WarriorsApprentice

by Alysh Ellis

  Her voice dropped to a whisper as she climbed past the corridor that led to Brian’s rooms. Everything about Brian, from the small personal space he allowed himself to his demeanor, was bare and grim. His focus on his self-appointed task was total, leaving no room for relationships or fun. Cowardly as it was, she didn’t want to run the risk of having to explain Ty and Huon to him.

  At the head of the stairs she moved forward to open the door to her apartment. Ty held back to allow her to go through. She’d only taken one step when she heard a sound behind her. She spun around but saw only Huon standing there, his face calm. Although he showed no shortness of breath, the air seemed to swirl around him as though he had rushed up behind her and only just brought himself to a halt. She shrugged, dismissing the possibility, and stepped forward. The men followed her inside.

  Two powerful males standing in her tiny living area made the available space seem even smaller, slamming her up against the reality of what she’d done by bringing them home. A hard lump formed in her stomach, sending out smaller offshoots to lodge in her throat.

  “Would you…” The high, thin tone of her voice surprised her and she coughed and started again. “How do you like your coffee?”

  Ty leaned against the closed door and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not here for coffee, Judie.”

  “You’re not?” Of course he wasn’t. The question made her sound like an idiot.

  “We all know why we’re here, don’t we?” Ty stalked toward her, powerful, dangerous and all the more attractive because of it.

  “I hope we do.”

  Huon’s breathy interjection surprised her. The years spent studying for her doctorate, the lifetime spent thinking of herself as a geeky egghead, had left her bereft of the sexual confidence she needed to be calm and assured in this situation, but she couldn’t understand how Huon, with his handsome face and gorgeous body, had managed not to amass a stack of conquests. And yet, his tongue flicked out to moisten his lips and his gaze darted from her to Ty and back again. If she was nervous, Huon was more so.

  Ty’s confidence radiated out in waves, encompassing them both. “That’s what you want, isn’t it, Judie? Not to make a choice. You want Huon. And me.”

  “Yes.” She’d meant to say it out loud. Meant it to sound firm and definite, but no sound emerged, just the sibilant rush of air on the final “s”, like steam sizzling on her fevered body.

  Ty understood her anyway. He prowled toward her, peeling off his jacket and shirt as he came. His chest made her mouth go dry. Muscles rippled down it, skin stretched tight and hairless. By the time he reached her, his shirt lay on the floor. He threaded his fingers through her hair to pull her close, his lips hovering a fraction of an inch from hers.

  “You want me, don’t you, Judie?”

  She nodded.

  He closed the gap and this time when he spoke each word brushed against her mouth. “And you want Huon?”

  She nodded again.

  Behind her, a tentative hand slipped around her shoulders, the gentle touch sending a flurry of shivers racing down her spine and skittering across her skin.

  “I haven’t done anything like this before,” she whispered, aware of the solid presence of Huon at her back, her eyes locked on the dark, shadowed depths of Ty’s.

  Huon leaned in, nuzzled the hollow behind her ear and whispered, “I haven’t either, but I can’t wait to try it.”

  The knowledge that a threesome was new to him too gave her a little confidence.

  “How will we… What should I do?”

  “Whatever you feel like doing.” Ty’s hypnotic voice soothed her, soft and deep, taking away tension and inhibitions.

  His mouth was still so close to hers that she breathed his air, smelled his scent, every breath seducing her, drawing her under his spell until even the beat of her heart, the pulse of blood through her veins, matched itself to his, yielded to his control.

  A fraction of a movement and his lips fastened on hers, parting them, his tongue sweeping in. His arms tightened around her and he lifted her off her feet, carrying her to the bed and depositing her on the covers. Through the blood-red haze of desire she saw Ty look at Huon and nod, the gesture accompanied by a slight movement of his eyes. No words were spoken, yet she knew a message had been sent because Huon scrambled onto the bed beside her, shifting her until she lay with her head in his lap, his knees on either side of her, his hands stroking her arms.

  Ty leaned over her. “We want you naked.”

