by Jean Murray
His voice was strangely polite and polished for such a fierce looking man. Lilly couldn’t help but trace the tattoos covering the broad span of his bare chest and shoulders and down to the waistband of his black leather pants.
The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. Two warriors had moved into position behind them. Too close for her tastes.
No fear, right.
Lilly forced herself to remain casual and leaned forward to pluck a few grapes off the table. “I came to ask a favor.”
All eyes shifted to her cleavage. Asar’s mark could be seen just under the folds of leather that puckered when she bent over. The commander shook his head to break his gaze from her breasts. “What can I help you with?”
“Do you have the ability to transport to the human world?” She pushed a few more grapes into her mouth. All eyes were on her motion. The other females vacated the table, knowing Lilly commanded their males' attention.
“Yes, I do. Most of my senior officers do.” He looked down the long table that held twenty large warriors with similar scarification on their torsos, though not to the extent of his own body.
Lilly pulled her lower lip into her mouth before she spoke. “I need a ride.”
One of the officers choked on his wine. She gave him a playful wink. “Careful.” She grabbed two of the goblets of wine off of the table and handed one to Kit. Smelling it first, she took a slow slip. Someone jumped up and filled the cup to the top. “Thank you.”
“It is an unusual request," the commander said. "May I ask what for?”
“My sister and I need to retrieve our younger sister. We require transportation and some reinforcements. Not many, just enough to get through a layer of security and protection for myself, of course.” She was counting on the fact that the legion had not been deployed in a very long time. Hopefully this would be an opportunity he couldn’t resist.
The commander leaned forward, resting his large palms on the table. The sculpted lines of his tattoos bulged from his shoulders to his neck, and his dark eyes lightened to an almost straw color. Finally, he waved his hand and chairs were brought for the two women. “Sisters?”
Kit turned the chair around and straddled it. In a more modest position, Lilly sat facing the commander with her legs crossed.
“Yes, this is my sister, Kit.”
Kit waved her hand and then took a big bite out of an apple. Juice spurted out the sides of her mouth, as she chewed. The warrior to the commander’s left groaned and adjusted the hard-on that had developed in his pants. Lilly glared at her sister and gave the silent message to tone it down. They'd have enough trouble facing such dangerous men, let alone horny dangerous men. She needed them focused on the task, not her sister. “Our other sister is being held by our old employer and we want her back. We would all return to Aaru, of course.”
The commander shifted his gaze from Lilly to Kit and back again, specifically looking at the hieroglyphics on her arms. Her sister’s were bare. “If you’re wondering," Kit drawled, "my powers have yet to be released.” She smiled again and took another crisp bite of fruit. One of the officers cursed and slammed his fist on the wood table. Another whistled low, followed by a feral growl. Clearly, they all knew there was only one way to release a demi-god’s powers.
Energy surged around the table, the tension as tight as an over-tuned guitar string. Lilly’s heart drummed rapidly in her chest. What if one of them lurched across the table? Kit wasn’t completely to blame. Her own attempts at playing it casual had come off teasingly playful, which only made the situation worse. The commander made no attempts to contain his officer’s reactions, some of which were obscene. She was sure the only thing that held them in place was her rank as the Lord’s mate. Barely. She downed her drink to relieve her worsening jitters. A warrior filled it before the base of the cup hit the table.
The commander’s eyes darkened. “I do not mean to be insulting, Madame, but does the Lord know you are here? Usually, his second-in-command would be making these arrangements.”
Lilly answered quickly, trying to keep the fear from her voice. She had to stay in control or their little adventure would be over quickly. “They are both occupied at the moment with more important matters, otherwise I would not have wasted my time. The time frame in which I need to act doesn’t permit me to wait for their return.”
“If I have your assurances the Lord would approve of such a mission, then by all means, I will provide you with what you need.” The commander bowed his head respectfully, but his expression became ridged and his now gold eyes darted over her shoulder.
