He stared at me. “What?”
I shrugged. “She’s your soulmate. She’s about to be your wife. She’s my friend. She’s part of the gang. Lots of reasons. I think it’s time we tell her, don’t you?”
“She’s right,” Cora said. “Kiara needs to know.”
Conah was looking at me with an expression I couldn’t quite decipher, but it made my cheeks grow warm.
“What?” I frowned. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because he thinks you’re fucking amazing,” Cora said. “Am I right, Con?”
Conah swallowed and tore his gaze away from my face. The urge to crack open my shields and experience his emotions was a poignant pulse in my chest, but if I did that, then everything I’d made myself forget, every emotion I’d convinced myself to deny would be brought to the surface. It would be like rubbing a scratch-and-sniff page of a magazine and knowing no matter how orgasmic the fragrance, you’d never get to own it.
“Thank you,” Conah said. “I’ll speak to her tonight.”
“She’s still here?”
“Staying in Senki and traveling back to the Underealm at dawn,” Conah said. “She wants to observe an appropriate physical distance before we marry.”
I didn’t want to think about sex and Conah. I’d closed that door in my mind. I just wish it wouldn’t keep creeping open.
“At least the amulet works,” he continued. “I couldn’t sense you at all, Fee. Your signature was masked, which means Lilith won’t be able to decipher your heritage either.”
“So, we’re good?” Cora asked. “We fill Kiara in, and we’re good to go?”
He nodded. “We leave first thing Saturday morning. A royal drake and carriage are being sent to pick up all the Dominus.”
My pulse kicked up, and hope bloomed in my chest. “All the Dominus?”
His eyes filled with pity. “Azazel will make his own way to the celebrations.”
My heart sank. “Yeah, of course.”
“He’s doing this for you, Fee. To protect you.”
My throat tightened. “But I have the amulet now.”
I sounded like a child asking for a treat.
“No magic is strong enough to mask a soulmate bond once it’s confirmed,” Conah said. “You need to stay away from Azazel while we’re in the Underealm just in case…”
“In case what?”
He shook his head. “Just keep a distance.”
He left the room, and the excitement at having found the amulet fled with him.
“It’ll work out,” Cora said.
“No, Cora. There is no happily ever after for me and Azazel. I just need to accept that no matter how much it hurts.”
She stood and wrapped her arms around me. “Fuck it all. How about we take that amulet of yours for a test drive. Fancy a pint in the tavern? You can be my boyfriend.” She wiggled her brows.
“Fuck it. Let’s do it.”
Chapter Eleven
I was wrecked. The ale, all the fucking ale. I burped and worked on my swagger. Walk like a cowboy, like you have a large aubergine between your legs. Yeah, like that. I totally had this.
The amulet was cool against my skin. I’d been wearing it for four hours, and it hadn’t warmed up. What time was it? Like two a.m. Like too late or too early?
An unmanly giggle bubbled up my throat as I took the stairs to my floor, but then I had an idea.
A filthy, hilarious idea.
Chuckling to myself, I bypassed my floor and headed to the pinnacle. To Mal’s floor. Oh, boy, this would be fun.
Another burp.
That fucking ale.
Whoa, how had I gotten down this corridor so quick? And there was Mal’s door. Not knocking. Sneak time it is.
I pushed open the door enough to slip into the dark room beyond. His scent was everywhere, in the air, in my lungs. Now I was drunk on him.
Poetic.
The bed was smack dab in the center of the room. Drapes were drawn. Wait, what if he wasn’t alone? What if he was draped in pussy? Fuck it. I’d come this far. It would be enough to see his shocked face at finding a strange dude in his room.
Conah hadn’t told him. I knew because he’d gone straight to Senki to see Kiara, and I’d promised to let Mal know.
Yeah, this was me letting Mal know about my amulet.
I pulled back the drapes, letting the moonlight lance onto the bed and light up his alabaster skin. He was alone. Score. He was naked. Bigger score. His legs were tangled in silk sheets, draped to cover his groin, but every other inch of him was a feast for the eyes.
It was the perfect pose. Fuck, he might as well have been prepping for a sexy photoshoot. My clit throbbed, and my panties grew wet. I’d come here to tease him. To come on to him as a guy and freak him out, but now…Now I wanted to strip off my glamour and my clothes and climb into bed with him. I wanted to taste him, to peel back the silk and take his cock into my mouth.
Whoa, dangerous ale-addled thoughts.
