by Calista Fox
What irritated him, however, was the fact he feared he’d never be able to keep her safe. It wasn’t a concern that had cropped up with her admission she’d been sworn in as a slayer, but one that had manifested itself deep within him from that day he’d found her weeping on the riverbank. She’d been alone and vulnerable to pain for a long time. Then the fire wraith had injured her twice, nearly killing her once, and Darien was not so arrogant that he didn’t blame himself for not shielding her from danger.
This nagging thought had him hacking away at other trees until the sun rose. Having stacked several more cords, he finally felt his tension had eased enough for him to be civil. He returned to the castle.
Entering his study, he tossed his leather coat on the sofa and sank into the large chair behind his desk. He needed a shower and something to eat, but when Sheena joined him, he knew he’d get no reprieve from the disaster he’d returned to—and the inevitable outcome.
She placed a pile of papers before him, but held a large, opened envelope in one hand. Instinctively, he deduced what was inside.
“Jade’s paperwork for the slayer’s registrar?” he ventured.
Sheena looked taken aback. “How did you know?”
“I already spoke with her.” He held his hand out and she gave him the packet.
His assistant took the chair on the opposite side of his desk. “My Lord,” she said, maintaining a professional tone, though he didn’t miss the concern lacing it. “You won’t sign those documents, will you?”
He let out a long breath and shoved a hand through his hair, which was damp from sweat and snow. “I will.”
Sheena shot to her feet. “How can you say that?”
Darien eyed her speculatively, but she didn’t back down. Or sit. Apparently, she was too fueled by her own emotions to remain objective.
“She’ll get herself killed,” Sheena admonished.
“She might.” It wasn’t the first time he’d considered the possibility.
“And you’ll stand by and do nothing to stop her?”
He set aside the envelope and said, “I’ve never blocked the recording of a slayer’s oath. It’s their choice to take the post. Not many humans possess the necessary traits, expertise or will to rise to the occasion, so I’ve never been concerned with an exorbitant amount of slayers on the continent.”
They served their purpose well, after all.
“There have always been two of them in Ryleigh,” he continued. “The village was down to one with Walker’s condition. I would have cataloged any new slayer they took on. They work with Morgan and me, and I believe their presence helps to promote a measure of assurance that those under my rule won’t revolt and massacre the villagers.”
“But we’re not talking about just anyone coming forward to assume the injured slayer’s position. We’re talking about Jade.”
He speared Sheena with a hard stare. “Don’t you think I’ve considered that? I’ve just spent the better part of an evening and the morning taking out my anger on several trees so I didn’t do anything foolish in the village. I’m mad as hell but…” He let out a harsh breath. “She’s not normal. In a lot of ways. And perhaps it’s time I fully accept that.”
Sheena collapsed into the chair with a dire expression on her face. “In order to become a slayer, my Lord, she has to know how to kill demons.”
He nodded. “She’s learning.”
The vampire appeared stricken. “But we’re demons!”
Darien sat forward, clasping his hands and resting them on top of his desk. “Isn’t this an interesting twist of fate?” he mused.
She imitated his pose. “From what I know of Jade, she’s spent most of her life living in fear of us because of the wars and because of what happened to her parents. But she let us help her. She let us into her life.”
“And you’re afraid she’s going to consider you the enemy now that she’s a slayer?”
Sheena’s gaze dropped.
Darien continued. “You haven’t been to see her since you received the paperwork for the registry, have you?”
“No,” she said in a quiet voice he’d never heard from her. “I thought we were friends. But how can we be, really?”
Jade’s parting shot from last night echoed in his head.
This is why we could never be married!
He mulled over the comment for a few minutes, but another thought came into play as he did.
“Perhaps she was meant to be more than a slayer. She wants to protect her neighbors, but she’s also challenged me on occasion to help broaden their horizons. Make life for the humans more comfortable and less ‘dark ages’. She advocates for justice and she understands politics on both sides of the border. In fact, she’s more…ambassador…than slayer. Although I wouldn’t discount her fighting skills against anyone other than a fire wraith. Even I had difficulty with that species.”
Sheena seemed to like the direction in which his speculation had run. “If you were to make her a diplomat, my Lord, a conduit between us and them, the demons under your command would be less threatened by her. More accepting of her.”
“Yes. And she might be less inclined to jump into dangerous situations.”
His ulterior motives cropped up without surprise. He loved her, after all. He’d do anything to help keep her out of harm’s way. Appointing her ambassador would mean she could come and go from the castle under the protection of his governing laws.
And within the village, she could serve as a leader but would have much to do, thereby leaving Tanner to the majority of patrols. Darien would supplement the deficiency of a second full-time slayer by assigning two of his men to guard the outer woods on the demon side of the border.
“If Jade wants to be a representative for her villagers,” he said, “I’ll support that. I want to strengthen relations between humans and demons. We all live on the same continent. And while we’ll never experience true unity, at least we can try to get along.”
