57
ARRAN
I’d known from the moment I walked into the bedchamber that I’d made a colossal mistake.
We could not show Palomides any sign of weakness or conflict. He had no doubt seen the desire burning in both of our eyes. If we did anything other than share a bedroom, he would see it as an opening to try to drive a wedge between us. Worse, he might find out that he did not even need to. It was already there, firmly lodged.
But no sense of duty or strategic thought could have prepared me for the sight of Veyka in that fucking nightgown. What business did she have being so beautiful? It was as if the Ancestors had crafted a female perfectly designed to test my control. Her moon white hair was unique, a shade I’d never seen before on this continent or any other. And those eyes… Ancestors, those eyes of hers were dangerous. Too keen by half, and too damn good at looking past the wall I erected around myself.
And that fucking nightgown. How had she managed to bring such a thing along? My travel pack was full of thick woolen clothing and emergency rations. Hers clearly had been packedwith less rational thoughts in mind. Though I doubted it was Veyka’s doing. She had not even wanted me in the room. There was no chance she’d packed that scintillating garment with the intent of me seeing it.
But she had not tried to cover herself, either.
She may not want me here with her, but she wanted me. And the more time I spent in her presence, the more I did as well. Not just her luscious body, but her dangerously sharp mind. She was manipulating Palomides, I had no doubt. Agreeing to the duel, letting him set the terms and keep us in the castle overnight were calculated choices, they had to be. That bravado, while inherent to who she was, was also a strategic weapon—being used in the service of Annwyn.
I wanted her to let me in.
I wanted her to agree with me about the amorite not because I was the stronger willed of the two of us, but because I’d convinced that cunning mind that it was the best course of action.
Yet my rational mind would not allow me to give myself to her. Not entirely. Not even if my body and soul demanded it. I wanted Veyka with every beat of my heart, but that did not mean I could trust her. She was an elemental. She knew more about the succubus and about what had happened to me than she was letting on.
There were holes in the recounting she’d given me. I’d prodded at them while we traveled to the coast, trying anything to keep my mind off of the female herself. Veyka was keeping secrets. She did not trust me any more than I did her.
That was going to be a problem sooner than either of us was comfortable with.
I laid awake for a long while, staring up at the bed hangings. Only when Veyka’s even breaths turned to soft snores did I finally feel my muscles beginning to relax. Kay was stationed atthe door. Lyrena at the end of the hall. Vera would relieve Kay at midnight. We were secure enough that I did eventually drift off.
I dreamt of a barren, orange-gold plain with swirling dust and dunes of sand, ringed by tall mountain peaks. The image had come to me again and again in the days since my awakening in Avalon. But I still did not recognize it, and I had not yet consulted a map. It was nowhere I’d been in my memory… at least, no memory that still resided safe within my mind.
That confusing tableau gave way to something much more pleasant.
A long, languorous caress across my shoulder and down my pectoral muscle. A sharper prickling sensation followed. Methodical, steady. My Talisman. The sprawling tree tattooed across my chest was burning with pleasant but persistent sensation.
Then it was past my Talisman. Lower.
My eyes snapped open, but there was nothing to see in the dark. The fire was nearly out, reduced to embers and tiny licks of flame. But I did not need light to realize what was happening as Veyka slid down my body, her fingernails and tongue working in tandem to draw the startled groan from my throat.
Somehow, I managed to shape it into words. “What are you doing?”
“What I should have done the moment you woke up,” she purred, and I felt it against my skin. Her scorching breath, her soft lips, her complete possession of me.
Her hand closed around my cock and I did not need to question her intent again. Not when she flicked her tongue over the head and a moan ripped from her chest as well. Her head dipped down again, licking the first beads of cum from the tip with such greed I found myself thrusting up into her mouth.
Veyka took it in stride. She began to work my length with her hand in a rhythmic twirling motion while her mouth suckedme down, deeper and deeper. At some point she pulled her hand away, and a growl so visceral and demanding ripped from me that she chuckled maniacally. In the haze of my pleasure, I realized she was not in full control of herself. Nor was I.
But I did not stop it.
When her hand returned, slick and wet, and the scent of her own arousal hit my nostrils, I nearly spilled my load of cum down her throat on the spot.
But Veyka knew me, that much was obvious. I did not care to interrogate that realization, not when it felt so fucking good. She took me right to the edge, again and again, until I felt my control flagging. Veyka knew it too. She dragged her tongue in one last long, languid stroke over the head of my cock before sliding up my body, her soft curves caressing everywhere her tongue had paid homage on the way down.
She paused, rising up on one elbow above me. I could just see the outline of her face in the failing light from the hearth. For the space of several heartbeats, she balanced herself above me. The muscles of her arm did not quaver under her weight, used to bearing that and more. Every inch of Veyka was strong, right down to the soul that I was quickly learning was indominable.
It was too dark to see anything in her eyes other than the burning ring of blue around the pupils. But I knew the question they must hold. An opportunity to pull away. From her, from this. Because we both knew that this would change things. I had no idea what it meant to her, but for me…
I waited too long, and she decided she did not care about my answer. When her mouth closed over mine, I realized I didn’t either.
She sank her hips down over mine, the weight of her substantial and powerful. Veyka was no slender waif, breakable and weak. She was strength and power and every sexual fantasy I’d ever had. Maybe they had not been fantasies at all. Maybethey had been visions of my future. A future with this female, my mate.
