I did a mental head count of the lords. Process of elimination meant the first one today had been Vrizaar. At least now I had faces to put with names, except for Jesral.
“So Mzatal won’t be coming,” I said, relieved.
“He could arrive under protection of the conclave,” Rhyzkahl replied, “but he will not. You need not trouble yourself with that.” He stepped back, adjusted his clothes with a twitch of his hands, and shook his hair back into perfect place. “There is much I must attend to,” he said with a smile, eyes still carrying a hint of a smolder.
Oh, well. So much for de-stressing. I summoned a faint smile in return. He turned to go, then paused and looked back at me. “What of after Mzatal was thrown back, and he failed to remove the mark?” he asked, a frown creasing his forehead. “What happened then?”
I grimaced and ran a hand through my hair. “He wanted to find a way to block my contact with the grove, so he decided to take me to some place in the middle of nowhere so that he could have some time to work without you finding him.” I gave a low chuckle. “And that’s when I got my ass out of there and used the grove to come here.”
“Yes, relocation to a remote grove would have caused delay,” Rhyzkahl said, “though I would have found you.” He lifted the hand that had been so bloody the night I arrived. “I was in the final preparations for it when you so cleverly escaped.” I couldn’t be sure, but I thought there was an approving glint in his eye.
“Just in the nick of time, too,” I said with a chuckle. “Mzatal was getting…um, weird.”
Rhyzkahl lowered his hand and frowned. “Weird? What did he do?”
“He kissed me,” I said. “But it was weird and, I mean…” I trailed off, not sure how to explain it.
Red-gold potency abruptly shimmered around him. “Kissed you?” he hissed through clenched teeth. I took a step back in surprise at the vehemence of his reaction. “Mzatal kissed you?” His hands clenched into fists at his sides. “He had no right to touch you thus!”
“Well, yeah, he didn’t have the right.” I said. “Not without my permission.” I frowned and watched him, wary. “Look, it was just a kiss, and an odd one at that. I mean, it lasted a few seconds at most.”
The flare of potency faded, but his eyes smoldered again. “Nothing with him is without purpose.” He closed the distance between us again, eyes traveling over me. “Nothing.”
“I’m starting to realize that,” I said with a wry smile.
He moved in and gripped my head firmly in his hands, wound his fingers in my hair.
I laughed low in my throat. “I thought you had lords to attend to?”
“I am unavoidably detained.” He tightened his hands in my hair with the perfect amount of intensity to send heat rushing through me. “I have far more pressing business here.”
His mouth came down on mine, fierce and possessive, as if to remind me what a real kiss was like. His arms came around me, and he lifted and carried me inside before near-throwing me onto the bed. I let out a surprised yelp, then grinned as he took hold of my sweater and pulled it over my head. I hadn’t put on a bra earlier, and I was damn glad of it now as he lowered his head to my breasts. He continued to suck and lightly bite as he undid the fastening of my pants, then sat up, grabbed the waistband, and yanked them off me in one fluid motion.
“I do not like that Mzatal touched you,” he growled before lowering his head between my legs. I groaned and dropped my head back as he began to work some lordly magic with his tongue. Mzatal certainly hadn’t touched me there, but I was totally okay with Rhyzkahl doing whatever he felt necessary to fuck the Mzatal off me, so to speak. More than okay. In no time at all I was crying out and clenching in orgasm. Mzatal who? I don’ know any Mzatal….
Rhyzkahl was far from finished. He straightened up, eyes still lit with a possessive fire that made my loins spasm and shudder in all the right ways. “You are mine,” he snarled. “My summoner.” He pushed his pants down only enough to free his erection, which somehow turned me on even more. Yet even with my libido raging like a nuclear reactor in meltdown, I forced myself to hold up a hand. “Wait,” I gasped.
To my surprise he went still, though his eyes narrowed in question.
“Swear to me that you won’t get me pregnant,” I said, still trying to catch my breath. Back at home I was on the pill. Here, I had no such protection, and I did not want to take the chance that a lord/human hybrid was possible.
He gave a low snort, though I couldn’t tell if it was in amusement or derision. “I have no desire to get you with child,” he told me. “I swear I will not do such without your consent.” Before I could do more than nod in acceptance, he seized my hips, flipped me onto my stomach, then pulled me up to my hands and knees and entered me in the same movement. With one hand he pushed my head down to the bed as he drove hard into me, wringing low guttural cries from me with every thrust. He knew me so damn well, knew what I wanted—what I needed right now. I didn’t want lovemaking. I wanted some hard and mindless fucking, and he was damn well going to give it to me.
His hand tightened in my hair and his other slid around to massage my clit. Before I knew it I climaxed yet again, giving a hoarse scream as I bucked in his grasp. Rhyzkahl continued to thrust deeply as I shuddered, but as soon as I was finished he pulled free and turned me onto my back. He kneed my legs apart and entered me again. His mouth came down on mine as I wrapped my legs around him, yet this time he kept his pace slow, almost teasing as he kissed me. I moaned against his mouth and slid my arms around to stroke the smooth muscles of his back.
He broke the kiss to nuzzle below my ear. “I am deeply pleased you escaped to come here,” he murmured.
“You just like staking your claim,” I replied with a low laugh.
His teeth grazed my neck. “Dahn. I have no need to claim what is already mine.” He began to thrust harder, and my desire for any sort of conversation fled. I lifted my hips to him, already feeling another orgasm building. Was it some sort of demonic lord trick that made that possible? If that was the case, I was totally ruined for human men.
I clutched at him as the pleasure built between us. He came first, with me only a few seconds behind, in a frenzied tangle of limbs and hair and sweat and musk. Eventually he slowed and stopped, still lightly pulsing within me.
“You are my summoner,” he said, looking into my face.
“No shit, Sherlock,” I said with a throaty laugh. I lifted up my arm. “I even have the tat to prove it.”
Chapter 14
After Rhyzkahl left to greet the lords, I dozed a bit. Or maybe I was in a post-coital coma. Either way, I lay in languid stupor until well after the midday bell, only dragging myself up and out of bed after a pair of faas entered—again with the no knocking, but bearing food.
After bathing and dressing—and discovering that I was nowhere near as sore as I should have been after the morning’s exertions—I headed out to explore more of the palace grounds.
Kehlirik wasn’t waiting for me in the corridor, though I had no idea whether it was because Rhyzkahl decided to trust me or because the reyza had been disciplined for my attempted break for the grove. I hoped to hell it wasn’t the latter. I liked Kehlirik, and he’d been distracted only because of his efforts to shield me from Sehkeril’s harassment.
At the same time, I knew damn well that I was still being watched and guarded, even if I didn’t have a giant demon at my side. As I walked down the corridor, I caught flickers of motion in my peripheral vision, and the occasional glint of eyes hidden in shadows. After I stepped outside I peered up at the towers, unsurprised to see Pyrenth and two kehza peering right back at me. Yep, still watched and guarded.