He thought of the story she’d told him from the North and South novel. Some differences couldn’t be overcome naturally. But some could…
Standing, he continued. “I need a shower, then I’m going back to the cottage. Maybe in a couple of days, you’ll visit Jade?”
“Yes, my Lord.” She left his study.
* * * * *
Jade arrived at her house around seven a.m. She’d taken Tanner’s patrol because she’d been too charged from her confrontation with Darien to sleep. Now she was exhausted. She crawled into bed and was out within minutes.
She awoke after noon and shuffled into the living room to put some wood on the fire, but there was already a nice blaze burning. Darien sat at her table, sifting through correspondence and other items while consulting a map. She’d had too many things on her mind to remember to latch the door. Or perhaps, she’d subconsciously left it unsecured, hoping he’d return.
“How long have you been here?” she asked as she took the chair next to him.
“A couple hours. Catching up on business.” He slid a sheet of paper her way. “This is your copy.”
She stared at the approved document that officially made her a demon slayer. Her gaze lifted and locked with his. “You signed this.”
“I realized you’d continue down this path regardless. And I don’t want you creating more trouble for yourself.” He reached for her hand and raised it to his lips. “There’s something I want to ask of you though.”
“I promise to be careful,” she quickly assured him.
He nodded. “That’s one thing that deeply concerns me. The other is that you’ve proven to be an effective liaison between myself and the village. I’d like that connection to be more solid. You could help me.”
Her head inclined to one side as she regarded him thoughtfully. “How?”
“Will you consider a diplomatic post? Such as…an ambassador of peace?”
The suggestion stunned her. But myriad thoughts instantly snapped to attention in her mind. “Meaning I would adv
ocate for a less volatile coexistence and you would help us find better, safer ways for humans to live?”
“You can confer with the villagers and present ideas to me for consideration. In turn, I’ll make an effort to improve human-demon relations. But I’m not just talking about Ryleigh. We would take our movement to other villages, different regions.”
Her spirits soared. “You really want to promote goodwill? Together?”
“Yes I do.”
He let out a low laugh that held a hint of irony in it.
Then he continued. “That night Michael almost kissed you… Later, I contemplated whether my unrequited feelings for you had become the price I had to pay for letting the demon wars go too far. I thought of restitution and redemption. I hadn’t stopped the battles when I should have and I regret that. In the back of my mind, I’ve always wondered how I could make amends. Now, months following that night outside the tavern, I still consider you to be the key to my salvation.”
She stared at him, her thoughts too jumbled to process. Her heart, however, did not stutter. Rather, it picked up several beats.
“Maybe,” he added, “we were destined to meet. Team up to forge our own Reconstruction Era, as we’d previously discussed.”
“You might be right. I told you, I spent fifteen years just going through the motions every day. But since that first time you came to the village… Yes, there have been some painful moments, yet I’ve started to see things differently. Become more involved. It feels as if that’s precisely what I’m supposed to do.”
He grinned at her. “We could help each other if we worked together.”
“Not just each other. We could improve a lot of lives. Make the villages and traveling safer, while still allowing the demons to roam at will outside the community borders. Your alliance hasn’t faltered,” she said. “It’s those who haven’t banded with you that present the most trouble.”
“I agree. And I’ll have to place a greater penalty on them. I want this insurgency stopped. Attacks on the slayers and villagers can’t be tolerated.”
She leaned toward him and kissed him. “Thank you for seeing beyond me and accepting a bigger picture.”
“I want you protected. And comfortable. My idea of making that happen was to whisk you away to the castle. But now I know how fiercely dedicated you are to the village. As your father had been. I respect that, Jade. I’ll try to be less controlling. However,” he said, with a hefty dose of warning in his voice, “when I know there’s danger close by, I don’t want you doing anything hasty. You need to maintain your partnership with Tanner and watch each other’s backs. Do you understand?”
“You have my word.” Triumph rippled through her. “I don’t want to divert your attention by causing you to worry about me because I’ve gone off half-cocked. I’ll be more level-headed and cognizant of hazardous situations. I swear.”
Relief crossed his handsome face. “I’m holding you to that. I’ve enough to deal with at the moment. In fact, I need to rally this next charge to find the shifter that attacked Walker. Something tells me tracking it will lead us directly to the rogue army. When they materialize, that is.”
“You don’t have to leave just yet, do you?”
His gaze slid over her. “No. Not just yet.”
She stood and held her hand out to him. He took it and she tugged until he was on his feet and following her into the bedroom.
“I’ve read in my romance novels that make-up sex can be particularly exciting,” she told him.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hungrily. Her own cravings were ravenous. She slipped her hands under his sweater and reveled in the feel of his warm skin against hers. His muscles bunched beneath her fingertips.
His hand cupped the back of her head and he deepened the kiss, conveying emotion and need but also clearly establishing the fact she belonged to him. As though she might have forgotten that while he’d been away and she’d been off with Tanner, honing her slaying skills.
He broke the kiss and turned her so her back was to him. His arms slid around her at the waist, then he palmed her breasts and massaged them with a titillating amount of pressure. She sighed dreamily as his lips grazed her neck.
