by Lana Ames
I followed her glance—yes, I was still entirely naked. It had felt so right, I had forgotten.
Lady Periwinkle stood behind me, holding the pink chenille robe. “Thank you, Emma.” She leaned down and put the robe over my shoulders.
I kept my hands on Grace, making sure her pulse was strong and steady and my sense of her magic remained stable. Finally, I stood up, shrugged my arms into the robe, and tied the sash around my waist.
Grace sat up, looking around the room in confusion. “Everyone’s kind of out of costume,” she murmured.
She wasn’t wrong. Aiden was also completely naked, and the rest of my men were in various stages of undress. I hadn’t noticed that either, I’d been so caught up in the bonding, in the magic we all made together. In defeating the demon.
Lady Periwinkle sat down on the floor beside Grace and put a gentle arm around her. “Do not worry, all will become clear in time.” And then the lady made a graceful motion with her right hand. Grace’s eyes rolled back in her head; the lady lowered her gently back to the floor.
I stepped forward, alarmed all over again, but the lady smiled at me. “This is just a natural sleep; I have merely eased her way. She will awaken in a few hours and this will all have been a peculiar dream, soon forgotten.” She rose to her feet. “Justin and Max, would you be so kind as to carry Grace to a guest room? She should awaken somewhere safe and comfortable.”
“Of course,” Justin said, and he and Max sprang to do the lady’s bidding.
Then Lady Periwinkle turned to me with a slightly abashed smile. “My apologies for commanding your men. By rights, that should be your role; we have much to teach you. I regret that you have been drawn into this with so little instruction.” At her words, Justin and Max paused, still bent over Grace.
“Um, that’s all right,” I said. “Do you want me to tell them to do it?”
The lady laughed. “It is probably best that you do so. They should learn that you are their mistress now.”
Max and Justin looked between the lady and me, clearly uncertain. “Please, do as the lady said, get Grace somewhere nice.” Max nodded, and he and Justin gently lifted Grace and carried her out of the room. Finley gave me an inquisitive look, as if he wanted to join them. I nodded, and he followed.
Aiden meanwhile was pulling his pants back on, but I noticed he left his shirt off.
And I still had most of my twenty-four hours left with him.
What? I mean for talking. We’d barely had a conversation, and yet we’d already had earth-shattering sex.
(But yes. I looked forward to more of that as well.)
Perhaps Lady Periwinkle’s magic included mind-reading, or maybe she was just wise enough to read body language and facial expressions. In any event, she said, “We will work on your instruction soon, Emma. For now, Aiden should feel free to take you somewhere private.”
“That sounds good to me,” I said.
Aiden walked forward and took my hand. I felt a shiver of delight as our bond reasserted itself. The magic enjoyed having us in close proximity.
I might be able to get used to this, I thought.
Chapter Twelve
Still holding my hand, Aiden led me from the gallery. “Where would you like to go?” he asked, as we stepped into the first floor hallway.
“Are your quarters nice?”
He grinned. “They are, if you like minimalism. Frankly, I’m starving, though; that much outpouring of magic really drains a guy.”
I hadn’t even realized how hungry I was until he said that. Yes, clearly I had a lot to learn here. “Oh god me too.”
“So, may I take you out to lunch?”
I glanced down at my pink robe. “If I can find some clothes. I’m only fit for room service like this.”
He laughed. “Though the room service is just fine in the mansion, I’m in the mood for…something different. Come this way.” He led me to a door at the end of the hall and opened it with a flourish. “Take your pick.”
I stepped into what was essentially the world’s biggest walk-in closet. “Wow,” I breathed as I took in the racks and racks of garments.
“They’re organized by type, and then by size,” he told me, coming up behind me and putting his arms around my waist. “Day clothes and casual wear are over there, and formal wear straight ahead. Then to the right are more complicated or unusual things—like costumes.”
I turned around in his arms to face him. “Where are you taking me?”
