Pleasure: The Shadowdwellers

by Jacquelyn Frank

  Instead of praying as she had meant to do, the sound attracted her attention to the wonderful beadwork that had been woven into the fringe. She reached to touch it, remembering how she and Rika had worked opposite sides of it, spending hours with their heads bent as they gossiped and tried to outscheme the political schemers. Guin would often sit nearby just watching them, sometimes telling them they were like little hens nattering away at each other. When he got bored, he’d torment them with off-key limericks—most of which she believed he made up off the cuff—and laughed at their reactions.

  It seemed like those times had vanished completely, as if she had neglected to appreciate it at the time and now she would pay dearly for taking a single instant of it for granted. Rika could no longer see to do the beading that she was so talented at, and Malaya couldn’t bring herself to do something Rika so loved in front of her when she couldn’t join in. Even if she had been able to see, Rika grew tired so quickly now. Malaya had barely seen the vizier today as she rested and conserved her strength for tomorrow’s Senate meeting.

  It seemed the days of Guin’s easygoing humor had fled as well. When had he become so unhappy? What kind of friend was she that she didn’t notice until he was walking out the door? She had taken him for granted as well, like the air she breathed. It kept her alive, but she rarely gave it deep thought. Now, suddenly, she became aware of the passion he harbored and she expected him to snap to her bidding and her bed just because she finally woke up?

  Gods, what kind of creature was she? Was she really so fiendishly selfish? The bitch he had accused her of being?

  No! No, no, it wasn’t like that! She wasn’t trying to play games with him just for her own amusement! It was supposed to be for both of them. A mutual satisfaction. A mutual pleasure. She would never treat him badly. She cared about him too much. This was a scenario that could sate both of their desires. How could that possibly be bad?

  The door to the suite all but slammed open, startling Killian and Malaya. Killian was already drawing his weapon before he recognized Guin as the bodyguard stormed in. Killian stared at the other man. He was soaking wet, his hair hanging raggedly. But the thing that truly shocked was the expression of rage in the man’s granite eyes as he charged forward into the room. As he passed him, he pointed to Killian.

  “Exit. Now.”

  It was a command. An order for certain, but watching Guin make a line for the Chancellor like a deadly bull about to stampede her made him hesitate. Malaya had gained her feet and she nervously moved backward as Guin swallowed the distance between them in rapid strides.

  “Leave, Killian,” she had the presence of mind to order even though her heart was all but exploding with the sudden surge of adrenaline watching Guin approach had pumped into her.

  Guin caught Malaya, snagging her by her elbows and continuing to stride onward, making her nimble feet dance hard to keep herself from tripping, until they finally hit a wall. Malaya was having trouble catching her breath by the time they stopped, the sheer potency of his emotion emanating into her overwhelming her with the feeling of being cornered by a male predator.

  “I’ve resisted the urge to wring her neck for fifty years, Killian,” he growled in a ferociously climbing cadence. “I’m not about to start now!”

  This reassurance was apparently enough for the other man at last. He’d seen enough of their altercations over the years to know Guin wouldn’t hurt her no matter how pissed off he was. Killian exited the room.

  The instant they were alone, Guin turned on her with a fury of gnashed teeth and a voice growling with barely restrained temper.

  “If you ever touch me like that again, you vicious little tease, I will break your fucking wrist! Do you hear me? Are you really so stupidly enmeshed in your own world that you don’t know what the consequences of something like that can be? Any other man would take that as a goddamn invitation! Do me a favor and save me the trouble of having to beat some poor bituth amec off you because you’re behaving like a harlot!”

  “Any other man?” she echoed. “But not you?”

  “No! Not me. I am fortunate to know you well enough to realize you’re not thinking things through. And I know my place, K’yatsume. See to it you keep to yours!”

  Guin let go of her roughly and turned to march away. She let him get three paces before calling at him, “You were hard as steel.”

