Hers to Command (30 page)

Doral
rested his forehead against Ari’s neck. “Until you, sex has never been about soft touches of gentle regard, of pleasure, of, gods help me, love. Don’t ever ask me to hurt you, kitten. Don’t
ever
ask me to hurt you.”

Ari
and Fleur stood holding Doral for a long time as the man the outside world knew as a fearsome assassin silently came undone in their arms.

* * * * *

Fleur paced rigidly in the soft light of the library, her fists clenched at her sides. A cold rage burned inside her with an acid fury.

“
Eric, I want you to find the subject of that dossier. I will provide unlimited resources. If she is alive, I want to know where she is. If she is dead, I wish to know how she died. This is to remain between you and me, no one else. Not your lover, not your mates—no one. I ask as your life-long friend. There is no one else I trust with this. Do you understand?”

“
Completely. Do you have a timeframe?”

“
As fast as humanly possible. Eric, your information must be accurate. No surmise, no “they saids.” You will verify wherever possible with your own eyes. I want to be able to put my hands on her with certainty if she is still alive.”

“
Your Majesty.” Bowing, the young captain left. He had never, in his entire ten years of service as captain of her personal guard, seen
that
look or heard
that
tone from Fleur Constante. Whoever she was, this Dossier 347982, the queen wanted her dead.

* * * * *

At an ungodly hour early the next morning, all activity in the Blue Dagger barracks came to a silent halt. Everyone sprang to attention as their High Lord and Supreme Commander strode through. “At ease, soldiers,” Ari said repeatedly, his long limbs eating up the lengthy hallway. Only pausing to knock, he entered Captain Steffania Rickard’s private quarters. “Captain Rickard.”

“
High Lord.” The tall, slender redhead smiled in acknowledgement. “Your messenger just stumbled out.” She chuckled. “May I offer you a coffee,
or something stronger?”

Ari
smiled. “No, but thank you, Steffania. I want to get this distasteful business done with.” He stood silently for a moment before continuing. “I imagine you are eager to be rid of your unwanted ‘guest’.”

“
Hmm. She is a cold piece of work, that one and not lacking cleverness. It has required a certain expenditure of energy and skill this past month to keep her—contained. I won’t be sorry to see the last of her.”

“
Yes, I read your reports. There is no doubt about her talents.” Ari smiled grimly. “I received the confirmation of cooperation I have been waiting for from the
Oshtesh
. They initiated the requested contacts and now await our ‘guest’. You will escort the woman to the village of
Sh’r Un Kree
and remand her over to
Primus
G’hed. Give him these.” Ari handed her a leather sleeve of documents. “There, your responsibility for her will end.”

Ari
paused and continued in a different voice. “I am very grateful for your discrete, competent handling of this, Captain. I can’t think of anyone else who could manage it.”

“
Thank you, High Lord. We are very good at keeping our mouths shut around here. And the men asked me to thank you for the generous grants of property and income. Sir…” The captain paused, diffident.

“
Ask your question, Captain.”

“
I don’t mean to pry and you certainly don’t owe me an answer, but she is one of your own people. What did she do to earn such a terrible reprisal from you?”

Ari
voice dropped to a low murmur filled with cold finality. “She cruelly damaged someone I love. She will pay.”

* * * * *

Doral worked steadily on the report Ari wanted delivered to Ardain and Lockwood. The courier-riders hadn’t returned yet, but there was still data he could organize. He didn’t want to think about his meltdown of last evening. Perhaps if he threw himself into this task with single-minded tenacity, he could eradicate the sick feeling of worthlessness eating at his gut.

Ari
walked into the library quietly. “Take a break and come with me.”

Doral
stilled. A cold nausea saturated his body. He couldn’t look at Ari, afraid he would see disgust, rejection, a repudiation of the trust and care Ari had professed to feel.

Ari
stretched out his hand and briefly cupped his jaw. “Come.”

This was not to be rejection.
His relief left him lightheaded. Doral stood and followed Ari into the royal apartments.

Silently,
Ari positioned him next to the great bed and pushed on his chest until he was sitting. Without saying a word, Ari stripped him nude then divested himself of all clothing and stood gazing at Doral with an enigmatic smile—and a rock hard cock.

“
Lie back,” Ari said then lay next to him. Ari began at the heavy welting of scars surrounding his neck. Ari covered them with soft kisses and caresses of a gentle tongue, gentle fingers, gentle lips. As Ari silently worked a lingering, sensual path down his slowly relaxing body, Doral realized not a single scar, no matter how infinitesimal, was escaping Ari’s tender assault.

“
Ari?”

“
I want to replace your memory of the pain they inflicted with a more pleasant one. You will lie here and allow it.”

“This isn’t necessary.”

“Shut up, Doral.”

He
had never had such a tender lover as Ari proved that morning. When Ari had driven him into a state of mindless ecstasy with his light touches and soft kisses over every blessed inch of his body, Ari finished him with the most wicked mouth he had ever experienced. Euphoric pleasure suffused him. Every single hair on his body throbbed with gratification. It took all of his considerable discipline to crack his eyelids open.

Ari
gazed down on him with a look of consideration. “Have you ever gained pleasure from being taken by a man?” Ari’s soft touch between the cheeks of his tight buttocks made his meaning clear. “Has it always been only pain?”

Doral
swallowed heavily around the frozen rock lodged in his throat. “You,” he croaked,
damn-it-all
, then began again. “Always pleasure with you.” Doral hated the cracked whisper that was all he could manage.

