“Mm-hmm. Were you by chance... upset Elurin was flirting with me.” When Xavier said nothing, she continued. “That’s it, isn’t it?”
“I don’t have any claim to you and absolutely no reason to deny someone else the privilege.”
“That isn’t answering my question. I asked if you were upset to see someone else flirting with me.”
Damn her for possessing acute observational skills. Xavier grunted again. “A little.”
Her lips brushed over his, laughter alight on his mouth. “Was that so difficult to admit?”
“No,” he confessed.
“Thank you.”
Was it possible she’d truly been attracted to him after all on the day she’d come into his shop hunting for the mirror? The look in her eyes was pure feminine interest, the kind of expression he’d seen time and time again upon many young ladies entranced by his wealth and physical features they considered to be exotic.
He cupped a handful of her bottom and squeezed. Undressing Rosalia for bed had been an exercise in masochism, though he’d stripped her no more than required to appreciate the soft wool blanket for a restful night of sleep. He hadn’t wanted his first appreciative glimpses of her body to be while she lay unconscious, recuperating after a harrowing escape. He wanted her to be awake, aware, and smoldering with unrestrained passion.
She kissed him again, providing all the encouragement he needed to make that moment now. With the hand molded to her warm cheek, he coaxed her leg over his hip, parting her thighs enough for an upward stroke of his fingers to find the narrow strip of cloth between them. When his thumb brushed against her, she jerked and clutched his arm with one hand.
“Xavier?”
He stilled. Had he misread her, imagined something that wasn’t there? Another glance at Rosalia’s face eased his worries when he saw her watching him hungrily. He moved his fingers in a long stroke and delighted when her dark eyes slit with pleasure and a low moan shuddered from her parted lips. “Yes?”
“What are you...? What are you doing?”
It wasn’t a literal question. He knew as much, but he couldn’t help the low chuckle that rumbled in his throat. “Do you want me to stop?”
Her fingers gripped his wrist. A moment passed before she answered with a strangled, “No. Gods, no.”
He dragged the little scrap of feminine undergarment down then returned his fingers where they belonged, gliding against her bare skin, the silken smoothness of her inner thighs, and finally the sweet spot between them. She parted for him, wet and eager, the warmth of her body his to claim with a skilled play of his fingers.
In decades of existence, he’d never had an erection throb so feverish and stiff, beckoning him to take his pleasure and join her body for shared ecstasy. He resisted, and through willpower he’d never possessed before, he ignored the mating call urging him to claim her.
Two fingers delved anew. She sighed, twisted, and raised her hips. He met her and punctuated her rhythm with a stroke of his thumb against the tender center of her, against the little button that drove her wild and reduced her to writhing against the sheets.
The moment he bunched her camisole up around her ribs, exposing the bottom of her breasts, his mouth ached for one taste of them. “Let go,” he beckoned, bowing over her and dragging the thin cotton up with his teeth to reveal plump breasts capped with tawny, reddish-brown nipples. He caressed one with his other hand and circled his thumb over its tip. It puckered in response, then he took the tightly budded peak captive between his lips.
She tugged his hair and guided him to the other breast. He repeated the favor there, tracing the sensitive tip and rasping it with the edge of his teeth, teasing until she clenched around his fingers. Her breath quickened.
When he brushed the perfect sweet spot, her hips shot up off the bed and began to ride his hand in earnest, faster and harder than before while she made the most wonderful sounds of pure feminine ecstasy.
“Let go, Rosa.” Then he kissed her one more time, as addicted to her taste as he was to the scent of her—the wild, sweet scent of smoke and desert wind enriching the smell of elvish wood and the salted sea.
When release crashed over her in the next moments, Xavier knew nothing could be more satisfying than the jubilant cry of his name from her lips.
21
FREE
XAVIER WASN’T PRESENT when she awakened in his stateroom the next morning. He’d drawn the blankets over her and crept out like a thief in the night, more covert than he gave himself credit for despite his claims of having no talent for subterfuge and stealth.
All the better perhaps. She tried to forget the satisfying moment of intimacy between them, but her mind betrayed her and drew a perfect, flawless recollection of his skilled fingers between her thighs.
Get it together, girl. More important things to handle right now. Priorities in mind, she donned her leggings and pulled on the leather shirt Xavier had removed.
There was too much distance between the two ships for her to cross over by gangplank, but the amicable elves dropped a boat and rowed her over, no qualms, no complaint, merry smiles and pleasant service.
She arrived on the Noble Sword to find there were still elves aboard the ship, an abundance of their crewmen taking over the day-to-day activities expected of sailors. Linen and clothing hung on lines stretched across the berth, and the aroma of a hearty, elvish stew greeted her when she popped into the galley. Jabari and Enrikos, sat at a table together, shoveling soup into their mouths. She joined them and ate until her belly was full to bursting.
Enrikos belched and wiped his mouth with his wrist. “Them elves sure know how to make a proper meal, don’t they?”
Rosalia sighed and dragged a piece of crusty, still warm bread against the inside of her empty bowl. “They sure do. Now, either of you up to running a little errand for me?”
“Me!” Jabari shouted, jumping up.
