by Jayne Castel
Ryana shook her head. “I was around eight when I started showing signs of the Dark … my parents and brothers changed in their attitude toward me after that. They became wary, treated me like I carried The Grey Ravage. It was a relief for us all when I turned thirteen and joined the Order.”
“They weren’t proud to have an enchanter in the family then?”
Ryana huffed a bitter laugh. “Ridder Vale is an isolated farming village where enchantment is viewed with open suspicion. They had a hedge crone once … but she was cast out after folk blamed her for a poor harvest.”
The tankards of ale arrived, and Elias paid for them. He then met Ryana’s eye once more, a challenge in his gaze. “Shall we play on?”
Ryana let out a heavy sigh. She’d already revealed the worst of her secrets to Elias, what more had she to fear? Strangely, she felt lighter after doing so. Few people knew the truth about her, but Elias had barely flinched at the things she’d revealed. Not surprising really—for the man likely had far worse secrets of his own.
“Very well,” she replied, picking up the dice. “It’s about time I won a game.”
And she did.
Fortune was with her, and she reached a hundred points with just five throws of the dice. Resisting the urge to grin, Ryana reclined in her chair and nodded at Elias. “Go on then. Reveal away.”
His mouth quirked. “What do you wish to know?”
Ryana inclined her head. “Who was the king’s favorite,” she said after a pause. “You or Saul?”
Elias grinned. “That’s easy to answer … me.”
His arrogance was breathtaking. “And why was that?”
“I was the eldest, the heir, and the one who did what he was told.” Did she imagine it, or was there an edge of bitterness to his voice? “Saul was too much like our father … they used to fight.” Elias paused here. “Saul was always trying to prove himself. It’s why he took that mission to retrieve part of The King Breaker.” He raised his tankard to Ryana then. “Enough about my brother. If you want to know my darker secrets, you’ll have to win another game.”
They played again, and Ryana won by just two points. It was a victory nonetheless, and she couldn’t resist flashing Elias a smug smile. “What happened to your winning streak?”
He snorted, although she could see the glimmer of irritation in his eyes. Just like her, Elias didn’t like to lose. “Go on then,” he replied ungraciously. “What is it this time?”
Ryana pondered for a moment. “Do you like being a soldier?” she asked finally, deliberately turning his earlier question back on him.
Elias tensed, and Ryana bit back another smile. Bull’s eye. The man was even more private than she was. He was at ease with banter, but didn’t like to go beneath that. Ryana, however, was determined to rip off his mask. Now that she was getting the upper hand, she was starting to enjoy this game.
“A soldier shouldn’t have regrets,” he replied after a lengthy pause. “It makes him maudlin.”
Ryana shook her head. “Sorry, that’s not a proper answer. I didn’t ask if you had regrets, but if you liked killing people for a living.”
Elias pulled a face and shifted in his seat. “It’s the only life I’ve known, although I sometimes wish I’d grown up in a time of peace. I fought in my first campaign at thirteen … and I’ve never stopped fighting since. I’ve been away from home, leading campaigns on the border, for so long I feel like I don’t belong anywhere.”
Ryana digested this information, empathy rising within her. She understood that better than most. “But you’re working toward peace now?”
His gaze shadowed. “Aye … but it’ll never give me back all those lost years.”
Ryana watched him. She’d asked for honesty, yet his candor surprised her nonetheless. It was disarming—and attractive.
Her pulse, which had finally slowed, picked up its pace once more. Her breathing grew shallow.
Silence drew out between them, and then Elias glanced up, snaring her gaze with his. “It’s getting late,” he said softly. “Shall we finish up?”
Ryana managed a strained smile. “One more game?”
Around them, The Black Boar had started to empty out. There were a few dicing games going on at other tables, and the lyrist was packing up for the evening. Ryana realized that she’d barely noticed the music; she’d been too focused on Elias to pay attention.