Dark energy flooded into the room like a cool, oppressive fog. A tingle of pain shot down her spine. Lilly closed her eyes and felt her throat constrict.
Asar was here. This wasn’t good. Not good at all.
She locked her muscles, forcing herself to remain seated in a feeble attempt to look unfazed by his arrival. Tremors threatened to take over her entire body, and would have, if she didn’t consciously force them down.
The commander and the entire room stood as he approached. His presence even melted her defiant sister’s resolve. Lilly took a deep breath and finally stood to face her angry mate.
Correction. Furious mate.
His livid black eyes were riveted on her. Lilly tried to not to break eye contact, but the intensity of his anger was too overwhelming. She jerked her gaze over his shoulder, only to see Kamen’s smug glare, which quickly turned to rage when a warrior hovered intimately closer to Kit. When the warrior stared defiantly back, Kamen took two long strides in his direction. Anyone within ten feet of Kit backed off instantly.
Lilly looked back at Asar, searching her mind for some defense. He had caught her in the middle of an orgy. Strike one. Drinking wine with his elite warriors. Strike two. Negotiating transportation behind his back. Strike three. This would not bode well after Kepi’s betrayal. She readied herself for the worse.
His black eyes finally broke from hers to his commanders. “Bomani, it is good to see you,” Asar said in a surprisingly even tone.
Bomani bowed. “It is an honor to have you and your mate visit us. She was just telling me about the circumstances of her younger sibling. I am honored she would ask me for help.”
Lilly flinched, and Asar’s hardened gaze flashed back to her. The muscles in his jaw rippled and bulged under the strain of his clenched teeth. Shit, he was pissed. She held her tongue, knowing if she said a word, there would be a fire storm to contend with. Better to wait it out, maybe give him some time to cool off.
Without taking his eyes off of her, he spoke to his commander. “Yes, it is unfortunate. I apologize for not being able to come initially myself, but I got held up. But now that I’m here, please continue the discussion.” Asar stepped past Lilly and sat in the chair she'd been sitting in.
Lilly let out breath. She wasn’t out of the hot seat yet. There was no fooling herself. He was beyond pissed! Turning back to the commander, she stood behind Asar’s shoulder. Kit gave her a stressed look, but casually grabbed another chair at the closest table and sat down. Kamen gestured for Lilly to sit next to Asar and then took up position behind her sister. She moved purposely to the chair, trying to maintain some semblance of control.
Hell, she had lost control the moment Asar walked in the door.
Asar accepted a goblet of wine. All the sexual activity had ceased and cleared out of the hall. Most of the patrons departed and an eerie silence settled into the room. He took a slow, deliberate sip before turning to Lilly. “So where did you leave off?”
Although his voice sounded calm, his eyes and body told her a much different story. His jaw muscles were twitching, which would worsen if he caught one of the warriors gawking at her. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap trying not to show the fine tremor of her fear. “Your commander asked for my assurances that you approve of their assistance in retrieving my sister.”
Asar turned to Bomani. “You may. I want minimal collateral damage. These N
ehebkau are human and I don’t want your troops getting overly zealous with them. Currently, the huntresses are the only line of defense against the revens and the goddess. I do not want their numbers decimated.”
Bomani relaxed slightly. “I understand.”
Lilly’s heart skipped a beat. She fully expected Asar to carve her up in front of his commander. She glanced over to catch his expression. His face and eyes were still stone cold, but despite this, he had covered for her. Or was just buying his time until her got her alone. Gods, she was in trouble. There wasn’t anything more humiliating than getting caught. Worse, she had already blown his trust once by not telling him of her involvement in Kepi’s release. Her impatience and need for control had gotten the best of her yet again.
“When do you want us to transport out?”
“In a few hours, I have few loose ends to clean up.” Lilly froze. She was no doubt one of his loose ends. Asar finished his drink and set it down on the table with a loud thud.
