Wanton Fire

by Sherri L. King

  She had heard this loathing—this disgust—in Tryton’s voice, though he’d clearly not even been aware of its presence himself. He would have hidden it away like a shameful secret had he known, Steffy sensed. Tryton prided himself on being the impartial guide, the wise one, the father. But he had shown her, willingly or not, that Shikars looked down on the humans they were sworn to save.

  It gave her no comfort, this.

  Humans were caught between the horrors of the night and the ethereal, almost godlike beings who would rather live below the surface of the Earth than to associate with them. And it had been this way for eons. Steffy was at a loss and the only way to cope with these revelations now was to doze in and out of a light sleep so that she could think things through to a conclusion that suited her. One thing was certain out of all that she had learned tonight.

  Ignorance is bliss.

  Chapter Four

  Steffy awoke slowly, drifting in and out of her hard-won sleep. She had never been one to awaken easily or quickly. Sleep was a heavy blanket that often served to cocoon her during darker times. Like now. And she was loath to give up that protection, such as it was. Reality was often a harsh place. Her heavy lids lifted, then shuttered. Lifted, shuttered…then flew open in surprise. She gasped.

  Cinder was sitting in the chair opposite her, looking at her with steady, probing eyes.

  “You’re awake.”

  “You scared the hell out of me,” she accused with a grumpy scowl.

  “I like watching you sleep. When your mouth isn’t spilling venom, your face relaxes and looks almost,” he paused and seemed to search for the word, “exotic. Ethereal. Pretty.”

  His words caused warning bells to sound in her mind and she fidgeted nervously, sitting upright in the chair that had served as her bed for the past few hours. She couldn’t meet his eyes or the heat that burned within their depths. After the night she’d spent, she wasn’t quite ready for that.

  “What time is it?”

  “It is early morning. Dawn has burned its rays across the horizon of your city, bringing the battles of the night to an end. At least in that part of the world.”

  “Tryton said you can’t go out in the sun, that most Shikars will get horrible sunburn if they do. Does that mean I’m stuck here until tonight?” The true question she wanted answered was left unspoken.

  Would she be allowed to leave this place…ever?

  “Tryton told you much of our kind.” It wasn’t phrased as a question. He sounded close to disapproving of the fact.

  “He didn’t tell me anything that would jeopardize your people, if that’s what has you looking so irritable. And besides, no one would believe me if I repeated all that I’ve learned anyway.”

  “So reassuring of you to say so. When just a few hours ago you were full of bravado and bad attitude. Are you afraid of what I might do to you, now that you know so much? Is that why you are being so cautious and reassuring now?”

  “Are you afraid that a lowly human could bring the truth of your kind into the light of our world?” she countered. “That it might make any kind of impact on your existence if one did?”

  Cinder smiled, and it lent his face a boyish quality that was so attractive to Steffy that her heart thudded in a new rhythm, making her feel light-headed and not a little antsy. But his smile vanished as quickly as it had come. Cinder, she was learning, could look either fierce and dangerous, or completely guileless and friendly. It was an odd, unsettling experience to see the animated play from one extreme to the other on his handsome face. He was a man of unplumbed depths that could be deadly…no matter the mood he was in.

  “You shouldn’t have followed me, Stefany.”

  “If I had known what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have,” she admitted.

  “So I guess the question now is…where do you go from here, eh?”

  “Will I be allowed to leave this place? Unhurt?” The words felt like lead in her mouth.

  “I don’t know what Tryton plans for you now. You know too much about us, I think, to just let you walk away.”

  “Thanks for the reassurance.”

  “Would you have me lie?”

  “No,” she allowed.

  “There is much at stake here, something far bigger than you or I. To let you go now is a risk. Everyone knows it is a risk. How can we trust you?”

  “You mean, how can you trust a human?”

  “Yes. In our experience it seems that humans are not the most faithful in keeping secrets and they can be dangerous in large numbers. You could incite a riot against us if you chose, of that I have no doubt after seeing the way the crowd in the club responded to you. You could expose us, endangering our kind—as well as yours—in the doing. You are a risk and not a small one at that.”

  “But I don’t want to be a risk, don’t you see that? I would keep the secret of the Shikars and this place forever. You have nothing to fear from me.”

  Cinder leaned forward in his chair, studying her. The air around his body seemed to shimmer, like waves of heat baking off hot asphalt in the sun, and Steffy was reminded of the power this man wielded. He could burn things, set them ablaze, simply by touching them. He could probably kill her with a touch.

  She clenched her jaw against a moan of fear. She was no coward, she reminded herself. He may be strong and he may have an elemental power that could turn her to ash if he chose to wield it, but she was smart and she was fast. If it came to it, she felt confident that she could at least outrun or outmaneuver him long enough to seek safety.

  But she prayed that it wouldn’t come to such a thing between them.

  “No matter your reassurances, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Tryton will be the one to decide your fate. But for now, I can give you the reassurance that you will not be hurt.”

  “So you’re promising me that if you have to kill me you’ll make it painless?”

  Cinder laughed suddenly and the firelight, which burned as brightly now as it ever had through the night, glinted on the mirth in his eyes.