  He ran his fingers down the center line of her shirt, leaving the buttons lying undone in their wake. Again he made eye contact with Huon, who lifted her to ease the shirt from her shoulders, then fumbled briefly at her back to release the catch on her bra. Ty bent over, his tongue running around the edge of the scrap of lace until his teeth closed on it and pulled it away.

  When her breasts lay exposed she heard Huon’s brief intake of breath, then his hands slid down her arms and across to cup her, his thumbs grazing her nipples.

  He leaned forward and whispered, “Beautiful. You’re beautiful.”

  The slight tremble in his voice, as if he were worshiping some rare and exalted creature, the warm wash of his breath, sparked across her nerve endings and her back arched. Instantly, Ty slid his hands under her buttocks, lifting her upward so her legs parted. He knelt between them while his long fingers moved, working her skirt over her hips and down her legs. She felt the heat of his palms return to her buttocks and stop there. His eyes focused on hers.

  “What?” Huon asked. “Why have you stopped?”

  Sliding one hand out from beneath her while supporting her weight on the other, Ty ripped away the tiny straps of her thong panties and pulled them off her, holding them out to Huon.

  “Oh,” he breathed, “They are… I’ve never seen undergarments—”

  “They are outrageous, scandalous and the sexiest thing I have ever seen,” Ty cut him off. “If I’d known this was all you had under that skirt,” he licked his bottom lip, “the patrons of Harry’s Bar would have been shocked out of their minds.” His voice lowered to a sexy drawl. “Huon and I might have taken you there and then.”

  “They’re…they’re not unusual,” Judie panted. “Everyone wears them these—” The last word choked into silence as Ty lowered his mouth to her damp mound and took a long, lingering lick. When his teeth scraped against her clit she groaned, a sound echoed in her ear by Huon’s deeper voice.

  Then Ty slid his fingers around to stroke and part her lower lips before pushing deep inside her. The hands on her breasts tightened and a warm mouth settled on the cords of her neck in an exploratory kiss. She lost herself in the delicious sensation of being stroked inside and out by her two gorgeous lovers.

  The rapid, rhythmic thrust of Ty’s tongue against the tight knot of her clitoris sent her spiraling and convulsing into a sudden orgasm, her buttocks clenching and lifting, grinding against his firm lips and chin, riding his hand in uninhibited abandon.

  The pulsing waves subsided, Ty raised his head. Behind her, Huon leaned forward, stretched out over her, his hand reaching out to cup Ty’s cheek. Ty jolted back as if scalded, his fingers pulling out of her as he rocked back on his heels. His dark eyes lifted and he looked past Judie, his pupils widening.

  Then he looked away and the fingers that had been inside her ripped at his clothing, tearing it off and hurling it away with a frenzy totally at odds with his normal air of control. Naked, his cock hard and weeping a drop of pre-cum, he clambered onto the bed, raised himself to cover Judie’s body and drove hard and fast into her wet, welcoming channel.

  His hips flexed and pounded with an intensity that looked and felt like a desperate drive to completion. In contrast his eyes were cold and distant. Then his gaze flicked upward and he slammed them shut, his mouth twisted into a fierce line as air whooshed in and out of his tight nostrils. The deep grooves that bracketed his mouth could as easily have been from pain.

  He chang
ed the angle of his hips and penetrated deeper, finding a spot on her inner walls she hadn’t known existed. The friction changed the pace and intensity of her rising tension. She moaned and Ty grunted, the sound of a man acknowledging feedback on a task he had set himself.

  There was no mistaking what was happening here. They were not making love. She was being fucked, a race to purely physical satisfaction with no softness, no tenderness beyond what was necessary to achieve sexual satisfaction. When it started, Ty had tried to disguise the basic nature of his drive, but in the heat of action all pretense had dropped.

  And she loved it. Hard, fast and furious it might be, but Ty’s technique was good, his cock thick and curved, stretching and filling her. His hot, moist breath, rushing out in rapid bursts, the feel of sweat on his smooth skin slipping and sliding on hers like warm cream. Combined with Huon’s rock-hard cock at her back and his hands rubbing her nipples, it tipped her over the edge and she came with a high, keening whimper.

