by Katie May
echoed in the small shower - echoed through me with the strength of a drum-
line. Instinctively, he began to rock his hips, but I slapped one of his ass
cheeks.
"No," I growled, and he stopped immediately. Taking my time -
punishment was a bitch, after all - I ran a nail down his length. He was long,
longer than any of the other men I had slept with, and thick. The first time I
had taken him, I was afraid he wouldn't fit. I shouldn't have been surprised
when we came together like two pieces of a puzzle. After all, the fates
wouldn't have given me a mate I couldn't take.
Even if I did lose my ability to walk for a week afterwards.
When his breaths continued to deepen, erupting in quick spurts, I replaced
my nail with my tongue, licking his thick underside and the throbbing vein.
Adjusting my hand around the base for easier access, I wrapped my mouth
around his tip, using my saliva as a lubricant.
"Fuck," he whispered harshly, hands tangling in my hair.
I immediately pulled away with a frown, once more slapping his ass.
"No touching," I hissed. When I was sure he would be compliant, I
happily pulled him back into my mouth. He was long, but I knew I could take
him. Once he was fully in my mouth, I began to hum. His gasp made my
insides tighten deliciously, heat pooling low in my core.
With practiced efficiency, I sucked him in and out of my mouth
repeatedly. Through it all, he whispered my name, told me how much he
loved me, begged me for more.
When his cock began to quiver, I pulled away, wiping my mouth with the
back of my hand.
His eyes were very near pleading with me. Begging me.
Standing on my tiptoes, I brought my lips to his ear, relishing in the way
he shivered.
I did that. Me.
"Fuck me, Devlin. Fuck me, and show me that you're mine."
Taking my words as permission, he hoisted me up, and my legs
automatically wrapped around his waist. In this position, I could feel his cock
directly against my aching core. In one, firm thrust, he was sheathed inside of
me.
I moaned, feeling utterly full to the point of breaking.
He waited, still inside me, until I nodded.
"Move." He began to rock his hips, fucking me in earnest, and I matched
his movements. Our lovemaking became erratic, in tandem to our racing
hearts, but still we did not let up. His lips clashed with mine, tongue prodding
my seams. I opened to him immediately, taking him in. Loving him.
Showing him exactly who he belonged to.
I gasped his name seconds before I reached the precipice. I exploded, my
pussy clenching around his cock. He continued thrusting in and out of me
before chasing his own release, my name a prayer on his lips.
My legs quivered, and I quite literally needed him to stand up. Even when
he placed me on trembling legs, I found myself leaning against him, pressing
my forehead against his chest. Overcome by emotion, I pressed a soft kiss
there. I felt unnaturally dizzy, a feat that had never happened after sex before.
Why was the world spinning? I blinked rapidly to clear the sluggish fatigue
from my mind.
"I love you," I whispered. The words felt foreign on my lips. Unfamiliar.
They weren't words I had ever thought I would use again romantically. I had
thought that type of love had been driven out of me, cut out with a keen
blade.
I couldn't deny the truth of the words, though, no matter how much I
wished to deny them. They surrounded me like a warm blanket, leaving me
comforted and loved. Cherished.
God, he made me feel cherished.
And a part of me hated it - hated the way he made me feel - while the
other part of me clung to it desperately. Pathetically, if I was being honest
with myself.
At my confession, Devlin went still. Only his heart told me he was still
alive, still breathing, as it thumped beneath me.
"Say it again.” His tone dropped to a hushed murmur, almost as if he was
worried anything louder would break the glass globe we had found ourselves
in.
I finally lifted my head, placing my chin where my forehead had once
rested. His violet eyes were staring down at me as if I had hung the moon and
stars. If I had ever doubted his love for me, one look into his eyes
contradicted that thought. There was no denying he loved me. Was it crazy,
this relationship between a Genie and an assassin? An assassin and seven
men? Yes.
Did it feel right?
Yes.
Mustering my courage, I whispered, "I love you, Devlin Genie. I love you
so fucking much that I don't know what to do with myself at times."
The smile that erupted on his face was brilliant. It made it worth saying
those dreaded words.
I could only hope I wouldn’t regret them.
TEN
Z
The Mermaid King could suck my nonexistent dick.
The pompous asshole remained rooted on his throne while his
indolent eyes, the same shade of blue as his son’s, ensnared me. No
matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t look away.
The other six thrones were empty, but that didn’t abate how stifling the
room felt under the many watchful eyes. The King’s sons, Dair’s brothers,
stood in a semi-circle around their father, eyes intently trained on me. I could
feel their caress like a branding rod, burning my skin until it touched my
bone. The heat threatened to burn me from the inside out, threatened to burn
me alive. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
Behind them, Dair sat in his wheelchair. His azure eyes, the shade of
water cresting the shoreline, were also trained on me. I avoided eye-contact
with a vigor that surprised me. Somehow, I knew that meeting his searing
gaze would clue the others in on the nature of our relationship.
