Sharpest Edge: Mercenaries and Magic

by Alessa Thorn

  “Put me down. I need to get my mouth on you,” she said instead, not wanting to ruin the moment with her messy heart.

  “Then you had better be okay with sixty-nining because if I don’t get my tongue in you, I might die,” he replied, lowering her back to her feet.

  Fuck. Iz was on fire as she pulled off the dress she was wearing. Her hands stilled on her bra clasp. “Only if I can be on top because I’m still unsure about having anyone on top of me. Last time it happened—”

  Silas kissed her and took her bra off at the same time. “It’s okay.”

  “Really? You don’t care?”

  He gave her an amused smile. “Oh no, how will I ever live with a gorgeous woman sitting on my face while sucking me off?”

  Iz laughed, feeling her stress melting. She ran her hands down the muscles of his chest and over his happy trail to the drawstrings of his pants. She gave them a tug, undoing them. “It might surprise you to learn that some men can’t handle not being on top and in charge.”

  “Sound like fucking idiots to me. My male ego isn’t so fragile.” Silas kissed the naked curve of her shoulder and scraped his teeth up her neck. Goosebumps raced down her body as his warm breath whispered in her ear, “And just because you’re on top doesn’t mean you’re in charge.”

  Iz slid her hands into his gray joggers and tugged them down, letting them fall to his feet. He swore softly when she wrapped a hand around his hard shaft and stroked a thumb over the wet head.

  Silas walked backward until he hit the bed and sat down, making them the same height, perfect for kissing.

  Long fingers hooked around the sides of her panties, dragging them down before they trailed back up her thighs.

  Silas squeezed her ass, pulling her closer, and pressed a trail of kisses over her soft stomach, up to her breasts. He sucked at one of her hard nipples, making her gasp when he flicked his tongue over it.

  “Fuck, I love that sound. I can’t get enough of it,” he said against her breast. He turned her around, stroked her spine before his hands rested on her hips. His thumbs pressed into the soft dints on either side of her spine. “Look at that, made just for me to hold onto.”

  Iz couldn’t stop the feeling those words gave her. It was an overwhelming pressure full of need. She wanted to feel like she was made for someone like Silas, that she could belong to someone in such a way.

  With gentle maneuvering, Silas pulled her backward and on top of him as he lay back. Her face flamed at the appreciative sound he made as he spread her.

  “Trust me, you are never going to hear me complain about you being on top ever,” he assured her.

  Iz smiled and pressed a kiss to the groove of his hip before licking it. She had wanted to do that every morning for weeks when they would meet in the kitchen for breakfast.

  Fuck, he was so hot, and at this moment, all hers to enjoy. Iz put her mouth over the tip of his cock, and he let out a groan that encouraged her to do it again.

  Silas gripped her soft thighs and buried his face into her wet heat. Iz moaned with each flick of his tongue and stroke of his fingers. She did her best to focus on giving him as much pleasure as he was giving her. He was getting impossibly harder with each deep suck, making Iz wetter. The need to have him inside of her and filling her was burning her up.

  “Silas,” she panted. “Please…”

  Silas sucked a hickey on her inner thigh. “Please, what? Tell me what you need.”

  Iz gripped his thick shaft with one hand. “This. I need this inside of me.”

  “Then get on it,” he replied, releasing her legs.

  Iz shifted forward, contemplated going reverse cowgirl, but changed her mind. She wanted to see who she was fucking, needed to watch those green eyes of his change to the darkest emerald.

  Iz climbed off him to shift around and almost lost her nerve. Fuck, he was so… She didn’t have the words to describe him, sprawled out naked and already a little sex mussed. Gorgeous didn’t do him justice. He was so big, all hard angles, and dangerous.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, sliding a hand up her arm. His thumb stroked over the line of numbers tattooed on her inner arm that covered the track mark scars. She swallowed hard, her heart too full.

  “Nothing at all,” Iz replied and climbed on top of him. She leaned down to brush her fingers through his hair before giving him a punishing kiss. “I’ve just wanted to fuck you for a really long time, Silas Edgeworth.”