  “Do you think that we are so ruthless as to kill you to keep you silent? No. We are not without mercy. I don’t know what your fate is to be, but I know it is not death. I wouldn’t allow it.” His eyes changed and burned into her once more.

  “You wouldn’t allow it?”

  “I see the fire of life that blazes within you. I marvel at its brightness even as I wonder at such a flame captured in a frail human form. Your light will not diminish through death at our hands. I couldn’t countenance such a waste.”

  Steffy felt some small measure of relief at those words. “Then what shall I do…for now?”

  “Would you like a bath? The paint on your face must be uncomfortable after so many hours and trials.”

  She couldn’t keep from rolling her eyes in exasperation. “Don’t Shikar women use make-up? You all seem obsessed enough to comment on mine.”

  “It is an oddity, your face paint. Make-up,” he amended, using the words as if they were alien on his tongue—and they probably were, she realized. “I’ve seen many human women,” the velvety way he said this made Steffy well aware that he’d done more than look, “and some have used Make-up, but never with so heavy a hand. Or such a flair for the dramatic.”

  She let it go. “I would like a bath, yes.”

  “Follow me then.”

  Cinder rose to his full height. Steffy had forgotten just how small he made her feel, how fragile. She hated the feeling, but gritted her teeth and joined him as he walked from the room. His legs were long and well muscled beneath the tight leather pants he wore and they ate up the distance quickly. Steffy was hard pressed not to trot in order to keep up with him, she who had long legs herself.

  It was with no small amount of surprise that Steffy found herself following Cinder to the room she had first been introduced to the previous evening. The room of iron and stone. She followed him through the door with a frown on her face. He led her through the rooms
to what she assumed was the bathroom, where a large sunken tub awaited.

  The fixtures were strangely fashioned but Cinder’s motions revealed to her their purpose. Soon enough the tub was filling with steaming water and Cinder’s eyes were burning into hers once more.

  “I’ll gather some towels for you.” His voice had grown husky.

  “Okay.” Hers was barely above a whisper.

  He was gone for no more than a brief moment. He returned with two fluffy towels and a large, masculine looking robe. He set them on the floor, next to the bathtub, and backed away with an enigmatic look on his face.

  “There’s soap for you on the rim, there. I’ll just be in the bedroom beyond the door if you need anything else.”

  Beyond the door? That gave her no comfort. In fact it made her feel more than a little threatened. Cinder retreated, his eyes never leaving hers, until he stood outside that door. Steffy came forward and firmly closed the door on his face. She shuddered with something alarmingly close to…anticipation.

  What a day this was turning out to be.

  Heaving a sigh, she went to tend to her bathwater.

  * * * * *

  Tryton had assigned her a private apartment, but Cinder wanted her in his domain. Here she would be under his power. Completely at his mercy, completely in his care. He didn’t dare think on why that idea should thrill him so.

  She was in his home. In his bathroom. Naked and in the water that filled his tub. She would be using his soap, would be covered in his scent because of it. The thought made his cock lengthen and grow heavy—heavier—in his pants. He’d been harder than a rock while watching her sleep, but he was miraculously harder now. He needed relief, and soon, or he’d end up ravishing her.

  He palmed himself through his trousers. It felt good, that pressure, even if it was from his own hand. He pressed his ear against the metal door that separated him from the object of his obsession. For once he wished that he could tolerate wood in his domain—he would have been able to hear her better through wood than through this iron. But wood had a tendency to ignite in his presence if he wasn’t careful. The only place he could fully relax was here in his home, because of the near absence of flammable substances. Thankfully, though, his sense of hearing was exceptional.

  He heard the faint splash of water as Stefany cleaned herself.

  He unfastened his pants, allowing his erection to spring free into his waiting hand. What he was about to do made him feel a tiny amount of chagrin, but the thrill—yes, even the danger—of being discovered by the woman he was fantasizing about was too much an aphrodisiac to fight against. He was shameless, even he knew it, and it felt so good to let his control slip like this. He settled back, ear to the door, and spread his legs comfortably.

  Stroking his cock from base to tip, he shuddered. He needed to take the edge off of this lust and quickly, else he might just try to join her in the bath. He smiled at the thought, a feral flash of teeth had he but known it, and imagined her reaction to such a visitation. No doubt she would scream, or swoon. His member pulsed, his blood flowed like a molten river through his veins and his smile disappeared. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so near to losing control of himself and his emotions. And she was to blame.

  When he’d first seen her running across the battlefield the night before, his heart had stopped beating for a painful moment of sheer, unadulterated panic. He’d never fought so fiercely as he did then, in order to reach her side. He’d blazed his way through three Daemons to get to her…but even so, he would have been too late to save her if not for The Traveler. He hated knowing how close she’d come to death.

  He’d wanted to shout at her for being so careless as to follow him. He’d wanted to throttle her for making him feel such a swell of fear. He’d wanted to fuck her silly for being so stupidly brave.

  He wanted to fuck her still.

