by Hall, Linsey
“You know where,” she gasped, her eyes hot on his and her breaths coming quicker.
“Aye, lassie. I do. Now spread your legs,” he said, loving the way she so quickly obliged, toeing off her boots and kicking off her jeans.
When she was stripped from the waist down, her T-shirt riding just above her dark curls, he watched her eyes as he dipped his fingers into the heat of her, gently separating her folds to get to her glorious wetness.
“You’re so soft here. So perfect.” His voice sounded harsher to his ears, from the blood roaring through his head and the desire that clogged his throat. “So wet and slick and sweet.”
He ran his fingers in circles over her clitoris, watching in awe as her face clouded with pleasure.
“You like that.” It was more statement than question. She trembled in his arms, a woman whose strength astounded him. He moved his free hand to one of hers, holding it against the glass and not breaking eye contact.
“Tell me what you want,” he said, wanting to hear it on her lips.
“I want you inside of me.” There was no hesitation in her words, only desire.
“Here?” He teased at her entrance, pushing one finger gently inside. She nodded, and he fitted it fully inside of her. “Gods, you’re perfect. I want to be inside of you.”
“Yes.” She moaned, her eyelids fluttering with pleasure.
He smiled, then rubbed her clitoris with his thumb and pushed his finger deeper inside of her. She moved her hips in a dance that made his cock throb with desire. Unable to help himself, he began to thrust against her, marveling at the pleasure.
“Warren!” She was breathless, the color high in her cheeks. “I want more.”
“This?” He pushed another finger inside of her, marveling at the way she gripped him, and fucked her with his fingers.
“Yes. No. I mean… I want you.” She pressed her ass back against him, and he groaned into her hair. Yes.
“No’ yet. First, you’re going to come in my arms. I want to see you. Feel you.” He curled his fingers forward to focus on the bundle of nerves within her. When her weight sagged against him, he wrapped his free arm around her waist to support her.
“Look at me,” he said when her eyes began to close. She snapped them open. “You’re going to come for me now.”
She had to. This damn idea would have him coming against her ass if she didn’t reach orgasm soon. His control was near broken, the civilized part of himself stripped away until he was nothing but a shaking mass of instinct and desire.
He bit her earlobe, keeping his eyes on hers, and groaned when he felt her pussy contract around his fingers and a harsh cry spill from her lips.
“Gods, you’re so perfect.” He watched in awe as the pleasure swept over her face. She never looked away. Neither did he.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Esha surfaced from her orgasm to realize that Warren was tense behind her, his breath heavy and his erection throbbing against her ass. She met his eyes again in the window.
Animal need was stamped across his face, held back only by his iron control.
Celibate. No wonder he was near the edge. The idea that she’d be the first in a century made her pussy throb with need.
She turned, kissed him briefly on the mouth, but wiggled away when he reached for her. Instead, she dropped to her knees. The stone floor bit into them, but it was worth it for the look on his face.
“Oh, fuck,” he breathed, his hands forming tight fists at his sides.
She loved how much he wanted her. Just as much, she wanted to take back some of the control she’d ceded to him. She was baring more of herself to him every hour, so much so that she might eventually lose her grip on everything that kept her separate. If she was to bare herself to him, he’d do the same.
“Take off your shirt,” she said.
His hands trembled slightly as he tore it over his head, revealing broad planes of muscles and ridged abs. He felt even bigger this way, naked and strong above her. He dwarfed her in a way she’d never felt before. Not only was she one of the most powerful Mytheans, she wasn’t a small woman. But with Warren, that all changed.
His muscle-roped arms dropped to his sides, his big hands returned to fists. To hold himself back. She couldn’t be having any of that.
She tugged at his pants, undoing the fly and yanking the denim down to his ankles. Sculpted calves led to strong thighs and a jutting erection, the size of which made her pussy throb. It was laced with veins and topped with a broad head. Her mouth tingled with the need to run her tongue over all that soft skin and hard muscle.
She didn’t hesitate, but took him wholly into her mouth, swallowing as much as she could. His harsh shout of pleasure shot a jolt of the same through her. His hand sank into her hair, then pulled away.
She reached up and moved his hand back to her head, giving him the permission he clearly sought. His hand fisted in her hair. She wanted to give him as much pleasure as anyone had ever given another.
A guttural moan drifted from his lips as she worked him with her mouth and hands. He was hot and hard beneath her tongue, yet smooth as silk. She licked as she sucked, delighting in the quick, helpless jolt of his hips.
He reached down and pulled her to her feet, then leaned his forehead against hers. His fist tightened in her hair and his other hand curled around her waist as if he couldn’t bear to let her go.
“I want to be inside you,” he said, his breath sawing. “May I?”
A shudder racked him when she stood on tiptoe and wrapped one leg around his waist. “Yes.”
He yanked her up and pressed her back against the window. When she wrapped her legs around his waist, his hands bit into her ass and a harsh, “Oh, fuck,” sounded in her ears.
Between her thighs, she felt him fist his shaft with a shaking hand and press the tip against the throbbing entrance of her pussy. She’d never wanted anything so badly.
“I’ve never wanted anything so fucking bad,” he muttered against her lips.