A flicker of satisfaction crossed
Ari’s face. “Good to hear. It is difficult for you, even with me. I noticed that first afternoon Fleur asked
me
to take
you
.”

Ahhh, fuck!
He forced himself to relax. This was Ari. He deserved an honest answer. “Sometimes, the past can intrude. I prefer to top. It doesn’t matter. Use me. Truly, there is nothing you can do to me I can’t handle.”

Ari
nodded. His thumb gently smoothed the wrinkles pleating Doral’s brow. A faint smile flickered on Ari’s face, and then disappeared.

“
That’s not how it works with lovers.” Ari held Doral’s gaze steadily. “You don’t get to make that call. You don’t get to
handle anything
.”

“
Ari, I need
to be the perfect lover.” Doral steeled himself to hold Ari’s eyes. “Other than killing people, it is the only thing I can offer.”

Anger flared
on Ari’s face. “You
are
perfect, as you are.” Ari shoved him flat onto his back and covered him, holding Doral’s wrists outstretched in a savage hold. Ari’s eyes stared into his from inches away. “I am going to convince you if it takes the next twenty years,” he snarled.

For the first time in his life,
Doral didn’t think he could get it up, much less have an orgasm, but Ari proceeded to demonstrate how he had earned his reputation as an inventive and unparalleled lover.

Doral’s
body arched upward seeking some relief from the sexual arousal that Ari raised to unbearable heights. “Ari,” he panted. “I can’t take much more.”

“Oh, you can hang on a little longer, lover.”
Ari had commanded him to lie still while he stroked him from head to toe with slow, feathering touches, sometimes using his hand, sometimes using a soft fur. Gods knew he tried. After the first hour, he had become so sensitized, so on edge, Doral knew just one hard stroke of his cock would do it for him. Then that hour had become two.

“Godsbedamned, Ari! Finish me.”
Doral’s hips spiraled in the air as he chased after Ari’s fingers, trying to bring them in contact with the steely member between his legs that had taken on a life of its own.

“Hmm. Soon. But only if you are still.”

Doral hissed, but relaxed for the hundredth time, trying to ignore the molten plasma that coursed through his groin, balls and dick.

Ari’s hand ran up his inner thigh, tracking a straight path to his cock
, then changed direction and circled his hip. Ari laughed at his soft grunt of, “Godsbedamned tease.”

Ari moved between his legs and carefully lay down on him
, putting his rigid cock alongside Doral’s.

“The slightest move and I am gone, Ari.”

“Then let’s go together.” Holding Doral’s wrists stretched above his head, meeting his eyes in a steady gaze, Ari ground his cock against him. “I’m coming, Doral.” Ari shuddered heavily and sent both of them over. When they stopped gasping for air, Ari released his wrists and rolled to the side. After the heat of Ari’s body, his abdomen felt cool and slick.

Ari lay on his back
with his eyes closed. After a time he spoke. “Doral, do you remember telling me that every time I went into battle, every time I risked death, you were afraid you would lose me? Afraid that your blade would not be quick enough to deflect my attacker, afraid your deadly aim would be off?”

“
Yes. You have a death wish.”

Warm
amusement filled Ari’s voice. “No, I am very fond of living. I could ‘defy death’ because I had unshakeable faith in the man at my side. I had, and still have, the unalterable conviction that if there is a way to cheat death, you will find it.” Ari rolled back to his side and opened his eyes.

“Doral, I could not
accomplish half of what I do, did I not know you guard my back.” A slow smile covered Ari’s face. “Verdantia has linked us in a
Tetriarch,
and I will never let you go. I love you far too much.” Ari rolled to his stomach and within several minutes was asleep.

Doral’s
fractured, parched psyche absorbed Ari’s words in astonished silence.

The sun had set and the lamps on the walls glowed a soft gold before he dr
agged his impossibly satiated body down the hallway to finish his report. If he was lacking the same tenacious, single-minded dedication of earlier that day, he was also lacking the icy, piercing shards of lonely worthlessness. A nascent, intensely fragile, inner warmth bloomed somewhere in the region of his heart. A tiny smile flickered across his mouth. He rubbed at the bruises around his wrists.
I don’t think it will take him twenty years to convince me, though I rather enjoy his methods of persuasion.

* * * * *

“Well?” Fleur’s gentle query pulled Ari from drowsy lethargy. He rolled toward her and opened his eyes. The huge bed dipped slightly as she sat and softly stroked her fingers through his hair.

“
I did as you requested. You were right, my love. Ask him and he can offer nothing but his body, his damned genetics.”

“
Ari, it hurts my soul to think he was so abused. Have you seen how people shrink away? Integrity and honor shine from him. Only the worst sort of monster…” She could not continue.

“
He said there was nothing we could do to him he couldn’t handle,” Ari said thickly. “Nothing he could not
handle
,” he wrenched out. “I am very, very angry. He should expect more.” Ari caught Fleur’s eyes. “Never again.”

Fleur nodded.
“No. Never.”

* * * * *

A full eight days elapsed before the first of the courier riders entered the High Enclave courtyard with his report. His arrival heralded an influx of riders and reports. They returned very heartening news. Of the thirty-two sigil towers, twenty-seven projected an energy wall sufficient to protect their city-states.

Ari recalled the Verdantian cavalry units in the field along with the units of LFP gr
ound marines felt to be loyal. Daily, battalions of returning horsemen and ground troops flowed through the newly constructed shield-gates and past the golden stone archways into Sylvan Mintoth. The city teemed with an activity and bustle unseen in over three years.