ZION
My foot pressed down on the brakes. If not for the rolled-up windows, the crunch of twigs littering the desolate road would have disturbed the stillness overfilling our car.
All the trucks and other vehicles we’d repaired over the years for the single purpose of invading Ilasall came to a stop behind us. The last tendrils of darkness writhed in the forest surrounding the city, the night serving us by weaving a cloak of shadows.
We had an hour, an hour and a half tops, before dawn broke and announced our approach to the guards protecting Ilasall’s gates.
And then the blood games would begin.
So much scarlet was going to flow down the city streets; I planned to bathe in it. And then paint patterns on Kali and Gedeon. On their naked bodies, obviously.
The red against her skin so fair Gedeon called her his little death, and the crimson so deep on his brown complexion, it would border black… I shifted in my driver’s seat, cursing the zippers in Ilasall’s soldiers’ uniforms.
Sure, they would camouflage us, blend us with the rest of their military, but whoever designed the black cargo pants was a master of torture.
Gedeon stared at my groin. “Are you…”
I rubbed my thighs to do something, anything, because him looking wasn’t helping. It lured the list of my fantasies to unravel in my mind and crafted new ones.
So I didn’t respond.
I simply…couldn’t.
“Never mind.” With a hand on the back of my seat, Gedeon twisted to Kali in the backseat. “Ready?”
She traced the black strips wrapped around her thighs and upper arms, and crisscrossing over her breasts. The leather fit her curves perfectly, the handles of a dozen knives strapped to her accessible in any position.
Lucia’s work was impeccable, as always. I now understood why she’d asked for two months to source and beat the leather. It fit Kali like second skin.
And gave me the opportunity to see our girl in all her glory. If not for her demand to wear a soldier’s uniform, I would’ve secured the sheaths to her bare flesh.
I couldn’t cease imagining how the straps would slightly dig into her body, how if I hooked steel rings around the leather, I could turn it into a harness and string her up, hoist her high into the air, leave her powerless to do anything but?—
“Zion,” she hissed, drawing me out of the well of my thoughts. Fiddling with the leather, the straps resting between her breasts so temptingly I licked my lips, she added, “Stop thinking about me naked. This is not the time.”
I tugged my seat belt away from my shoulder, the polyester a sharp blade. “Actually, I was thinking about what to eat for dessert after we win.”
Or more like, which dessert to eat first: her or him.
Pinching my chin, Gedeon pulled me closer to him. “Be good today, and I will allow you to eat her while I fuck you at the top of the Spire.”
His voice trickled down my abdomen, soaked into my pants, and my nails dug into the meat of my palms in an attempt to stifle a groan.
He’d vowed to help me desecrate the highest building in the city, the dwelling hosting the office spaces and the apartments of the six Heads of the governmental divisions and the Head of Ilasall, Peter, the man ruling over both green- and black-banded citizens.
A rattle of knuckles drew our attention to a freckled scowl hovering behind my window. “I don’t have all day,” Jayla’s shout penetrated the glass. When we didn’t move, she tossed her thick ginger braid to fall down her back. “You can fuck each other later, you know,” she yelled, and a sea of intrigued gazes settled on us. “Can we go kick some asses now? It’s getting boring just standing around and waiting.”
“We should go.” Ignoring the onlookers, Kali re-secured her high bun. “She won’t leave us alone otherwise.”
Not after Gedeon had assigned Jayla and Ava to different groups. When Jayla had learned of it, she’d looked like she was going to stab Gedeon in his sleep.
On beat, Jayla ripped my driver’s door open. Her frown deepened the longer she surveyed us. “Really? You’re all wearing matching outfits?”
Gedeon yanked down the sleeves of his dark green, skintight uniform shirt to hide his leader’s tattoo. “It’s called blending in.”
“But it’s ugly.” She gestured at her yolk-yellow sweater. “The least you could do is go out dressed nicely.”
Naked. The correct answer was naked.
