by Bec McMaster
“Actually, I do. I told you. I’m a reckless, rakish charmer. Try not to stab me, and look like you’re enjoying yourself.” He reached up and tore the top three buttons of his shirt open.
Solveig frowned. “Enjoying my—?”
He captured her mouth in a punishing kiss, slamming her back against the tunnel wall. The taste of her mouth was so sweet and forbidden. And maybe this plan wasn’t just to avoid the guards. Maybe some part of him had caught a glimpse of his intentions, and raced ahead, thinking this idea was a bloody good one, no matter what. Capturing her beneath the thighs, he hauled her up in his arms, until he was able to wrap her hips around his.
Solveig curled a fist in his shirt and then her thoughts were laced with his. “What the hell are you doing?”
“We’re lost. We were looking for some place private—because I couldn’t keep my hands off you—and stumbled down here.”
“This is your plan?”
“Trust me.” His tongue darted against hers. Soft. Entreating. Promising all manner of pleasure if she’d just let him in. “They’re not going to think anything of this if we do it right.”
“And what does ‘do it right’ mean?”
“A little more enthusiasm, if you would.” He slid his palm up over her breast and finally won a gasp from her.
A slightly murderous gasp against his mouth, but still…. “You want enthusiasm?”
Oh, he’d known those words were dangerous.
“Convince me you can’t keep your hands off me. Kiss me.” He lashed her tongue with his. “Kiss me the way you kissed me the day of our mating ceremony. Kiss me as if you can’t get enough of me. Kiss me as if you want to rip my shirt off, and tear my trousers open, and stuff my cock inside your sweet, wet little—”
A hand slid between them, finding the steel of his erection. “Like this?” she purred, biting his lower lip.
Fuck. Marduk swallowed and drew back from her dangerous mouth. Clever little fingers tugged at his buttons, and then her hand was actually slipping inside his trousers, and he nearly died as it curled around his cock.
“I think… something…. Goddess. Yes.”
“You’re so eloquent.” He could hear her laughter in his head. But her thumb was swirling around the head of his cock, and she nibbled on his lip as if she sought to destroy him. “And so big and thick and—”
“Solveig,” he growled, thrusting into her touch.
“Convince me,” she purred in his head. “Kiss me as if you’ve thought of nothing else since out mating day. Kiss me as if you’re desperate for just one more taste. One more touch. Kiss me as if I’ve owned you from the first moment we met….”
The words ignited within him.
Because maybe there was a little bit of truth in them.
He was desperate. Desperate to have her under him. Desperate to taste the hint of passion he’d glimpsed once, before she locked that heated core of passion back within her glacial outer shell.
And he had thought of little else since their mating day.
Their mouths clashed, and he could feel her fighting for control, their tongues lancing against each other in a swift stab and parry. Her body was a battle, and the only way to conquer her—the only way to win—was to hold nothing back.
He forgot everything.
The guards.
The mission.
The plan.
Instead, he kissed her as if the world was burning and this was his last chance to taste forever. He kissed her as if he’d been poisoned and she was the antidote. And maybe, in some ways, he had been. Because the taste of her surged through his veins, bringing him back to life. His heart was tripping over itself, and the pressure in his cock left him lightheaded as she squeezed her hand, and—
“What are you doing down here?” a voice demanded.
A voice that sounded very much like a frustrated, overprotective guard.
The guards. Fuck.
They broke apart with a gasp.
Light flared. A torch.
Marduk winced and tried to shield his eyes, as Solveig set both boot heels on the ground.
“Goddess’s breath,” Marduk growled. “Where the hell did you come from?”
“How did you get down here?” the guard countered.
Marduk fumbled to stuff his eager cock back inside his trousers. He shot Solveig a hard glare. Nothing like leaving him as vulnerable as she could. “We were… uh….”
