Knight in Leather (19 page)

“Just…like
that
.” She threw her head back and tried not to run away from the explosion mounting inside her. She didn’t want to back off from the sensation, because experience showed that if she did, she’d never be able to stoke the fire back up. She couldn’t throw it away, not when she needed desperately to show Ethan what he did to her. And not when she was so badly in need of release.

He’d obviously dug deep and found a fresh fount of energy, because his hips moved faster, and if possible, his cock felt bigger.

“I’m going to fucking come,” he said.

“That explains…” She couldn’t get the words out. Her body began to twist and writhe, and she couldn’t draw in enough air to breathe much less shout.

Her sex was milking his cock as she lay shaking beneath him, and he looked down at her with an odd reverence she didn’t understand, but that she sure liked to be at the other end of.

“Fuck,” she finally managed to say, and at that point, the word seemed inadequate.

“Did I hurt you?” he whispered.

He slipped out of her, dragging his engorged cock head against her G-spot, which knocked another vulgar oath from her mouth.

“Dasha?”

His cock was slick—covered in his her fluids and his—and still so hard.

“Oh, God,” she whimpered

“
Dasha
.”

“I’m fine.” She dropped her hands from her back. The moment they hit the bed, she picked them right back up and sat up quick because there was blood under nails. “Oh, my God!”

He chuckled.

“That’s not funny! I ripped skin off your back.”

“Seems to me like a good problem to have,” Sully said from somewhere.

Ethan rolled his eyes.

Dasha covered her face, cheeks burning with shame. “Shit. I can’t believe I—”

“That you
what
? Responded to pleasure?”

“You’re never going to want to do it again.”

“That’s funny, because I was thinking the same thing.”

“Whatever, Ethan.”

He craned his neck and looked over his shoulder, but she doubted he could see his back. “I’ll heal quickly enough. Even if I scar, the reason would be an excellent one, in my opinion.”

“Don’t go around showing off, asshole,” Sully muttered. He sounded like he was closer—possibly near the kitchenette.

“Just bide your time,” Ethan said to him. “I’m sure you’ll get scratched up soon enough, if that’s what you like.”

“Tired of waiting.”

“We all have to wait. Waiting is part of the deal.” Ethan raked his thumbs over Dasha’s hips and then ridded her of her useless panties.

“How much longer?”

The question was reasonable enough, in Dasha’s opinion. For all the gang knew, Zenia would respond perfectly well to knowing she’d been rubbing elbows with supernatural thugs for half of a year.

“I don’t think she’s going to run,” Dasha mused.

Ethan scooted off the bed and grabbed his shorts off the floor. “No?”

“I mean, at least not
immediately
.”

Sully poked his head into the room and, listless as she was, Dasha had the good sense to pull the covers over her before his gaze completely fanned the room.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Just that she puts up with a lot of crazy shit in general. She might think this situation is weird, but I suspect she’d go with the flow thinking everything is all in good fun until she sees that it isn’t.”

Leaning into the doorway as Ethan passed through, Sully rubbed his chin.

As she’d suspected, Ethan’s back was a bloody ruin. She cringed as he disappeared, probably into the bathroom.

“What do you think I should do?” Sully asked.

“You’re asking the exact wrong person for counsel. You should be asking Simone or Heath.”

“Maybe, but you know her just as well.”

“Perhaps.” Dasha knew Zenia as well as anyone could know Zenia, anyway. The waitress was a bit of a mystery, and seemed to prefer she been seen that way. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to suggest you do anything that would get you in trouble with your prince.”

“If you broached the idea to him, he wouldn’t get too upset.”

“I think you overestimate how much clout I have.”

“You’ve got plenty. He’d take your suggestions to heart simply because you’re Princess Simone’s friend and she trusts you.”

“Interesting.” Dasha scooted up and put her spine against the headboard.

“So, you’ll talk to him?”

“I don’t know what I can say. I mean, I can ask Zenia if she wants to take a little field trip into the realm and see how much she freaks out, and if she does okay, maybe you could drop the mate bomb on her later.”

“You’ll talk to her today?”

“Well, now wait. I can’t just—”

“Speaking of the realm…” Ethan returned with his toothbrush in his mouth and said around it, “You might be able to go today. See if the princess is up for creating a portal. I’d really like to know what my father is thinking.”

Dasha sighed. Opening a portal was a hell of a favor to ask Simone for, but Dasha didn’t want to tell Ethan no if what he was asking was possible. She felt like taking another trip into the realm was the least she could do to help out the gang, and she might not have another chance soon as she had to return to work.

“Please?”

“Ugh, Ethan, don’t use that pleading voice on me.”

