Unexpected Eden (10 page)

Pain. Sharp to his shoulder. Maxis welcomed it, a secret shadow in his soul settling on a sigh as he wrapped his own spirit around Reese’s energy and forged the connection.

He pounded Reese on the shoulder, a weight he hadn’t realized he’d carried now lifted from his chest. “That leaves us one last item to cover, gentlemen.” Maxis ambled in Cutter’s direction and stopped near his kneeling slave. He fingered a lock of her hair. “You’ve enjoyed the use of her?”

Maxis didn’t need to scan Cutter’s thoughts to know how thoroughly he’d used her. Cutter had his own secrets. An impulse to force himself on women, the screams of his victims driving Cutter’s pleasure to euphoric heights—and a few unfortunate, aristocratic deaths. Luckily, Maxis had been there to lend the eager fool a hand.

Cutter’s gaze darted to the woman then to Maxis before giving a hypnotic nod.

Crouching next to the woman, Maxis tucked the strand of hair behind her ear and absently stroked her head. “She’s yours. Consider it a gift of friendship as we begin our endeavor together.”

Cutter’s moderate frame expanded. “Th-That’s more than generous of you, Maxis. You’ve clearly invested much time in her training. Are you sure?”

“What are friends for?” He returned to his throne, his steps lighter than they’d been in years. “In fact, I propose we capture, train and distribute slaves to strategic points. How best to convey our point than with a good dose of reality?”

“Not so sure you’d find common folks eager to take on slaves.” Thyrus absently petted the head of the slave at his side. “Too much risk if the malran finds out.”

“You think the good people of Asshur would turn down free labor? The population here is dwindling. Those who’ve chosen to remain, despite the less hospitable climate, have suffered from lack of available workers. What better way to indoctrinate the Myren people than demonstration in the form of slaves to ease their burden. They’ll not only prosper from the help, but they’ll fall more quickly in line with our cause.”

“A few select brothels might not hurt as well,” Cutter said, his gaze locked on his new prize at his feet.

“An excellent idea.” One Maxis wished he’d thought of himself.

He took his seat, stroked the black lacquered arm of his chair, and let the silence pulse between them. “Give it some thought.” He waved at the food. “Talk amongst yourselves and tell me what you think.”

Reese shot from his chair and paced along the farthest wall. Thyrus followed, ever the eager one for gossip, and Cutter fell in line behind him. The two men chattered with an almost cultish glaze to their eyes while Reese scowled at them from a distance.

Five minutes. He’d wait that long or until their muttered conversation died down. Still nothing from Reese, his eyes darting to the exit in one-minute increments.

“Tell me, Thyrus.” Maxis stood and joined them. “Do you have any prospects we might consider for better relationships with the ellan?”

Thyrus wiped a meaty paw across his mouth, yet managed to miss the majority of what needed attention. “I think our best focus is Angus Rallion. He and Eryx went to blows only a month ago. Eryx found him guilty of treason for standing in his place during criminal trials and stripped the geezer of his rank. Angus has grumbled ever since.”

“He’s lucky.” Cutter snatched a fresh morsel from the tray of goodies and strolled to where his slave still kneeled. “Eryx could have stripped his powers or hung him under the stamp of treason.”

Oh, this was good. Of all the emotions to work with, revenge was the easiest to manipulate. Especially when it forwarded his own. “Lucky for us he didn’t.” He shifted closer to Thyrus.

Reese kept his place at the wall, ignoring the conversation. Too much distance. Something Maxis would need to work on.

Maxis handed Thyrus a much-needed napkin and leaned a hip against the table. “How do you feel about arranging a meeting between me and this Angus fellow?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem.” Thyrus shrugged, wiped his pudgy fingers and disregarded his face altogether. “Any topic in particular?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” Maxis handed Thyrus another particularly greasy hunk of meat. May as well keep his allies well fed. “I have some information about our malran and his visits to Evad. Something a man with a grudge might find very interesting.”

Chapter 11

Eryx swiped the last beads of water from his body and tossed the towel to the floor. The damned thing was too soft for his mood. Every joint and muscle ached with fatigue. Feeding Galena energy while she anchored Lexi had stripped him to the point he shouldn’t be able to stand—but he couldn’t disengage enough for sleep. Not with Galena’s warning about the sedative rattling round and round in his head.