“Your highness,” I said with a sardonic courtesy, breaking the silence that
had stretched for five long, tedious minutes. The Mermaid King’s lips
twitched, but he remained silent. Watching. Calculating. Those pinprick blue
eyes of his seemed to stare into my very soul.
After a long moment, he nodded towards his eldest son. I couldn’t recall
the name - something with a T - but he had the same golden hair and sun-
kissed skin as my mate. His smile was coy though as he handed me a slip of
paper.
I couldn’t help but note his hand brushed mine a second longer than
propriety allowed.
I wrenched my hand away, and a frown carved itself into his handsome,
marble features. Still, he did not press as he strode back towards his father.
Dair was glancing between me and his brother, expression inscrutable.
Feeling as if I was being analyzed beneath a microscope, I unfolded the
sheet of paper and smoothed out its creases. My brow furrowed as I read
through what I had been given.
It was a map of an unfamiliar landscape. From the large expanse of water
taking up three-fourths of the map, I deduced it was a part of the Mermaid
territory. The back had handwritten notes about an unnamed man. A brief
description, biography, and his last known location.
Readi
ng the words once and then a second time, I quirked a brow. I knew
it might have been considered rude of me, but my emotions were already at
an all time high. Unease skittered down my spine at what was very obviously
an assassination assignment.
Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t opposed to killing. I couldn’t have won this
competition nor have been one of the best human assassins if I was. I was,
however, against killing people I knew nothing about. Who was this male
with “green eyes” and “red hair” according to the report? What had he done?
“You want me to kill him,” I said tersely. It wasn’t a question.
When the King continued to smirk mockingly, the unease turned into a
rock hard ball churning in my gut. I was discomfited by the prospect of doing
something to help this evil asshole.
And that was what he was - evil. There was no doubt about it in my mind.
He was an evil I was chained to, unfortunately. Somehow, he had crawled
inside of me, infesting me like a damn parasite. The spell prohibited me from
harming him or allowing others to harm him. I was trapped, and he was one
of seven who held the chains.
Grappling with my own emotions, I nodded once. Innately, I knew it
wasn’t one of agreement. Did they even have nods for ‘I want to kill you, but
a spell prohibits me from doing just that’?
“What did this man do?” I asked the King stiffly.
Nothing. Just another curl of his lips.
“We will have a ball to celebrate your...position,” he answered at last. His
words took me by surprise, and I physically staggered back a step. The
King’s lips twitched.
“A ball?” I parroted in disbelief.
“A ball,” he repeated with a decisive head bob. Behind him, Dair’s lips
thinned - as pleased by this development as I was.
And the smile on the Mermaid’s King’s face?
I had the distinct feeling the ball was just one of his many tests.
THE DRESSMAKER WAS A SHREWD, tiny woman with coiffed gray
hair pulled tight on her head and beady brown eyes. She moved with an
elegance that hinted she may have been a Vampire or even a Shifter.
Otherworldly.
A familiar head of orange hair appeared next, smiling brightly.
I recognized Lupe’s sister immediately. Mali’s mate.
And Jax’s fiancée, though I didn’t want to think of that. Her smile
widened when she took stock of me, white teeth flashing.
“You look beautiful,” she gushed, gliding into the room and perching on
my couch. The dressmaker barely spared her a glance, despite Atta being a
princess. Her entire focus was on me and making me as miserable as
possible.
That macabre thought was only reinforced when a knife (read as: a
needle) was jabbed into my side making me wince.
“This is hell,” I snarkily replied. I had been poked and prodded to a very
inch of my life. Each stab of the needle felt like a sword through the chest.
As soon as that petty thought came to me, I felt guilty, a depthless ocean
that threatened to swallow me whole.
Atta continued on, oblivious to my inner turmoil.
“As is the price of beauty, my dear friend,” she said lightly. She leaned
further back on the couch, folding her hands beneath her ample breasts. If I
didn’t know that she preferred females, I might’ve been jealous of her
engagement to Jax. Even knowing what I did, my stomach clenched and
tightened whenever I thought of the two of them together.
Even if it was only for show.
Her words registered to me a second too late.
“I’m not your friend,” I sputtered out.
If I expected her to be upset by my words, I was poorly mistaken. She
merely grinned cheekily.
“We’re practically family,” she cooed, tossing me a sultry wink.
“Especially since...”
I helplessly glanced at the dressmaker, willing Atta with my eyes to shut
the hell up.
“I was going to say because you’re my family’s assassin, but whatever
toots your horn.”