She couldn’t deal. No man had ever begged her for anything before. They just demanded and
took
.

She wrapped the sheet around herself toga-style, pushed her feet into her flip-flops, shoved her clothes into her purse, and then squeezed between the two fairies. “Fine.” She padded to the door and pulled it open. “I’ll go talk to Simone.”

Ethan caught up to her in the doorway and wrapped his arms around her waist. He gave her a little squeeze and made a grunting noise that sounded a lot like the animal version of, “Thank you, sweeting,” but that may have just been Dasha’s overactive imagination.

Her cheeks burned and lips twitched nervously at the corners as she patted his hands. “Yeah. You’re welcome.”

He gave her ass a pinch and sent her on her way.

She stumbled her way down the stairs, vision a bit hazy and heart pounding, and wondered what that exhilarating feeling was that made her want to giggle and grin.

She didn’t know what the feeling was, but she wanted more of it—she wanted to turn on her heels and head straight back to the suite.

“And to think, we could have been doing this six months ago.”

Seemed like they’d wasted a lot of time. She suspected the delay was somehow her fault.

“You’re not the lead I was supposed to run down, are you?” Ethan asked flatly.

Prince Heath’s second-in-command Thom snorted, and leaned his motorcycle against a tall pine tree.

At Prince Heath’s instruction, Ethan was in the swamp.

Again.

But so was Thom, whom Ethan hadn’t expected to see. He hadn’t seen the man in weeks.

“No. Good to see you, though,” Thom said.

“And you. Gotta ask what you’re doing here. I figured you’d still be in New Mexico fucking your mates’ brains out.”

Thom shrugged. “Gotta take a break sometimes. Besides, they both understand my allegiances are split and that I serve Prince Heath and Princess Simone as well as them. I’ll see my lovers again soon enough.”

“Why are you here?” And Ethan didn’t just mean back in North Carolina in general, but on that particular desolate stretch of highway where there was nothing but trees and swampy marshes.

Thom bounded over the ditch and waved Ethan over to his side.

Ethan hated to leave his Harley exposed to the highway, but no vehicle had passed in at least five minutes. Their bikes would probably be safe if they walked away for a few minutes.

Ethan stuffed his keys into a pants pocket and leaped over the water in the vast ditch.

Thom gestured toward the swamp. “Heath told me you’d been having some troubles with a certain mer-fairy and her brother.”

“Aye?”

“I tagged Quinton years ago. I put a trace on him because he’d been harassing Caryl and Daryn the same way Laurel’s been bugging you.”

“For similar reasons, I’m sure.”

“I’d say so. By the way, we need to carefully guard the most fertile and unusual of us during the upcoming upheaval. I’m sure you’ve already given that some thought.” Thom stopped in front of a pond of stagnant water and crouched.

“Have you been thinking what I’ve been thinking, then? Dasha asked some questions this morning that jogged my memory about how some Sídhe could leave without Rhiannon detecting them.”

Thom grunted and dipped his hand into the water. He stirred the green murk, making waves and ripples, but didn’t seem to be idly molesting it, as far as Ethan could tell. Very little that Thom did was ever for idle purposes. “So you’ve been strategizing with Dasha, have you?”

“Just pillow talk.”

“Don’t discount pillow talk. I’m certain there have been wars won from the advice dispensed during it. I’m pleased that things are coming together for you.”

“She’s amazing.”

“She’d have to be if she’s one of ours. Just don’t let your guard down or think you can go slack on courting her. She’s not a fairy. She’ll need more time to settle into the groove.”

“She seemed fine this morning.”

“Why, because you fucked her?”

Ethan grimaced.

“Thought so. Things often seem shiny and simple after a good fuck. Keep your vigilance. Watch her carefully.”

“I don’t want to stifle her, and stifling is exactly what I’m wired to do.”

“So don’t. You have plenty of people around you to take cues from. Watch Heath, or Oliver if you get the chance. Although they rarely seem to be without their mates, they have a knack for knowing when to step away. Relationships need air.”

“I understand.”

“Good. I don’t want you to mess this up.”

Ethan rolled his eyes. “What the hell are you doing with the water, anyway?”

“Summoning an old associate who might be able to help with our mer-problem.”

“But they’re taken care of. Princess Simone’s father has Quinton under lock and key, and Laurel—”

“Heath said that all they did with Laurel was evicted her from the motel. Do you have any fuckin’ idea where she is?”

“No. I assumed they sent her along with her brother.”

“They didn’t, because they needed her to be able to share what had happened to her with whoever’s been planting seeds of stupidity into her brain.”

“She’s just going to distort the story and assert that she was in the right.”

