The Dakkari?
We’d never stand a chance against them. All we had as protection was a signed accord between us, rooted in heartstone production.
Which was already flimsy and precarious…as Ryak’s actions had proved.
“Why are you so opposed to me using my magic on you?” Alaryk asked suddenly. Warning pricked my mind. Something was wrong.
My nostrils flared. “I told you. Because I didn’t like how it felt. It felt violating. You inside my mind, your voice filling me up like a water jug. And…”
“And what?”
“And I have good reason to be afraid of you,” I finished. I didn’t know if he’d take offense to the words. He’d confided in meabout his actions concerning Kamora. Would he think I was trying to throw them in his face as a weapon?
I might’ve had rare magic…but his was more dangerous and powerful. His could topple kingdoms. What could that same magic do to me? I’d be like moldable clay in his hands.
I couldn’t readhowthe words landed. He wouldn’t give me that insight. He felt closed to me. Like a book. So different than yesterday, in this same place. A contrast so sharp and stark that I wondered if it had been real.
His eyes raked up my body. “Undress.”
My stomach was curling. I hesitated. “You’re acting strange.”
He stood, wading toward me slowly in the bathing pool, steam curling all around him, making my hair frizz and my clothes dampen. When he reached where I was standing at the edge, his hand touched my ankle, skimming up the side of my leg as I held my breath.
“I want to be inside you if I cannot be inside your mind,” he murmured. My breath hitched, surprising heat unfurling like a bloom within me. “Undress,mariss.”
“What’s wrong, Alaryk?”
“Undress for me,” he purred, reaching up to untie the laces of my trews already, droplets of water running down the material. “I’ll tell you when I’m deep between these pretty thighs. When all I can feel is you. That’s what I want.”
I shivered, biting my lip. When he pulled my trews down, his lips brushed my calf muscle, sensitive beneath the cool press of his kiss. He trailed his mouth up as I sighed, and I felt his tongue lap behind my knee, making me jolt. Hesitantly, my hands went to the hem of my tunic and I had it off, stepping out of my trews until I was naked, my bare feet on the stone of the pool’s edge.
Maybe we both needed this, the feeling of connection during intimacy and sex. Maybe I could unravel what was really bothering him when both our walls were down, when it was only sensation and pleasure and heartstone magic between us.
As I stepped into the pool, he returned to his place on the ledge opposite me, sitting back in anticipation.
I could feel the way his crystalline-blue eyes roved over my body, unable to hide the appreciation and desire in his gaze as I waded toward him.
Alaryk’s cock was already hard, poking above the edge of the water. When he saw me watching, he gripped it hard, stroking himself until a bead of pre-come shimmered at his tip.
I pressed my hands to his chest, still feeling uncertain, though the familiar lust and need, running like a current between us, was comforting. My thumb scraped over his nipple, and he hissed with pleasure when it tugged his piercing.
Then he groaned, his hand leaving his cock to pull me against him, squeezing my ass. I felt a thrill go through me. I loved when he got like this, when he acted like he needed me close, when he got possessive with his touch.
He was unashamed of his desires, which allowed my own to feel freed. It made my belly swoop, made me throb between my legs…even though I was wary of his distant mood.
His magic spread over my skin like a body oil, shimmering and thick. It felt good, warm like a fur wrapped around my shoulders on a wintry day. My own responded, greeting Alaryk’s in anticipation, inrelief. I was a little greedy, taking some of it for myself because I still felt spent from the Elthika attack, letting it fill the tired places until I was arching against him, until he made me feel strong and desired and whole.
My head dipped. My tongue found his nipple, and I rolled the metal with my tongue. A deep, ragged huff left him.
But then his hand was tangling in my hair and he jerked my head back. Not hard, but firm enough that I gasped, that my neck was exposed, and I looked at him half-lidded, my lips parted.
Alaryk leaned down, keeping my hair taut in his grip, licking and sucking at the column of my throat. His teeth bit my skin,like he wanted to mark me. I didn’t expect to like it, that little flint of pain.
But it made the heat in my belly mutate into an inferno, and my nails dug into his shoulders, leaving half-moons in his flesh, making him groan.
Maybe a little pain wasn’t so bad.
Maybe we would mark each other with it.