  A few more deep thrusts and Ty’s cock pumped out his release. His head slumped down between his shoulders but he kept his weight supported, leaving a space between their bodies as if lying skin against skin was more intimate than all the frenzied act that preceded it.

  The tensing of his muscles warned her and she braced herself as he withdrew, pulling back onto his haunches, swinging his legs off the bed to stand.

  “I’ll leave you and Huon alone. Boy might be a bit nervous with me around.”

  He swung away and walked out of the door, leaving her gaping in shock. Huon stirred and slipped out from behind her to settle on the bed next to her head. His gaze too was firmly fixed on the blank face of the door that had just swung shut with a solid clunk.

  After a moment he turned back to Judie, his blue eyes wide. “Don’t take it personally,” he said.

  “Why would I take it personally?” Judie could hear how sarcastic and bitter she sounded but she couldn’t do anything about it, not when embarrassment and anger heated her face and made her want to hide under the covers. “He screwed my brains out and just got up and walked out. Of course that’s not personal.”

  “It’s the way he is,” Huon said, gripping her hand tightly. “When he’s got something to do he focuses on it completely, and when it’s over, he detaches.”

  “Is that what you call it? I call it downright insulting,” she muttered and released her hand from Huon’s grip to grab the sheet out of the tangled mess on top of the bed.

  Huon put both arms around her and pulled her into a gentle hug. “Don’t be offended. It isn’t you, it’s me.” Judie had never expected to hear that cliché in a situation like this, but she had never been in a situation like this, so she kept quiet and listened as Huon continued. “Tyb— Ty has been my…mentor in my…um, professional capacity. He acts that way with me all the time. I don’t want you to be upset.”

  He sounded so sincere and so concerned that Judie let herself relax. His slender but powerful body took her weight and she leaned in, snuggling under his chin, smelling the fresh, sweet scent of him, letting the soothing sound of his soft reassurances wash over her and take away the sting of Ty’s abrupt departure.

  Her hands slipped around to stroke down the hollow groove of his spine, his indrawn breath encouraging her to explore lower. When had he removed his shirt? Before she had started the wild ride with Ty? During? It didn’t matter. What mattered was the feel of skin so warm and supple it felt like silk stretched over the solid planes of his muscles. What mattered was the way his lips nuzzled into her hair and slipped slowly down her face to nibble their way hesitantly towards her mouth, stopping just before they reached their target as if Huon were giving her the chance to turn aside, to reject his advances before they really began.

  The arms that held her trembled, just a light shiver of the skin that could have been due to nervousness, anticipation, the fight to remain in control or all three. Judie couldn’t tell and she didn’t care. Huon’s intensity and the darkening of his eyes as his pupils widened and his lids grew heavy, so different from Ty’s ruthless taking of her, stirred her to arousal again. A different type of arousal, one that touched her emotionally and made her crave the tender touch of emotional intimacy and connection.

  The zip of his pants presented no barrier to her questing fingers. She slid it down and slipped inside. He wore no underwear, letting her hand wrap instantly around his hot, throbbing cock, but she kept her gaze on his face, absorbed by the way his lips parted, his nostrils flared and twin spots of red flared on his high, sharp cheekbones. A soft susurration of air rushed from his lungs and his eyes closed.

  “Good?” she asked.

  “Oh yes,” he sighed. “Please don’t stop.”

  She felt the curve of a smile forming and didn’t try to fight it. If Huon was not a virgin, he was certainly inexperienced. How someone who looked like he did could have reached this age without being inundated by floods of women intent on seducing him was a question she would think about at some other time. Right now, she was grateful. Her ego welcomed the chance to lead him, to take him to the peak of pleasure and bring him back again, certain that he would not get up, walk out and leave her feeling like she had been used and discarded.

  * * * * *

  Huon looked at the woman sleeping soundly beside him. He’d read about sex, practiced solo in the privacy of his own room, but nothing had prepared him for the intensity of the hot, wet clasp of another’s body. Alone, he knew with unerring accuracy what rhythm made him come quickly. Tonight, with Judie, the process had been prolonged, unfamiliar yet so much more pleasurable. Fitting his movements to another person’s, her pleasure as much sought after as his own, a heady mixture of give and take.