They played their last game slowly. After Elias’s admission the mood had shifted between them. Tension settled over the table. Elias had started the evening with a brash self-confidence, but now there was a reflectiveness to him, a brooding edge that made Ryana’s earlier nervousness resurface.
She became acutely aware of him, of the fact that their knees were almost touching under the table. His gaze had a magnetic quality. Every time he turned it upon her, she felt herself drawn toward him. She even caught herself leaning across the table toward him as they played.
Elias led the way for most of the game, and it looked like he would win. But then, when he’d reached ninety points, he cast three ‘ones’ and lost all the points he’d accumulated. On her next turn, Ryana won.
Stretching back in his chair and clasping his hands behind his head, Elias favored Ryana with a rueful smile. “Your luck has certainly improved.”
Ryana leaned her elbow on the table and rested her chin upon her knuckles. “That’s why you never want to dice with an enchanter.”
He arched an eyebrow. “You haven’t cheated have you?”
“You wouldn’t know if I had.”
Elias inhaled slowly, his gaze never leaving hers. “Go on … what truth will it be to end the night?”
Ryana studied Elias’s face, noting the way the light of the cresset on the wall beside them highlighted the chiseled lines of his face. She hated to admit it, but she’d enjoyed dicing with him. She’d never had an evening like this one; she was even a little disappointed it was coming to an end. Time had stood still for a short while. She’d been utterly absorbed by him.
“What do you want, Elias?” she asked softly. “What’s the thing you desire most?”
As soon as Ryana asked the question, she wished she hadn’t. It brought her back to that tavern room eleven years earlier where she’d asked Gael virtually the same thing.
His answer still haunted her sometimes. Everything.
Elias stared back at her, and the look on his face made Ryana’s breathing still. The rawness in his eyes made her regret the question even more. It was too much, too intimate. She’d overstepped.
“I—” she began, intending to ask something else.
However, Elias interrupted her. “I wish to lie with you,” he replied.
Ryana jolted upright in her chair, heat flooding through her. “Excuse me?”
“You’ve bewitched me,” he continued, a nerve flickering in his cheek, “for days now, you’re all I can think about. Every waking moment you plague me, woman. I can’t concentrate, I can’t sleep. This ache for you is slowly driving me mad.”
Ryana frowned, even if her heart now galloped. She didn’t know whether to be insulted or flattered, for there was an accusing edge to his voice.
“You need to work on your seduction technique,” she said, cursing the tremor in her voice. “It’s not a woman’s fault if you desire her.”
His mouth twisted. “I never claimed to be smooth-tongued … that was always Saul’s strength, not mine.”
Ryana huffed. Saul might have been a charmer, but he’d been forgettable next to this man. She had only to set eyes on Elias and she found it hard to breathe. She wouldn’t tell him that though—he was already insufferably conceited.
Elias drew in a deep breath. His gaze shadowed, and he raked his fingers through his short dark hair. It was the first time she’d ever seen him make the gesture—it was one she’d seen Asher do when something frustrated him. “You asked to know my deepest desire,” he growled, “and now you have it. Only the truth, remember?”
Ryana cleared
her throat. She wasn’t sure what answer she’d been expecting, but it hadn’t been that.
Silence fell between them.
Ryana clasped her hands together under the table and wondered what to do next. Their dicing was at an end, and so was the conversation. There was nothing to be said after such an admission.
Get up and walk away, the sensible voice in her head counselled her. Bid him goodnight and don’t look back.
That was what she should do, what a wise woman would do.
And yet the desire that caused her pulse to race and her breathing quicken made Ryana pause. She thought back to how he’d pushed her up against that wall and kissed her, how he’d made her feel. As if nothing else in this world mattered but the two of them. She ached to lose herself in that sensation once more.
Clearing her throat, Ryana rose to her feet.
Elias cast her a questioning look, although she saw disappointment flare in those dark eyes.
“Wait there,” she ordered softly.
Without another word, Ryana walked across to where the inn-keeper was polishing glasses behind the counter. After a short conversation the man nodded. Ryana returned to their table. Elias’s gaze tracked her as she approached.
