by A. C. Arthur
“Why do you want to buy it? Are you a collector? Is that why you’ve been following me, because you somehow found out I was going to steal it?” The way one of her brows lifted as she asked that question told him she wasn’t totally sure she believed that scenario but wanted to put it out there just in case.
“Half a million,” she said when he didn’t bother to respond to her questions.
“Done.”
“Bullshit! You’ve got half a million dollars to spare but you’re creeping around the streets of Burgess and in alleyways trailing someone like me. I don’t buy it.”
That was cool, he wasn’t here for honesty—or friendship, for that matter. They weren’t on even territory—for one, she was human, and he was Drakon. That may have been the most important difference. And two, he wasn’t looking for any type of connection because they inevitably led to emotions and those could be destroyed if or when something disastrous happened.
“You need the money, I have it. Take it and do whatever it is you need to do.”
She tilted her head then. “You don’t know what I’m going to do with it? What if I want it to buy a jet and drop a bomb on the city?”
He shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. “You’re not a killer and half a million dollars isn’t going to buy you a jet and a bomb. But whatever you need it for must be serious because you risked your life to get it.”
There wasn’t a casual way to tell her that all the time she kept the dagger she was still risking her life, because she hadn’t believed the pawn shop dealer or him when they’d warned her before.
“It’s not for me,” she said and then closed her lips tightly as if she hadn’t meant to tell him that much.
Moving closer to the bed, he stopped just short of being able to sit down next to her. Instead he remained standing across from her, leaving just enough space so that she could either try and grab the dagger and lunge at him, or make a run for the door. He wasn’t sure which one she might attempt at any moment, but he wasn’t afraid that she’d succeed at either, so there was no need to box her in.
“Who’s it for? Do you owe somebody?”
Her head shot up. “I don’t owe anyone! I pay all my debts! I just don’t pay money that I shouldn’t have to pay, and I don’t care who’s asking for it.”
“You’re talking about those enforcers again. Do you remember their names?”
“It’s not important.”
“It is to me.”
She licked her lips slowly and Steele watched her wring her hands and take a deep breath. After a long sigh, she shook her head.
“I take care of the people down here. People who don’t have any other place to go and have been wronged in some way by this government. We’re safe here, when we’ve never known safety before. The money helps to buy food, clothes and supplies that will hopefully get us through the winter.”
Touched, impressed, intrigued. This woman never stopped surprising him. She wasn’t what he’d thought, and she was more than she probably understood, else why would she believe hiding was the answer.
“Why is this your job and why do you think stealing is the only way to achieve this?”
She slid off the bed and stood in front of him. Tilting her head up, she held his gaze.
“Are you giving me the half mil or not? And I want cash deposited into an account. No checks and no payment plans.”
He reached a hand down and pushed back the strands of her hair that were out of place. When his knuckles brushed over the line of her jaw his beast chuffed and pressed against him as if by doing so it, too, could touch her soft skin. He frowned because that had never happened before. Whenever he’d been with a woman he’d pleased himself and moved on, but his beast had never joined in. Thinking back over the past weeks, especially these last seven days, he realized the other part of him had been acutely aware of Ravyn, to the point where Steele thought...no, that wasn’t gonna happen.
“I’ll give you whatever you need to keep you safe. Your terms aren’t a problem,” he said over the tug of war currently taking place inside of him.
“And once you give me the money you’ll be gone? I won’t have to look over my shoulder and see you following me again?”
He opened his mouth, about to tell her yes, then closed it quickly. What if the power of the cursed dagger was what had landed her on the Reaper’s collection list in the first place? Just a while ago he’d been thinking she had two death threats against her, but now he wondered if it was still only one—the Reaper. In which case, providing a substitute soul wouldn’t help, because as long as she kept the dagger she was either under the full moon curse, or still on the Reaper’s list.
And there was still the newer issue of why he couldn’t pick up the dagger. He could have taken it and gotten out of the room before she returned, but something had stopped him. Something stronger than him or his Drakon magick.
“Is there somebody who might not like me hanging around you?” Where had that come from? He didn’t care if she was with someone, he only cared about the dagger...another push and angry scrape from the beast against the man’s skin, answered the question.
She blinked quickly before shaking her head. “What? No. No, I just don’t like being followed.”
“How do you feel about being pleasured?”
“I’m down,” she replied a lot quicker than he’d thought she would.
What the hell was he doing? This wasn’t part of the plan. He had to get that dagger away from her before the next full moon and make sure that doing so would get her off the Reaper’s list permanently.
“You sure? I don’t poach, nor do I play games. When I want something I ask for it, no strings, no tricks.”
“I don’t do this, or rather I haven’t in a long time. So yeah, if we’re doing some type of exchange, you buy the dagger and I’ll have sex with you.”
He appreciated her candor more than she could ever know. It wasn’t easy being who he was and dealing with the things he had to deal with. Straight talk always worked best for him, but in all his life, on all the realms, he’d had more than one occasion where that wasn’t what he’d received.
