“Mmm Icould. But that would cost you.”
I whirled on him, pressing my finger into his chest and growled out through clenched teeth. “Look asshole, I don’t have time for your freaking games. People's lives are at risk. Freakingdosomething!”
Rathal grabbed my hand and lifted it to place a kiss on my clenched fingers. The shock of it jolted me. I felt that kiss all the way to my toes. “Ah but my prize, I don’t care about them. If this is a game, as you say, then I intend to win. By whatever means necessary.”
Like a bucket of ice water, his words brought me back to myself. I’d been having fun, halfway enjoying his company and then he reminded me that he’s a selfish pirate who kidnappedme off a battlefield and was holding me prisoner for his own gain.
I jerked my hand back. “Go fuck yourself.”
I started to turn away and head back to the palace, when his hand shot out and gripped my elbow, pulling me to a stop. I all but snarled at him, my fist clenching with the need to deck him.
“A kiss for the information. A single kiss and I will inform Anu of the attack,” he said, his face serious, his eyes intent on my face.
I had yet to see him without his mocking smile and it made a pit open up below me big enough for my stomach to drop into.
I took a deep breath and let it out. “One kiss?”
He nodded, moving closer to me, taking my other elbow and drawing me to him until we were only a few inches apart. The crowd moved around us like water around a stone, and as I looked into his eyes, the roar of noise muted, so that it felt like we were isolated from it all.
I dropped my gaze to his muzzle while my heart tried to dropkick itself out of my chest and run screaming into the void. His face was similar to a jackal’s; long, narrow, and full of teeth. His lips were a little more humanoid than his canid features would suggest, but he still had a muzzle and not a mouth. “How's that going to work?” I was proud that my voice remained level.
Rathal’s laugh was a dark rumbling thing. It made my stomach clench low.
“It will work. Maybe not like how you are used to, but it will work.”
I swallowed hard. “Okay. But you have to notify Anu right after.”
His head was already lowering to mine. “Deal,” he murmured, right before his lips touched mine.
It was odd. There was no getting around it. But it wasn’t unpleasant. His nose wasn’t cold, his fur was soft, and his lipswere dry. This close to him his spice scent had more vanilla in it, like someone had dumped cinnamon and vanilla into a bowl of cloves and boiled it. My heart was just starting to slow down when his hand came up to wrap around the back of my head and pressed me into him harder. A hot tongue licked along the seam of my lips. The shock of it had me opening and letting him inside.
Not only did it work, the kiss scorched me from the inside out. His taste exploded on my tongue, spicy and rich. It went straight to my head and I reached out a hand to steady myself and found a warm fur covered chest against my palm. My head felt like I was underwater, blood rushing inside my ears, and I gave in to the sensation of falling. I started kissing him back.
A low throaty growl rose up around me as Rathal’s arm pulled me closer and the kiss deepened, growing from exploratory to hot in an instant. I felt his fangs pressing against my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood and didn’t care.
I was floating and heavy all at the same time. All I could smell and taste was him, the only sounds were my own heartbeat in my ears, and when he finally broke away he left me dazed and panting, staring up at him. His eyes were a deep brown with flecks of gold. They blazed with heat now, enough of it to make me shiver under their scrutiny.
“I told you it would work,” he said hoarsely, his own breath coming faster. I made the mistake of looking down. His cock had hardened to a staggering size under the thin black of his pants and was now threatening me. It stole what little breath I’d managed to get back away. Oh god. This monster wanted to marry me. There was no way in hell that thing was coming anywhere near me.
“Coward,” his silky voice whispered to me. Heat flushed over my body even as my brain screamed warning signals. I pulled my gaze away from his dick to his face. He was watching me with somuch heated promise in his eyes that I almost turned on my heel and sprinted in the opposite direction.
“What?” I asked, shamefully breathless. A trickle of embarrassment broke through the thick fog of arousal that had wound around me.
Rathal slid his hand up from my waist to my jaw, tracing the back of his fingers along my jawline to my lips. “I said coward.” The claw of his thumb dipped into the depression in the middle of my bottom lip. “I could be gentle, Callie. So gentle. I could take you slowly, softly.”
My breath stuttered in my chest and I swayed into him. The claw touching my lip pressed harder as Rathal leaned forward to touch the side of his face against mine so that his mouth was right next to my ear. “Though if my prize would like it rougher, she need only ask.”
A shiver started at my scalp, prickling under my hair, and cascaded down to my toes, raising goosebumps in its wake.
I could only stare up at him when he straightened to grin down at me. No snappy comeback, no combative expletives, nothing, nada. No words. He released my face with a warm chuckle. “Finally, she’s speechless at my prowess. It took longer than usual, but I am triumphant at last. Now if I could only find how to make her scream I would be a happy god.” He fluffed the orange feathers around his neck and gave me a wink.
What an arrogant ass. When this stupor wore off I was going to tell him just that. But I remained silent while he took my hand to pull me along after him. I shook off the daze enough to notice that we had garnered quite a few stares from the crowd. The crowd that I’d let Rathal kiss me in, not to mention the twins, who I could hear snickering behind us. Later tonight I was going to lay in bed and freak out but for now I shoved it into a box in the back of my mind where it belonged.
At least I’d accomplished something by this lapse in good judgment. Forewarned is forearmed.
ten
Callie