  Silas trailed his big hands down her back. “Then do it, Bella. I’m all yours.”

  Iz grinned wickedly. “Dangerous words.” She shifted herself back, sliding his dick over her wetness before guiding his tip inside of her. Silas sat up, watching but not interfering with her pace.

  “Fuck, Bella, you’re so tight,” he groaned, hands fisting the sheets.

  Iz could barely breathe as she lowered herself in small thrusts, working him in bit by bit. When he was finally inside of her, Iz rested her head against his chest. She had never felt so full, so complete.

  This feeling might kill you because you’re never going to be satisfied without it. Iz pushed the thought away and nipped a line of kisses along his collarbone. Silas tilted her head up and captured her mouth.

  “You better start moving, or my heart is going to explode,” he teased against her lips.

  “I suppose I do have to be careful with you being an old man and all—” Iz yelped as Silas’s hand came down on her ass.

  “We’ll see whose stamina needs work, miss,” he growled, shifting his hips up and hitting something inside of her that made stars dance in front of her eyes.

  “Oh fuck, do that again,” she gasped. Silas’s grin went feral, and he thrust up harder and deeper.

  Iz’s nails scraped over his shoulders, finding his pace and matching it until their bodies took over. Everything became sweat-slick bodies, small gasps, and panting breaths.

  Tears burned in the back of Izabella’s eyes, emotion and yearning and fulfillment all rolling together. She had been craving Silas for years, needing this hit, needing him inside of her. She had been a shattered mess, and as he had helped rebuild her, it was like he had put his signature on every broken piece. He had always been the missing part of her, and now she was finally complete.

  “Silas…” she whispered, pressing her face into his neck, breathing in his scent and heat, tasting the salt of his sweat.

  “Fuck, Bella, you feel like heaven,” he groaned, arms coming around her, pulling her closer and deeper. She kissed him, stealing every gasp he made, wanting to keep them forever. His hand curled around the side of her neck, thumb pressing to her thrumming pulse.

  “Silas, put your hand in my hair,” she whispered.

  Silas’s breath caught at the request, knowing the trust she was offering him. Seconds later, his lean, hard fingers buried into the thick curls. The touch against her scalp lit her up from inside.

  “Grip me harder, Silas, please,” Iz begged, riding him faster. As soon as his grip on her hair tightened, she orgasmed so hard her bones shook.

  “Fucking hell, Bella,” Silas groaned, hanging onto her. He kissed her through every tremble and clench, gently rolling his hips, prolonging the intensity as she came down.

  “Thank you,” she said breathlessly, causing a soft laugh to escape him.

  “You’re welcome. You had better catch your breath because I’m nowhere near done with you,” he replied.

  Silas grabbed onto her, holding himself inside as he moved off the bed, and guided Iz onto her back. He pressed a quick kiss to her lips before standing and sliding her legs over his shoulders. He grabbed her ass, which was hanging off the edge of the bed, and grinned.

  “Damn, I could stay here all day and just look at you lying at my mercy,” he admitted.

  Iz tried to move his dick further inside of her, but he held her in place. “You better not hold out on me, Jefe, or I’ll….”

  “Or what?” Words failed her as his strong hands pulled her down on
his cock

  Iz gripped her tits as they bounced with each hard thrust. Silas’s muscles rippled and shone with sweat. His green eyes glowed, and the way he looked at her… It was such naked adoration, it made her chest hurt. He brought her closer to coming again with each deep thrust. Pleasure sparked like a fire inside of her, her pussy wet and aching so much, it hurt.

  Silas set a punishing pace until Iz spoke in tongues and finally screamed his name. He dropped her legs to his waist before pulling her clean up into his arms.

  “Kiss me, Bella,” he begged.

  Iz wrapped her arms around his neck, her mouth ravaging his as she tried to let lips and tongue and teeth convey how much she wanted and needed his intensity and strength.

  Silas groaned, holding her tight as he thrust up another two more times before coming deep and hot inside of her. He didn’t stop kissing her, his whole body shaking as he clung to her.