“It’s not an exchange. I’m buying a dagger. And we’re going to have sex. That’s it.”
She nodded. “That’s it.”
That wasn’t it. Not by a long shot.
* * *
He was beautiful naked and she must be out of her damn mind for staring at him like a hungry teenager.
Was she really going to have sex with this guy she barely even knew, after he agreed to pay her a half million dollars? Yes, she was. She’d chosen celibacy these past years because it was simpler—no men to remind her of her father or of those enforcers. She didn’t want anyone degrading or controlling her ever again. Men had a tendency to do one, if not the other. She didn’t really know Steele, but what she did know was making a huge impact—no man had ever made her feel the way he did. And for her, in this moment, that was enough.
“Come here,” he said and grabbed her waist, pulling her up to his naked body.
His dick was long and thick and pressed eagerly against the bottom of her stomach. She was not only going to have sex with him, she was going to enjoy the hell out of it.
“These have to go,” she said and reached up to snatch the sunglasses from his eyes.
Just because she didn’t know anything about this guy didn’t mean she couldn’t at least see his eyes when they got down to the real business at hand. They were closed when she removed the glasses and tossed them onto the table beside her bed. For a moment she was alarmed, thinking maybe he had prosthetics like Cree did in the one eye. But that was impossible, she was certain Steele had good vision, even something like night vision since he always seemed to show up when it was darkest outside or even in her room tonight where she still hadn’t turned on a lamp.
He opened them slowly, revealing what she thought might be root-beer colored irises, but she wasn’t totally sure. It didn’t matter, she liked them.
“And this.”
She reached around and pulled the band from his hair free, running her fingers along the soft locks with a gentleness, as if she were touching pure gold.
“This has to go,” he said, mimicking her tone.
He ripped the nightshirt off her with a few strategic tears before it fell to the floor. Her panties were next.
“I’m adding that to your bill,” she said breathlessly.
He smiled. It was quick and landed a punch to her chest with its intensity.
“Condoms,” she said before she lost the last pieces of sense she had being around him.
“I’m clean,” he answered, but looked like he wanted to say something else.
She nodded, but there was nothing he could say that would change her stance on this. “So am I. But no suit, no sex.”
When he didn’t move she leaned over to the bedside table. “Here. I’ll help you out.”
He stepped back from her and said, “Put it on.”
She shrugged, because while she hadn’t done this part often, she could certainly put a condom on a dick so long and thick that her mouth watered to taste it. Pushing that thought out of her mind, she ripped the package open, and eased the latex down his length. She smoothed her hand over it one time to assure herself of its snug fit, and a second time just because she liked the feel of him in her hands.
His hands went to her breasts, cupping both as if he were weighing them, then squeezing until she moaned. If she were thinking of something witty to say the words completely slipped her mind the second he began to move lower. His lips touched each nipple, a light teasing touch that made her want to squirm or grab the back of his head and push his face in for more. Turning to the side, he rubbed her nipples over the stubble on his jaw, and the friction was like lightning bolts of pleasure soaring through her body so fast she actually shivered. Then he was moving farther south, his tongue tracing a featherlight line down the center of her torso, dipping into her navel, and finally—blessedly—licking along the line of her juncture. If she wasn’t obsessive about shaving his tongue would have been riding along the line where hair began at her pubic area. But she was shaved clean and his gasp before running his tongue along that smooth skin was approval to her ears.
He slid his fingers between her tender folds and Ravyn wanted to scream in ecstasy from just that touch, and then, of course, the whisper of air he blew over her skin. Her knees buckled and he clasped her waist, lifting her and laying her back on the bed. From there he spread her legs wide, dipped his head and kissed her more intimately than anyone ever had before. She bent her knees, dug her toes into the mattress and gripped the back of his head because this was going to be so damn good.
His tongue was like magic, her hips moving in sync with his ministrations. Pleasure, that’s all she could think about right now. If this was the moment he chose to jump up and take that dagger, she wouldn’t have been able to stop him, not with her mind so wrapped around the way he was making her feel.
“Yes, right there. Right! There!” she yelled with abandon, lifting her hips off the bed when she thought he might actually pull his mouth away.
He didn’t and she would forever be grateful for that small favor. Instead, he slipped two fingers inside of her to work her center while his mouth tackled her clit. Yeah, he was definitely tackling it, not licking or whispering over it, but claiming and devouring like it had been put there expressly for him. Her body trembled and her eyes closed to see bright white sparks behind her lids.
“Open your eyes. I want you to see everything I do to you.”
Her eyes shot open as if to say “your wish is my command.” Although she’d never speak those words right here in this moment, Ravyn had no problem doing what she was told because what she had to look at was beyond her every dream.