“Looking for some place private,” Solveig smoothed her own rumpled shirt back into place. She offered the guard a winsome smile. “Someone gets a little needy when he hasn’t had a taste of me for a few hours.” She looked around. “I swear we were just in the garden, were we not? Where the hell did you drag me, Marduk?”
“You shouldn’t be down here,” the guard ground out, though he shared a faint smirk with the dreki beside him.
“Sorry.” Marduk flashed him a winning smile, still tugging his belt into place. “You know how newly mated females are.”
A set of hard nails dug into his backside.
But the guard laughed.
It was one thing to be caught in a place they ought not be. Quite another to be caught with his trousers sliding down the back of his thighs.
“Go on with you,” the guard said, shaking his head. Suspicion died in his eyes. “I won’t mention it. But you ought not stray again.”
The guard would mention it all right, but it would be over a barrel of ale, with a laugh at Marduk’s current predicament. “Thanks.”
The guard gestured up the stairs behind him, and then glanced down the stairs.
Nobody had seen them down there. They might almost get away with it, unless there was some sort of tracker within the other set of guards who’d scented them.
Exhilaration burst through him. The kind that usually only showed itself when he leaped off a cliff, shifting into dreki form at the last moment. The kind that roared through his veins when he was being chased. The kind that wanted to throw Solveig over his shoulder and haul her back to their rooms, where he could set his hands on her again.
His cock ached.
“Solveig.” He stared at her lean back as she slunk up the stairs ahead of him.
“Yes?” She glanced over her shoulder at him.
“This means war.”
Her laughter floated back down the stairs. “I thought you wanted to be realistic? It worked, didn’t it?”
Yes, it had worked, but as he stomped after her, he winced. He could still feel her fingernails digging into his erection, and by the feel of it, it wasn’t going away anytime soon.
14
They’d barely returned to their rooms before the summons came. Only, it came from a different angle than the one she’d expected.
Solveig held the small note Andromeda had sent her, arching a brow at Marduk. “The queen wants to see me.”
Marduk had been through the bath, and his wet, shoulder-length hair clung sleekly to his scalp. In the wake of that kiss, it was terribly distracting. Or maybe that was the towel wrapped around his waist, because he’d clearly given up on discretion. His eyes practically gleamed with the desire to haul her into the bathing chambers and dump her in the bath.
Naked.
“The queen?” The look in his eyes banked like a hearth that still smoldered. There beneath the surface, but pushed aside in the wake of such news. “What does she want?”
“She wishes an audience.”
“Draco?”
Solveig tapped the letter against her lip. “I don’t think so. I think if the king knew we’d been caught in the tunnels where his brother is ensconced, then he’d be a little more direct.”
Grabbing a second towel, Marduk scrubbed it through his hair. “You’ll be careful.”
“The queen’s not going to attack me. She knows who I am.”
Their eyes met.
“Be careful,” he warned.
Solveig paused in front of him. Every inch of him lit with tension as if he
wasn’t entirely certain what she intended. “Always,” she promised, before tucking the edge of his towel back within itself. “Here. You’re going to lose it.”
Marduk froze.
Her knuckle brushed against the hot, sleek skin of his abdomen. Solveig looked up, and his gaze held her hostage.
Both of them grew still.
The room fell into silence. She barely dared take a breath. But she forced herself to smile as she withdrew her finger from the lip of the towel around his waist, and idly trailed her fingernail across his chiseled abdomen.
“There was a part of me that wondered if what I felt the day of our mating was a fever dream,” he breathed.
“And was it?”
His lashes grew heavy as his gaze dropped to her mouth. “No. It wasn’t. You taste like a drug. Wild, addicting, dangerous. And you feel like you’re going to ignite under my touch.”
She dug her fingernail into the hard muscle beneath his navel. “Never,” she promised.
A dangerous smile curled over his mouth, as he tossed the second towel aside. “We’ll see, Solveig. I’m not the only one who aches. I know I’m not. Because I could hear the catch in your breath, and I could feel the way your nails dug into me. You’re fighting a war on both fronts.” He leaned closer, his lips almost grazing her ear. “And you’re going to lose, because you can’t fight your own need too.”