“Now, Warren.”
Slowly, torturously slowly, he pushed inside her. Then stopped. “Shite. Protection,” he said, his voice tight.
“I’m on it. Please. Now.”
He shuddered, then pushed forward. He was so big, so perfect, and he filled the empty space within her with pleasure. She dropped her forehead to his, squeezing her eyes shut at the perfection of connecting with him. Of feeling him pulse within her, deliciously hard and hot and male. She thought she was in control, but when she felt him, so overwhelming, inside her, she was lost.
The feel of Esha’s pussy taking his cock, gripping him gloriously, made chills break out on Warren’s skin. It’d been so long, but it had never been so perfect. This was something entirely different from any sex he’d ever had.
When he was fitted fully inside her, he tried to go slowly. Failed. His hips began to thrust, his mind and body taking over in a primitive rhythm that made pleasure surge from the base of his spine out over his body.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and he loved the bite of pain, the sound of her harsh breaths in his ear and the smell of her arousal.
“You’re so perfect, I’m no’ going to last,” he muttered. Even like this, the pleasure, the wildness, crept in on him, taking over mind and body.
Her hand slipped from his shoulder and between them, her fingertips finding her clitoris. The idea of her touching herself short-circuited his mind and made impending orgasm start to tighten in his balls.
When her sex clutched around him, wet and hot and drawing him into her pleasure, he lost all control of his thrusts. His hips pumped as the orgasm ripped through him, tearing him apart and putting him back together, this time twined with Esha. It swept him up and along, blinding him to everything but her.
When the orgasm finally faded away after racking his body with shudders of pleasure, he turned and walked to the bed, Esha still wrapped around him.
He had enough energy to lay her upon the mattress before collapsing
in a graceless pile next to her. With a weary arm, he dragged her against his side.
“That was amazing. Thank you.” He pressed a kiss to her head. She’d given him that gift, even knowing who he was and seeing the shadows of all the evil that he’d done.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
She was the biggest idiot in the world.
There was no question about it, Esha thought, as she crept out of the bedroom in the morning. Warren still slept in the warm bed she’d just left, but she needed some time to clear her head. She waved a hand at the torches in the hall, grateful that it took so little power to do so. She passed Warren’s room and the Chairman perked up from where he sprawled in the middle of the bed.
Last night had been amazing. Stupid, but amazing. She was falling for Warren regardless of the fact that it was a terrible idea. It would end badly, as these things always did for her. It might not even last long enough for him to leave her, considering that he was determined to kill Aurora. For good reason too, with how sick she made him.
Her mind feel like it was squeezed in a vise, so she shook them away—or tried to—and went into the kitchen. If she was lucky, she’d face Aurora today.
After a cup of instant coffee and a granola bar for herself and a can of cat food for the Chairman—which she’d had to drag across the glacier because gods knew you couldn’t forget the Chairman’s wet food—she met Warren in the foyer. The sun was just now peeking over the horizon and the dim light shining through the windows highlighted Warren’s face.
Esha didn’t realize she was holding her breath, wondering if she would see regret there, until his smile broke out at the sight of her. For some terrible, crazy reason, that scared her even more.
If he had regretted it, sleeping with him would be a terrible one-off. A mistake she would no doubt cry over, but it would be done. Instead, he didn’t regret it. But with everything ahead of them, now what?
“I think we’re going to find Aurora today,” she said. “I’ve got to ask you not to kill her. Not right away.”
Disbelief flashed across his face. “No’ an option, lassie. She’s dangerous, and the longer she’s left alive, the closer I get to being incapacitated and the more people she can hurt.”
Fear sent her heart pounding. He was right, but she didn’t want to hear it. “Maybe she doesn’t know she’s making you sick by using your soul. I know she’s bad, and that she’s done terrible things. But she did them during terrible times. Nearly every soulceress was killed during the Burnings—she was scared. I just need a chance to talk to her. One chance to see if I can convince her to give it back.”
“She’s too damn dangerous. I’m telling you it’s no’ an option.” His face was harder than she’d ever seen it.
“I’ve never met another of my kind. You know about my life. Why this is so important to me. Just one chance.”
“No’ a chance in hell.”
Everything she wanted—Warren and a chance to know another of her kind—was slipping out of her hands. She could feel it going, and it made some terrible, tragic monster surge inside of her.
“Ah, Esha. Doona cry, lassie.” Warren stepped up to her and cupped her face in his hands.
She pulled back and sniffled, horrified to feel a hot tear spill onto her cheek. She scrubbed a hand over her eyes. “I’m not crying.”
“I care about you, damn it,” he said. “I doona want to hurt you. But I have to get my soul back. I’m a monster without it. And she is truly dangerous.”
“I get that, I really do. I want you to get your soul back. Everyone should have their soul. But I just want to meet her and talk to her. Once. You don’t have to be there, so you won’t be at risk. I’ll go to see her alone.”
“The hell you will. I’m no’ worried for me, I’m worried for you. I’d no’ risk you like that. You doona know her. What if she really wants to take your power, as the witches said?”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take to meet her. I’m confident in my ability to protect myself. Why can’t you be?”
