A Kiss of Fire: A Kiss of Magic Book 2 (22 page)

She orgasmed hard, her whole body tensing as waves of undeniable ecstasy crashed over her. She was drowning in pleasure, gasping for every breath, her every muscle taut and grasping. She heard Sin roar out her name, and she watched his face as release rushed over him. She could see the combination of pain and pleasure that rocketed through him. He probably wouldn’t admit it to her, but the tension of having an orgasm was probably a bit painful to a man in his condition. Still, he had wanted this. And so had she.

As she came down from her high they were both gasping for breath. Her first inclination was to drop her boneless body across his chest, but she resisted the urge for obvious reasons. She did lean over him and kiss his mouth in a series of lingering, drugging kisses. All the while they both drew hard for breath through their noses.

When they drew apart at last, their eyes met and held.

“Let’s do that again,” he growled.

“Oh no,” she said with a laugh. “Not you, my lord. You are going to rest.”

“But—“

“No buts. We will revisit the idea later, but for now…rest.”

“Will you lie with me?”

“Of course I will,” she said. She separated their bodies and moved to curl up against his left side. He draped an arm about her shoulders and, ignoring the discomfort it caused, he hugged her to his chest. “But only if you don’t hurt yourself,” she felt the need to add as she loosened his hold on her.

“Very well. If I must.” He smiled at her and lifted his head to kiss her. She made it as easy as possible for him to reach her. “Rest with me,” he urged her, pressing comforting kisses to her cheeks, lips and brow.

She closed her eyes and did exactly that.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Several hours later, after taking dinner with Sin, Arianna begged off for a few minutes of walking outside with Mariah. As they walked through the snow of the barren winter landscape, the two women talked of a variety of light topics. Ariana was not very forthcoming about the nature of her relationship with Sin, although Mariah was well aware of her lady’s affair. She had been called to dress her lady in the mornings after she awakened in the raja’s bed. If one was looking for Ariana, they need not look any further than the raja’s bed. She was with him nearly every minute of the day. What Mariah did not know was if it had been commanded of her mistress, or if her mistress was giving her attentions willingly.

Oh, she knew the decision to become lovers with Sin had been a conscious and willing one. Ariana had confided that much in her to put her mind at ease that she was not the victim of rape. No, it was clear her mistress was very much a willing participant in the affair.

What intrigued Mariah was the single-mindedness Ariana used in
not
discussing Sin with her. In the past, Ariana had confided almost every detail of her love affairs, what few there were, with Mariah. They had talked and tittered about them like best friends sharing secrets. But this time Ariana was keeping all the details to herself.

Ariana was not trying to make the affair an enigma, but it was simply unfolding that way. She didn’t know what to make of it for herself, so how could she explain it to anyone else?

As Mariah and Ariana walked, a guard walked a discreet distance behind them. It was Mordol again. The insolent guard was her least favorite of those left in charge of her. He always had some rude comment or other to make. Ariana ignored it for the most part. Words did not hurt her and she didn’t think the bully had the nerve to do anything that might incite his master’s wrath. She supposed she could have complained about him, but Sin had enough on his plate at the moment trying to run a country from his sickbed. And the day she couldn’t handle a smart mouthed bastard was the day she turned in her leadership credentials.

It did seem as though he was there every time she turned around. Even when others were supposed to be in charge of her. If anyone else noticed, they never said anything.

The guard she most enjoyed was Lindo. He took a small shift every day, usually when she was out walking or visiting with Fatima. He would walk with her and sometimes they would talk. He was a man of few words, but the words he spoke were profound and saturated with loyalty for his raja.

“You are very good for my raja,” he had said to her earlier that morning, before she had made love with Sin. “And it does not go unnoticed how much you have devoted yourself to his well-being.”

“I am not doing it to be noticed.”

“And that therefore makes it more remarkable,” he said. He had regarded her thoughtfully for a moment. “I do not think even you fully understand the passion with which you care for my raja.”

“I am simply taking care of a man who has been gravely injured while protecting my life. It is the very least I can do to show my gratitude.”

“Gratitude is it?” he had smiled enigmatically. “Would that I would be deserving of being thanked by a beautiful woman in such gracious ways. I would be a very happy man…as my master is at present.”

She had blushed and asked him, “You have no wife?”