Turning to Lilly, his eyes darkly penetrating, he asked, “Shall we go? Unless you would like to stay?”
She could feel the burn of anger in her gut. Admittedly, she might be in the wrong, but she wasn’t about to let him manhandle her in this relationship. He withheld information from her, so who was he to be pissed? She turned to the commander, inclining her head. “Thank you for your time commander. Next time, I won’t surprise you.” She finished her statement with a flirtatious smile. Standing, she forced herself to meet Asar eye to eye. “Let’s go home.”
He held his hand out indicating she would go first. She moved without looking back, heading straight for the door. With his gaze drilling into her back, she could barely breathe. She understood now why the other gods bowed down to him. His presence alone was intimidating, and had her waffling between anger and submission.
Kit waited for her at the door. The look in her eyes asked if she should stay or go. She answered with very slight gesture with her head, despite her wanting reinforcement. It was like being sent to the Principal’s office. She was a grown woman for hell’s sake. Her father didn’t raise her to kowtow to some man. Well, he was a god, but that shouldn’t make any difference.
Should it?
She stepped out into the street and took deep breath of air. The smoke from the drugs had made her dizzy, and she needed all her faculties to stand against him. Kit and Kamen were nowhere to be found.
Asar walked silently beside her, a hulking shape that looked straight ahead with his fists clenched. The dark waves of energy flowing off of him made her head spin worse than the drugs.
Unable to take his silence, Lilly sighed. “Okay, I overstepped my bounds again. I’m sorry.”
She hoped taking the hit early would somehow deflate his anger, but she knew the minute he stopped walking she was done for. Refusing to show her fear, she turned to face him in the darkness. His dark form, shrouded by the shadows, seemed to vibrate with energy.
“Did any of them touch you?” he finally asked. “I’ll kill anyone who dared lay a filthy hand on you.”
Lilly flinched. She never heard such raw, possessiveness before. “What? No!” He grabbed her quickly before she could escape and ran his nose over the surface of her body.
“What the hell are you doing?”
He finally released her, apparently finding no evidence of another man’s scent on her skin. “You should have not gone in there. There are things that are not appropriate for you.”
She gasped when she realized he wasn’t upset over her plans to rescue her sister. He was angry because she was there with other men—half-naked men. Granted, there was activity going on that even shocked her, but of the multitude of things to be upset about, he chose that one? She laid her hand against his chest. “You’re mad because you think they will corrupt me somehow?”
He pulled away and glowered at her. “That’s all? Do not make light of this. I forbid you to go in there again.”
Her anger reignited at his words. “First of all, nothing happened. Second of all, yes it was a little X-rated, but nothing I haven’t seen before. Third, where do you get off forbidding me to do anything?”
His eyes widened. “What do you mean you have seen that before?”
She groaned. He was so, so, male! Worse, he didn’t deny that he was controlling her. “Hell. I didn’t grow up in a convent. And let’s not get distracted from what you're really saying here. I would never cheat on you, and I do not enjoy being controlled.”
“I trust you. I just don’t trust them.”
“That makes no sense. And, it doesn’t matter whether you trust them.” She crossed her arms. “If they had tried anything, I would have shoved my sword up their ass.”
Asar stared down at her with barely tamped anger. Lilly rolled her eyes.
“So, I am forbidden. Fine. So are you!” The thought of him in that place spun her anger to the next level. The picture of the female licking the cum off her lips flitted through her head. “If I find you in there, I’ll kill the bitch.”
Lilly turned on her heels and stalked off into the darkness. She didn’t get far.
He materialized in front of her. “Do not walk away from me," he snarled. "We are not through talking.”
“Talking? This is called arguing. And stop telling me what I can and cannot do!”
“Do you have to be so infuriating? You went to a whorehouse behind my back to organize a mission you did not think to discuss with me first. Do not give me that haughty attitude of yours.”
