Page 156 of Brimstone

I was going to do more than make her shake.

I was going to make her fucking tremble.

I was going to make herweakfor me.

The shoes she wore were beautiful, sparkling black, the heels staggering, a black silk ribbon tying at the front of each ankle. I shoved my right foot between hers and lifted her a fraction, knocking her feet out so that her stance was a little wider. I needed better access for this.

Saeris closed her eyes, turning her head, resting her cheek against my chest. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

Fuck. I needed another hand . . .

Magic would do. I was limited with what I could accomplish here. My small magics were available to me, such as they were. Minor illusions. Other trifles. But attempting to summon my shadows only led to frustration. My hands were bound, the vastness of my magic beyond reach. When I called, only diaphanous tendrils of shadow answered—tendrils that, for now, at least, would perfectly suffice.

The gods had gifted my father with his shadows so that he might do good with them. My father had passed them down to me for the same purpose. Over the course of my life, I had used them to help and protect many people . . . but right now I used them to pin Saeris’s gathered skirts to her hip so that I could take her by the chin and turn her gaze back to the mirror. Would the gods punish me for such a flagrant misuse of power? Fuck it. Let them. I would use my gifts for far more scandalous things over the course of the life I shared with Saeris, and if that meant languishing in the fires of damnation when I died, then that was a price I would just have to pay.

“A queen should never enter into a political setting feeling stressed, Osha,” I purred. “I’m helping, I promise.”

She was slick against my fingers. Hot. Wet. I stared at her in the mirror, smiling open-mouthed at her need. Before I could remark upon it, Saeris let out a groan. “Don’t tease me,” she pleaded. “I can’t help it. I . . .”

“Because you want me?” My voice was rough.

“Yes.”Her voice was a plea.

I withdrew my fingers from between her legs and held up my index and middle finger for her to see: wet, shining, coated in her arousal. “I’ll never tease you for this, Osha.Thisis the hottest thing in the world to me. It drives me to madness like nothing else. And I want you just as badly as you want me.Always.I walk around this hellhole with the head of my cock tucked into my waistband so that these leeches don’t get the wrong idea.”

“Fisher—”

“I wouldbottlethis if I could,” I said. “Now stop worrying and watch.”

“Saeris?”Taladaius was at the door. I had sensed him there some moments ago, but he’d had the decency to keep his mouth shut. It appeared that he couldn’t do that any longer.

I held Saeris’s chin in place, making sure she looked straight ahead. “Don’t answer.”

“But—”

“Your body is mine for the next three minutes.Surrender.” She didn’t want to. The command in my voice made her want to fight it, fight me, but she needed this. “Do you love me?”

“What! That . . . isn’t fair.”

“Doyou?”

“Yes! Of course I love you.”

I grinned wolfishly at her reflection. “A part of loving me is yielding sometimes.”

“You want my obedience?”

I slipped my hand back between her thighs, my fingers teasing circles over the bud of sensitive nerve endings I found there. “No, Osha. I want yourtrust.”

“Ah!And do I have . . . yours?”

I kissed her neck, still maintaining eye contact with her in the mirror. “Anything I ask of you, I give freely and willingly in return. Always. I promise.” Grazing my canines over the skin just below her earlobe rendered her immobile for a split second. She sagged back against me, losing control of her muscles, her eyes rolling back into her head.

“Saeris! It’s time!”

Her eyes snapped open again. “I needthree minutes, Tal!”

I chuckled darkly under my breath. “Good girl, Osha.”