  The observation made him stumble out of step a little. He whirled around, dark fury chasing wariness over his features as he tried to figure out what she was getting at.

  “So what?” he demanded of her harshly, playing it off with a shrug of one large shoulder.

  “So you liked my dance,” she countered, stepping toward him in a slow, silky strut.

  “A man would have to be dead not to get hard watching you in that getup tonight. You can bet Ashla and Dae are going to benefit from your shameless performance this evening.”

  “Shameless? You mean you didn’t approve?” She drew closer to him, wondering how he’d gotten so wet. His clothes were completely saturated.

  “No, I didn’t. You are a queen, Malaya, not some raunchy little tramp strutting herself out looking for the hardest dick and the highest price! You cheapen yourself and it disgusts me to see it!”

  “There is no shame in showing my body! Not in the art of the dance!” She was up against him in a flash, her long body connecting tightly to his braw one. Icy cold and wetness emanated from him and went right through her k’jeet to send ripples of goose bumps all over her skin. “And say what you will, but I know what you liked.”

  To his shock, Guin felt those quick and devious hands of hers running down his body again, heading straight for the line of his belt. He shoved her away hard, and she staggered back, laughing at him.

  “You think this is a joke?” he choked out to her. “Touch me like that again, Laya, and I swear to the gods I will teach you a lesson about teasing you will never forget!”

  “Roar, roar, roar,” she mocked him. “Such a cranky bear lately. I wonder why. And be careful how you threaten me, Ajai Guin.”

  Guin honestly wanted to squeeze the life out of her! Either that or he’d throw the little brat beneath him and fuck her to within an inch of her life. She would see then what she was dancing with.

  Guin shouted out in frustration, marching away from her again.

  Malaya ran up behind him in rapid, lithe leaps on the balls of her feet. She gave into impulse completely, ready to push him right over the edge. Using her approaching momentum, she slapped him so hard on his backside that her hand stung.

  “Ow! Goddamn it, Laya!” He loomed around like a raging tidal wave until he was right in her face. She smiled, her whole demeanor defiant.

  “What are you going to do?” she mocked him in challenge. “It’s not like that kind of thing gets you off, is it? Are you going to give me a deeply in-depth and guided tour into what gets you off?”

  She knew. In an instant she knew just by looking into his eyes that he was going to snap. When those big hands reached out to snare her by the fabric of her gown, pulling her so hard the silk tore, she gasped in a breath of triumph.

  “You stupid, stupid girl,” he hissed as he threw her back hard onto the divan. He followed instantly, his hands sharply sudden on her breasts as he crushed her mouth with his and dropped his weight on her with a savage grinding movement.

  All the rage, all the fury, all of it born of such painful starvation and frustration, completely blinded him to the consequences of feeling Malaya trapped beneath the aggressive surge of his body. Even more astounding was the shock of finding his hands engulfing her amazing breasts. He had touched her here only once before, and he would never forget an instant of how it had felt. Out of control utterly, he tore silk away from her chest, baring her in a brutal jerk of fabric. He filled his hand with her, the hardness of her erect nipple popping teasingly through his fingers as he pawed her roughly.

  “Is this what you want?” he choked in anger and
a rushing breathlessness of need that overtook him like a storm. “Is this what you want from me?”

  His eyesight failed him between the hazing red of his temper and the burn of need and emotion. Blind in more ways than one, he reached to rip off his weapons belt, letting it fall where it would. He kissed her again and again, on her like a wild beast as he wrenched open the fly of his jeans. He wasn’t even aware of how she clutched him, or how she parted her knees around the intrusion of his hips.

  “Night after night you’ve tormented me!” he accused her in a voice rasping with desperate emotions. “Until I can’t think for need of you! Always so perfect…You have no idea! Goddamn you!”

