I hadneverhad such a powerful reaction after merely sensing someone’s attraction to me, and it was dangerous. Especially when I could not act on the impulse. Not only because she was a fragile mortal and so very vulnerable, but because I wrecked people. I failed them. And I knew the last thing Nuala needed in her life was a domineering and insatiable hedonist who would inevitably break her.
“Be careful, little witch,” I growled, my voice huskier than I had intended. “I can smell those kinds of thoughts, and they will get you into trouble.”
I expected her to be mortified that I had sensed where her mind had clearly taken her. But when those eyes flickered up to meet mine through her long dark lashes, there was no trace of embarrassment.
“Our ideas of trouble must be different,” she replied, her voice a seductive purr like what I would have expected from an experienced courtesan in Lystby.
I repressed a growl when my cock rebelled against all my best intentions, and I had to resist the urge to adjust it in the confines of my pants.
“I am the last thing you need now, Nuala,” I insisted, but the warning only made her raise one brow at me.
“Because you think you are too broken. I am not sure if you noticed,” she began with a slow and sarcastic tone, “but I am not exactly untarnished by darkness either.”
You think you are too broken.
She had not meant to, but her words only proved that she saw too much for us to ever be romantically involved. It had always been easier for me to be with people like Geera who were too enamoured of who I was to look so closely at me. Geera was happy to share my bed with any number of others in order to earn the esteem of her noble counterparts in Mionlach. None of them ever questioned whether I thought I was too broken to be with them.
As suddenly as the air between us had become fraught with sexual tension, it turned to ice. Nuala tried to turn away from me, the warmth gone from her striking eyes, but I snatched her chin to keep that frigid gaze on me.
“You have been suffering from bouts of melancholy ever since we left the prison yurt,” I noted suspiciously. She glowered at me as if offended by the observation.
“Who is that woman to you? The one from Mionlach,” she clarified coolly.
“Geera? She is what is called an Auxiliary. It is her job to act as an intermediary between foreign dignitaries who visit Mionlach and the City Council. She was assigned to me long ago. I have tested her loyalty beyond a doubt if you are concerned about that,” I tried to assure her.
“She is your lover,” Nuala stated curtly, and I frowned at her as I tried to hide the way my stomach twisted with dread at the familiar threat of judgment and possession.
I had never made a secret of the fact that I enjoyed sex often and with a variety of people; even when it earned disapproval from most of the aes sídhe. They could not understand that I could never be like the other males in the village. Not when my mother had been prophesying my birth centuries before I was conceived. For the first few decades of my life, I was revered as a guardian of the aes sídhe and had become my tribe’s pride and joy.
Until my father was killed, I lost control of my power, andthen I’d become their greatest fear and shame.
It still tormented me to know that they must have been waiting for me to fulfill my mother’s promise and save them from slaughter when the Fuath attacked. And I tried not to wonder if she cursed the day she had given birth to me before she died alongside the rest of our village.
People had always either wanted something from me or they were terrified and envious of my power. So I had learned early in life to only give away the pieces of me that I didn’t care about. I tried to be honest with potential lovers about that so they knew I would never belong to them fully or exclusively. But Nuala and I could never be lovers, so I did not feel a need to explain myself to her.
“I fail to see what my history with Geera has to do with anything,” I said guardedly.
Nuala gave a sharp huff of frustration and pushed my hands off her. She turned away and yanked her loosened dress down her torso, which exposed her bare back.
The last time I’d seen her nude, she was emaciated, covered in filth, and some of her skin and body parts had been carved away. So although I’d known Ornella usedaistriúmagic to restore Nuala, I was taken completely off guard by the sight of flawless ivory skin. By the elegant slopes of her narrow shoulders, the delicate grace of her slender arms, and the sensual arch of her neck.
I tried to look away, but my attention was yanked back to her the second I heard her dress hit the ground around her ankles. And as soon as my gaze fell upon the utter perfection of her ass and long legs, I could not seem to pull it away again. She had my undivided attention.
A tormented groan escaped me, and this time I could not resist the urge to reach for my aching cock to give it a consoling squeeze through my pants. I tried to be discreet, but then she bent over to collect the bathing supplies with unnecessary flourish. It was clear she was toying with me, and yet I couldnot stop myself from staring. I could not help noticing that her nipples were the same pretty pink as her mouth. AndthenI couldn’t help wondering whether her cunt also matched, and I was suddenly desperate for a taste of her. When she straightened and walked over to the pool, I still had not managed to tear my eyes away.
Nuala pretended to ignore me, but the sensual sway as she descended the steps toward the steaming water was meant to own my attention. Not that she needed to bother. She had every ounce of my awareness on every delicious inch of her. With firelight from the sconces caressing her skin and steam swirling up her long legs and lean torso, she was absolutelybreathtaking.
Nuala sank into the water fully with a throaty groan and tilted her head back to wet her hair. Her expression of pure ecstasy had me clenching my fists at my sides by the time the wicked thing turned to raise a teasing brow.
“Are you going to stand there gawking or did you still plan on bathing tonight?” she quipped.
I fought a smirk and raised a hand to cover my heart as if wounded by her scathing denouncement.
“You are beauty and cruelty given one perfect form.”
“I am,” she agreed, a self-satisfied smile flirting with one corner of her gorgeous mouth.
I knew better than to play this game with her because it could go nowhere good. But I had seen the way she was looking at me earlier, I had sensed her reaction, and there was no way I could resist teasing her back after this.