Tradition in our world, sure. But in her book, you’re a deceiving bastard.
The fact that she was confident she’d handled damage control via girl-to-girl talk didn’t matter. Nothing would until he talked to Lexi himself.

If she’d ever wake the fuck up.

He wrung the lingering water from his hair and a few of his knuckles cracked. Why he’d thought a shower was a better idea than hovering bedside was beyond him. Instead of clearing his head, his anxiety had jump a notch, his thoughts meandering the path of what he’d have to face if she didn’t wake up.

He snatched a pair of silk black pajama bottoms. May as well get dressed and wait it out. Maybe think positive and ask Orla to have some food ready.

A broken whimper eased beneath the bathroom door.

With a quick yank, he drew the pants up and threw the door wide.

“Get them off me!” Her eyes sealed shut, Lexi raked her nails along her neck and thrashed beneath the sheets.

He pinned her free hand to the bed and healed a slow-seeping gash on her check with a swipe of his thumb. Other welts covered her neck and jaw, limited only by the fact her other hand was too tangled in the sheets to add more damage.

The wound mended and faded as he tackled the next batch of scrapes. “Lexi, wake up.”

She writhed beneath him, her eyes still closed. “Bugs.” Her head shuttled side to side. “Fire. Hurts.”

Fine sparks of electricity snapped around them and an untamed gust of air swept the room. Whatever the cause for her slow and tedious transition, it was well and truly over now. She’d gone from an untapped Myren hull to a powder keg of energy—too much of a good thing trapped in an unprepared and unconscious body.

“I know, baby. You gotta wake up.” He wanted to be gentle. Tried to ease the grip at her wrist while he unwound the sheet from her other arm, but the fine sheen of sweat covering her made the task a challenge. “You’re on overload. Wake up. Let me help you.”

Wind whipped around him, his once drenched hair drying fast beneath its fury.

“Make. It. Stop.” She flung herself forward.

Air whooshed, and he slammed into the far wall with enough force to rattle the room. He shook his head, the edges of his vision fuzzy.

Lexi’s roar still resonated through the room, carried on a nearly constant stream of air. Even now, sitting upright in bed, she struggled to open her eyes.

Memories of his own awakening fired bright. The sluggish thoughts, the disorientation, the burn of strengthening muscles—the worst hangover of his life.

Lexi kicked at the sheets and took a fresh swipe at her now exposed arms, leaving another angry mark in the wake of her nails.

He shot forward and held her to the bed. “Lexi!” The command was strong enough to startle a corpse, but it worked. Her eyes popped open in time to let loose a ragged scream.

“Lexi, damn it.” He shook her. “Look at me”

The arch of her neck slackened enough to level her gaze with his. Tears pooled in her eyes and her lips trembled. “Help me.” Her haggard plea punched through his gut, fisted his insides, and twisted.

Repositioning so they were palm to palm, he laced their fingers tight. “Push the energy into me. Focus on my hands.”

Tremors shimmered through her. “Don’t know how.” A bead of sweat slipped down her temple and her chest heaved on a ripple of sobs.

“Bullshit.” He gripped harder and got nose-to-nose so she’d have no choice but to focus. Her blue-gray eyes darkened to stormy gray, nearly consumed by the black of her pupils. “You threw me across the damned room. Now push the energy into me. Do it. Now.”

Her body bowed and a grated wail ripped through the room.

Wind lashed against his bare back, but the barest trickle of energy eased into his palm.

Lust. He shook with it, a pure compulsion fired by the stroke of her unique power. Sunshine and rapture. Innocent sparkle and shady sin. It licked along his skin with a thousand tiny tongues for the most erotic stroke of his life.

His lips were at her jawline before he realized it, the herbal scent that clung to her filling his lungs. “That’s it.” He nuzzled her earlobe. “Give it to me.”

A fresh wave of energy answered. It shot up his arms and down his chest to cradle his balls. Praise The Great One, he was a fucking leech. He needed to keep his head. Focus on funneling the surplus of energy from her strained body. Drain her to a point she could function and think. Not coax them both into a sexual haze. Damn it if his dick wasn’t hard enough to pound nails.

