained friends. It was, in the end, the friendship that meant the most.”
Now, John Luke felt ashamed. “I’m sorry. I—honestly, I’m embarrassed. I know we just met and I don’t have any right to— “
“It’s your Shifter nature,” she interrupted.
“Pardon?”
“Your Shifter nature. You’ve spent a lot of time in animal form lately, haven’t you?”
“I suppose. I’m trying to get the hang of it.”
“So your animal nature, for lack of a better term, has been dominant a lot. And I’m pretty sure that whatever animal form you take, you’d compete to be Alpha. And as an Alpha, females that you mate with you’d consider to belong to you and wouldn’t share unless you were bested by another male. We just had mind-blowing, head-banging, oh-my-god this is so good give me more, sex, so—“
He couldn’t help himself. Her words not only gave his ego a world-class stroke but it struck him as funny, so he laughed. “Wanna say that again?”
Ily grinned. “You heard me right the first time, stud. And what I’m trying to tell you is that you may be feeling a little…proprietary because of that.”
It made sense, and it relieved him to have something to blame it on, but her explanation wasn’t the entire truth. “You may have something there, but I’m going to be honest. It’s a little more than that. Yeah, the sex was mind-blowing good, but I like you, Ily. It’s not just sex.”
“Well, thank you. I feel the same, although I’m not gonna lie. The sex is off the charts amazing, so be forewarned, if you stick around you’re in for it, buddy.”
Now that was an idea he could warm to. “I think I can handle it.”
“Oh? Hmm, you’ve never seen me in full warrior mode.”
That statement, as teasingly as it was spoken, gave him a hard-on in under two seconds. “Woman, you’re evil.”
“You have no idea.” She smiled and then looked in the direction of the door. He heard it as well. The crunch of car tires on gravel. Their visitors had arrived.
Outside, the limo pulled to a stop. John Legacy was the first to exit the car, followed by Augustus, then Connor. Severin was the last, and the moment his feet touched the gro
und, he looked around.
“What?” Connor asked.
“Have you people here?”
“At present, just one.”
“One who is very concerned by our presence.” Severin gestured toward the adjacent buildings. “I think it would be beneficial if you checked on your man. Without being noticed.”
“What’s wrong?” Augustus asked.
“What you might call a weird vibe.”
John noticed that no one argued with Severin. “Fine. Once everyone is inside, I’ll check it out.” Connor agreed.
“This is Dr. James’ house,” John announced and gestured toward the cabin.
Everyone followed him to the door. He had no more than raised his hand to tap on it when the door opened.
Iliana looked at him and then past him at the others. “My lords,” she said respectfully and sank to one knee.
John was surprised, but no more, it seemed from his son’s expression, than John Luke who stood behind Iliana.
“Rise, Ily Scythiana,” Severin spoke. “We have no need to stand on ceremony.”
“Sirs.” She rose and stepped aside for everyone to enter.
The minute they were inside, Connor looked around. “Is there another exit?”
“Through there.” John Luke pointed toward the kitchen.
“Thank you.”
He started for the door but paused when John Luke spoke up. “Hold up. What’s going on?”
Connor looked around at everyone and at assenting nods from Augustus and Severin, explained. “There is concern that a man I placed here might not be as loyal as I thought.”
“Steve?” John Luke asked.
“You’ve met him?”
“I have. I can show you where he bunks.” John Luke looked at Ily. “It’ll give you some time to…reacquaint.”
She gave him a smile. “If you have need of me.”
“I think we’ve got this.” He returned the smile, then gestured to Connor. “Let me show you the way.”
Everyone watched them leave. An uncomfortable silence filled the room. John excused himself by saying, “Would you mind if I put on some coffee?”
