Page 25

Nika

F ear slammed into me, and I threw my head back, smacking someone hard enough to get a grunt. It only took me a second to realize I wasn’t outside anymore. I wasn’t at the edge of a cliff looking for Salvator. I was in bed assaulting the most infamous assassin in the magical world.

“Easy there, love,” I heard Silas murmur in a pain-laced voice. “What’s got you choosing violence so early in the morning?”

I turned my head and caught sight of a familiar pair of golden eyes, no longer the ominous red they had been in my dream. Silas had taken a hit to the nose, made evident by the crack and hiss when he fixed it.

“Shit. Did I break it?” I sat up and wiped away the blood leaving one of his nostrils. With an assessing eye and careful touch, I checked the state of his nose, and then the rest of his face for any other injury I might’ve inadvertently caused. “I’m so sorry, Silas.”

Laughing a little to himself, the groggy mercenary reached for something next to the bed. He popped the cork and drank the vial’s contents. A minor healing potion. Shit, I’d broken it. I’d assaulted the man I loved in his sleep. So much for keeping our night from melting into violence.

“No need to apologize, love. You can’t help that you’ve got a formidable skull. My nose never stood a chance.” He checked the time, and it turned up nearly five in the morning. Lev would be awake soon. “Another dream, was it?” he asked, his voice muffled as he wiped away the remaining blood.

I brushed back my hair and dropped an apologetic kiss on his healing nose.

A cute smile spread across his handsome face, then he puckered for another.

Giggling at the goofy-grinned man-child, I bent down and kissed him again.

His hand sunk into my hair, tongue sliding across my closed lips in demand, but I pulled away before he could get ahead of himself.

The sleepy-eyed brute rumbled a happy growl, bending an arm behind his head to look at me as if I hadn’t denied him a damn thing. “Is this one of those dreams I should be worried about, love? You’re being quite…affectionate.”

I smacked his chest, pursing my lips in annoyance. “I’m affectionate.”

His eyebrow raised and his grin broadened. “You and I talking about the same person, little rebel?”

“Oh, shut up.”

I grumbled a bit under my breath, unable to refute his claim. But in my defense, it was hard to initiate affection when this oversized idiot was always kissing or touching me, and in the most public places possible.

I didn’t want to encourage his antics.

“I think it was just a dream,” I finally answered. “Though, it’d make me feel less like an asshole if it’d been a vision. Then at least your assault wasn’t for nothing.”

I hadn’t heard the voices after waking this time.

I didn’t think it was a vision. Maybe a deeply-rooted fear manifesting as a dream?

I tried not to jump to conclusions with every weird dream.

I’d had plenty since my father attacked the Council.

Plenty since I discovered I was a mystical fucking monster with the power to steal someone’s soul.

And while it didn’t feel like a normal dream, it didn’t give me the feeling of a vision, either.

I didn’t have a good answer to give him.

Sitting up with a devilish gleam in his eyes, Silas hummed in that conniving way of his. “Oh, I don’t know about that, princess. I’m sure you can find a way to make it up to me.” He licked his lips and reached for me. “I have a few ideas.”

“Bet you do.” I smacked his hand away and shuffled closer to the edge of the bed.

I ignored how incredible he looked with the sun peeking through a slit in the curtains, casting his tattooed body in partial glow.

I refused to acknowledge how enticing he was in only a pair of boxers with the blanket no longer covering him.

The shape of his morning erection caught my eye, but I glanced away.

The undeterred mercenary chuckled in a devastatingly sleep-rough husk when I did. “Is that a blush I see?”

My eyes shot over, and I immediately regretted it. He was biting his lower lip and staring like he’d give chase the second I tried to escape. If anything, he hoped I would.

The hard ridges of his torso were admittedly tempting.

I wanted to trace every corner with my fingers.

Okay, my tongue. I blamed this obnoxiously alluring man for how insatiable I’d become.

It never used to be this difficult to smother my urges, but Silas brought out parts of me I’d never seen before.

As if reading it all on my face, he crooked a finger at me. “Come here, little bird.”

