Idol of Glass
Page 29
Shiva gave him a rare smile. “You’d proven useful.” Her breasts rose within the bodice with a deep breath, and his body once more rose to the call of hers.
“I could prove useful again.” He climbed onto the end of the bed and crawled toward her over the layers of velvet and voile. “Forgive me, ai MeerShiva.” He dared to kiss her, and she didn’t throw him off.
The green eyes regarded him like foxfire. “You kiss me and make me your slave.”
“No.” Hraethe kissed her again. “I kiss you and make myself yours.” He slid his hand between the torn fabric of the gown and stroked it slowly up the side of her leg, lowering his head to kiss the place on her hip where the brand had been, once more concealed by her will. He placed a second kiss at the top of her thigh. “If I’m not bound to you,” he murmured, kissing the inside of it, “why have I come here?”
Shiva laughed softly. “Because you’re a fool? Perhaps you like abuse.” Despite the harshness of the words, she spoke them as though they were terms of endearment, and he divined at last that this was her way of covering the true depth of her feelings: devaluing herself as the object of his desire.
“Perhaps I do.” He placed the last kiss on the brilliant tuft of poppy that marked the sacred sanctum within. “And perhaps I have also loved you for nearly four hundred years.” Before she could protest against this declaration, he slid his tongue downward and made her cry out, a delightful, high-pitched crooning note he remembered from his only other visit to this temple. He tormented her with the tongue she’d silenced, drawing out the sweet sounds until she was thrashing beneath him.
At last he came up for air, and Shiva took hold of him by the collar and dragged him up to her mouth, tasting of herself while she slid one hand down between their bodies and released him from the tight pants.
“I love you,” he insisted again as he entered her, though his motions were anything but tender.
“Then you are a fool,” she breathed, wrapping her legs around him. “And if you’re waiting for me to say it in return, you’ll wait an eternity.”
“I can,” he promised. “Because you will.”
He closed his mouth over hers to silence her denial, and Shiva arched upward into him, and the definition of them blurred in the sacred madness of the Meeric kiss. Time stopped, a meaningless trifle that battered futilely against the jade mosaic of Ludtaht Shiva while the City of Always defied the mountain’s peak. Shiva’s protests were meaningless. Hraethe had spoken. And he was Meer.
About the Author
Jane Kindred is the author of The Devil’s Garden and The House of Arkhangel’sk and Demons of Elysium series. Born in Billings, Montana, she spent her formative years ruining her eyes reading romance novels in the Tucson sun and watching Star Trek marathons in the dark. She now writes to the sound of San Francisco foghorns while two cats slowly but surely edge her off the side of the bed.
You can find Jane on her Twitter account and Facebook page—both of which are aptly named “janekindred”—and her website, www.janekindred.com.
Look for these titles by Jane Kindred
Now Available:
Demons of Elysium
Prince of Tricks
King of Thieves
Master of the Game
Looking Glass Gods
Idol of Bone
Idol of Blood
Idol of Glass
Coming Soon:
The Lost Coast
The Water Thief
Don’t miss the other titles in Jane Kindred’s Series!
One stranger seeks to claim her heart…another is destined to destroy her.
Looking Glass Gods, Book 1
Ra. Just two letters. Barely a breath. When she stumbles into the frozen Haethfalt highlands, her name is all she has—the last remnant of a past she’s managed to keep hidden, even from herself. Her magic, however, isn’t so easy to conceal—magic that’s the province of the Meer, an illicit race to which she can’t possibly belong.
The eccentric carpenter who takes her in provides a welcome distraction from the puzzle of herself. Though Jak refuses to identify as either male or female, the unmistakable spark of desire between them leaves Ra determined to find out what lies beneath the enigmatic exterior.
But more dangerous secrets are brewing underneath the wintry moors. Jak’s closest friend, Ahr, is haunted by his own unspeakable past. Bounty hunters seeking fugitive Meer refuse to leave him in peace.
Harboring feelings for both Ra and Ahr, Jak nonetheless struggles to keep them apart. Because like the sun and the moon coming together, their inevitable reunion has the potential to destroy Jak’s whole world.
Warning: Shape-shifting? That’s so last millennium. Reincarnation? Yawn. Get ready for a gender-bending fantasy that will fire your imagination and haunt your dreams.
The price of revenge may be her sanity…and the lives of those she loves.
Looking Glass Gods, Book 2
No longer haunted by memories of her life—and death—as the Meer of Rhyman, Ra looks forward to a quiet existence with her lover Jak in the Haethfalt highlands. Having made peace with Ahr, her consort from her former life, Ra can finally explore her new relationship, free of the ghosts of the past—until she unwittingly unearths Jak’s own.
Out of instinct, she uses her Meeric power to heal the pain of Jak’s childhood trauma. But all magic has a price, and Ra’s bill has come due.
Succumbing to the affliction inherent in her race, Ra flees to the mountain ruins where her mother’s temple once stood. As the madness takes hold, she resurrects the ancient city of AhlZel in a tremendous act of magic that seals her fate—and threatens to destroy those who would give up everything to save her from herself.
Warning: Contains dark themes, violence, gender-bending sex, and recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Idol of Glass
Copyright © 2015 by Author
ISBN: 978-1-61922-373-8
Edited by Linda Ingmanson
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: October 2015
www.samhainpublishing.com