Riders approach, Vorik,Agrevlari spoke into his mind from his perch on a rock formation out in the ocean beyond the barrier.More than twenty men on horseback. They have explosives, armor, an iron cell on wheels, and hunting hounds. I am certain they have come to apprehend you.
Not now.Vorik remembered that Syla had warned him of theenforcers. Sheshouldn’thave, but she had. He would not leave her bereft of his gratitude.
I do not believe they will pause if I suggest it to them,Agrevlari said dryly.
Vorik growled at the interruption, both from his dragon and the world, but that didn’t keep him from stroking Syla as she quivered beneath him. She was close. A little more…
Clanks and clatters drifted through the window. Someone heading to the gate to open it for the riders outside. He didn’t have long if he meant to escape, but he wouldn’t leave her yet.
“Vorik,” Syla panted, fingers twisting in the sheets, sweat gleaming on her skin. “Please.”
He slid his tongue deeper into her, then, sensing she wanted it, he nipped lightly at her throbbing clit. She arched wildly and cried out as the gate clanged open and great undulations of pleasure swept through her. She was so sexy, so hot, and he wanted to stay and plunge into her, not flee into the rain like a whipped dog. As he looked at her beautiful body, her eyes full of deep satisfaction and even wonder as she looked at him, his need was so hard and insistent that he almost did something very stupid.
But thumps on the stairway announced men coming.
“What’s going on?” someone with a bleary voice mumbled from the landing.
Frustrated, Vorik flung the robe over Syla, as ifthatwould quench his need. It would at least protect her modesty from the guards.
“Vorik, you have to go,” she whispered, but she gripped his arm, as if she didn’t want him to leave. Even so, she waved him toward the window. She didn’t want him to be captured either.
Why, he didn’t fully know, but emotion swelled within him. Her lips, moist from their kisses, drew his eye, and he wanted so badly to stay, to satisfy himself as he’d satisfied her. But the guards approached.
He couldn’t keep from kissing her before rising, and he caught himself whispering, “I’ll find you later, and I’llhaveyou.”
His voice harsh with lust, the words came out sounding more like a threat than a promise, but eagerness and anticipation sparked in her eyes.
That didn’t keep her from pushing him out of bed. From trying to protect him. Gods, he wanted her. But he grabbed his sword and his boots, sprang for the window, and kicked the iron bar out so he could escape. He couldn’t return to her if he was dead.
25
Hands trembling,body slick from Vorik’s incredible ministrations, Syla barely got her robe fully closed before footsteps thundered across the landing. She flung her legs to the side of the bed, thinking to sit up and look alert—notlike she’d just experienced the most intense orgasm of her life—but the mattress didn’t have a lot of support and she slid off the edge and onto the floor.
At that moment, the door banged open and four guards charged inside.
“Your Highness,” one blurted, as if he hadn’t expected to find her in their prisoner’s room. “Er, are you all right?”
“What did hedoto you?” another guard roared. Flaron. His hair was mussed and his uniform askew, so he’d probably been off-duty.
“He went that way.” Syla pointed toward the window.
Since they would have spotted the broken bar anyway, it didn’t feel like a betrayal. And she needed them to go away. She needed a moment to gather herself lest any of them think… Storm god’s wrath, she didn’t know what they would think. She’d cried out numerous times and had been so lost in her pleasure that she hadn’t thought of the guards, hadn’t thought of anyone. Had the man stationed on the landing outside fallen asleep? He must have. And maybe the rain had smothered some of the noise. Even so, she feared someone would figure out what had happened.
“The roof!” one guard yelled out the window. “Surround the temple. He’s on the roof!”
The men charged out of the room, thankfully leaving her alone. Syla pushed herself to her feet and drank water from the jug, then looked around for a cloth so she could wash herself and get her scattered thoughts in order.
By now, she believed Vorik wily enough—and gifted enough with incredible athletic abilities—to escape the guards, but as shouts rang out and a cannon boomed, she went to the window with concern. Day had come, but the clouds were so dense, the rain so heavy, that it still seemed like night. In the damp air of the courtyard, not a single lantern burned.
That was better for Vorik. He would escape more easily in the dark and rain. Among his powers, he could probably see in the dark. Dragons, she knew, could. And Vorik was…
She didn’t knowwhathe was.
“An enemy,” she whispered, afraid that was the truth, no matter how often he saved her, no matter what pleasure he’d given her in bed.
A tendril of warmth flushed her body at the memory, combatting the chill from the wind and rain outside the window. His parting words came to her:I’ll find you later, and I’ll have you.His voice and his lust-filled eyes had made her body thrum with desire all over again, and she wanted nothing more than to see him once more. She caught herself peering all around the temple, hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
She didn’t until she looked toward the cliff and the sea, wondering if his dragon remained out there in the rain. That waswhen she spotted a shadow, someone who’d run along the rocky escarpment and away from the temple. Vorik.