“I can do it,” the other said.
“You both can do it, if you want. I need you to gather everyone who isn’t in their sickbed recovering. Pull ’em down to the berth for a chat. I have great news.”
Enrikos nodded, his small face stoic. “You can count on me.”
She piled their empty bowls and deposited them into the wash basin before jogging to the berth. A couple of the thieves were already present, sprawled across cots or lying in hammocks strung between the portholes. Sergei, Pachenzo, and Luca were playing dice, the fourth player of their game an elven marine with brawny, golden brown arms covered in tattoos. The dice belonged to him obviously, as they were pale cream bone, polished smooth with elvish characters and numbers on the glossy surfaces.
Luca rose and beckoned her over. “Hey, Rosalia. Come to play a game with us?”
“Not right now. I’m calling together a meeting to relay some good news.”
Pachenzo swept the dice up from the floor and straightened. “How good is the news?”
“Positively fantastic.”
“Better than his luck then,” the elven marine said, chuckling. “I’ll take this as my cue to head out. And before you try to pocket my dice—it’s fine. Keep them.”
Pachenzo scowled at first, until he realized the elf had given him the dice. “Really?”
“I have more. Besides, you could use the luck, friend. Take them with my blessing.” He bowed then strode away, ascending through an open hatch nearby to the main deck.
“I see you boys are making friends.”
Sergei chuckled. “They’re nice people. Now, what is this news?”
“I’ll tell you soon.”
One at a time, the rest of the able-bodied entered from different corners of the ship, some of them standing with their arms crossed and others sitting on crates and boxes to wait.
“All right. I think that’s about everyone who can get out of bed. So, I spoke with the captain of the Opal Destiny, and he’s a good guy. He and my friend assure me that there’s a place for all of us in Ilyria if we want
it. The elvish Thieves Guild and Grandmaster Nemuria will be happy to have us if you can follow her rules.”
“What kind of rules?” Sergei asked.
“I don’t know. I suppose we’ll find out when we get there. Every Thieves Guild is going to have some home rules that vary, so I understand if you want to take a little while to consider it.”
Luca snorted. “As long as the basics are the same, consider me in. A few days ago, we were destined to sail toward slavery.”
“And now we have a fresh start,” Soraya said, pinning him beneath a meaningful, long-lasting gaze that made Rosalia wonder about the nature of their relationship.
Several heads nodded, raising her confidence another notch. Rosalia grinned easily. “Better than raising the black flag and sailing seas with unknown naval dangers, now isn’t it? Everyone knows pirates are out of luck when it comes to guild protection.”
When a few glances settled on Pachenzo, he scowled and kicked a crate. “I get it, damn. I’m sorry for running my mouth.”
“Water under the bridge. Now, when we arrive, I’ll speak with Grandmaster Nemuria and find out her rules. I’m sure there’s other arrangements to be made if no one wants to continue steal—”
“The fuck else would we do?” Horatio belted out, voice thundering against the wooden bulkheads. “Thieving’s in our blood.”
“Damn right it is,” another thief agreed.
“What about you, Rosalia? Will you be leading a gang of your own?” Jabari asked.
“Me?” The thought had never occurred to her, too much responsibility attached to the role of a gang leader, down to meting out discipline to errant thieves who failed to obey the rules. She’d have to collect taxes, assign jobs, and meet with the grandmaster on a regular basis.
The lives of her gang would be in her hands, up to her to deal with the city watchmen, or whatever equivalent existed in Ilyria. She shivered at the thought of holding a candid discussion with a guard to determine how much money he’d need to look the other way.
She’d have to learn elvish politics.
If there was even a minute spark of interest, the idea of learning politics dampened it—drowned it.
“No. Too much work.”
“Aww,” Jabari said.
Enrikos’s face fell. “I wanted first dibs on your gang.”
“Sorry, kids. I’ll help you find a good gang to join, but I’m not leading anyone. Hell, I don’t even know if I’m staying in Ilyria after this.”
The meeting broke apart soon after that. From the berth, she spread the news to the ailing and injured in the officers’ quarters, then took a hatch to the main deck.
“Rosalia!” Enrikos called out.
“What is it?”
His shrewd eyes studied her, too old and intelligent to be in a face so young. “You’re going back to Saudonia, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“To Enimura?”
She bit her tongue, reluctant to whisper a word of the meticulous plan she and Xavier had created. “Possibly, at some point I imagine I will.”
His solemn expression never changed. He pushed a rolled sheet of parchment into her hands. “Then you’ll need this to learn the Rat Ways if you want to move around the city safely. We’re not supposed to tell anyone who isn’t a Rat, but I trust you. I found this in the captain’s quarters and sketched out everything you need to know.”
Rosalia unrolled a map of the city, a fine depiction of it drawn by a professional hand. Over it, Enrikos had scrawled several lines and notes, revealing the many sewer lines and passages beneath the city.
Due to their knowledge of the vast underground system beneath Enimura, the Sewer Rats had been one of the only gangs to escape the hangman’s noose. Enrikos kept her captivated with his version of the events that night, describing how they escaped the city via an abandoned well in Old Enimura, the poverty-stricken district at the southwestern outskirts of the city where the watchmen never patrolled.