I rolled my eyes at her cattiness just as the seamstress stabbed a
particularly sharp pin into my side. I yelped, jumping, but she merely tsked
her tongue in disapproval. Atta laughed - there was obviously no help coming
from her.
“I can’t stay for long.” Atta gracefully moved to her feet, every inch the
refined, dainty princess. “I just came to deliver a message.”
“A message?” I asked, but my attention was on the wretched woman
kneeling before me. I snapped my teeth at her, and she responded with
purposefully shoving a damn needle into my thigh. “Motherfucker...”
“She says she’s sorry.” Atta’s calm voice broke me off in mid-curse.
“And that she loves you. Very much.”
Her words made me freeze, my muscles locking. The seamstress’s hand
on my thigh prohibited me from looking directly at Atta, so I settled for
moving my eyes only.
“What?”
There was only one person she could be referring to. One woman who
she could be talking about.
Mali.
Her message delivered, Atta stalked out of the room, her long, peach
dress trailing behind her. I was left numb and trembling, her words replaying
in my head.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Mali, I miss you.
I forgive you.
Those thoughts diminished, buried beneath weeks of anger and pain. She
could be sorry all she wanted, but there would be no forgiveness from me.
I hardened myself, emptied myself, so I would feel nothing at all.
ELEVEN
Z
Tflashed me his signature smile, looking so much like S at that
moment it was a physical pain slashing my chest. His chestnut hair
was shorter than when I had last seen him, only a few days ago, and
his pale face betrayed his strain despite the easy smile.
"Any updates?" I asked.
We stood in a cluster of trees two towns over from the Capital. In the
distance, I could see the shambles of faded russet colored roofs that made up
the cozy, minuscule human town T had instructed me to go to. I had found
him initially inside a tavern, drinking happily and flirting with the pretty
waitress. When he had seen me, he had jumped to his feet and had guided me
into the surrounding forests with a simple come-hither crook of his finger.
The skeletal branches grazed my cheeks, and the bitter wind contradicted the
bright sun overhead.
I pulled my jacket tighter around my shoulders.
"Nothing," T said. His nervous eyes flickered, taking in every shadow and
every hidden crevice of the dark forest. The canopy of boughs obscured the
sunlight minus a single strip that lit where we stood. "We checked every safe
house in Sector One and Sector Two. They're gone, Z. All of them."
I processed his words for a moment in silence. It just didn't make any
sense. How could over a hundred people magically disappear without a trace?
How could over a hundred assassins disappear? My stomach churned,
tightened, perilously close to losing the contents of my early morning
breakfast.
> "It just doesn't make any sense," T said, echoing my thoughts. He forked
his fingers through his hair.
"Nothing about this makes any sense," I agreed. Movement in my
peripheral captured and ensnared my attention. I frowned, pulling my lip
between my teeth when I recognized the figure crouched behind a trunk.
"I should go," I continued, cutting off whatever T was going to say. He
raised an eyebrow suspiciously but did not comment.
"Okay?"
"Okay."
When he continued standing there, staring at me as if I had grown wings
and horns, I shoved his shoulder.
"Trust me, okay?" Canting my head to the side, I nodded at the "hidden"
figure. T's eyebrows raised, confusion being replaced by amusement. He
shook his head once in disbelief, muttering beneath his breath.
With a chaste kiss to my cheek, he hurried out of the forest. I could've
sworn I heard his chuckle long after he disappeared through the thicket.
Alone - correction: semi alone - I placed my hand on my hip.
"You can come out now," I called, not bothering to turn towards the
intruder.
I heard the shuffle of leaves, a muffled curse, and then a warm body was
mere inches from my back.
"How did you know I was there?" Bash asked, and I finally looked back
at him. His blond hair was wildly disheveled, a few loose leaves stuck on his
head. Dirt covered his high cheekbones and nose, and his clothes were
ruffled. I had never seen Bash so unkempt before, and I couldn't help but
flush, white hot, at the onslaught of dirty thoughts assaulting me. Namely,
other ways I could ruffle his clothes and mess up his normally impeccably
styled hair.
There was no denying that Bash was a handsome man...and that I was
attracted to him in a carnal way.
But then he had to open his damn mouth.
"Apparently, I'm your babysitter for the day," he said with a sly tilt to his
lips. Those damn kissable lips with a plump, full lower one and a small upper
one. I couldn't help but imagine pulling it between my teeth.
And then his words registered.
"Babysitter?" I asked in disbelief. When he continued to stare at me, I
huffed, placing my hands on my hips. "I don't need a fucking babysitter."
"Try telling that to your other six mates." He leaned back against a tree
trunk, arms crossed over his chest. "Personally, I think you're kickass enough
