A soft moan parted Lory’s lips.
“I want you.” It was the first time she’d admitted to it in words, and she was about to regret it when Khayrivven frozebehind her, his finger right at her entrance and his other hand over her breast.
Frustration turned his voice into gravel as he pulled both hands to her waist, lifting her off his lap and sliding into a more casual position that placed Lory’s ass back on his thigh instead of his cock. “I can’t do this.” His hair tickled her neck as he shook his head against her, still close enough to feel the hard lines of his chest, not against her spine, like before, but against her side. “Not like this.”
The darkness lifted from Lory’s vision, and Lu’Shen’s came back into view, its customers unaware of the dream Lory had drifted into for a fraction of a moment. She was still sitting on Khayrivven’s lap, her legs over the armrest and her side against his front, her dress and underwear were in place, and he hadn’t shifted an inch beneath her, but the frustration in his eyes was obvious when she faced him, lifting her drink to her mouth and taking a deep sip.
Under any other circumstance, she might have climbed off him and left, but she couldn’t forget she was playing a role, as was he. This wasn’t Khayrivven Falcrest, Flame-born, the man who had saved her twice, but a stranger seeking distraction for a couple of hours. So, Lory plastered a pleasant smile on her face and got to her feet.
“Come on, handsome, I’ll take you to a better place.”
She had no idea what she meant by it or why he took the hand she held out for him and allowed her to tug him out of the chair, and she didn’t question why when he drained his drink, then took hers from her hand and drained that one, too. She certainly didn’t question when he gave hera cautious smile—arealsmile—and said, “Lead the way, Gutter Gem.”
Lory didn’t let go of his hand when she guided him through the busy room, directly toward the stairs, and Khayrivven followed, a million emotions warring on his features.
Twenty-Four
The noisefrom the bottom floor didn’t reach all the way up to the small, dim room Lory chose to lead the Flame-born captain to. She’d simply picked the first unlocked door, and when she’d found it unoccupied, she and Khayrivven slipped inside, and she closed the door behind them, leaning against the faded wood with her back.
The cool surface was like a balm to her heated skin, but the fire wouldn’t budge with Khayrivven standing at the center of the space, in front of a wide bed with sepia satin sheets. Heavy curtains blocked out the daylight, leaving nothing but a soft glow filtering through the fabrics. On the ceiling, little desert flowers were painted in ashade of pink similar to some of the dresses Lory had seen downstairs, and from the room next door, fast, rhythmical thuds reminded her this wasn’t an inn where they could lay down to rest and forget the Triad, the academy, and all the consequences if either of them let their guard down for once, but a brothel, where women and men sold their bodies for coin—and its owner, Lu’Shen, was Khayrivven’s friend.
“Why didn’t you tell me we were coming here?” It was worth a try, wasn’t it, now that they’d left the clamor of the entertainment room behind?
Khayrivven held her gaze. “I was instructed not to.”
Why that hurt more than a snarky comment or another cryptic statement, Lory had an inkling, but she wasn’t ready to go there.
“And you do everything the general orders?” Again, better to provoke him than to become vulnerable.
His responding silence made Lory wonder if she’d gone too far, if the war in his eyes had been a sign she’d pushed too hard. Then, she hadn’t pushed—not really. It had been Khayrivven who’d drawn her into a dream, and she wasn’t even remotely in the mood to consider the whys and hows of Khayrivven’s reasoning.
Khayrivven shrugged, adjusting his stance, and Lory couldn’t help but notice the bulge at the front of his pants where his arousal hadn’t faded despite the change in his mood. Of course, he noticed her fleeting look, a half-smile quirking his mouth.
“There is nothing I can do about that,” he noted, a hint of amusement entering his expression, but mostly, he remainedserious, his eyes filled with the same fire as he beckoned her to come closer, the fingers of one hand curling.
Lory followed his summons, a horde of moths taking flight in her stomach. This was real, and when she stopped a foot from him, his heat wrapping around her like a phantom caress, Lory couldn’t help the deep want building in her belly. But more than that, the ache in her chest, that had nothing to do with what her body—and his,obviously—wanted, but her heart.
Fuck the Guardians if she hadn’t fallen and crashed for this man.
Lory placed her hand right over the hard arousal, grinning up at him. “Maybe I can.”
Khayrivven didn’t flinch as she slid her fingers down the front of his pants, stroking the outline of his cock, but the frustration on his face was lost to a devastated hunger.
“Wait—” His fingers wrapped around her wrist, stopping her right at his tip, and something crumpled inside Lory’s chest as she waited for him to reject her.
When he didn’t speak for a beat, she started pulling her hand back, but Khayrivven held her in place.
“If we do this, you need to understand that the Triad can never know.”
A choked laugh bubbled up Lory’s throat. “I thought you trusted the Triad. You’re basically unquestioningly loyal, or you wouldn’t be executing people on their behalf.”
“On Ulder’s behalf,” Khayrivven corrected, peeling Lory’s hand off him and weighing it between his palms, his thumb absently stroking along the inside of her wrist. “He’s the one the Triad answers to.”
As she watched him wring his thoughts into words, delivering them like glass shards that could cut his tongue or his throat, Lory’s heart splintered.
She’d been wrong. He wasn’t here because he believed in what Ulder did. He might have proven his loyalty at the front lines, but there was more. “What leverage does he have?”
Khayrivven’s thumb stopped mid-stroke. “I never said anyone had any leverage?—”