  Now his mouth was at her throat, his teeth gnawing at her again and again in biting kisses that transmitted the knowledge that he was going to devour her. Malaya was gasping for every breath, his savagery drugging and terrifying all at once. He grabbed her by the hip, jolting her hard into a receptive position, and then she felt him blindly make contact between their sexes, the scorch of his hard flesh making her cry out. She heard him grind out a sound of pleasure riddled with pain. He gasped and shuddered as he slid through liquid heaven.

  “Yes! Oh gods, yes!” he all but sobbed as he surged through the bath of her arousal, wetting himself in a rocking rhythmic slide that took his cock straight across her clit.

  Malaya felt like a tiny piece of dust in a storm. All she could do was cling to the beast she’d unleashed and shudder every time that thick rod of flesh skimmed against her.

  “Fuck me,” she gasped, the raw demand charging out of her before she could check it. “Fuck me. Guin. Do it!”

  He raised his head from her and looked down at her; the fantasy, come alive. In hot, full dimension. The smell of jasmine bombarded him, the scent of her drenched sex making his balls clench tightly in anticipation. He lifted away from her and watched himself slide against her. She was so dark and so damn delicate looking compared to the monstrous erection that threatened her. And the instant he feared hurting her…

  There was no describing the shock that paralyzed him as the cold touch of sanity returned to him. It was just long enough of a delay in his reaction to warn Laya of what was happening. In a flash she wrapped her powerful legs around his hips and fiercely locked him to her.

  “Oh my gods,” he choked in horror as he looked at her torn gown, the marks of his teeth on her skin and the blatant situation of their bodies. “No…I…I didn’t mean…”

  He could barely see straight, between the impact of what he had done and the rush of being flush to Malaya as a lover would be.

  But he wasn’t her lover.

  He was an animal who had finally snapped and lost…everything.

  “Let go of me. Let go!” He desperately grasped at her thigh, trying to rise up away from her.

  “I like you where you are,” she breathed in sensual truth. Then using the limber strength of her body, she tilted herself like a scoop in search of ice cream and captured the hot head of his penis at the entrance of her vagina.

  Euphoria warred with confusion and ultimate instinctive need in Guin and he struggled to speak coherently. “This isn’t right…”

  “Shut up, Guin, and come inside me. Come on, baby, you need to be inside me. I’ll be so hot and wet. I’ll be so tight I’ll strangle your cock in pleasure. Come on…come on…”

  Needed it? He couldn’t live without it. He knew it as sure as he knew how to save her life. But this was all wrong.

  “No. I won’t treat you like some back-alley whore! You deserve…gods…you deserve…”

  “To be fucked senseless, Guin. That’s what I deserve. For being such a tease all these years even though I didn’t know it. I deserve to feel you hard inside me because I’ve been so damn ignorant and because ever since I opened my eyes, I’ve been burning for you. I deserve to feel you come so hard it will feel like riding lightning. Guin…please…”

  She pressed the issue by reaching for more of him, working him into herself slowly.

  “Wait! Wait!” he gasped, his body jolting into rock-hard tension as he sucked hard for breath and shuddered over her. “I can’t…I won’t make it.” He strangled on his words, frustration killing him as they rushed free. “I’m too big to charge into you, I’ll tear you up…but I can’t…it’s been so long…and I want you so damn much it’s killing me. Drenna damn me!”

  Malaya understood when she saw the honest angst clawing its way across his face.

  “How long?” she asked softly. He shook her off, but she caught his head between her hands and made him look at her. “How long, Guin?”

  He couldn’t tell her. It would bare his soul completely. She would know the instant he confessed the truth everything he felt for her. Everything.

  “Since before the war,” he answered honestly, unable to lie to her but hiding behind the vagueness of the answer.

  “Okay.”

  Malaya hid her shock well. Not a hint of it could be read by him. Thirty years? A man like this, barren of sexual intercourse for thirty years? How was that even possible? The man was a walking advertisement for testosterone!

