She corners me in a back hallway before I can get back to Sable, and from the red-faced scowl she wears, I’m pretty sure I’m toast. How is it that I’ve managed to usurp control from the Elders, yet one wrong look from Kiki has me shaking in my boots? The crossed arms and toe-tapping boot just add to my dread.
“Kiki! Hello,” I say, eyes darting back and forth in search of an avenue of escape. Sadly, there is none. “What brings you back to these halls today?”
She leans forward and jabs a finger on my breastbone. I wait for my guards to jump in, but Kiki raised Hugh and Sym same as me, and they weren’t about to get in her way. “Cara Solari, what has gotten into you? Overthrowing the Elders mere weeks before you were set to ascend naturally, making decrees all willy-nilly, and the girl! Do you really think no one knows you’ve stashed her in my old room?”
Busted. I take a step back and throw up my hands in defeat. “Look, Kiki, I can explain—”
“I don’t know what to do with you. Certainly nothing I’ve ever taught you has fostered this behavior. Galavanting around with some strange woman, paying no never-mind to your duties. I just don’t know what possible outcome you thought would come of all this. Did you honestly believe you could take over without backlash? Or that you could ignore your responsibility to marry Corvin for the better of the tribes?”
“For the better of the tribes?” I dig in my heels and give her my own crossed-arm pose. “I fail to see what my love life has to do with the better of the tribes. I can rule just as well alone as I could have with his traitorous ass next to me.”
The look of abject horror on Kiki’s face is almost worth it. “Your love life, as you call it, has nothing to do with the wellbeing of the tribes, save for the way it’s making you rule with your ego first! If you believe that you’re not acting rashly, then all hope is lost.” She scoffs and turns heel, stomping down the corridor with her fists clenched and her head held high.
“She’s got a semblance of a point, Cara.” Sym shakes his head. “I mean, if it wasn’t for your infatuation with the wolf from the woods, you wouldn’t have popped off and fired the Elders.”
“You, too, Sym? Of all people, I would have thought you and Hugh would have my back on this. After all, if it wasn’t for me sticking up for the two of you, you both might have been lynched for your preferences. Now you want me to deny my nature and marry myself off to that asshole?”
“Not so much Corvin, but a suitable male—at least for appearances’ sake.” Hugh’s tone is softer, more sympathetic. “You are in a position of political power; that means your life is not your own.”
I grumble and start back down the hall towards my quarters. “Well, maybe I don’twantthis position of power. Did anyone ever think about that?”
“Solari’s will goes above all else.”
That earns Sym an eyeroll from me, and a hasty middle finger. “Solari can suck it.”
Twin gapes give Hugh and Sym a comical look, and I hide a snicker as I slide into my room and lock the door.
I stand with my forehead pressed to the wood, trying to wrap my head around Sym and Hugh’s hurtful words. Did they really believe I should marry a man for the sake of appearances? It felt like a betrayal, and from my oldest friends!
Soft fingers light on my shoulder, and I spin around to find Sable standing behind me. She hadn’t been in the room that I’d seen when I walked in, and she moves so silently I hadn’t heard her approach. I gaze at her in her dressing gown, and suddenly the harsh words of Kiki, Hugh, and Sym leave me.
How could this be a mistake? How could my feelings for this woman be harmful to the tribes?Thiswas my destiny. Fuck the rule, fuck the tribes, fuck all of that. Fuck everyone who thinks I should be something I’m not.
I pull Sable into an embrace, and the world rights itself. Her soft form presses into me, her breasts nudging mine, and I thread my fingers in her silky hair as I slide one shoulder of her gown down her arm.
“Come to bed with me, Sable,” I whisper. “Come help me forget my duties.”
She meets my gaze and lets the dressing gown slide to the floor. To my delight, she wears nothing underneath. Without another word, she takes my hand and guides me to the bed. The sweet aphrodisiac of her arousal tickles my nostrils. I strip out of my garb as she slides onto the bed, her smooth legs gliding on the satin.
When I climb up to join her, she splays her legs in a provocative pose. I crawl up the massive bed, pausing at the apex of her legs to inhale her intoxicating scent. Sable rubs a leg against my shoulder, raising it up and over my back. The sight of her sex exposed to me, leaving her in such a vulnerable position, entices me to act. I trace a line on her thigh with my tongue, moving ever closer to my goal. Sable moans, and I almost lose myself in the sound.
I pause to look her in the eye, seeking confirmation that this is what she wants. “I can stop, if this is too much.”
Sable wraps her other leg around me, pinning me between them. “Don’t stop, Cara. Don’t ever stop.”
With that reassurance, I dive in.
Her taste is divine—like the finest ambrosia, like liquid honey, like … like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. Who knew something so delicious could have been improved upon? Just when I’d thought the recipe perfected, Sable comes along and blows every other woman out of the water. I think she’s ruined me for any other, and frankly, I don’t care.
Sable writhes and whimpers as I devour her, and her legs squeeze me in a delightful vice. Her cries grow louder and louder until she’s screaming. I plunge two fingers into her, and after a scant few pumps she releases all over me. I lick through the spasms, cleaning her of every scrumptious drop. Finally, when she’s stilled, I crawl up to cover her with my body.
“Dear Solari, you’re so beautiful.” I stroke her hair, and I’d almost swear she purred. Her cheeks, already flushed from the fresh orgasm, grow an even brighter pink at the compliment.
“I’m not that pretty.”
I take her face in my hands and deliver a deep, passionate kiss. “You’re more than pretty. You’re stunning. You’re perfect. You are the light in my otherwise dark days.”
Sable brushes a lock of hair out of my face, and her expression grows serious. “You are beautiful, too. So full of blinding light, a glow that puts the Flame God’s powers to shame. My whole life has been lived in darkness, and only by meeting you have I found a light to guide my way.”