  There came the sound of more water splashing in the bathtub. Cinder bit his lip against a groan and pumped his turgid length with a steadier rhythm. He stroked his hand down his chest, imagining that it was her hand doing the caressing, and arched his hips up into his hand. He trembled. His skin felt as if it were aflame with the force of his need. It very nearly was. His fire was so close to the surface, ready to unleash, ready to burn. But he kept it held in check, even as he began to gently rock his hips when his control over his arousal slipped a dangerous notch.

  It felt so good to stroke himself while thoughts and images of Stefany’s wet, slippery, nude body danced in his mind’s eye. It would feel even better if it were her wet, nude body that was doing the stroking instead of his hands. His skin tingled and burned. He bit back a cry, stroking his cock, cupping his balls as they tightened against his body in preparation for release.

  Beyond the door, Stefany sighed her pleasure over the bath. Cinder fancifully imagined that she was sighing her pleasure while straddling and riding his body. He choked back a moan. He squeezed his cock in an almost painful grip, felt the pulse of blood that filled his marble-hard flesh, and undulated his hips. One stroke. Two. Three.

  He came with a flood into his pumping hand. The added lubrication of his seed sent him flying with a greater intensity as he continued to squeeze and stroke his sex. In his mind the wetness of his release became the wetness of hers, and he was unable to hold back the moan that issued forth in the face of such an erotic vision.

  He fell back with a thud as the door opened behind him and he was left staring up, dazedly, into the face of a wetly dripping Stefany, garbed only in his robe. His cock pulsed once more in his hand at the sight, sending another hot flood of semen into his hand. One of Stefany’s eyebrows—even more beautiful to him now that they were scrubbed clean of make-up—rose cockily.

  “I think you’re the one who needs a bath now.”

  Chapter Five

  Stefany didn’t know what to think as Cinder fell back onto the floor in front of her. Didn’t know what to say. What he was doing was clear enough—listening to her bathe, masturbating to the noises she had made while doing so. It would have been a perverted thing to her…if it didn’t turn her on so much. Knowing that he was so affected by her as to spy on her like that, made her feel powerful all of a sudden. More powerful and more feminine than she’d ever felt before.

  Her tongue was tied as he stared up at her with his big, gorgeous Shikar eyes. So she fell back on flippancy, something that had served her well—and ill—over the years.

  “I think you’re the one who needs a bath now.”

  She saw the glistening white cream of his semen filling his hand; saw the impressive, nearly alarming size of the cock that had released it. It took every ounce of willpower at her disposal not to blush at the sight. His face, gentled after his release, stared up at her intently. There was a dangerous light growing in his eyes. One that sent pleasant chills up her spine. It was the look of lust. Of raw sex. Of want.

  In an effort to distance herself, both physically and mentally from that light in his eyes, she stepped over him and passed him. Too late, she realized that in doing so she’d given him a clear view up the drape of the robe she wore, a view which no doubt was the reason for his swift, audible intake of breath. Damn it. It wasn’t surprising that she’d been so careless. Her brain was a mud puddle just now. She wasn’t thinking clearly at all, and was in fact operating on autopilot.

  Steffy headed to the main room of the dwelling, turning her back on Cinder in an effort to steady her shaking nerves. It was a mistake, giving him her back. She didn’t see him move, didn’t feel him coming.

  Steffy shrieked as she was lifted from behind, turned about, then slammed forcefully up against a wall. Not brutally, for it hadn’t caused her any pain, but roughly still, all the same. Cinder pressed his length against hers, fitting his still exposed erection into the vee of her thighs with enough pressure to raise her up off the floor. His seed-covered hands gripped her upper arms tightly and his gasping breaths filled her ear as he rested his face against the top of her
head.

  Heat baked off of him in waves. Had he been any hotter he would have singed her robe off. Steffy froze in his embrace, not wanting to provoke his passions further, and waited to see what would happen next. The only sound between them was that of their harsh breathing.

  “I want you,” Cinder murmured in a deceptively gentle tone by her ear.

  “I know,” she croaked out, not knowing what else to say.

  He leaned back from her, enough to meet her gaze with his. “Would you have me?”

  “I don’t know you,” she managed.

  “Your body would know me. It wants to know me.”

  Desire pooled low in her belly at the sound, the feel, of his words. At their velveteen timbre. She trembled against him. “My mind is not so weak as my body.” Was that her voice, so husky and inviting even as it shook with nerves?

  “Is this weakness? This storm that makes us tremble, makes us strain against each other in search of a deeper closeness?” His voice was almost a whisper, his mouth moving inexorably closer to hers with every word that was uttered. “My blood is pounding. My muscles are straining. But I don’t think this is weakness. I think this is power. Power in its rawest, purest form.”

  He leaned in to kiss her, but at the last moment she moved her face away. He paused with his mouth only just brushing the down of her cheek. It burned her.

  “Call it what you will. Not an hour ago you were talking to me as if I were a child, condescending to me because I am a human, not a Shikar. Not an hour ago we spoke of what might or might not happen to me because of this very difference between us. You say I am a threat to your precious cause, to your people. And yet you want me. Well I don’t want you.” Had a bigger lie than that ever crossed her lips?