“He’s a horny animal, isn’t he?” I heard Ryker mutter behind me. “I’m surprised he finds time to do anything else.”

“Do you think he’s in rut?” Tometi asked.

Ryker cackled. “Fae don’t have heats or ruts.”

“A flaw in their biology.”

The wolfish laugh that came next was filled with unbridled joy.

“Something we can agree on, big guy. I’d pay good money to watch a bunch of Fae rutting at the same time every month, slaves to their base instincts like the rest of us.

Although, after watching these two over the last several days, I’d argue they already are. ”

Silas, unaware of the peanut gallery commenting on his virility, tugged me close and pulled aside the collar of my shirt.

His tongue chased the line of my neck as the two phantoms went about their conversation like it was totally normal.

I spent several seconds asking the universe what I’d ever done to deserve any of it.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

“Come now, love. I’ve been patient. I think I’m due a little affection from my gorgeous little rebel,” Silas said between kisses, hands sneaking under my shirt.

I clicked my tongue and tossed a cursory look over my shoulder at the two unseen men whispering to each other. “Oh? I didn’t think you’d want the guys to watch, but I guess we’ve never talked about group activities.”

His head snapped up and a growl left him. “Piss off, you lot, or I’ll find a way to toss you out myself.”

I heard Ryker laugh and sensed them leave the room without another word of complaint, probably to bother Salvator. They’d made it their daily mission to antagonize the shifter whenever time allowed.

Silas glared at the corner he thought they were in, and I decided I’d let the charade go on a little longer.

He’d been difficult since Salvator showed up in that forest, and it was only fair I got to enjoy the secret hilarities of this crazy ability of mine.

So, I watched the big brute talk to nothing.

Revenge was sweet.

“Don’t think I won’t deal with a pair of invisible deviants the same way I deal with every wanker who’s perving around my goddess.

I’ll have it out with you like men, and we’ll see if you can feel pain as a pair of phantom bastards,” the assassin continued to rant, holding me close like he was protecting me.

My lips twitched as he growled and peeked at me, looking for any indication his threat had worked. I waited nearly three full minutes before telling him they’d left long before he’d launched into an increasingly creative series of threats.

“Cheeky,” he growled with a sly smirk. “Seems like my bird needs proper punishment. How dare you exploit your boyfriend’s genuine worry over you.”

I dodged his hands and tried to escape, but I was over his shoulder before I could.

His hand landed on my ass with enough power to make sure it was a smack heard around the world.

Or at least around the house. I wanted to be angry and snarl at him, but I remembered the last threat he’d made to the wall —“I’ll make you fetch for hours.

It’ll take you that long to realize I never threw the bloody stick”— and dissolved into laughter instead.

Silas walked us into the master bathroom and flipped on the water. “You’ll let me wash you from head to toe, and you won’t complain, yeah? That’s a fitting punishment for a naughty little rebel like you.”

“Is that all?” I sassed, letting him caveman his way around the large space with me slung over his shoulder.

I caught a glimpse of his sneaky grin in the mirror. “Every part of you, love. Even the parts you rarely think about. The ones I’ll have to use my fingers to get to, yeah?”

I didn’t like that grin. That grin always came with a whole host of fucking problems for me.

Silas would never do anything I didn’t want, but he liked to push it as far as he could.

He knew me better than anyone, save Lev.

I didn’t back down from a challenge, and everything he did in the bedroom was a challenge.

Whatever he had planned, it was something we’d never done before, and he wanted to see if I’d give up. The spark in his eyes said so as he pulled my underwear off and appreciated my ass with a squeeze. Turning his head, he lifted me enough to take a bite out of the ass cheek nearest him.

I gasped, reacting in spite of myself. I tensed and didn’t miss the victorious look he cast at my reflection. Maneuvering me without the use of magic, which was a feat, he tossed my shirt on the floor. He bit my ass again, and his fingers teased my pussy from bottom to top.

I didn’t gasp this time. I moaned. He made sure I was watching as he licked his fingers in the mirror’s reflection. Then he smacked me again and set me down on the sink.