“I’m still angry with you, by the way,” he murmured in her ear.
“I have no delusions about that.”
Releasing her breasts, he gripped the long hem of her sweater and pulled the material upward, stripping it off her. He promptly heaped the rest of her clothing on the floor. Then he yanked the satin sash from the robe she’d draped along the foot of the bed.
Standing behind her, he said, “I’m going to punish you for disobeying me. I told you to stay safe, and you became a slayer.”
Her stomach flipped at his sexy tone and implication. “I’ve been very bad.”
“Indeed.” Deftly, he wrapped the satin around her wrists, securing them behind her back.
A thrill chased down her spine. The last time he’d restrained her had been nothing short of explosive. Taking out a little frustration on her now would likely prove to be equally erotic.
His arms snaked around her again, his hands returning to her breasts. He caressed them almost roughly, which made her squirm and her butt wriggled against his crotch. He was instantly erect. As he kissed her neck, his teeth lightly scraped over her skin. He rolled and pinched her nipples. She moaned. Heat flashed between her legs, and her pussy throbbed with the need to be filled.
“You’ll behave a little better in the future?” he asked in an intimate, highly arousing tone.
“If this is my punishment for defying you? Not a chance.”
He chuckled. “What if my plan is to get you excited and in desperate need of me, and then leave you tied up on the bed while I make a sandwich and read a book?”
She groaned. “That would be cruel.”
“But it would get my point across, wouldn’t it?”
“I thought you said you loved me.”
“I do. That’s why I’m so pissed off at you.”
He continued his ministrations as they bantered and Jade found it increasingly difficult to form coherent thoughts as his hands squeezed her breasts and then his thumbs swept over her pebbled nipples.
“If you love me so much,” she said on a heavy breath, “then you’ll fuck me.”
“Oh I intend to. But not yet.”
His palm grazed her rib cage, down to her belly. “Your body is different. Stronger, but still feminine. I like it.”
His fingers brushed over her labia, rubbing back and forth as fire roared through her veins. She’d missed his hands and mouth on her.
“Let’s see how wet you are for me, hmm?”
His finger slid inside her and she let out a sharp breath.
“Nice,” he said in a strained voice. “But I want you wetter.”
He withdrew from her and stroked her pussy lips again and then rubbed her clit. First in a slow, circular motion. But he picked up the pace, using the pads of two fingers, and it drove her wild. She writhed against him and little whimpers fell from her lips.
Being restrained heightened her arousal. So too did the fact she could cup his balls through his leather pants.
He groaned. “You like to play dirty?”
“When it comes to you, yes.”
Darien pushed two fingers into her cunt and stroked her inner walls while the heel of his hand continued to massage her clit. His other hand remained on her breast, toying with her nipple.
Jade’s legs trembled and her breathing escalated. “Oh God,” she whispered as her eyelids fluttered closed and the back of her head rested against his hard chest. “I’m going to come.”
“I shouldn’t let you.”
She sucked in a breath. “Don’t you dare stop.”
“But you didn’t do as I asked.”
“How boring would I be if I did everything you asked me to do?”
“Not funny.”
Her heart pounded and her body ached for release
. She didn’t give in to the sensations mounting within her. Not yet anyway.
She asked, “Wet enough for you?”
He groaned. “I’m damn close to ripping off my clothes and thrusting into you.”
“What’s holding you back?”
“I’m going to make you come a few times before I do.”
A smile tickled the corners of her mouth. “You can’t resist, can you?”
“Not when it comes to you.”
He worked her a little harder, pushing his fingers deep as he teased her nipple.
“Darien,” she whispered. “Yes. Oh God yes.” Tension seized her and she gasped. Then the erotic sensations he evoked erupted and she cried out his name as she came.
His fingers were still inside her as she crested the tall wave of her orgasm and rode it out. Then he disentangled himself from her.
Jade’s erratic breathing echoed in the room, mingling with the howl of the wind outside that caused wispy tree limbs to scrape her window. Her skin was flushed and tingly and her pussy still pulsed, wanting so much more.
“How are your arms?” Darien asked.
“Fine.” She wasn’t ready to give up the light bondage just yet. It added a scintillating edge to their foreplay.
He directed her onto the bed, helping her, though she’d mastered her balance with all the footwork and weight placement she and Tanner had practiced. Darien guided her forward until her shoulders and chin were resting against a mound of pillows he dragged over to her. She was on her knees, toward the edge of the mattress. His hands cupped her ass cheeks and spread them wide. He knelt on the floor behind her and his tongue swept over her pussy lips.
She cried out as her body jerked from the excitement that shot through her.
“Hold still,” he commanded.
His fingers spread her labia and the tip of his tongue flicked over her clit, teasing the sensitive bud.
Her nipples brushed against the satin of her sheets as her body rocked, despite his words. He suckled her clit and fiery sensations consumed her.
A throaty moan slipped out. He sucked the knot of nerves between her legs again, then flicked his tongue over it. She panted loudly as her desire burned.
“I want you inside me,” she told him.