Chapter Sixteen
Having sex with Finwas like trying to take one bite of a tripe layer fudge brownie. One tiny bite would never be enough.
After we hauled ourselves off the workout mats and found our scattered clothing, Fin dissipated his wards and dragged me by the hand up the stairs, down the long hallway, and into his bedroom.
We didn’t pass a single soul on the way. Part of me feared meeting the Captain’s eye when I saw him next. No doubt he would know exactly what went on between Fin and me in the training room. I’d seen how he felt about Fin, and I didn’t want to rub it in his face. Not after we’d started to become sort of friends.
Fin didn’t wait for me to follow him, he scooped me up into his arms, marched into his room and slammed the door behind us. I wrapped my thighs around his hips and snaked my arms around his neck for balance.
With our height disparities, I would never be able to stand on my tiptoes and kiss him comfortably. Like this, with his warm skin under my hands, and his palms cupping my ass, I could lean in and take all I wanted.
He hmmmed into my mouth, letting noises free I assumed he’d kept inside during our first round of sex. I loved the vibration against my chest, and the sensual roll of lust down our bond. Nothing neat and tidy about it, or our relationship, but I didn’t mind a bit of a mess when that mess led me to over six feet of sculpted fae muscle.
Even after our romp, he still tasted like breakfast, but also salty from sweat and my body. The memory of his tongue on my clit spiked my arousal higher, ramping up his own in turn. He tossed me onto the bed and crawled between my legs.
I winced as his hips made contact with mine. Looked like we would have to take a break until my virgin body caught up with its own needs.
“Sorry,” I said. “If it will make you feel better, you can lick my pussy later and throw some healing behind it.”
He gasped and pretended to be scandalized. “Zoey Salix, what language is that for a lady.”
I snorted and poked at his chest. He rolled over to lie on the bed and snagged my hand in his own. Even though I could see the hard outline of his cock against his pants, he didn’t push me for more.
Fuck. I was falling in love with him. The thought struck me, not like lightening all at once, but in a series of flashes. From the moment he’d cornered me in the alley when we met, to his devastating smile every time I told him off for one thing or another. I quickly shoved it all into a box in my mind and forced it out of sight.
Fin couldn’t see any of it. Hell, I wasn’t ready to see any of it, let alone share these feelings with someone else.
I cleared my throat and stared up at his ornate gold inlay ceiling. “I just want to be clear—taking out the Black Mage is still our major priority. I don’t want a repeat of the last time we faced him. If you have a chance to get him, even if it means my safety, you take him the fuck out.”
Fin tensed beside me, his eyes closed, his hand tightening on mine. “Is that really want you want?”
I rolled onto my side so I could look at him. “Yes. I won’t have you resenting me, or anything you might feel for me, if you saved me over Sol or killing him. I’d rather die than live under that sort of pressure.”
His forehead bunched up, and he still didn’t look at me. It took a long moment for me to realize what saying all that meant. I would rather die than have him hate me. I would rather die than have him take these feelings away.
Well, fuck, Zoey. So much for locking down your secret emotions.
The bedroom door opened, and we both arched our necks up so we could see who walked in.
The Captain stood there in his usual black on black uniform glaring between us. “Oh good, you two are still dressed. Fin, I need a word. Now.”
The edge to his tone made me wince. He didn’t even look at me as he walked out, waiting for Fin to follow him.
Fin climbed off the bed but turned back to me. “Lay down, get some rest. I’ll come find you when he’s done with whatever he needs me for.”
I waved him away. “I’m a big girl, don’t worry. And good luck dealing with all that.”
His eyebrows tugged down, and he ran his hands through his mussed hair. I thought he would say something else, but then he shook his head and walked out, closing the door quietly behind him.
Fin’s bed was similar to the one in my room, but wider. Why did he need this much space? Unless he regularly hosted orgies with the guards, I’d never been invited to.
I scooched up to the top of the bed, shoved back the covers, and climbed under the soft sheets. The pillows smelled like him, crisp and a little spicy. I resisted the urge to shove my face into them and breathe his scent into my lungs. All I would need was for one of them to return and witness that.
I snuggled into the bedding and closed my eyes. I deserved a nap, but I wanted to practice a little with my magic before I drifted off to sleep. Since I only had the necklace with me, it meant I would just focus on the fae magic.
Half drifting, I thought about the fine cotton threads of the sheets, feeling them in my mind’s eye. Careful not to tug for fear of ripping them apart, I simply allowed them to exist and noticed the beauty of the magic within them. When Fin instructed me to find the natural sources of the world, I doubted his sheets were on the list of recommended candidates, but it gave me something to focus on that wasn’t replaying the incredible sex in my head over and over.
I drifted off to sleep thinking about Fin, and the way he released himself to me so completely. He had been for a while, and I hadn’t noticed, I was so wrapped up in my own selfish thoughts and feelings.
After so many sendings between Sol—or maybe Esteban—and me, it only took me a few seconds to realize someone had hijacked my sleep once again. But by whom?
I stared around a room with soft deep carpets that cradled my bare feet. Along the walls in beautiful jewel tones were pillows and low couches. It looked like something out of an Arabian Nights tale.
Or someone had shoved me inside a genie bottle.
“Hello?” I called into the empty room.
Why the hell bother using the magic for a sending if you didn’t intend to show up to your own party?
Thankfully, I didn’t have to subject myself to this shit anymore. I closed my eyes and focused on touching the fae magic within me.