“My duty binds me to my raja in such a way that I fear it wouldn’t be fair for me to marry or even court a woman who might ask even the most reasonable demands of me, only to have them rebuffed because my duty to Sin comes first in all things.”

“That hardly seems fair to you. Surely Sin does not require that you be alone for all of the days of your life that you serve him. That could mean a lifetime of solitude if you plan on serving him the whole of your life.”

“Sin does not require it of me. I require it of myself. As I said, it would be unfair to bring a woman into my complex world where I must satisfy my raja’s demands above all others. Even those of a lover.”

Ariana had understood his reasoning. In a way, she lived exactly the same way. She had to serve the demands of her country above anything and everything else. Often at the expense of a lover’s needs. Almost all of her love affairs, few though they had been, had ended because she had been more devoted to her country than to the needs of her lover.

Mariah and Ariana headed back toward the temple. The weather had turned colder and while Ariana could keep herself warm in the face of it, Mariah could not. And there was only so much that huddling up against Ariana for warmth could do for her. It was best they return to the temple.

They went to her room and Mariah put together a fresh outfit, folding the clothes neatly for the trip back down the corridor to the master’s bath. Plumbed and tiled, this bath delivered hot water into a huge square tub sunk into the floor of the room. Sin had insisted she use it instead of having a cramped copper tub in her room. She had been happy to oblige him.

Mariah filled the tub with gas heated water, although Ariana could have easily heated the water for herself. She drizzled bath oil into the water until the room smelled sweetly of wildflowers. Ariana undressed and sank into the water. Mariah gathered her discarded clothes up and went to leave the room and give her some peace and privacy.

Ariana relaxed, letting the heat of the water seep into her muscles. She was just dozing when she suddenly felt a hand wrapping tightly around the loose curls of her hair. Her head was jerked back and she felt the unmistakable edge of a knife at her throat.

“If I see so much as a flicker of flame,” Mordol hissed into her face, “I will make a new hole for you to speak out of.”

Ariana remained calm.

“What do you think you can gain here?” she asked him reasonably. “I should like to know your goal.”

“Well, my first goal is to shut you up.” The knife left her throat so the fist that held it could punch her square in the face. Blood burst from her nostrils and her teeth cut the tender flesh of her upper lip. Dazed, she had to struggle to keep her head on straight. Suddenly Mordol yanked on her hair, dragging her bodily out of the tub by it. Her wet body slid across the cold tile easily. The knife was at her throat again as he came around her body and straddled her. “My next goal is supposed to be to gut you. From top,”—he dragged the knife in a straight line down her body, starting at her throat and ending at her pubis—“to bottom. But I think I’m going to take the time to sample what the raja has had. What does it feel like to fuck a girl the raja would go to such lengths to obtain? There must be something pretty special about your pussy, and I’m going to find out what that is.”

She would burn him to a crisp first. But she had to plan it carefully. She had to wait until that knife was in a less dangerous place. In the time it took her to ignite him, he might still have the opportunity to cause her some damage. Worse comes to worst, she would take the stab and hope she survived it…because there was no way she was going to let him get away with what he was planning.

“What do you mean you’re ‘supposed to’ gut me. Clearly this isn’t your idea. Whose is it?”

Mordol huffed a snort of laughter. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” He pressed the knife hard against her windpipe, cutting the skin there, making sure she knew how sharp the blade was. “But that’s not the way this is going to work.” He freed his hand from its punishing grip on her hair and went for the buttons on his fly of his breeches.

“If I’m going to die anyway why not tell me?” she asked her teeth chattering as if from cold. But she wasn't cold. She was angry. She was going to roast this pig like he was on a spit. What she wanted was information.

The challenge cost her. He punched her square in her face again and she became dizzy from the impact.

“Don’t you know I’m Jadoc? I can hear all those little thoughts rolling around in your head. You think you’re going to roast me. You think I’m that stupid.”

Ariana suddenly felt as though all of her limbs were paralyzed. Her body went numb and she lost control of all movement and could not focus her thoughts. Jadoc! She had not known he was Jadoc! He had seized her mind. Taken control of her body. If she tried to set him ablaze he would know it before she did it and would wrest control of her powers away from her. Now she was in a panic. She watched helplessly as he freed his cock from the fly of his breeches and maneuvered himself between her legs.

She tried to scream, tried to burn him, but it was no use. He had total control over her.