“Casual should be fine. Dress warmly, though; the temperatures dropped when the storm left.”
I gave him a kiss and then disentangled myself to go check out the clothes.
It was like the best shopping trip ever: exquisite things, even the casual stuff. The shirts and sweaters were thick and well-made, the underwear must have cost a fortune, and even the jeans were somehow magically constructed to fit me like a glove. Best of all, everything was free.
Well, assuming I didn’t have to give it back someday?
I dressed quickly, ignoring Aiden’s attempts at distracting me with little kisses and caresses. Fortunately, he was starving too, so our motivation to get this done kept us on task.
He found himself a T-shirt and a plaid flannel overshirt and somehow managed to put them on, even though his hands hardly left my body. Soon, though, we were both dressed. I even found gorgeous, comfy boots, and decided that even if I had to give the rest of this back, I was totally keeping the boots.
“Let’s go.” He led me to the front of the house, where a car was waiting: a sporty little two-seater.
Aiden opened the passenger door and escorted me in, then walked around to the driver’s side. “We could have a driver, but I prefer this. More time alone together.”
“Works for me.”
He drove us to a trendy neighborhood just this side of downtown, not far from where the gallery where I worked was, in fact. Parking was a bit of a challenge here, but the car was tiny enough that he found a spot pretty quickly. He leapt out and opened my door before I’d hardly gotten my seatbelt unbuckled.
“My dear.” He leaned in, offering his arm. I took it and together we walked to a Japanese restaurant. “You do like sushi, don’t you?” he asked.
“Ah…I like Japanese food,” I hedged.
He gave me a quizzical look before opening the door, escorting me in, and asking the hostess for a table for two in the back. She seated us and handed us menus, then poured two tiny cups of green tea before withdrawing.
“May I order for you?” Aiden asked, as I looked at the list of incomprehensible things before me.
“I’m happy with just chicken teriyaki or a tempura or something.” I took a sip of my tea. It was light and fragrant, and underneath there was something that tasted a little bit like…popcorn?
Aiden smiled indulgently. “They don’t cook here. It’s all sushi.”
“Sushi.” I stared back at him across the table. “Raw fish.”
His smile grew. “Trust me.”
The waitress returned. Aiden spoke a string of gibberish at her and handed up our menus.
“I’m really hungry,” I said to him after she left. “Do you think raw fish and rice is going to fill us up?”
“Sure it is. Haven’t you ever had sushi before?”
“I, um…” I felt my face color. “Not exactly.”
“Do you trust me or not?” He reached over and took my hand. Again, the magic sang between us. I had stripped bare before this man, fucked him in a room full of people, vanquished a demon with him…I guessed I could trust him to not kill me with raw fish.
“I suppose,” I said, and took another sip. “Is there popcorn in the tea?”
Now he laughed. “Toasted rice. It’s very traditional.”
“Ah. Weird, but I like it.”
“You’ll like the food too. I promise.”
“If I don’t, you’re taking me out for a cheeseburger after this.”
His gaze sharpened a bit, but
then he grinned easily once more. “Whatever you desire, my lady.”
“You don’t have to call me that. Isn’t that what you called…her?”
“Our Lady Periwinkle? Yes. It’s what we call any mistress. Simple courtesy, you know.”
I frowned, thinking about it. “This whole mistress thing. I talked to Max about it a bit. I’m not sure I’m entirely on board with being the boss of all you guys.” I didn’t want to go into the rest of what I’d talked to Max about…the whole “defeating the sorceress and take over her power” part. That could come later, if at all. “That moment in the gallery, after we killed Mundon and healed Grace, where I was supposed to order Justin and Max to carry Grace to a bedroom—I don’t want to order you guys around.”