Steel Eze was one fine-ass specimen. His shoulders were beautiful. There just wasn’t any other way to put that. Perfectly sculpted, big but not grotesque, muscular but not overboard. She could hold on to them for dear life if need be. And just beneath them was the start of a gorgeous chest tat that looked like it had taken at least three weeks to complete. Was it Aztec? Or maybe Polynesian? She had no clue what the tribal markings meant but that didn’t stop her from wanting to drag her tongue along every black line that had been etched into his skin.
There were some other markings along his left side, but they stretched around to his back and she couldn’t see that far at the moment.
“Hold on,” he said before he moved up to face her and lifted her legs, letting them drape over his arms before moving in closer.
She grasped the sheets, because yeah, following directions again, and then tilted her hips to meet his dick. He pushed into her with one long grunt. Ravyn sucked in a gulp of air, clenched her fingers in the sheet and settled in for the ride.
And oh what a ride it was. Steele didn’t hold back anything, thrusting into her like she owed him that half a million dollars and he was taking it out on her body. If that was the case, she was glad to make the payoff. He was thick and long and filled her completely, their skin slapping against each other creating a loud sound that echoed throughout the room. The muscles in his arms bulged as he pumped into her, and his bottom lip was tucked between his teeth. She was watching everything, just as he’d instructed her to do.
As her body hummed with pleasure, her breasts slapped against her chest and her gaze slipped down. For the next few moments she remained transfixed, watching his length slide in and then out of her. It was as erotic a scene as she’d ever glimpsed, especially when she noticed how the latex glistened with her essence. She gasped and moaned and rocked her hips against his thrusts.
“More!” he said and pulled out of her, turning her quickly so that she was now on her knees.
“Yeah, more. I definitely want more!” And she did, there was just no arguing that fact. She wanted more from the man than any other she’d ever encountered. That was both insane and scary. What was she giving up by having these moments of pleasure with him?
He pounded into her until she wanted to shout out his name, grab the sheets off her bed and maybe run around Safeside naked with how good it felt. Instead, she popped her ass back against him, milking his dick like he was trying to drain her pussy. She clenched her teeth and moaned with the pleasure, throwing a few curse words in for good measure.
When he slapped one of her ass cheeks the sting went straight to her clit and her release rippled through her body like a tornado. She did yell at that point because there was nothing else she could do. He slapped the other cheek and she almost collapsed. Then something happened, a spurt of that pleasure lit a fire inside her and the next thing she knew, she was pulling away from him, hearing the unmistakable plop of his dick easing out of her.
Before he could speak and because she really didn’t have the words for what she was about to do, Ravyn turned over on the bed and came up on her knees in front of him. She wrapped an arm around his neck and put her mouth on his at the same time that she grabbed his dick, stroking it while her tongue dueled with his.
He groaned, bringing his hands up to cup her face, holding her mouth tightly against his. This was good, but it wasn’t what Ravyn wanted. A new hunger had risen in her and she was going to feed it, now!
With another swift move she released her hold on Steele’s dick, but used her arm around his neck to pull him down until he fell onto the bed. Of course he fell face-first, but she rolled him fast and mounted him even faster, settling her center down over his dick.
“Clever girl,” he said and reached up to tweak her nipples. “Clever, strong, nasty girl.”
She’d never been called nasty before and while the connotations could be bad, she was loving the sound of th
e word in his voice. She could be nasty for him. Planting her palms on his chest she smiled down at him, feeling the drape of hair on her right side drop down to cover her face.
“I’ll show you nasty,” she said in a voice that sounded totally unfamiliar to her ears.
“Bring it on!” he challenged her. Ravyn liked that about him. Sure, he was bossy and domineering too—both traits she abhorred—but now wasn’t the time to get into that.
Now was the time to lift her hips and drop them down on him once and then twice, until his face looked so strained with pleasure she felt she should be crowned the Queen of Nasty. Circling her hips, she eased him deeper inside, loving the feel of her juices flowing down over him. Then she began pumping, moving just as fast over him as he had over her, until she was sweating and he was panting or making some sound that seemed more animalistic than she’d ever heard. His skin was hot beneath her touch as she looked down to see her blunt-tipped nails pressing into his magnificent tat.
“Keep going,” he said through gritted teeth. “Make me come, Ravyn. Make. Me. Come.”
Well, alright, another command she could get on board with. Ravyn rocked her hips in a series of fast pumps, then she came up to sit straight on him, reaching a hand behind her until she could feel his heavy sac. Moving it between her fingers, she began riding him slowly, easing up and sliding down. This time it was Steele who grabbed the sheets, pulling them until they popped up from the mattress. Ravyn kept moving, circling her hips, lifting, then sliding down, all while working his balls back and forth until her thighs began to tremble.
“Yeah,” Steele moaned. “Hell, fuckin’ yeah!”
He was coming. She could feel the jolts in his dick still buried deep inside her. She was too, her legs clamping around his, her fingers going still on his balls, the other hand clasping her breast. For what seemed like forever, they stayed like that, both sighing, breathing heavily, whispering something akin to “thank you very, very much” and keeping their eyes closed because they weren’t able to think about what else to do.