Years ago, when the city had undergone reconstruction, Old Enimura had been passed over, deemed unworthy of the thousands of gold spent to erect a massive wall around the rest of Enimura. Deemed unworthy of protection, of love, of safety, and anything resembling human decency. The children had all escaped the city via the sewers by crawling through an opening joined to the forgotten well, and they’d emerged in Old Enimura, the only region excluded from the purge.
Suddenly aware of a major oversight in the crown’s otherwise flawless plan, she wondered why there had been no raids in that district. Had it been the lack of gangs based in the area, or had the watch shown pity, deciding not to risk razing the battered, crumbling shacks of poor citizens unable to rub two copper ramirans together?
No. The watch had no pity, nor did the crown. She doubted it had been intentional.
Later, she’d discuss it with Xavier.
“Where did they go after escaping by the well?”
“We were going to head west to Clovera. The desert is cold at night sometimes, but we’ve all been without homes so long we know the best places to hide. Especially during the heat of day.”
“And once in Clovera?”
“Say we’re orphans, of course. We all had different stories, so we were going to stagger our arrivals. Only one of us old enough to pass as an adult is Calan, so he was going to find honest work as a boot polisher. Then adopt some of us.”
She listened to the rest of the Rats’ master plan, nodding.
By the conclusion, Enrikos was nibbling his lower lip. “Do you think they’re all safe? I got pinched because I went back to look for a friend who didn’t check in at our lair.”
“Did you find your friend?”
“No, didn’t see her.” A tearful head shake followed, moisture glistening in his brown eyes against dark lashes before spilling over freckled cheeks. A child his age should have been at home learning his numbers, reading history, and helping his mum with chores around the house instead of crawling through muck in the sewers.
But they were the Rats because they had no mums and fathers, a life on the streets preferred over the laws of an orphanage with an unforgiving governess.
“I bet she turned up just after you left.”
“I hope so.”
“And I bet the others are in Clovera right now, hoping you join them soon. I’ll visit the orphanage there personally.”
“You will?” He jumped, eyes bright and eager. He stumbled forward and threw his skinny arms around her waist, burying his face against her stomach.
What could she do but hug him in return?
XAVIER AND ELURIN had been standing on the quarterdeck of the Destiny when Rosalia emerged from below and crossed over to the other ship.
“She isn’t human,” Elurin said suddenly.
Feigning disinterest, Xavier examined his nails. “Why do you say that?”
“I can see it in her. The way she walks. Her stance. There’s magic shimmering around the core of her soul like smoldering coals.”
“Stop looking at her damn soul.”
“But it’s such a pretty thing. Like star rubies lit from behind by a candle flame.”
Xavier said nothing.
“Though, I have to say, the rest of her is also beautiful. She’ll make a breathtaking addition to the Valanyan Thieves Guild. I daresay, Nemuria would want to keep her as a leader of sorts, with that kind of unrefined power lurking inside her.”
“If you’re trying to make me jealous—”
Elurin chuckled. “Trying? You wear your heart on your sleeve. Don’t forget that I know what you’ve been after. What you’re searching for. Have you told her yet, or have you merely kept her in the dark like a clueless child?”
“I plan to tell her in time. Once this rubbish with the mirror is handled. When all is finished there, once the mirror is once again in safe hands, I’ll tell her how I feel.”
“Good.” Elurin glanced at him sidelong, a fair brow raised. “Do you truly think she can help replenis
h your race?”
Xavier watched the elves in the distance. They lowered a rope to Rosalia and pulled her to the deck of the ship. Safe. “My mother was a mage, but there wasn’t enough magic coursing through her to carry me to the end of her pregnancy. She nearly lost me twice,” he said in a quiet voice. “My father said it was the most terrifying time of his life, how he couldn’t sleep and spent his nights watching her—watching us, petrified every kick was my death or hers. She suffered so much to bring me into this world. Only for her body to give out on her anyway years later.”
Longer silence passed between them. Elurin rested a hand on Xavier’s back. When he spoke, nothing but compassion filled his voice. “In that case, I hope you find in her what you have sought all this time, friend. Gods know you’ve waited long enough to claim the one for you.”
HI, readers! I hope you enjoyed the hell out of the beginning to Rosalia’s journey. It was one hell of a ride getting here. I adore her and Xavier so much, that I put this story off multiple times until it was just right.
Fool’s Gold will be the next novel in the Daughter of Fortune series, available sometime in November!
If you loved it, please let me know.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Domino Taylor is one-half of the pen name Vivienne Savage. This is her debut as a solo author and her first complete, unassisted work.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. The Best Thief
2. An Amazing Catch
3. Royal Schemes
4. Unusual Conditions
5. Soulfire
6. Luck and Serendipity
7. Curiosity Killed the Cat Burglar
8. A Matter of Life and Death
9. Sheltered
10. Burned
11. Alone
12. Beautiful, Winged Death
13. Questions and Needs
All That Glitters: a Fantasy Romance (Daughter of Fortune Book 1) Page 18