Now Aiden was frowning too, and shaking his head. “Oh, Emma, so much of what you’ve said here—now I understand what Lady Periwinkle meant by your training being lacking.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed. “Well, first of all, Mundon isn’t dead. We killed Edwin, but Mundon was only riding the man. Mundon is still very much out there, and likely furious. He’ll regroup, find another human servant—or use one he already has—and return.” He shook his head again and cursed under his breath. “Our lady needs to redouble the wards on the house and stop being so accommodating of the demon’s servants. Perhaps she will listen to reason now.”
“Oh.” Fear washed through me at his words. The demon wasn’t dead…the house was warded against him, but the wards might not be strong enough… “What do we do?”
Aiden leaned forward, his hazel eyes glowing with intensity. I could feel his power even though I wasn’t actually touching him. Did the emotion bring it forth? So many questions. “Thank god we completed the binding of our cohort in time. After we finish our twenty-four hours together, we need to meet with the lady and her other cohorts and come up with an overall strategy of defense. Her efforts have been very piecemeal up until now, and she’s been lucky to have survived this far. We need to bring the whole household together. In fact, we probably need to get another new cohort started, with a new center, as soon as possible.”
“Grace has magic.” I blurted it out before I’d even thought it through, but even as I did so, I sensed the rightness of it. That was probably why she was in the house in the first place, I realized. “She can start building a cohort as soon as she’s recovered.”
Aiden nodded. “Yes, I felt that as well, and I’m not surprised. We gather as many candidates as we can. Not everyone works out; in fact, most do not. But only from a big enough pool do we have any chance of finding anyone suitable at all.” He frowned. “This is no doubt why the demon tried to take her out. Unfortunately for him, he likely only made her stronger.”
Another thought occurred to me. If Edwin was dead, but the demon wasn’t… “What happened to Edwin’s cohort? Those creepy silent women?”
“They weren’t a cohort, not in the sense of ours. He had magically bound them; they were freed once he died, and I’m sure they’ve fled back to their normal lives.” He shook his head. “If Edwin was at all humane, he set a spell to blank their memories, but we have no way of knowing for sure. I wish I’d seen to the situation sooner.”
“What a monster.” I was grateful for all the information, but there was something about Aiden’s tone that was giving me pause…I was nearly faint with hunger, though. So I was much relieved, if still a little nervous about the cuisine itself, when the waitress returned just then with a platter full of brightly colored little pieces of…sushi.
“Anything else?”
Aiden smiled up at her. “No thank you, this is perfect.” She left and he turned to me. “We’ll start you with the basics. This red one is tuna…”
~*~*~*~
So it turns out that sushi is delicious.
“I can’t believe it,” I told Aiden on our way home. “I could have eaten that all day.”
He grinned as he made a turn, zipping the little car up the winding hills back to the mansion. “Except you got full, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. The sake helped.”
He shot me a wicked glance. “Not too full, I hope. I have plans for you.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I have the same plans for you, though the details may vary.”
“I look forward to comparing all the details.”
He parked the car in the drive just before the big staircase leading to the front porch, leaping out to open my door as before. A uniformed valet appeared from a side door. “Thank you, sir.”
Aiden nodded at the valet. “Keys are in it. Leave it near the front; I may want it again.”
Once inside, he took my arm and guided me through the gallery and down the familiar main floor hallway. “I thought we’d just use a guest bedroom,” he said. “My own rooms are not exactly set up for entertaining. I do a lot of my…personal work in there.”
“Sure, fine,” I said. Justin and I had used a guest room on our night together, and it was fabulous. “What personal work do you do?”
Aiden gave a noncommittal shrug as he opened one of the bedroom doors, just on the other side of the hall from the Magenta Room. “I will show you, but not today. There’s just not a lot of room there. I’ve got a yoga mat on what little floor space there is.”
“You do yoga?” But of course, that explained his physique.
He grinned, shutting the door behind us and turning to me. “I do, and I will be happy to teach you a few things about that as well.”
The innuendo in his voice was hard to ignore. “I’d say you already have,” I said. “Holding me up for an entire session of lovemaking is pretty impressive.”