A little flutter went through her abdomen. But she hated the idea that he saw her as such easy game. “Do you know what keeps my strength up?”
She trailed her finger lower, letting it catch in the towel again.
Amber flame turned his irises molten. “What?”
“The thought that when this mating is dissolved,” she purred, “it will break you to know that you couldn’t have me. You will dream of me forever, Marduk. Every night you will yearn. And it will ache far more than anything I feel now.” She couldn’t stop herself from stroking her finger lower, trailing her nail along the hard ridge that tented behind the towel. “That is true vengeance, Marduk. And I will have it.”
“I thought you’d forgiven me?”
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to surrender. Nor does it mean I won’t bring you to your knees.”
She broke away with a laugh, just as he reached for her.
“Oh no,” she called, over her shoulder. “I have a prior engagement with the queen. And you—” a swift glance down his body “—look like you have a meeting with your hand. Make sure you dig your nails in a little, my love. Because that’s how I’d do it.”
“War,” he growled, under his breath.
Solveig was still laughing as she slipped from the room.
Heated voices spilled from within the queen’s chambers as Solveig paused in front of the door. The guard there gave her a stern look.
Matters were afoot in the Zilittu clan.
“Perhaps you should let them know I’m here,” she suggested.
“I—"
The door slammed open and then the Zilittu warlord, Talon, collided with her. He captured her forearms in order to avoid knocking her off her feet.
“My apologies, Your Highness.” He shot a sharp look over his shoulder as if to curse someone within the room for his haste. “I wasn’t aware you were there.”
“Apology accepted,” Solveig mused as he set her free. “After all, it sounds as though you’ve already caught your share of condemnation.”
He gave her a curt nod. “Enjoy your visit with the queen.”
And then he strode past her, still bristling with anger.
Solveig watched him go. He served the same purpose for the Zilittu as the Blackfrost did for the Zini clan, and she for the Sadu. But where the Blackfrost was an enormous, almost piratical storm of barely leashed fury, Talon was ice cold. A leather thong leashed his mass of honey brown hair into a knot on the top of his head, but he was clean-shaven, whereas the Blackfrost seemed to own a permanent rasp of stubble along his jaw.
It would be interesting to see the two of them go to war.
The Blackfrost’s accolades marked him as the most dangerous dreki in the north, but Talon was fast making a name for himself as a warlord to watch. Cold, ruthless, emphatically loyal to Draco.
Maybe he’d been the one who sank that dagger within Scorpius’s chest.
Solveig glanced at the guard in amusement. “Perhaps now?”
He gave a hasty knock on the half-open door. “Your Highness, Princess Solveig of the Sadu is here to see you.”
The flurry of conversation within the room ceased abruptly.
“Send her in,” Andromeda called, and the guard swung the door wide.
It was immediately clear who’d been doing the arguing.
Viveka paced in front of the fireplace, practically spitting with rage, even as Andromeda reclined on a daybed, sipping wine with a slightly amused expression. The queen wore a mauve gown, which set off her dark skin nicely, and her fingers were bedecked with gold rings. She glittered like a dreki queen who’d been swimming in the royal vault, and a collared lynx purred by her feet.
Viveka, however, looked like her hand was itching to rest on the hilt of her knife. The princess’s golden-brown hair hung in loose tangles down her spine, and she wore a white silk shirt with ruffles down the center. Solveig glanced down at the princess’s brown leather boots. Potential enemies or not, she was going to have to find out who made them. They were gorgeous.
“Solveig,” Andromeda came to her feet and set the wine aside, a genuine smile blooming on her face. “You came.”
“Barely.” She glanced at Viveka, tempted enough to test the room. “I was almost mown down by a certain glacier in the hall.”