  Slowly, he carried her back to the bed and guided himself onto his back. Iz sprawled over his broad chest, too boneless to move. His big heart was hammering under her ear, and she didn’t want to ever move again. I want to stay right here forever.

  Silas’s fingers stroked feather-soft through her hair. “Is this okay?”

  “Yes,” she replied, swallowing down the lump in her throat. “Just don’t make me move.”

  A rumble of laughter echoed throughout the room. “Not for all the gold in Istanbul.”

  14

  Izabella woke up hours later, still lying on top of Silas. He was fast asleep and hanging onto her in a bear hug. She didn’t want to move, but her need to pee was so great, she didn’t have a choice.

  She kissed his chest softly and delighted in his warm pine and eucalyptus heat a little longer before she wriggled free.

  After a trip to the bathroom, Iz checked the time. Dinner at Athena’s wasn’t for another two hours, which gave her plenty of time to start on the broken camera they had recovered.

  Using a pair of tweezers and a small screwdriver, Iz took the camera apart. Athena’s knife had busted the lens, but thankfully, it hadn’t gone all the way through the base.

  From what she could tell, it had been running off a satellite system, not Wi-Fi, which would make it trickier to find the location where the footage was streaming back to. The small memory card inside of it could possibly be traced too. Iz opened her laptop and got to work, searching serial numbers.

  “I thought I’d find you hard at it,” Silas interrupted a while later. Iz rubbed at her eyes, trying to pull her head out of the rabbit hole she had thrown herself in.

  Silas was standing in her doorway, looking like a man who had been in a sex coma. Iz’s lady parts clenched just looking at him with his shirt off and his tousled hair.

  I made Silas Edgeworth look like that. Me. She beamed up at him.

  “I didn’t want to wake you. You looked like you needed the rest,” she teased with a wink.

  Silas’s green eyes darkened with lust. “Best sleep I’ve had in months. What are you working on?”

  “Come see.” Iz tapped the bed. He sat down behind her, stretching his long legs on either side of her, and rested his head over her shoulder.

  Iz leaned back into him, her smile widening when he nuzzled her neck. It felt so damn good, so natural, to be curled up in his lap.

  How long can you maintain it before he sees what you really are? a voice asked. It sounded way too much like her mother’s when she was high and vicious.

  Leave me be, you fucking ghost, Iz told it. She just wanted to have Silas for as long as she could and enjoy it while it lasted.

  “Okay, what am I looking at, Bella?” Silas asked, pulling her attention back to him. There was a map of the world on her screen, with small dots lighting up and disappearing.

  “I’m trying to trace where the cameras were sending footage to. Gadal, or whoever it was that was doing the surveillance, was using satellites for their signal and using something to bounce it off different towers worldwide. They were trying to cover their tracks and were doing a good job of it. This program is running through all the places it went and will hopefully give us some idea of where it is going. Even if it’s a city, not a house, it will help us narrow the search down,” she explained before changing screens. “I searched the serial number on the camera and traced it to a company in Switzerland, but…”

  “Let me guess, it doesn’t exist,” Silas replied.

  “Gold star for you.” Iz frowned. “At least with Liddell, we had Kon’s history and information to go off. Gadal is like a ghost.”

  “No one is a ghost these days. He already fucked up with the university stuff Leo found. He’s still human and will make more mistakes. We just need to keep following them.” Silas’s arms came around her. “Or he gets impatient and comes after Athena and us.”

  “Do you think she’s remembered anything from her trance in the forest?” Iz asked. She had never seen anything so spooky in her life as Athena sitting in the snow with her eyes black.

  “I’m sure she will tell us, but I hope she didn’t remember anything.”

  “Why not?” Iz stroked his forearm, trying to reassure him. “You can tell me, Silas.”

  “I’m worried about what she will find and that she will wear that weight of it inside of her forever.” Silas let out a soft sigh. “Ever since Liddell told her about her abilities, I’ve been thinking far too much. Why would anyone take a child out to a place like the dig? Originally, we thought her parents were a part of it, but they weren’t. What if the shadow man who she sees is somehow connected to the Secret Chiefs, and he was the one who took her there for a purpose—the bloody kind.”

