Reaching toward the window ledge, she let herself take a split second to savor the feeling of the stretch in her torso. Despite the desperation that had driven her to take up this line of work, she did genuinely enjoy the ways it challenged her to move.
Her fingers found purchase on the smooth stone of the window, and she carefully pulled herself up to sit on it. She looked inside to find only a dark dining room kissed by moonlight.
Unlike some of the more ostentatious nobles that resided in Zhava City year round, this lord kept his valuables in a locked safe. While at the tavern one night, she had overheard one of this house’s guards loudly complaining about being asked to move the safe from the library of the manor over to the lord’s own bedchamber. Colette had not thought she would wind up at this estate so soon, but she was glad now that she had been listening in to that particular conversation.
Because of Sartya’s desert climate—and the nobility’s general arrogance—the estates of Zhava City rarely had glass sealing their windows. Rooms that were intended for entertaining, such as this dining room she now found herself peering into, almost never had windows that closed. They were designed to catch whatever hint of a breeze was available on the hottest days of the Sartyian summers. Thefts were rare, and the nobles’ private guards had scared off any would-be intruders. Until Colette.
She swung her legs into the room and paused again to listen and survey her surroundings as her eyes adjusted. She wasn’t in a rush. Smooth and careful, and no one would even know she had been here. Well, until someone found the next note she intended to leave her majestic Captain.
Images of their night together filled Collete’s mind suddenly, and she wished more than anything that they could be together again. The beauty of Mav’s surrender had been incredibly satisfying, but Colette wondered more at the trust that had been required to do what they had done. She felt a connection to Mav, like she wanted to know everything about her, wanted to pull Mav’s soul into her own and never let it go. Dangerous thoughts for a thief to have about her hunter.
Colette took pains to shove her sentimental, sensitive heart into a box. There was no room for it when others depended on her to get this job done. She had a responsibility to take care of her grandmother, and a mission to take care of the less fortunate people of this city. She couldn’t let herself get swept up in her feelings.
Her focus snapped back to the present at the sound of a floorboard creak. She froze, breath held, waiting. Minutes passed, Colette’s breathing shallow, until she was certain it had just been the house settling.
Colette slipped through the dining room out into the dark hallway and began methodically moving past each door, always checking, always listening. She deduced the large double doors at the northern end of the home were her destination the moment she saw them. Ornate, carved solid wood flaunted the lord’s wealth.
She pulled the large metal ring that served as a doorknob as gently as she could, using all her strength to control the movement. A deep woodensnick, and the door opened a fraction.. Darkness greeted her.
Colette slipped in, adrenaline now pumping through her veins in earnest. The room smelled of sandalwood, and something else that immediately had her thoughts flicking back to Mav. She blinked, forcing herself to stay in this moment. This theft was not the most difficult she had attempted, but it would be foolish not to be fully on her guard.
In the split second that she did battle with herself internally, she heard movement off to her right. Air moved across her cheek before she could even turn fully to look. A massive body slammed into her, and she found herself pinned against the solid wood of the door. The warmth of the body was the first thing she noticed as her mind caught up with what had just happened.After a heartbeat, she looked up into her assailant’s face—and found Mav’s amber eyes staring down at her.
Chapter Eleven
Mav hadn’t given herselfa single second to process what she had just seen—whoshe had just seen—walk through that door.
Her trap had worked; the thief had come here just as she’d hoped.
What Mav had not expected was to find the stunning woman who had consumed nearly every one of her thoughts since the moment Mav first saw her leaning easily against the tavern bar. Watching Colette slip into this noble’s bedroom in all black had been an out of body experience. Colette was here. Colette was her thief.
Colette was currently pinned between Mav’s body and the massive wooden door, her breasts heaving and her eyes full of shock and fury. In Mav’s hurry to contain the intruder, she had grabbed Colette’s shoulders in her massive hands and had wedged her knee between the thief’s legs. Which, now that Mav was hesitating, meant Colette’s hands were still free, and Mav’s thigh was pressed against Colette’s hot cunt.
This was not how this was supposed to go.
Mav’s wicked sharp stinger was poised in the air by Collete’s throat, ready to strike if Colette made a wrong move. Every ounce of Mav’s training drained out of her mind as she looked down into Colette’s face, her lovely high cheekbones and eyes the blue of aquamarine, startling in the glow of the desert moon.
Colette took advantage of Mav’s distraction, and before Mav could strike with her tail, one of Colette’s daggers pressed to Mav’s throat.
“Hello, Captain,” Colette said in that sultry voice that nearly took Mav to her knees.
“Thief,” Mav answered with less bite than she intended.
“Mm, yes, I suppose I am. You didn’t ask what I did for a living.” Colette shrugged and the hint of a smile played at the corner of her lush mouth.
“Did you know?” Mav asked, the bite of betrayal hitting her harder than it should over someone she barely knew.
“That you’ve been hunting me? Yes, Captain. I left you a note, remember? I must say, you took my advice rather well last night. You wereveryfocused.” Colette smiled fully then, and Mav wanted more than anything to forget the fact that this woman was the thief that was about to ruin her career. She wanted to pin her hips to the floor and taste her.
“I can’t believe it’s you.” Mav’s voice had dropped into a growl, and venom dripped from her stinger. She should end this and apprehend Colette without a second thought; but she couldn’t bring herself to strike. Mav could hardly believe the two objects of her obsession were one and the same.
“There’s no one here but me to witness your nobility, Captain. Should we pick up where we left off last night? Sadly, I don’t have my rope with me, but I think we can get creative.” Colette slowly lowered her dagger, and the intensity of their eye contact had every rational thought fleeing Mav’s mind.
Before she knew what she was doing, her lips were crashing into Colette’s, and by all the old gods of Domhan na Rùin, Colette matched her stroke for stroke. It was passionate and wild, and Colette’s hands wound into her mane, dagger clattering to the floor. Mav’s entire world centered around the feeling of this woman’s lips against her own, her tiny body pressed close.
Colette hiked her leg up against Mav’s hip, and she remembered that her knee was still pressed to Colette’s core.
Mav couldn’t believe what she was doing, what she wanted. It was a problem for later, she decided. Now, she would have Colette. “Ride me, beautiful thief. Take your pleasure from me.” Mav nipped at Colette’s ear, and the breathy moan that came from Colette’s lips may as well have been music.