I took a step back, and he opened his eyes and snared me in his gaze. A slight frown marred his features, his eyes narrowed, and then a lazy smile tugged at his lips.
“Early delivery, I see.” His voice was husky from sleep. “At least they got my specs right. Although I need to be sure. Take off your clothes.”
My heart was going ten to the dozen. No, don’t panic. He thinks you’re a dude. He wants to see the dude’s body. The glamour body.
“Well?” Mal said. “Show me what I paid for.”
I pulled off my T-shirt, perfectly aware I hadn’t bothered with a bra. His chest began to rise and fall faster, the only indication he liked what he saw.
“Nice. Pants too,” he ordered.
My mouth was dry as I unzipped my jeans and tugged them down.
Mal rolled onto his side and propped himself up on an elbow. “Underwear off.” His tone was thicker now. “I want to see the goods.”
He couldn’t see me. I was clothed in a glamour. It was fine. I peeled off my cotton panties, ignoring the wetness between my thighs.
He drew a sharp breath and rolled his bottom lip into his mouth, sucking on it in a way that made me need to press my thighs together.
“Do you like what you see?” My voice was male but husky with desire.
“Come here.” He patted the bed. “I need to touch you.”
Okay, it was time to call it a day. The glamour wasn’t touch-proof. If he touched me, he’d feel me. The real me—tits, ass, and muff.
“Actually, there’s been a mix-up.” I picked up my shirt. “I should—”
He moved lightning fast, snagging my wrist and tugging me onto the bed, and then he was on top of me, his hard male body pressed to my curves, his legs tangled with mine. He pinned my hands above my head, his emerald eyes gleaming in the moonlight.
“There’s been no mistake, Fee.”
Holy syrup-covered pancakes. “Conah told you?”
“No. I can see you, Fee. I have the ability to make people see and feel shit. Glamour doesn’t work on me. Never has. But don’t worry. I’m unique. Your little amulet will still work for everyone else, just not on me.”
Oh. Shit. He was hard and pulsing with only a sliver of silk between us, silk that was becoming rapidly wet with my juices.
He rolled his hips against me. “You came here planning to play with fire.”
“Mal… Ah, oh, God. Mmmm.”
He undulated against me, silk slick against my clit, rubbing and sliding with the imprint of his arousal.
I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.
“Take it off, Fee.”
“What?”
“The amulet.”
“You have my hands.”
“Oh, yes. I do.” He adjusted so he had both my wrists in one hand and then used his free one to take the amulet off me.
My skin pricked, and his eyes flared. “That’s better. So much better.” And then he grabbed my jaw and kissed me, an open-mouth, invasive kiss that pushed me into the mattress and licked me inside out. “I’m going to fuck you, Fee, and you’re going to let me.”
My body arched as he transferred his mouth to my nipples. “Drop your shields. Let me in.”
I should stop him. I should run, but I’d come here for this, I knew that now. I wanted him and fuck the consequences. I wanted him for as long as he’d let me have him because I’d never forgive myself if we didn’t get to have this.
I dropped my shields all the way. Baring my soul, baring my mind, letting him in.
Desire, longing, and another emotion, raw and unbridled, slammed into me, forcing the oxygen from my lungs. Mal groaned.
“Fee. Fuck, Fee.” He peppered my chest and my neck with kisses before claiming my mouth again in a sweet kiss that speared my heart and brought tears to my eyes.
“Fee…” He looked down at me, his expression one of torment. “You should go.”
He’d felt my emotions. He knew my heart, but I knew his, too, and I wouldn’t allow him to pull away from me.
I pressed my palm to his cheek and ran my thumb over his bottom lip. He moaned and closed his eyes as if my touch was sweet torment.
“No running, Mal. Not tonight. Tonight, we forget the world. Tonight, I want you to love me.”
He opened his eyes, fringed in thick dark lashes wet with tears, and I saw the conflict played out in their depths. “Till the sun comes up. That’s all I can give.”
It would have to do. I kissed him.
I swallowed his protests and devoured his sighs of pleasure. I sucked on his tongue and lifted my hips to meet his, moving with him until neither of us could take it anymore. He pulled back and tore the sheet from between us, and then his bare cock was rubbing against my core, sliding against my heat and wetness. Our gazes locked, and our emotions tangled until I couldn’t tell where I stopped and he began. Until the need to be one was a drum in my chest and lava in my veins.
He positioned himself at my entrance and then entered me, inch by delicious inch, stretching me. Filling not only my body but my soul.