“What’s that supposed to mean?” I shouldered past him and collected some branches to drive into the ground for a spit. If nothing else, we would cook the elk. We still had the meat, right? The legs tumbled into the clearing like an overeager dog spit them out at us.
“It’s easier to show you than tell you, but that can wait until after we eat.”
He sat me at the edge of the bower. Rat Face might have been petty and eaten both legs by himself, but he diligently skinned and cooked them off, letting me eat my fill in peace. It didn’t mean we were friends or anything, but the silence was nice—just the right amount. It let me connect to the ocean of calm I always reached for at meals, so I ate consciously. I stopped eating before I was full, knowing it would settle, even with all the activity of the day.
I tried not to let it get me down that said activity was a miserably failed assassination. As soon as Ithought it, my anxiety crept up and whispered all manner of outlets to soothe it. I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth before I stopped. Since we appeared fresh out of alcohol, it pointed out Noth would be a dangerous diversion in a lovely setting. Maybe I wanted his mysterious answer to be sex.
“You have a little…” Noth reached out and swiped my bottom lip free of grease. One simple gesture melted all the way down to my toes.
I ignored the urgent need to rub my thighs together. “You want to tell me my secret now?”
He leaned over, only a whisper from my mouth. “So eager.”
Heat prickled all over. Overwhelming turned out to be a mild word for Noth. I needed some space. This was spectacularly stupid. It was one thing when the sex was for the sake of killing him. It was quite another to choose it.
“Really, you’re going to try that when we’re both disgusting?”
He drew back. Because I remained a contradictory bitch, I missed him in my space.
Noth stood, the last of his elk leg forgotten, turning to the woods. “A little help here.”
The trees rustled, and a stream flowed into the culvert. Noth stripped off his heavy brocade vest and the linen shirt underneath, and my mouth went completely dry. Settling back further into the bower, I didn’t want itto look like I was spying. I stopped counting abs after two. That was the most I had ever seen on anyone but him. And our last encounter wasn’t exactly full of lingering glances or clothing removal.
Noth dipped down to the stream, soaking his shirt in the water. His back was just as impressive. Who had an impressive back? One with ropey muscles that made him bulkier than any other Elf, but still lithe next to someone like a bear shifter. Luckily I hated him, or the display may have made me do something stupid like drool. I made a mistake when I tried to seduce him into letting his guard down. Now I understood the troubling sensation of his ladder-pierced cock buried inside me.
Noth washed himself with care and precision, allowing an ungracious amount of water to slide over those muscles I definitely turned away from. I glanced back without turning my head. His sharp chin lifted to wipe down his neck and over his broad chest. I swallowed hard. It should be illegal to be that pretty and that stacked. At the unbuttoning of his trousers, I held my breath. Would I get a complete striptease?
When Noth turned his back and made quick work of cleaning off the sweat of travel and blood of the elk, I gave my overactive imagination a good neck-snapping shake. My lady bits and I weren't supposed to be mooning over our homicide victim; no matter how spectacular he looked. He dunked his shirt in the stream. His long fingers squeezed the cloth dry and thenhe wet it again. My breath slowed down as my heartbeat roared in my ears.
His hooded eyes reflected in the coming dark. A deep primal part of me—the one that worshiped the sun, the moon and the stars—thrilled at seeing it. What did he see when he looked back at me? Something he liked because his smile widened and his eyes started to glow. A little of my anxiety eased even as I grew wet. Whatever he was badly hinting at clearly involved sex. I was good at making this emotionless. Lust I could handle.
He skittered as he walked back to me. Was he aware of how much his Nightmare shone through at times? It should have scared me, but the darkness was as much a part of my practice as the light. It held no inherent morality and was nothing to fear.
He crawled between my legs, and I was helpless to keep them closed. The danger of him was thrilling, but it was the intent in his gaze that made my legs wobbly. Everyone had good reason to think he was a vain, overbearing, theatrical creature, but his eyes didn’t lie. The weight of consequences pressed on this man and the shadows he carried were darker than his Nightmare’s.
Noth pushed my hair behind my shoulders. “You got me all riled up from that murder attempt.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t fix that for you permanently, Your Highness.” I shrugged with every bit of nonchalance I had over the rapid beat of my heart andsmiled as he flinched at his title.
We were both experts at hiding our feelings by showing others what they were supposed to see. That’s how I knew I could do this. He wasn’t wrong when he said he knew more about magic than I did. He might help me manage it, or he might kill me in return. I was crazy enough to want to find out which. More control would be worth it. I could do whatever this was without emotion entering the equation if it would help me unlock the buzzing beneath my skin.
Noth took his shirt, still smelling of cut grass and charred ruins, of him, and dabbed at my face with more patience than I thought him capable of. I unclasped my leather vest and Noth trailed the fabric lower, the cold bite of the stream leaving gooseflesh in its wake. It woke up every sense to Noth’s sweet assault. I slid my hand down his naked side, a place that got little touch, and watched it raise the fine hairs on his body. His other hand peeled me out of my shirt, eyes fixed on the breast band still covering me. Unlike my sister, I wasn't very well-endowed there, but anyone would have thought treasure lay beneath the cloth with the way his gaze never wavered.
I kicked off my boots, and he did the same, stopping his bath to pull off my socks. I yanked off his and realized we were going slow enough I had time to think. Noth might get to his little lesson or not. It didn’t matter. I was going to take what I wanted to know and soothe the jittery sting of failure. My leather leggingsand panties came off in one fell swoop. I never liked this part that exposed my body and soul scars to view. I needed to get to the mindless place as quickly as possible.
Noth chuckled as I shucked him of the rest of his clothing. My foot pushed him onto his back, into the thick moss of the bower, the bath forgotten. A hate fuck was just as good an outlet as any other. He grabbed my ankle and twisted so I fell on top of him, trapping his already hard dick between us. Thankfully, the thicket decided we needed to be comfortable because my knees landed on nothing but softness.
I kneed him pretty good in the ribs, right over the scar I left on him.
“Dirty!” he exclaimed and wrestled me against him. “Already got your foreplay in with those crystals?”
“Looks like they would service me better than that.” I glanced down at his cock and quickly back up again, refusing to bite my lip. I needed to say something tart to quell the sudden bout of nerves jittering all over. The one time I had that thing inside me, I almost fell apart. I fought to sit up, get out of his grip, but his hands held me with just enough pressure to keep me where he wanted me.
He smirked. “If you're nervous, just taste it. I don’t know if your magic cares what kind of sex you have.”
Was I that transparent? And what was he saying? Did sex fuel my magic? “I had enough for dinner.”
“You could use that pretty mouth to beg for it instead,” he said.
