The Consumption of Magic (Tales From Verania 3)

He was posing, the bastard, and he knew what it was doing to me. My eyes might have bulged a little as he unfairly flexed his biceps. He arched his hips subtly, but enough for me to notice. It was a practiced move, one he did when he wanted me to take control.

And I wanted to. I wanted to fucking devour him. To press his face down into the mattress, his ass on display in the air, as he let me do whatever I wanted to him. He was trying to manipulate me a little bit.

And normally it would work.

But this was going to be different. We wouldn’t see each other for weeks after tonight. I needed this to be more.

So instead of pouncing on him like he so clearly wanted, I pressed my back against the closed door, propping myself up and making it clear I wasn’t going to come any closer. At least for the moment.

I didn’t miss the quick frown, but it was gone before it could settle. He knew what I was doing. Which meant we were both playing now.

First things first, though. “I talked to my parents. And the King. Morgan gave them a summoning stone before he left. I think he just hands those out freely now. The jerk.”

“Yeah?” he said. He set the book on the nightstand next to the desk, which was most likely filled with a variety of oils and toys that could be inserted in the most pleasant of places. He brought his other arm up behind his head too, clasping his hands.

That cheating bastard. He knew exactly what he was doing. Oh, he was going to get such a fucking.

“Yeah,” I said, keeping my voice even, like I wasn’t affected by the obvious display in front of me. “They send their love.”

His sharp smile softened a little. “They okay?”

“As best they can be. The King says you can’t stab Dimitri.”

His brow furrowed. “Why would I be stabbing Dimitri? Besides the obvious.”

“We might need him to find the Great White.”

“Ah. Right. Well, then. No promises.”

“Figured as much.”

“Good,” he said. “Kevin all tucked in?”

“Wing handled too and everything. I think I’m more upset than he is that he’ll lose the ability to talk to you guys for a few weeks while I’m gone.”

“You would think as someone whose destiny involved dragons that you’d be able to explain why things like that happened.”

“Eh. Plot holes of my life, I guess.”

“And Gary and Tiggy finally stopped yelling at you and Morgan and Randall?”

“Only because Tiggy dragged Gary away. But not before Gary promised to, and I quote, ‘Bring the pain all up in yo wizard asses if anything happens to my little sweetmeat.’ I’ll be honest. That kind of gave me the warm fuzzies and the creeps all at the same time.”

“Sweetmeat, huh?” Ryan said, spreading his legs a little, the fabric of his sleep pants pulling tight against the muscles in his thighs. “That’s a new one. I can see the fuzzy creeps in it.”

“I think he’s just trying to get it all out there before I leave.”

Ryan frowned at that, his body tensing more because he was uncomfortable and not because he was trying to get me to nail him against the wall. “Have you guys ever been apart this long before?”

I shook my head. “No. The longest time was when Morgan made me go into the Dark Woods to meditate for a couple of weeks. He thought it was important that I find my inner self or some other crap. That sounded super boring, so I spent five days building a fort out of pine cones and an effigy of myself out of leaves, only to have Tiggy and Gary come find me because they said they wanted to make sure I wasn’t dead, but I’m pretty sure they couldn’t survive without me. We spent the rest of the time I was supposed to be out there meditating accidentally getting captured by a rather feisty group of sprites who somehow had mistaken Gary for a divine being that needed to be sacrificed in order to ensure the health of the forest.”

“Let me guess,” he said. “Tiggy smashed them, Gary kicked them in the face, you did some weird type of magic, and then you all ran away. Oh, and one or more of the sprites wanted to have sex with you.”

I stared at him in amazement. “Have I told you that story before?”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s pretty much how all your stories about getting captured go. That and the fact that everything, and I mean everything, wants to have sex with you.”

“Oh,” I said. “Huh. That’s… strangely disappointing. I guess I need to spice things up a little, then. Maybe we could get a little funky.” I waggled my eyebrows at him.