“I got us a room for the night,” Ryana said, meeting his eye and producing an iron key. She then smiled. “And I’ve told the inn-keeper you’ll pay.”
15
Consumed
RYANA’S HEART WAS beating so fast she was starting to feel lightheaded.
Hand trembling, she unlocked the door, pushed it open, and led the way into the chamber.
Elias followed her in. The door thudded shut behind them.
Ryana turned to him. Her stomach was now pitching as if she stood on the deck of a rolling ferry crossing The Wash in rough seas. She’d been proud of how calm she’d been downstairs, how she’d taken control of the situation. But now they were alone together, her courage suddenly vanished.
She felt out of her depth. It was as if she’d never before lain with a man and hadn’t the slightest idea what to do.
Elias was too much for her. She wasn’t sure she could handle him.
He moved toward her now, and instinctively Ryana shifted back. The wall brought her up short.
A smile curved Elias’s lips although his gaze was predatory. “Having second thoughts?”
Ryana swallowed the lump in her throat, raising her chin slightly to meet his gaze as he stepped close. “No,” she whispered, her voice suddenly hoarse. “It’s just that I—”
She never finished her sentence.
Elias pulled her hard against him, his mouth slanting over hers.
Shadows, what am I doing?
The thought flashed through Ryana’s mind and then dissipated like smoke. Lust slammed into her with such force that she gasped against his mouth. She’d spent the past two days trying to forget her desire, yet his kiss—searing and possessive—made want arch up inside her like a bow ready to loose its arrow.
There had been few moments in Ryana’s life when she released her hard-won self-control. Occasionally, while singing she let herself go. Some songs touched her, and it was so much easier to release hurt, loss, longing, and loneliness through music.
But not since Gael had she truly given herself to a man. There had always been a part of her she’d held back.
Elias wasn’t the best choice, she knew that, and yet the feel of his mouth plundering hers, of his hands exploring her body, was so ‘right’ that insanity seized her.
She had to have him. She would die if she didn’t.
They collapsed against the wall, tongues tangling, and heat pulsing between them.
Elias reached up then and began unfastening the tie of her robe. He stripped the garment off her before unfastening the soft leather vest she wore underneath to keep the fullness of her breasts confined.
Naked from the waist up, Ryana sank back against the wall. Reaching out, she started to unlace Elias’s silk shirt. Her fingers fumbled, such was her eagerness, but she persevered. And all the while he watched her with a melting gaze that turned Ryana hot with need.
If he kept staring at her like that she’d burst into flame.
Pushing off his shirt, Ryana’s hands roamed across the muscular planes of his chest. Her fingertips traced the whorls of crisp dark hair that tapered down to his belly.
“Ryana,” Elias rasped when she reached for the ties of his leggings. “You have no idea what you do to me.” He cupped her head with his hands and kissed her once more. This kiss was different to the ones they’d explored so far. It was a slow exploration of her mouth, her lips—and so masterful that Ryana sank against him. If he hadn’t been holding her up, she would have crumpled to the floor.
Moments later he tore his mouth from hers and trailed hot kisses down the column of her throat. However, when he reached the base of her neck, Elias halted.
His fingertips brushed the bruise that had formed there. “Did I do that?” he whispered.
Ryana nodded. She stared up at him, surprised to see concern in his eyes. “It looks worse than it feels,” she assured him.
“I didn’t mean to be so rough with you.”
“It doesn’t matter … I wanted it.”
His face went taut, his eyes smoldering. Something feral moved in their depths, and excitement surged within Ryana in response. She couldn’t believe she’d spoken so boldly. Yet it was the truth. She wanted his hot mouth on every inch of her body.
Elias muttered a soft curse and lowered his head to her neck, his tongue tracing the spot where he’d bitten her. Ryana shivered with need at his touch, and when his mouth traveled down to her cleavage, she whimpered.