Lexi moaned beneath him, the throaty sound penetrating the carnal focus of his thoughts. She’d stopped thrashing. Had softened and taken up a hedonistic rhythm with her hips. Energy flowed from her in a constant, desperate pulse, euphoria and ache rolled up in to one heady rush.

“Eryx?” One word that conveyed so much. The edge of agony in her voice was gone. Replaced with confusion, hunger, and desperation.

“It’s your energy.” He stifled a groan and eased back. He shouldn’t take advantage. Wouldn’t take advantage.

She ripped her hands out from under his and a gust of wind and translucent sparks shot through the air. Her fingers bit into his flanks and yanked him close. “More.”

Her energy cranked through him. He licked her lower lip. A trace of honeyed balm teased him. Taunting. “Be sure,” he whispered against her mouth. “Be very sure.”

She answered with hands fisted at his scalp and a quick nip. “Now.” Her hips punctuated the demand. “More.”

The two words triggered something. Freed an animalistic part of him he’d sensed, but dared not release. It shoved his conscience and reason aside to better study its prey—firm, sinuous flesh covered only by the thin stretch of a white cotton sheath, the dusky and hardened outline of her nipples straining against the fabric.

He gripped the neck of the gown, guided by the beast—and ripped.

* * * *

Cool air assailed Lexi. Her nipples hardened, heedless of the panic in her head.

Above her, Eryx tilted his head. Too shrewd. Too watchful.

She swallowed around the tightness in her throat and clung to his shoulders, his muscles a welcome anchor. She could do this. The past didn’t define her.
She
defined her. Her choices. Nothing else. “Don’t stop.” She flexed her hips, a silent encouragement, the silk of his pants a frustrating barrier for the erection sliding against her bare skin.

Eryx shifted toward his heels. Not so far she lost connection at his shoulders, but enough to lose the steady stroke of his cock between her legs. His palms skated along her upper thighs, spread wide atop his. His scrutiny wriggled beneath her skin, prodding for answers without uttering a single question.

No way was she going there. Not now. Not for a good long while. Distraction was better. And the sweet promise of his shaft buried deep.

She reached for the silk at his hips.

He batted the hand away and shook his head in a slow predatory glide. “Share your secrets when you’re ready, but never hide from me. Not in this.”

She nose-dived into dumbfounded and her heart leapt into her throat. “Eryx, I—”

“Don’t care.” He crept forward, hands at either side of her head, his dark hair falling around them. “We talked about this. You need to say no, say it. You want me, then say that too. But no evasion. No lies.”

She nodded, his heat and the solemnity of his words too powerful to do more. He was right. The least she could do was suck it up and spill what she could handle of the truth. “You scared me.”

His chin dipped in barely perceptible acknowledgement, but his eyes stayed locked to hers.

“But I still want this.”

Those sensuous lips of his curled in a wily grin. He rose tall on his knees. “Show me. Put your hands above your head and grip the pillow.”

Her heart tripped and her insides spun, but she did as he asked, her throat too dry to swallow.

Roughened fingers brushed the outside of her knees. “Say it again.” His silver eyes burned into hers, his voice spilling across her in a wicked rush of heat.

“I want this.” The admission wracked her, her voice husky and breathless.

For the first time since she’d balked, his gaze drifted down her body and a slow growl rumbled from his chest.

So exposed and vulnerable. She’d never needed touch this badly. Never craved this kind of carnal intimacy.

He splayed his palm against her belly and the muscles beneath clenched tight. “Send your energy through my hand.” The ferocity of his voice ricocheted through her. “Focus on where I touch.”

The fine hairs along her skin danced to attention, and something a step stronger than the brush of a feather leapt from her flesh to his.

He leaned forward and his breath fanned out around her breast on a low, throaty sigh. “Do you know how long I craved this?” He swirled his tongue around the turgid nipple and imitated the stroke with his finger at the other. The tips of his hair tickled at her side and his spicy scent filled her lungs. “How many nights I ached to feel your skin under my tongue?”

She urged his mouth closer to her breast, his hair fisted in her nearly barbaric grip, but he refused to budge, keeping the touch light. “Damn it. I ache.”