  But he wasn’t here for pleasure. He had to lull Judie Scanlon into telling him what she knew, into taking him to places where he could get the information he needed.

  She snuffled slightly in her sleep and curled her hand under her cheek. Guilt and disgust unfurled in his stomach, sending tendrils into his brain, taking root and blossoming into conviction. Damn it, no matter what he looked like he was Dvalinn and he would not take an innocent life if he could avoid it. If he gained her trust, got the information he needed, he could leave her alive.

  No. Not if he gained her trust. If they did. Tybor had to repair the damage he’d done.

  Huon slid gently out of the bed, checked to see he hadn’t woken Judie, then, grabbing his clothes and taking a quick survey of the apartment, tiptoed out into the streets of Venice.

  Ten minutes later the door of his rented room on the Fondamenta Santa Lucia slammed shut behind him. Tybor, still fully dressed, was stretched out on the bed, his arms folded behind his head, eyes closed, ignoring Huon.

  “What the fuck was that about, you bastard?” Huon spat at him.

  “I left you alone. You said you didn’t want me critiquing your performance,” Tybor answered, keeping his eyes shut.

  “There’s a difference between critiquing my performance and making a woman feel like she’s been used.”

  “Oh, and you’d know, would you?” Tybor’s eyes snapped open. “You with your vast experience with women.”

  “I know enough to listen to Judie. Do you care how you made her feel when you walked out that way?” Huon fisted his hands at his sides. “You shouldn’t have done it.”

  “It’s been a long dry spell. I got carried away.” Tybor pushed himself up into a sitting position.

  “And that excuses it?” Huon asked.

  “See how you feel after two hundred years.” Tybor looked him over appraisingly. “I assume you did manage the deed.”

  Huon felt his cheeks heat. “I did. We did.”

  Tybor surged to his feet and slammed Huon into the wall with a shove. “You bloody hypocrite. I fuck her and walk out and I’m to blame. You do it and it’s okay.”

  “She’s asleep,” Huon yelled. “I snuck out.”

  “And that makes it somehow better?” Tybor loomed over him.
>
  “I’m going back,” Huon insisted

  “Well, don’t let me stop you. I appreciate your concern in coming to check on me but you get your skinny ivory ass back to that woman.”

  Once again Huon found himself confronting Tybor chest to chest. “You’re coming with me.”

  “What? Like hell.” Tybor took a step back and Huon took a deep breath.

  “You made her feel bad, you are going to fix it. I have a job to do. You butted in on it and I am not going to let you stuff it up. I don’t know what the hell got under your skin, but since you’re here you are going to suck it up and do whatever is necessary to keep Judie Scanlon happy and compliant.” Huon punctuated his sentence with a return shove on Tybor’s chest. It didn’t achieve much but at least it seemed to focus Tybor’s attention. “You got that?”

  Tybor’s lips curved in a small, dangerous smile. “Giving me orders, boy?”

  “Yeah,” Huon replied, holding his ground. “I am. This is my mission. I have orders to be here. You’re AWOL, so I guess that puts me in charge.”

  Tybor shrugged. “Fair enough. What do you want me to do?”

  Hoping he disguised his shock at Tybor’s compliance, Huon replied, “Come back to Judie’s apartment with me. I’m pretty sure she’ll still be asleep.” He felt a blush heat his cheeks again and once again cursed his unnatural paleness. “Between us, we tired her out. I’ll pretend I never left, and you can come back in and apologize and explain why you stormed out.” He gave Tybor an assessing glance. “I’d like to hear the reason myself.”

  “It’s personal. That’s all I’ll tell her and I’ll be damned if I tell you any different.”

  “But…” Huon protested.

  “Don’t push it. I’ve made all the concessions I’m going to.” Tybor marched out of the door, leaving Huon to follow in his wake.

  At Judie’s apartment, Huon pulled a set of keys from his pocket. “I, ah, borrowed them.”

  Before he could insert them in the door Tybor’s hand closed over his. “Did you also, ah, borrow the code to the alarm?”

  Once more Huon felt his traitorous skin redden. “Shit.”