“I am, but I’m the one who should protect you from problems I’ve created.”
“That’s not your choice. I care for you, Warren. I do. A hell of a lot more than I want to, but take this opportunity from me, and we’re done.”
She meant it.
But Warren didn’t know how to fix this, because he wouldn’t risk her. At some point, he’d become less concerned about himself and more about her. But this was the worst kind of argument. The kind in which each understood the other’s perspective, but wouldn’t budge. It would all come down to which one reached Aurora first. But would one of them do something that the other couldn’t forgive?
“Let’s go,” he said, and turned to the door. They weren’t going to see eye to eye, so they might as well get to work.
“Fine.” Esha swept out the door in front of him into the cold morning air.
The gloaming lent a haunted aura to the city, especially once the disorientation hit him. They’d only walked a hundred yards up the narrow street when he noticed that the shade was following them again. Unlike the shadows that hovered in the windows and watched, or attacked mindlessly at the museum and temple, this one seemed to have its own agenda. But damned if he knew what it was. It had helped them twice, though, which was damned strange.
“We’re close,” Esha said.
His muscles tensed. He’d had no idea how close or far they were, which was weird as hell. Worse, the city’s magic made him feel less capable of protecting Esha, and he hated it.
His hand went to the dagger in his boot when they stepped out into the square. They crossed quickly to the temple and Warren said, “Let’s check for side entrances.”
They circled the entire building, through the small alley on the left side, the street at the back, and another small alley on the right. But there were no more entrances.
“Looks like we’re going up,” Esha said when they reached the front of the building.
Warren nodded and they began the climb. Once again, they made it up the stairs without incident. When they reached the landing that led to the great wooden door, he spun around to face the square, waiting for the shadows to charge again. It was eerily silent.
“They’re not here,” Esha said. “Maybe we destroyed them.”
He hoped so. They turned warily back to the door, and he pushed it open, this time having no trouble as he had yesterday at the museum. Damn, it felt good to be at full strength again.
They stood at either side of the door, behind the walls in case Aurora was within, and peered inside. The huge windows allowed light to shine in brilliant streams onto the rainbow marble. The ceiling soared overhead, arched stone as magnificent as any he’d ever seen. Stone pillars and arches supported it, creating aisles and walkways that led up to a huge platform at the other end of the temple. No question, the soulceresses of old had been talented and advanced beyond the ken of Mytheans and mortals.
“I don’t think she’s here,” Esha said. “But this is the place. I’m sure of it.”
“We’ll search it.”
They crept inside. Warren kept the dagger in his hand, ready for whatever flew out of the shadows at them. They walked along the silent aisles, looking for any kind of clue, but found nothing. It didn’t take long for him to agree that the place was truly empty. Aurora wasn’t here.
They reached the platform and began to climb. The air tingled, and he swiveled his head around, searching for the threat. A great crash thundered through the temple and a huge slab of ice slammed down between Warren and Esha, forming a transparent wall. Another crash, and slabs fell all around him, creating a giant maze of ice.
“Esha!”
She was trapped on the other side of the ice, but suddenly, there were dozens of her, emerging from the great frozen wall in front of him. The apparitions stomped toward him, gazes intense and mouths set. They converged upon him, pushing him back, tearing at his clothes and hair.
He struggled again
st them, shuddering at the tingly chill of them, but hesitated to strike out with his dagger. What the hell was this? Some kind of magic, but for what? One could be the real Esha, enchanted by Aurora. He couldn’t try to kill them for fear of that, but they were strong. He’d be on his knees soon.
“Warren!” Esha screamed. She pounded on the great ice wall, her fists stinging with the cold. The Chairman scrabbled at the glass, his claws carving gouges that were no match for the thick ice.
“No! Stop!” she cried when apparitions of herself attacked Warren. She thought they hesitated when she screamed no, but they picked up again, dragging Warren to the ground. But he wouldn’t fight back, not more than pushing them away, at least. Did he think she was one of them?
This had to be Aurora’s magic. Until now, the shadows had always tried to repel him alone. Now, the magic let her in but barred him. Aurora really did want to see only her, but she didn’t have to hurt Warren.
“Aurora, stop! Don’t hurt him!”
The apparitions continued to attack, so Esha screamed again. Finally, she thought she heard the bored echo of a voice saying, “Oh, fine.”
But the apparitions stopped, and Esha breathed a sigh of relief. Warren leapt to his feet and ran at the wall.
“Esha!” She couldn’t hear his words, but she could read his lips as he pounded on the ice, fear for her plain on his face.
“I’m fine!” She screamed, then caught sight of a shadow behind Warren. “Behind you!”
Warren spun around and faced the shadow. It was the mysterious shade who’d helped them until now. He’d be safe with the shade. She read no evil in it, not the way she normally did, and had an overwhelming feeling that the two of them could face whatever came at them.
Knowing that she had no way to escape the ice except to turn around and continue across the platform, she did so. Her muscles tensed as she walked across the marble expanse that was now surrounded on all sides by ice. A great table, inlaid with marble of all colors, stretched across the back wall. Behind it was an archway that led into a small antechamber.