Then suddenly he jerked, his eyes going wide as his knife hand came up to clutch at his head. He whirled around, a garbled sound coming out of him. Ariana saw what he did.

Mordol. Mordol was looking at a perfect duplicate of himself. The new Mordol was staring at the one on top of her with a cold calm. The man on top of her began to seize, blood running out of his nose.

It was over in seconds. Mordol collapsed onto her body, his full weight hitting her and knocking the wind out of her. But now motor control had been returned to her and she shoved and kicked at his body until she was no longer beneath him and she was standing, breathing hard, staring at the remaining Mordol.

Then there was a flicker and her perception changed. Suddenly Mordol was no longer Mordol. His face was now one she was very familiar with.

“Dendri!”

“Shh,” he said shortly. “I am here to bring you home. I have been waiting for an opportunity to get close to you and let you know I am here, but none presented itself to me. Until now. I have horses waiting for us outside in the temple gardens, close to where you and Mariah were just walking. We almost overtook you there, but you turned back before we could reach you. Where is Mariah?”

“She will return shortly.”

“Dress yourself, Triumvir,” Dendri said softly, reminding her that she was nude and wet. She grabbed for a towel and rapidly dried herself. She dressed, but was left barefoot and without a cloak. She wouldn’t get very far like that. If they were going to journey back to Saren, she would need to be better prepared.

“I must go back to my rooms.”

“I will walk with you, but others will see me as Mordol.” Dendri picked up Mordol’s body and dumped it behind a large stone flower planter. It was not an adequate cover, but unless someone was looking for it the body would be missed at first glance.

Ariana washed the blood from her face with bathwater, then walked to the entrance of the bath and looked down the corridor. Right next door to the bath was Sin’s rooms. She was mere steps away from him.

She was about to embark on an escape. If she succeeded, the odds were she might never see him again. But this was the moment, the opportunity she had been waiting for! This was what she had wanted from the first moment she had been taken.

Wasn’t it?

She should want to be free. She should want to escape this place and all the chains it put around her. Only she hadn’t felt chained in a long time. It had felt as though she had voluntarily been there instead of under guard. Had she just grown complacent?

She had. That was all. She had simply grown used to her surroundings. It didn’t change the fact that she was a prisoner.

Now that she was faced with the imminent possibility of leaving Sin, she didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to leave him.

“Triumvir, we must go quickly,” Dendri urged her. “The men in the gardens might be discovered at any moment.”

“Mariah,” she said absently.

“Where would she be?”

No sooner had she said her name then the lady maid was walking down the corridor toward her. Mariah deserved to go home, she realized. She had to go if for no other reason. That, and Dendri and his men were risking their lives for her. She could not let them down.

“Mariah, remain here,” she said shortly. “We’re leaving this place.” She quickly explained who ‘Mordol’ was since Dendri had adopted his disguise once more. “Dendri, did you happen to find out who it was that sent Mordol to kill me?”

“No my lady, I did not.”

She bit her lip. Someone had sent Mordol to kill her. They had seen her as a threat. The only one who might see the woman of the raja as a threat would be someone who had something to lose should she wed him and produce heirs with him.

“Vich. It had to be Vich,” she murmured.

“How is that important now?” Dendri asked a little impatiently.

“It means he is willing to do anything to secure his place as heir. Sin must be warned.”

“You cannot warn him without giving away your escape,” Dendri counseled her. “If you take the time to show him evidence of Vich’s betrayal you risk exposure and our window of opportunity will be gone.”

“Then I must write him a letter. One that will not be found immediately…but that will be found.”

“Get the key to my room off of the body,” she instructed Dendri. She hurried out into the hall and headed for the one place she knew had pen and paper. Sin’s study. She could also leave the note in the most recent place of the ledger he was last working on. It would take a good deal of time before he would find the letter, however. Once he knew she was missing working his ledgers would be the last thing he would want to do. But he would go back to them eventually and he would find the note.

Upon reaching the study, she left Mariah and Dendri outside of the door. She knew that if they entered with her it would look suspicious. She went to the desk where she hastily scribbled a few lines about his brother’s potential betrayal, then hesitated. There was so much she wanted to say to him. She knew leaving him would be a betrayal in and of itself. She would be causing him a great deal of pain. But that could not be helped, she thought as she bit her lip. There were too many people at risk for her to blindly follow her heart.