“Wait,” a voice said from behind me.
I spun around to come face to face with Esteban. He wore the same black tuxedo he wore the night we met for the first time. His wavy black hair was coiffed and styled the exact same way.
A little at a loss for words, I just stared at him. Not because he was handsome—and he was—but because I couldn’t believe he would try to do a sending with me now. I knew his tricks. I was ready.
A knowing grin slid on to his face.
I glared at him. “What do you want? And be advised, the second I wake up I’m learning how to ward my dreams from sendings.”
He held up his hands as he stepped closer, keeping his palms showing as if he approached a wild animal. “I mean you now harm. This”—he waved around the room—“is for you. My way of apologizing for how I acted when we saw each other last.”
I had to snap my mouth closed when I realized it had fallen open. Anger scorched a path through the hazy, relaxing morning I’d been having.
“Are you apologizing for being a disgusting pig, for trying to kill me, for using my friend’s weaknesses against him, for trying to kill my other friend, or for taking over my dreams against my will?”
He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off, already launching into my next verbal attack. “Or maybe you want to apologize for the time you had your men torture me. Oh, wait, I know, what about the time you murdered my parents in cold blood and left me alive to find their dead bodies?”
He scanned my face, as if trying to find the answer to something there. “Would you have preferred I kill you, along with them?”
I took a step forward into his space. “I’d have preferred if you’d never entered my life at all. Is that still on the table? Because that’s my choice.”
A wave of power washed over me. It wasn’t his, but mine, giving my skin a subtle golden glow.
“As you can see, I’m not an innocent little girl anymore, so I’ll give you a warning. I’m coming for you. And when this is all over, my knife will be the one cutting your throat.”
As if my words didn’t faze him, he circled me, studying the workout clothes I’d fallen asleep in. “Oh, I’m very aware you are no longer the innocent girl who found your parents as a child. In fact, I can tell you lost what little scrap of innocence you had remaining to you.”
I huffed and clenched my fists along my thighs. “What I do, or don’t do, is none of your business.”
The dream world rippled around us, throwing me sideways. When I caught my bearings again, I found myself laying in a bed, still in Esteban’s Arabian Night’s fantasy, but now I’d been stripped down to my bra and underwear.
I shoved up, but a wave of power pressed me back into the mattress. Intent on controlling my breathing, focusing on my training, I let none of my inner turmoil show on my face.
“Oh, I see what’s happening here. You sucked the magic out of too many little mage girls, Esteban, and now you have to force yourself on women in their dreams?”
A growl blasted into my ear and I reeled from the sight of his face so close to mine. “Don’t speak unless you know what you are referring to. While Olivia was a fun little distraction, I am content to fulfill my mate bond one day. No fae would ever betray that.”
I tried to lift my hands from the bed, but he’d stuck them there with his magic.
“Well, last I checked you’re not fae, so how can you have a mate?”
“A fae bond can never be broken. Even if a fae dies, the mate will feel the loss keenly for the rest of his or her life.”
I let out a long sigh. “Get to the point here. I have things to do, a lot of really hot sex to have.”
He let out another long growl into my ear, pressing his body along my side. Through the tightly fitted tux, I could feel the hard length of his arousal against my thigh. Gag.
I wiggled enough to buck my shoulder into his face. He reared back and glared through his fingers.
No blood came out of his nose. Damn. Always next time.
I focused on my magic, intending to rip myself out of the dream no matter how much magical energy it cost me.
When I felt like I’d almost unraveled the sending, Esteban wrapped his fingers around my throat. His touch was proprietary, as if he owned me. As if applying pressure to subdue me would enhance that ownership.
“The rest can wait,” he said. “What I want now is the property you stole from me.”
I stared up in his eyes. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re a terrible liar, Zoey.”
I bucked away from him, trying to dislodge his grip on my neck. “Fuck you, I’m an amazing liar. Maybe with you I just don’t feel the need to put in the effort.”
He leaned in and smiled, his white teeth gleaming in the candles scattered around the room. “Oh, I promise, little one, when I see you, and finally get you into my bed, you’ll never have a problem with effort again.”
How did this creepy asshole just keep getting more and more disturbing? Was there a bad guy escalation scale I’d missed somewhere? Maybe someone should tell him he’d gone a few steps past psychotic a long time ago.
“Let’s say for a second I had something that belonged to you. What would it mean to you to get it back?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
He removed his hand, thankfully, and the weight and heat of him surrounding me subsided enough I felt more comfortable drawing a full breath.
“What do you want?” he asked,
I shrugged. “I mean, you dead, but I figure that’s probably not something you’ll offer in exchange. How about Sol? You remember her, right? Give me Sol and I’ll give you your trinket back.”
He paced beside the bed as I tested the magic holding me down. “Unfortunately, that’s not on the table, either.”
I studied him, turning my face so I could watch him better. Then it hit me. “Oh, my fucking God. You don’t have her, do you? The whole thing in the woods, all of it, you were trying to get us to hunt her down for you.”
He surged to my side and clamped his hand around my neck.
I woke with a gasp, clawing at myself to get his grip away from me. I shuddered and rolled forward to catch my breath. Fin sat next to me on the bed, his hands still clutching me from where I assumed he’d shaken me awake.
I stared up into his eyes, feeling the familiar pressure of the bond between us.
Then I threw myself into his arms and let him hold me. “Make me a promise. If it’s me or him, you kill him. Don’t hesitate. I’d rather die than be subjected to what that man has in store for me.”