Grabbing a handful of my hair, he dragged my head back and dropped a claiming kiss on my throat. “That’s my girl. Can’t help herself when I do what I want,” he whispered into my ear. “You like it when I have my way with you, don’t you, princess? Gets you all worked up, yeah?”

The air was hard to catch. I tried not to play directly into his hands, but every word was another nail sealing my future surrender.

It was a quick flip from playful boyfriend to dangerous lover.

Silas had mastered the switch. I’d give in whether or not I wanted to. I just didn’t want to do it right away.

Guiding my hand down his naked chest, he urged me to help him out of his pants, and I did without hesitating. His grin was feral as my hand slipped up one muscly thigh to graze his already-hard cock.

Chiding me with a sound, he yanked my hair farther back and pushed my legs apart. “Already going straight for the prize, love? That’s hardly a punishment,” he lectured, snatching my hand and biting my fingers as if to discipline them. “Naughty.”

His hand grazed my naked front, teasing my breasts and stomach.

He purposely stayed away from anywhere too sensitive.

A moan got caught in my throat when he finally dropped his head and sucked one of my nipples into his mouth.

My stomach contracted as I fought voicing my pleasure.

Silas was relentless, though. He clawed my thigh, pushing my legs wider, and teased my clit with the hand not holding my hair.

Sensation stormed my waist, and I swiveled without intending to. His sure strokes kept me on the edge. He didn’t do enough to make me come, but he didn’t stop either. He kept his pace deliberately slow to torture me.

“Silas,” I growled in warning.

His fingers sunk inside, and I arched. “What is it, love?”

“Tease me any longer, and I’ll break your nose again,” I hissed, the electric warmth spreading across my waist and thighs.

“Oh, aye,” he laughed, his thumb running circles over my sensitive nub. “You always do know how to threaten me with a good time, don’t you, little rebel?”

His hand caught mine before I could reach for him, trapping it to the counter, but I used the other one to grab his hair and bring his mouth to mine.

The kiss was brutal. I sucked his tongue and licked his palate.

His groan filled my mouth before I was yanked close and my naked chest pressed hard into his.

The anxiety and stress from the ominous dream ebbed away, leaving desire in its place. That might’ve been his entire objective, but all I could be was thankful. Silas never failed to give me an escape when I needed one, even if sometimes he went about it in the most obnoxious way he could.

Pulling away, he huffed a breath and his fingers dug into my ass. “You’re not playing fair, little rebel.”

“I wasn’t aware paid killers followed rules to begin with,” I rasped, nipping his pec and sinking my teeth in. The little hiss that escaped his mouth was all the reward I needed. “But you’re right. I feel absolutely filthy and should probably shower.”

His cock jumped between us, a sure sign I’d won. His hold tightened, and a wild groan fled his mouth before I was kissed again. “I never stood a chance against you, did I?”

Grinning against his mouth, I licked his bottom lip and locked my legs around his strong waist. “Too bad, so sad,” I teased. “Now take me to the shower, you big brute.”

Snickering with a devilish grin on his face, Silas lifted me and I clung to him, my arms dropping around his shoulders. I tugged his ear and celebrated the way he quivered against me. His steps were hurried over to the shower, the heat coming out of the box in misty wafts.

“You’ll have to make it quick,” I warned, kissing him again as the spray washed over us. “Lev will be awake soon. He’ll want to review what we found yesterday.”

Pressing me against the wall, Silas trailed kisses and bites from my ear to my shoulder. “The lad asked me for a favor today, so he’ll wait. I never promised him a time. You and I have all morning to explore the limits of your body.”

That got my attention. “He asked you for a favor? What do you mean?”

“Cheeky birds aren’t owed explanations. You’ll just have to wait and see,” Silas clapped back and twisted me around.

I was now facing the wall, breasts plastered against the cold, wet tile. His hands caught my hips and dragged me back so I was bent over with my legs spread.

“Now be a good girl and let your handsome rogue have his wicked way with you.”