“And that’s fine. There are going to be people who believe her and people who don’t. Either way, they’ll know that Simone isn’t going to let anyone trifle with the blokes in the crew.”

“How do we get rid of Laurel?”

“Two-prong approach, I imagine. We’ll get her own people to try to call off the dogs and keep her away from Rhiannon while they’re at it, and if that doesn’t work, you could always wait for Dasha to get pissed enough to take matters into her own hands.”

“I doubt that’ll happen. She’d be more likely to walk away. She was pretty pissed last night when Laurel harassed me in the parking lot.”

“Laurel has seen you with her?”

Ethan grunted.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. That.” Ethan didn’t know what he’d do if Dasha walked away, but he couldn’t imagine his actions would be pretty. Often, when he lost control of his emotions, he’d shapeshift into some beast and destroy things. He needed to avoid that at all costs. He had no way of knowing if Dasha would be as patient with him as his mother had been with his father when he got into those raging moods.

“Perhaps she would walk away,” Thom said quietly. “She wouldn’t stay away for long, though.”

Ethan cut him a look. “What makes you think that?”

“Because she has a full-blooded fairy as a mate. I think she’d be unable to avoid the pull to you just as you are to her.”

Oh.

Ethan certainly hoped that was the case, though the theory wasn’t one he wanted to put to the test. As much as he enjoyed the sight of his wife’s backside, he didn’t want to see it walking away from him unless he was following.

“I think we’ve stirred him.” Thom shook the water off his hand and stood.

“Him?” Ethan furrowed his brow.

Thom grunted and gestured to the water. “In there.”

“Anyone I’d know?”

“I don’t believe so. I only met him twenty years ago the first time I had to track an absconder through this part of the country. We don’t keep in touch for the most part. He and Sídhe don’t get along so well. The relationship is a sore spot for him. Don’t bring it up.”

“I’ll try not to.”

Something bobbed to the surface of the middle of the small body of water. At first, Ethan thought a massive snake had emerged, but then the creature lifted its head and between a curtain of dark hair were two black-as-night eyes set in a pale face, narrowed in annoyance.

“The fuck do you want?” he asked as he swam closer, his iridescent gray tail slapping at the water.

Thom bobbed his head in greeting. “Hello, Colin.”

“You said you’d leave me alone.” The merman pulled himself up onto the bank, his tail transforming to a serviceable pair of legs in the process.

That was how Ethan could tell he was pure. The mixed ones had to work to shapeshift and the metamorphosis took them some time. He’d never met anyone like Colin.

“I told you I’d
try
not to bother you, but we require your assistance.”

“Who is
we
?” Colin fixed his dark gaze on Ethan.

“Prince Heath and the rest of the crew. Given your isolation, you may not have heard, but we defected from the realm last year. Rhiannon’s been giving us some problems.”

“I couldn’t give a shit about Rhiannon. She can’t bother me here.”

Ethan crinkled his nose at the sour smell of the swamp and muttered, “No one would want to bother you here.”

“Obviously
you
do.”

Thom grunted. “The trouble is with your cousins.”

“I have no cousins.”

“Whether you wish to claim them or not, you do, and we need your help putting them in check.”

“Why would I want to do that? I don’t give a shit about them, either.”

“You don’t give a shit about anyone, but handling this mess before the realm collapses and more of their kind end up on this side would be in your best interest.”

“The hell are you talking about?”

“The magic holding the realm together is destabilizing,” Ethan said. “The gods who we’re friendly with project it’ll implode in the next several months. Rhiannon likely knows and is keeping that information suppressed from the masses to keep the panic at bay.”

“Sounds like her.” Colin leaned back onto his forearms and, unabashedly nude, crossed his legs at the ankles. “What exactly do you want me to do?”

“We need you to go into the realm.”

Colin threw his head back and laughed. “Fuck that.”

“You’d be undetectable,” Thom said, undeterred. “Rhiannon’s counting spell only tracks fairies, and you’re not a fairy.”

“Nah, I’m the son of a forgotten god that nobody cares about until they’re drowning or there’s a drought or some such water-related nonsense.” He rolled his eyes, and said in a high, feminine voice, “Save us, Poseidon! We’re dying! Waaaah.”

“You’re a piece of fuckin’ work, you know that, right?” Ethan asked.

Colin shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Are you going to help or not?” Thom asked.

“I’m still not hearing what you’re gonna do to make the hassle worth my while.”

Thom opened his mouth, but before he could get a word out, Colin wagged a finger at him. “Nuh-uh. Don’t give me that ‘
We’ll promise to leave you alone’
line, because you used that once and obviously the promise meant nothing to you.”

“What do you want, money?” Ethan asked.

