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His hand splayed over my sex, pushing the fragile silk into my folds and drenching it instantly. I cried out and he drank it in, deftly stoking my arousal to unbearable heights. Knowing full well he could touch me all night if he desired, I gave myself up to it, drowning in the kiss, spreading my thighs so he could push those long, silk-sheathed fingers into me.
With a skull-shattering crash, I climaxed, even in my frenzy of desire, careful to feed it back into him. No lightning. No wayward magic.
Only the ferocious outpouring of longing I could not allow myself to release in any other way.
He drank my cries of pleasure like a man dying of thirst, coaxing out every last drop as the final sands slipped to signal time over.
*
In the morning,he was gone when I awoke. I should have been relieved, but found I kind of missed him. I might have touched the sheets to feel for his warmth. At least I was able to use my magic chamber pot in peace and pull a robe over my stained nightgown before Starling saw it and got ideas.
Oddly, Rogue hadn’t pressed me for more, following our interlude. He’d simply doused the candles with a thought and bid me to sleep well, stroking my hair until I fell asleep.
And now I started to feel selfish for not returning the pleasure he gave me. Which felt all twisted and wrong, because I hadn’t asked for this, or for him to be exclusive to me. I supposed that was why I was willing to put on that sexy gown and let him look. Throw the guy a bone or something. Nothing to do with the fact that no one had ever looked at me with that kind of desire. It was a heady thing.
I hadn’t missed, though, that he said that perhaps he didn’t wish to go elsewhere. “Perhaps,” indeed. Somehow that, along with that tantalizing remark about being enslaved to me, made me think he didn’t have much choice either.
Automatically, I drifted over to my workbench to record some of these very interesting findings but was thwarted by the empty space. Oh, right.
“Everything is packed.” Starling said, bustling cheerfully in. “The horses are ready and your riding habit is laid out there. As soon as you change, I’ll pack up your nightclothes and we can get going!”
I glanced at Rogue’s massive bed.
“Oh, Lord Rogue said he’d take care of that.”
Ha. I was just sure he would.
“He’ll meet us tonight.”
“Are we camping? Or staying somewhere?” Snuggling with Rogue in the equivalent of the Faerie sleeping bag might be a little much for my steadily eroding self-control.
Starling shrugged and handed me my hairbrush. “I don’t know. Larch has the direction. Apparently Lord Rogue has something for you to see. Do you want me to braid your hair or will you leave it loose?”
I took the brush and obediently set to work. “I’ll leave it loose. How did, um, Rogue seem this morning?”
“Seem?”she teased me. “He seemed his usual imperious, irritable self. You, however, youseemall kinds of satisfied and happy.”
I threw the hairbrush at her and she caught it neatly.
“Except for that lingering bit of temper,” she remarked.
I quickly changed clothes into the emerald green riding habit that was part of the original wardrobe Blackbird and Starling had outfitted me with. Attempts to poof away the nightgown got me as far as I had with the earrings—absolutely nowhere. How he managed to make this stuff resistant to my magic was a mystery. And something I would really love to know how to do.
Instead, I folded up the gown inside the robe and handed it to Starling in a pile neat enough that hopefully she wouldn’t feel the need to redo it.
I looked all satisfied and happy, huh? Go figure.
Outside the tent, they all waited for me. And byall,I mean Felicity, with Darling perched atop his riding pad, tail high with anticipation, fat mice rolling in his thoughts, plus Starling, Larch, and about forty human soldiers mounted on horses too, and a solid contingent of Brownies and dragonfly girls, all on foot. Never mind the baggage train.
“Geez—suddenly I have a massive entourage?”
“Lord Rogue provides for your protection, Lady Sorceress,” Larch informed me in a formal tone. I glanced over the ranks of human men and saw that Officer Liam led them. He saluted me but did not meet my eyes. Was this some new game of Rogue’s? Time would tell on that. “And here is the item my lady sorceress requested.”
Larch handed me a velvet bag. I knew from the feel of it that it must be the dragon’s blood. It almost pulled on my magic, the way endothermic reactions create cold by drawing energy from the substrate around them. I wished a deep pocket into my skirt and tucked it in there.
“Ever efficient, Larch.” I studied him. “Did you take something for yourself?”
I swore he flushed, which looked odd on blueberry skin. He purpled.