The bastard chuckled. Actually, chuckled. “Yeah, now you get it.” His tongue painted a naughty path along her flesh, down one tight globe and up the other. He circled the other pebbled tip and looked up beneath thick black lashes. “I’ll give you what you need, when you need it.” He flicked his tongue against the peak. “Always.”

Wet, delicious heat enfolded her nipple. Sent spasms straight to her belly and her mind to the moon. Passion weighted her eyelids, but she kept them open. Couldn’t forgo the vision at her breast—his cheeks hollowing with each pull, eyes shut as though he savored every second.

Logic and common sense ceased to exist, buried so far down it couldn’t find the light of day, much less interrupt.

She tried to form words—demands or curses. Anything to shove him past his leisurely feast and on to filling the achy void between her legs. But all that came out were husky sighs and scratchy pleas.

Hot muscle flexed beneath her hands. The pads of his chest, the ridges across his stomach, the V at his hips. With every touch, energy flowed between them, a mix of sparks and soft-spun cotton. She shoved at the offensive silk at his waist, but couldn’t reach enough to push the fabric past his hips. “Please.” She scraped her teeth along the taught line of his shoulder, salt and an almost metallic taste on her lips. “Let me feel you.”

Her nipple slipped from between his lips. He studied the rosy tip, a salacious gleam in his eyes as he looked up. The hand teasing her thighs slid higher and he licked the other neglected tip. “Like this?” Two fingers slicked through her wet folds—once, twice—then thrust deep as his mouth clamped down.

“Yes!” No. God, it wasn’t what she’d meant, but the stretch was perfect. A hint of what she craved, a spark for what promised to be explosive. She didn’t know whether to tug him away and demand he comply or press his mouth harder against her breast. “I want you inside me.”

He lifted his head with one last lap at her nipple. “Not yet.” He shifted back and pushed her knees wide, his stare so hot between her legs she thought she’d burn. “Not until I get a taste.” His touch drifted over her bare mound and he licked his lips. He lifted her hips and his breath fluttered against her thighs. “So sweet. Perfect for my mouth.”

A low, guttural moan grated from her throat, the porn-star kind she’d blush about when she remembered it later. Each decadent swipe of his tongue, the steady rhythm of his face between her legs, the brush of his hair against her thighs—she couldn’t fight it. Didn’t want to. Just gave herself over to the pleasure and laid her soul bare.

His hand flattened against her belly, stilling her hips. “Give me what I want.” He growled the demand against her slick flesh and it resonated up her torso. His fingers rocked, back and forth, demanding. “Give me a taste.” The scorching heat of his mouth bathed her clit and he suckled deep.

Climax whipped through her, swift as the shout that ripped from her lungs. Her pussy rippled around him, hips meeting each glide of his fingers. She urged him closer and widened her knees, the wicked pressure of his lips more important than air. Shame had no place here. Only touch. Emotion. Passion.

Eryx eased back.

She took her first full breath—then promptly lost it on a huff when he lifted his head.

His eyelids were heavy, dark hair accenting the harsh angles of his face, and lips glossy with her release. His fingers still thrust inside her, slow and steady, a pace that eased her from the peak but refused to let her land. “That’s honesty.” He slipped his fingers from her entrance and cleaned them with a naughty swipe of his tongue and lips. “Sweet, honey-coated honesty.”

A none-too-subtle ripple shuttled through her belly and another chunk in her emotional blockade tumbled into nothingness. How could she keep him out? Did she even want to anymore?

He rose over her. Sweat glistened on smooth muscles as he shoved the black silk past his hips. His cock bobbed, thick and ready against his abdomen, the base smooth and bare. “Still your call.” No threat, no judgment of any kind. Just a fierce strength in the line of his jaw. One that said he’d step away if she said no—even if it killed him.

“I want more.” She flung the words out before she could overthink them. Maybe she’d regret it later, but she’d face her worst fears five times over if it meant having this moment to remember.
Like once will ever be enough.
She rolled her hips, the release of moments before eradicated by the sight of him stroking his shaft. Oh, no. A lifetime wouldn’t be enough.

One hand propped beside her head, he rubbed the head of his cock through her slick heat. Slow. Teasing. His sexy, indrawn breath sounded above her. “You belong with me.”