Colin dropped his chin to his chest and glared up at Ethan through thick lashes. “How much have you got? Unsurprisingly, Daddy Dearest cut me off eons ago. I’ve gotta hustle on my own.”

He didn’t look like he was doing much hustling in Ethan’s opinion, but Ethan didn’t like to judge. “I’ve got a little. How much would you need to make the so-called hassle worth your while?”

Colin shrugged and tipped his head back as if to expose his pale neck to the sun that most certainly wasn’t reaching through the trees. “I’ll have my accountant crunch the numbers and’ll get back to you.”

“Stop fucking around,” Thom barked. “You need to come back with us now. This is a limited-time opportunity, and once we leave, we aren’t coming back to fetch you.”

Colin snorted. “Well, don’t get your panties in a wad. I’m still not certain what you expect me to do.”

“I don’t care how you do the job,” Thom said. “I don’t care who you need to recruit. Pass the buck to someone else if you need to and come back to your swampy pit and put your feet or fins or whatever up. I just want results.”

“Results in…”

“You deal with your ilk. Get them square and off Ethan’s back and out of the prince and princess’s hair.”

“What, precisely, has my
ilk
done that’s gotten your dander up so?”

Ethan rolled his eyes again. “You’ve got to know they were never quite stable to start with. They always show up wherever there are Sídhe of any power whatsoever seeking partners to deepen their genetic gene pool. They’re not shy about resorting to less than ethical means to get what they want.”

“Mmm.” Colin nodded sagely. “Well, that’s because they all have scrambled eggs for brains. We can’t just mate with
anyone
, you know. Fuck around and put your dick where it doesn’t belong and you end up with a family tree full of addlebrained bastards who can hardly think well enough to get themselves to a pot before they piss. They really shouldn’t be allowed on land.” He clucked his tongue at the apparent shame of it all.

Ethan ground his teeth and was about to reach over and strangle the guy, but Thom put a hand to his chest and kept him back.

“So, which shitty little enclave of the mer-fairy family tree do I need to go harass and intimidate?”

“The O’Cuilinn bunch.”

Colin collapsed onto his back and curled his upper lip. “Ugh. Are they still spawning?”

“They’ve added a couple of twigs to the family tree in the past couple hundred years, sure.”

“Well, they’ve got no power, to speak of. Best I can remember, they’re just persistent. They’re like piranhas. They’ll swarm you and kill you over time with dozens of tiny little vicious bites.”

“What’s your price?” Ethan asked impatiently. He’d left his mate back at the motel and wanted to get back before she got any harebrained ideas about leaving for the realm before he saw her.

“Stop rushing me,” Colin whined. “A man’s got to fuckin’ think.”

Ethan twined his fingers and cracked every single knuckle twice. “Don’t delay me. I’d really like to see my mate today before she goes gallivanting through the same portal we need to toss your insufferable ass through.”

“You
wound
me.” Colin put a hand to his chest and blinked. “I swear, you Sídhe and your mates…”

“The same sour grapes as always, aye?” Thom said.

Colin held up a particularly distasteful finger and narrowed his eyes. The black of them had completely overtaken the whites, making him look even more otherworldly and ominous. “You bastards just stumble onto your matches la-di-dah and men like me wait around for
eons
for a suitable person to come along who’s not too daft.”

Thom scoffed. “You think we have things so easy?”

“Don’t you? I’m certain all of you bastards will find your mates in the next fifty years or so. Obviously, one of you already has.”

Ethan cut Thom a look—a
should we tell him?
look. The crew so far had a pretty damned high batting average. Having four of the men find their mates in less than a year defied all odds, and they didn’t doubt the reason was because they’d earned back their blessings from the patron gods who’d pulled their favor from the Sídhe centuries ago.

Prince Heath and his crew finding their matches suited the gods because they would serve them in opposition to the ones who still granted Rhiannon favor. Apparently, Rhiannon pulling the strings no longer suited all of them. They may not have been able to directly interfere with the affairs of the Sídhe, but they could send them their mates. That was never an item of contention in their rules.

“All right. I’ll do it.” Colin sat up and rubbed his palms together suspiciously.

“Oh, here we go,” Ethan muttered.

“Here are my terms. I want a hundred thousand dollars in liquid assets, preferably U.S. dollars, though I may be amenable to comparable value in Mexican pesos, I’d like an apartment in…” He narrowed his eyes and clucked his tongue some more. “Ohh, I’ve heard nice things about Miami. Beachfront, of course. A guy’s gotta get his tail wet every now and then. Also, my choice of the prince’s treasures. I’m certain he has lots of pretty baubles for me to pluck from to satisfy my price.”