  Iz’s stomach clenched. “What are you saying? That you think Athena killed all those people?”

  “I honestly don’t know, Bella. It’s why I’m so worried.”

  “But Kon said he had seen Liddell do that kind of carnage before in Ireland, that it was the same kind of magic.”

  “Or it could’ve been both,” Silas said, fingers drumming absently on her hip. “She was covered in blood. Literally drenched in the shit and completely mad. I thought she had to defend herself, and maybe she did. Or maybe she was set loose the same time as the madness magic.”

  “Jesus,” Iz whispered, fighting the urge to cross herself. “Have you talked to her about that theory?”

  “No, but I think she already suspects it. She was always good at fighting and killing. I only kept up her training and tried to give her options on what to do with it. She was half feral and scrawny when I found her. She didn’t talk for the first six months, but fuck, she ate like a starved dog.” Silas shook his head. “If her life was that terrible before me, I don’t want her reliving it. She is what she is, but she’s also done her best to be a good person in her way. I don’t want her thinking that she’s some kind of monster because some asshole forced her to be.”

  Iz turned her head and pressed a kiss to his neck. “You’re a good father, Silas. If Athena does remember, and it’s horrible as you suspect, she’s not going to be alone to deal with it. She will have all of us here to support her in whatever she needs. Kon won’t care about her past. Those two are connected in ways I’ve never seen. He won’t ever walk away from her or the fight.”

  “You’re right, I know. I still worry about it.”

  “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t. Do you want to go and see her earlier? It might help you feel better if you do.”

  Silas’s stroked her cheek. “You wouldn’t mind?”

  “Not at all. This program is going to take a while to run, and Athena is my best friend. Something I’m going to have to remind her of when she tries to kill me for banging her dad,” Iz replied with a smile.

  Silas’s laughter vibrated through her back. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

  “You better because I don’t plan on stopping just yet,” Iz replied, making him smile in a way that showed off his dimples and made her legs press together.

  “G
ood to know, Izabella.”

  Kon was already cooking by the time they arrived at the warehouse. He didn’t seem surprised to see them either. Iz couldn’t see Athena anywhere, and Dante and Leo were yet to arrive.

  “I’m surprised you took this long,” he said to Silas.

  Silas took the beer Kon offered him. “How is she?”

  “Quiet, but that’s not unusual when she’s thinking things through. I haven’t pushed her because I’m worried she’ll try to stab me with that tiny knife you gave her.”

  “I’ll talk to her. She on the roof or with her knives?”

  “The roof.”

  Silas managed a smile. “That’s a good sign. If she was with her knives, then I’d be worried.”

  Iz waited until he was up the stairs and out the door before she turned to Kon. “He’s already worried like hell.”

  “I know, me too,” Kon admitted, surprising Iz. “Athena looked right through me in that forest. It was like she was…empty.”

  Iz tried not to shiver. “Whatever she’s going through, we are all here to help her. Remind her of that.”

  “She knows.” Kon’s eyes went serious. “I’m not going to let her face whatever darkness comes out of her on her own. If that means killing every single one of the Secret Chiefs so she can sleep at night, then so be it.”

  Iz opened her beer and tapped it against his. “I’ll drink to that. And just imagine the magic collections they possess.”

  “Oh, I have.” Kon’s smile went wicked. “Speaking of magic, how’s your spark going?”

  Iz did the movement, causing a small flame before it vanished. “Still sparking.”

  “It’s getting there. How are things with you and Silas?”

  Iz’s lips twitched. “None of your business, Zalam.”

  “You don’t need to tell me anything. Gunfire is an aphrodisiac to the Edgeworths.” Kon’s black eyes glittered. “I know from experience.”

  “Gross, Kon. I expected this gossipy shit from Dante, but not you.”

  Kon shrugged. “Doesn’t matter where she came from. Athena is Silas’s daughter. They are creepily alike sometimes, so maybe you should listen to me when I tell you that when they really care about you, there’s no escaping it. If it’s just sex for you…”