Viveka growled under her breath. “Please tell me that this is not the only court where certain arrogant, stubborn males cannot bend their necks even once?”
Solveig eased herself into the chair Andromeda gestured her to. “I think it’s a universal frustration among dreki females. I have a particularly stubborn prince of my own. Dare I ask?”
Viveka threw her hands up in the air. “How long do you have? Our arguments began the day I was born.”
“Or the day you came of age,” Andromeda muttered into her wine.
“What?” Viveka turned to her sister-in-law.
“Nothing.” But the queen’s eyes sparkled as she met Solveig’s gaze. “Maybe he’s not the only one being stubborn. If you didn’t argue with him all the time….”
“How else am I going to earn an ounce of independence?” Viveka threw herself into the chair opposite them, and slung one knee over the other. “If Talon had his way, I would be locked in the tower. Forever.” She rolled her eyes at Solveig. “Apparently, I am not allowed to take my morning ride with strangers in the keep. Everyone knows the Zini are bound by their ridiculous sense of honor. They’re not going to accost me in the forest, and if they did, I am perfectly capable of protecting myself. No insult intended.”
“Ah.” It was starting to make a great deal of sense now. Solveig accepted the glass of wine Andromeda poured for her. It was a servant’s task, but these were Andromeda’s rooms and to be served by her own hand was a sign of great welcome. “None taken.”
“He offered to ride with you.” Andromeda still seemed amused.
“He doesn’t ride with me.” Viveka made a small sound of frustration in her throat as she accepted the glass of wine off her queen. “He rides behind me. A good twenty paces. As is proper between warlord and princess.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “It’s not as though he taught me to bloody well wield a sword when I was a young girl. It’s like he thinks I ought to set my sword down, put a gown on, and simper at some male.”
“Maybe he likes to admire your figure from behind?” Solveig suggested politely.
Viveka spat a mouthful of wine back into her cup, and choked. “You speak as though he has a thought in his head besides honor, duty and my brother before all else.”
“I find there are other ways to bring them
to their knees. Literally.” Solveig smiled into her wine. “But that does require a little penance on your own knees first.”
Viveka spluttered, her cheeks igniting with heat. “I would never. Not with that enormous elk-headed fool.”
“Never say never. There is one certain way to make ice melt, after all.”
“Set it on fire?” Viveka asked, snapping her fingers and producing a flame.
Interesting. The Zilittu tended to be prone to wielding Air and Water. Fire was a rare gift, found in few courts. Something to file away for future reference. “Well, that’s one way to deal with a walking glacier. However, I don’t think your brother would approve if you set his warlord on fire.”
“Maybe just his bed,” Viveka muttered. “With him in it.”
“I’m starting to wonder if you’ve already succeeded in that.”
Andromeda laughed.
Viveka cut them both a glare. “You’re as bad as she is.”
The laughter set them all at ease, but Solveig had to wonder if this entire setup was deliberate, in order to win her over, particularly when she saw the look Viveka gave her queen.
“It works though?” Viveka finally asked. “To bring a prince to his knees?”
“I am currently… in the midst of such negotiations.” Solveig gave a shrug. “As I said, he’s stubborn.”
Andromeda glanced down as if the depths of her wineglass held mysteries only she could decipher. Viveka hovered a little protectively over her sister-in-law.
“But you do desire it?” Viveka met her eyes. “To bring Marduk to heel?”
Ah. So that was where this was going. Solveig silently cursed Draco for following her into the gardens that night. It was far too dangerous for a dreki to lie, so maybe there’d been some truth in his statement that Andromeda sought an end to their mating, but she wasn’t entirely certain if such a desire came from the queen’s longing to return home—or from her frustration with her mate.
Dangerous waters to tread.
Because Viveka was clearly on the side of her sister-in-law.
“I have always desired to bring Marduk to his knees.” She wrinkled her nose. “Our relationship is complicated. But frustratingly, he is the only dreki who… who gets beneath my skin.”