  However, she rapidly dismissed that and focused on what he needed. She released him from the vise of her legs and he drew back and struggled for his breath and control. However, Malaya hadn’t let him go so he could run away from her again. He was done hiding from her, even if she had to force him into admitting what he needed. Whipping away the remnants of her k’jeet, she slid with graceful ease down onto her knees between his feet and gripped his jeans with a pull.

  “Laya…just…”

  She gave him no chance to argue and no choice. As soon as his thighs were completely bare she reached to boldly wrap her hand around the thrust of his awesome erection. He was right, she thought with an absent lick of her lips, she would definitely need a slow introduction to him. She’d had no idea he was so big. Even her elicit moment of molestation had been impeded by belts and buckles.

  She slid forward between his knees, her fingers running like silk over his shape, the lubrication from her body all over him. She leaned in and exhaled over him.

  Guin wanted to know when fantasy had become reality. There was no describing how it felt for him to see her tending to his cock like this! Not in his deepest imagination had he thought he’d ever know the feel of her touch. And…oh gods…the stroke of her tongue as she seductively licked the fat head of it. He hadn’t been exaggerating with his warning. It was all so much more than he could comprehend, never mind any thoughts of controlling it. Not this time. Not when his whole life had turned into a hair-trigger of never-ending temptation. And here she was, temptation itself, on her knees with her lush mouth slowly licking and sucking him until he felt like he was taking thousands of volts of electricity through his cock. His hands were gripping her upper arms as she came closer and bravely challenged herself to get her mouth around him.

  “Laya…” he gasped. “Harder, baby. Now. I can’t tell you how this hurts.” So much denial for so long. This was a release fifty years in the making. He’d set eyes on an angel who had challenged him to make a better man of himself, and from that instant no one else could touch him. Gods, how he’d tried, but like the girl in the hall, he could never succeed. Because he’d known with every fiber of his being that no one but Malaya would do. And as her tongue rimmed him in a teasing defiance of what he’d begged for, he had absolute proof of it.

  Unable to keep still, he lifted himself against her lips, cursed harshly as she toyed with him. He reached to close his hand over the one wrapped around him and showed her the way with a squeeze that interlaced their fingers. He groaned as they stroked him together and finally she started to suck him deep and hard into her gorgeous mouth.

  “Laya! Oh, my sweet honey…Oh gods! I’m coming for you. Now! Now!”

  He threw his head back and roared with helpless pleasure, his whole body reaching flashpoint all at once, forcing him to tense so hard it was utterly consuming. The sweetest a
gony pulsed through him and burst from his cock in violent glory. He ground his teeth together the whole time he watched her nurse from him with sensual enthusiasm. Nothing in all the ’scapes of the world could ever have felt so relieving and so blessedly perfect.

  Chapter Six

  Guin barely took a moment to catch his breath before he reached for her and dragged her up into his lap. She came eagerly, straddling him tightly, and he reached to frame her face with both of his hands. He was still dumbfounded by the entire situation, his head reeling as it tried to wrap itself around the concept of Malaya being in his arms this way. He pulled her to his kiss, this time making the connection softly. He had bruised her, her lips swollen with his abuse, but instead of making any complaint of it, she met him with a deep, sensual appetite that stirred up a hunger she hadn’t even begun to touch.

  “Guin? Guin, are you all right?”

  Malaya and Guin both froze, locked together at their lips as Rika’s query filled the sitting room. Guin disengaged from Malaya and they both turned to look at the vizier, who stood just outside her bedroom door. Guin held a finger to Malaya’s lips.

  “I’m fine, Rika,” he said, his voice severely roughened by the circumstances, and he saw Malaya’s whiskey eyes light with brilliant amusement. He cleared his throat. “Go back to bed, Rika. You’ve got a hard day tomorrow.”

  “But…I heard you yell,” she said suspiciously.

  “Yeah,” he replied as Malaya buried her face against his neck to keep herself from laughing. “I just hit my shin on the table. Hurt like a bitch.”