He put his arms around me and drew me close. My heart rate spiked as heat soared through me. Our magic sang to each other; it was the song of lust and attraction, but so much more. I wondered how I had ever thought I’d enjoyed sex before…this whole piece of it had been missing, and I hadn’t even known it.
“I’ll hold you up again if you like,” he said, leaning in and claiming my mouth for a deep, passionate kiss as his hands moved to cup my ass, lifting me off my feet.
I kissed him back, greedy for the taste of him. He was unlike any of my three previous men—and it wasn’t just the faint taste of the green tea and the stunningly fresh, buttery fish. Or the tart, fragrant hot sake we’d drank. There was something more to him, something so very, very right. “If that’s what you want to do…” I whispered against his lips, a long moment later.
He gazed into my eyes. “I want to do so much with you. But first, I suggest we explore this room’s large and accommodating bed.”
I chuckled as he released me and led me across the room to the bed in question. Indeed, it was probably at least king-sized, though it was hard to tell because of the shape: a perfect circle. “A round bed!” I cried, trying not to laugh. “Oh, I didn’t think such things existed outside of the movies.”
“You will see its advantages,” he said, reaching down to pull up the coverlet and show me the underside. “All the workings are down here; no headboard or posts to crash into, but plenty of girders and the like for when someone needs to be…ahem…tied down.” He waggled his eyebrows, but his face was deadly serious.
“Tied down?” I said, trying to keep my tone light. Had I finally reached my limit of new things today? Public sex, a demon battle, raw fish—and bondage? I gave a nervous giggle.
Aiden gripped my wrists, holding them tight as he leaned in and kissed me hard. “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” he said, releasing my mouth but not my wrists. “And I have a feeling you will be trying it very soon.”
It was only then that I remembered what had given me pause back in the restaurant. This was not a man acting all that much like I was the boss of him. Or like anyone was, frankly. I pulled back against him, gently testing his grip on my wrists. “We’ll see,” I said, still smiling.
Because despite my sudden anxiety, I was still feeling practically dizzy with desire for
him. Let him do whatever he wants, my heart sang. Let him, let him.
His hold on me tightened and he kissed me once more, then suddenly dropped my wrists. I rubbed the right one; it was red, tender. “Oh, my darling, I’ve hurt you,” he said, all solicitous as he picked up my wrist and raised it to his mouth, kissing it tenderly. “Let me make it all better.”
One kiss, and then he grabbed my waist and spun me around, pushing me down to the bed on my hands and knees. His right hand reached around to unzip my jeans as his left grabbed my hair and held my head tight. “Let me make everything all better.”
Fear and desire shot through me in equal measures. He was unbelievably strong, for such a compact man; it was like he was composed entirely of muscle. He yanked my jeans down, leaving them bunched around my knees…further holding me in place. I heard him rid himself of his own pants, though I could not turn around to look. I could barely move my head, his hand gripped my hair so tight—pain and pleasure in equal measures. I gasped.
And then his cock was at the entrance to my core. His free hand grasped my hip, holding me motionless as he prepared to plunge into me.
This is not how this goes, said a small voice inside me.
“No,” I hissed, and grabbed for my power, the same power that reverberated between us—I grabbed it and thrust it at him. He gave a surprised cry and his grip loosened—I twisted away, spun on the bed and leapt to my feet.
Aiden stood a few steps from the bed, naked, his gorgeous cock still questing toward me. “What…the fuck?” he said, angry and confused.
“You don’t just take me,” I seethed. “You’re not in charge here. I am. You’re bound to me.”
He tried to laugh, but I could see he was still stunned. “I thought you wanted it.”
“I do want it. I want you. But you’re acting…dominant.”
He stood a little taller. “I am dominant. It’s why I’m the last. I’m the fourth man, the strongest man. The one who completed our cohort.” His eyes narrowed. “I’m the one you banished the demon with.”