Her breasts were swollen and overly sensitive. They ached for his touch, and she arched up toward him. Dragging her fingers through his short dark hair, she urged him on.
Elias’s mouth fastened upon a nipple, suckling hard as she writhed and groaned under him. He then released the nipple, taking its twin in his mouth and drawing it deep. Pleasure pulsed through Ryana, radiating out from his gorgeous, wicked mouth.
“More,” she gasped. “Please.”
Elias released her breast and straightened up, giving Ryana a slow, penetrating look that made heat pulse between her thighs. He then reached down and started to unlace her leggings. “Aye,” he growled. “I’m going to give you more.”
The promise made Ryana tremble. Wordlessly, they rid themselves of the rest of their clothes. Naked, they faced each other, their bodies almost touching.
Elias’s brow furrowed as he looked upon her, his gaze stopping upon the bruising to Ryana’s hip. “I didn’t do that too, did I?”
Ryana huffed. “No … that’s the result of a duel with Ninia.”
Still leaning against the wall, Ryana let her gaze travel down the length of him. Broad-shouldered and strong, he had a battle-honed warrior’s body that bore numerous scars. The barely contained power of him made her body hum with need, and when her gaze drifted lower still to where his shaft strained toward her, Ryana stopped breathing.
She reached down, her fingers tracing its solid curve: so hard, so powerful. Ryana sighed, wrapping her fingers around the thick girth.
Elias gasped in response, and a thrill of power went through Ryana.
Elias sank to his knees before her, his hot mouth tracing a path down her belly to the triangle of dark-blonde hair between her thighs. When he parted her legs, she inhaled sharply, a keening sound escaping when his mouth found the most sensitive part of her.
She arched back against the wall and closed her eyes, giving herself to him. Her body turned liquid. She was dimly aware of her cries filling the room, yet she didn’t care.
Eventually, when Elias rose to his feet once more, she was a shaking, panting wreck. Opening her eyes, Ryana saw that his skin had pulled tight across his cheekbones. He was staring down at her, chest rising and falling sharply as if he’d been running, his eyes black with lust.
Elias moved
then, hooking a hand under her right knee and lifting her leg high, as he had that night on the street. But now there was no clothing to separate them, nothing preventing him from doing what they’d both longed for.
He thrust into her, seating himself to the root in one movement.
Ryana cried out. It was a shock. He was big, and she hadn’t been with a man in a long while. The feel of him filling her caused a throbbing ache deep inside her that bordered on pain.
Ryana’s eyes fluttered closed, and she swallowed hard.
“Ryana,” he rasped. “Have I hurt you?”
“No,” she managed. “It’s just … unexpected. I’m … I’m fine.” She could barely answer him, could barely think straight. Drawing in a slow, trembling breath, she wrapped the leg he held around his waist, drawing him closer still, and then she gently moved her hips, rotating them against him.
Pleasure rippled through her lower belly, a deep hot pulse that made her moan.
Gripping her hips, Elias pressed himself up against her, his mouth claiming hers once more. His kisses were deep and sensual now, his tongue slowly sliding into her, mimicking the movement of his hips, and he ground against her.
Ryana melted against the wall, wrapping her arms around his broad back. She felt boneless, weightless. Any discomfort she’d felt when he’d first entered her had gone now, replaced by a feeling of aching fullness and shivers of pleasure that built with each move of his hips.
The feel of him inside her drove her quickly to the edge. Her body began to shudder, as he brought her to her peak, and she moaned into his mouth, giving herself up to it.
Elias pulled back, breathing hard, withdrawing from her.
Disappointed, Ryana grasped for him. “No … not yet.”
“Don’t worry,” he replied with a sensual smile that caused her heart to race wildly. “I’m not done with you.”
With that, he turned Ryana round, spread her legs, and slid into her from behind.
Groaning, Ryana leaned back against Elias, letting him take her weight as his hands slid round to cup her breasts. Then, one hand slid lower, caressing her belly before coming to rest between her thighs. He stroked her there while he continued to move inside her.