“You kicked me out of the meeting with Nehebkau when it directly concerned my family. My sister is out there, and I’m stuck here, doing nothing. I couldn’t wait around for you to get back. We have a limited window of time before Mother moves Kendra from the safe house. From there, we will lose her. They’ll move frequently to the point we won’t be able to trace her.” Her anger faltered and her eyes became damp with tears. She looked away, angry at herself for getting emotional.
* * *
Lilly’s energy retracted in on itself the moment her emotions waivered. Human women were more unpredictable than goddesses. Goddesses could be vindictive and stayed angry a very, very long time, but Lilly burned off negative energy quickly. He could not stay mad at her, although he had every right to be.
She sighed. “I guess I should at least thank you for not embarrassing me in front of the commander.”
The thought of her standing up to his most dangerous warriors filled him with sudden desire and pride. It took internal fortitude to go into the lion’s den. He might never admit that to her, but there was power behind the fact that she was his, and she would not let anyone else touch her in the way he touched her. The dark part of him wondered if she enjoyed what she saw. Would she do what the whores did for the warriors? Or let him do things to her?
Asar grabbed her so quickly, she yelped in surprise. He thrust his tongue in her mouth demanding she reciprocate, despite being in the middle of the warrior compound. She melted into his arms, all of her anger dissipating with each kiss.
“I will not apologize for my jealousy,” he rasped against her lips. He felt her suck in her breath when he loosened her top. “Do you want me to stop?”
Her eyes flashed a dark green and she shook her head, tugging on the string to his pants. He guided her back up against the building and leaned his arms on either side of her.
A smile curled up on her lips, as she reached into his pants. “And I won’t apologize for mine,” she said slyly, sliding down the front of him. Her warm mouth enveloped him, her tongue teasing the tip of his hard cock. At that moment, he couldn’t have cared less if someone walked by.
Her hand cupped his balls and her lips traveled the length of him. With his anger so close to the surface, his beast controlled most of his actions. This was the side of himself he had not yet revealed to her. Would she think him depraved? Their previous love making had been anything but painful.
Body shuddering, he grabbed a handful of her hair, and p
ushed himself deeper into her mouth.
The bounds of what she would do with him, what she would do to him would be tested this night. He pulled her up roughly by the hair. Though she winced, excitement glittered in her green eyes. He was surprised to see her incisors slightly lengthened to sharp, needle-like points. She scraped them across his skin, kissing his shoulder, releasing small amounts of venom into his body. He hissed at the burn.
If she did not know his needs before, she would now. As soon as he removed her pants, Asar spun Lilly around, pressed his hard cock along the crevice of her bottom, and crushed her against the wall with his body.
Stimulated by her venom, his fangs descended to their full length. Without hesitating he plunged his teeth into the soft curve of her shoulder. She gasped as he drew the blood into his mouth. He pulled her head back and shared it with her. She eagerly lapped at his tongue and fangs.
“You are mine,” he growled against her skin.
His fingers slid around the curve of her hip down in between her legs, where the sweet liquid of her heat bathed his fingers. He groaned at her level of arousal, and she responded, separating her legs to invite him into the warmth of her sex. He yearned to plunge himself into her.
Not yet, he told himself. There was one taste he had yet to experience.
Asar grabbed Lilly by the hips and knelt behind her, ravaging her bottom with kisses and bites. She tilted her hips irresistibly towards him.
Her folds glistened with wetness. He thrust his tongue into her with demanding need. The silkiness of her arousal spurred him to probe deeper. He shifted her hips further back to open her up to his exploration. Relentlessly, he encircled her swollen clitoris with his tongue, followed by hard bites with his teeth.
She screamed out, but pulled his face and mouth tighter against her. A flood of sweet juices poured into his mouth and down his throat. It only took a few more strokes to send her reeling in ecstasy. Not waiting for her to finish, he stood and thrust his cock into the tightness of her orgasm, sending her into another.