Page 20 of Insolence (Eisha’s Hidden Codices #1)

“Don’t move a muscle,” she says, her voice husky. Her garter belt and panties are on the floor in seconds. She’s still wearing her stockings when she crawls up, positioning herself over me to straddle my face.

“Oh, hell,” I murmur as she lowers herself onto my mouth.

We both let out a groan, her body shuddering, thighs tensing on either side of my head, when her sopping wet pussy settles on my tongue. Unable to contain myself, I pull her more firmly down on top of me.

Holy shit . Her slick heat, her musky, slightly floral taste has desire racing between my legs all over again.

She holds her breath, her hips grinding while I lick and suck. Eyes briefly meeting mine, she grabs a handful of hair at the crown of my head and squeezes. She takes her breast in the other hand, pinching and rolling one of her pretty nipples.

Her firm grip on my hair, the feel and taste of her filling my mouth, and the tantalizing view above me are driving me higher. My fingers slide down either side of my clit. I pinch and pull, like she did in the Archive, never stopping my mouth.

Her head rolls to the side. “Ohhh, fuck , Tiss,” she whimpers, riding my lashing tongue harder.

She chases her pinnacle, leaning forward to grab the headboard while her hips propel her. Skin flushing, she cries out and freezes in place. I moan into her, my tongue fluttering over her clit, encouraged by her trembling legs.

As soon as the vibrations hit, she releases a low groan. The realization that she’s orgasming pushes me almost to the brink myself. But she pries herself away before I can crest.

I lunge forward, trying to recapture her, but her fingers are tangled in my hair again. She holds me forcefully down while she convulses and thrusts into the air above my face. Eyes pinched closed, mouth open, she looks like she’s in her own world.

It’s unbelievably arousing watching her succumb. My fingers rub and knead between my legs. Just when I’m about to reach my own peak, she lowers herself to my mouth again, eager for more. And oh , gods , I want to give her whatever she craves. Whatever she needs.

“Gods, Tiss,” she moans, using the headboard to drag her pussy over my tongue in deep, slow thrusts. “I’ve been thinking about this all damn day.” It’s not long before her skin flushes again and she freezes in the throes of another climax.

I swirl my tongue over her clit, feeling the rest of her spasm against my chin, and think that I could die like this and truly be happy.

The next time she wrenches herself away, I watch in awe while tremors wrack her, my own impending orgasm threatening to break.

My fingers find an insanely sensitive spot where my hood meets my clit.

Heat rushes through me as I change my tactic, stroking that spot until my muscles clamp down, my peak within reach.

Once more she settles onto my face before I can plunge over the edge. Bliss scorches me, my own pleasure swelling while my tongue moves to the same rhythm as my fingers.

“Shit—” she gasps, arching and rocking her hips unrestrained. “Tiss, I’m— Damn it. I’m almost—” Her fist goes to her mouth, and she bites down as if to keep from shrieking.

I moan, sucking and flicking her clit, increasing the pressure while she rides my mouth with abandon. Giving a broken yelp through the fist crammed in her mouth, her final climax shatters her.

I’m only a few heartbeats behind, my orgasm shaking my body in a breathless rush.

Afterward, she climbs off me with shaky legs, perspiration glistening on her skin. I can’t take my eyes off of her as she leans off the edge of the bed to grab the hand towel from my basin stand and hands it to me. I wipe my face while she curls up beside me, her head cradled on my shoulder.

My mind is reeling with everything that just happened. “Don’t you need to get back to your room?” I don’t want her to leave at all, but I know she can’t stay here all night.

“I need a few minutes. There’s no way my legs are making it to the second floor at the moment.” Her bright giggle is followed by a yawn, those legs tangling with mine in the small bed.

Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, I yawn too. “You know how to wear a girl out, don’t you?”

She giggles, the sound lifting my heart like music. “Rest now,” she whispers, kissing the corner of my mouth.

The last thing I’m aware of is pulling the blanket over us and holding her tight before sleep consumes me.

T here’s an uncanny stillness in the liminal span during which I’m not quite asleep but not fully awake. When my eyes flutter open, I have no idea what time it is. It’s still dark, and my lamp has been snuffed. I’m alone and naked in my bed.

My skin heats at the memory of how I wound up like this. Thoughts of Sadrie swirl in my mind while I pull my sleeping shift over my head and grab my panties.

Badly in need of the facilities, I head toward the washroom.

The “toilets” are no more than drafty holes in stone ledges. After relieving myself, I bend over one of the shallow basins, washing my face and hands. The pipes clank in the cold chamber, the sinks spitting nothing but icy water.

Having finished attending to my needs, I start back to my room on the opposite side of the building. For a time I move along the deserted walkway like a specter. I’m roughly halfway there when the illusion of solitude shatters.

“Girl!” Sister Ailen’s gravelly croak halts me in my tracks. “What are you doing out of bed at this hour?”

I turn to find her mouth twisted with scorn. “I was only using the washroom. I’m going back to bed now.”

“If that’s the case, I’ll escort you.”

She plods close behind while I lead the way, bewildered at her hovering. The thump of her cane blends with the rhythmic jingle of her keys. I’m only a few doors away when heavy breathing and scuffling catch my attention.

The noise comes from a walkway opposite us, across the atrium and one floor up. The finches below chirp in agitation, instantly restless.

Something’s wrong. Another heartbeat passes before mayhem breaks loose.

There’s a sound like a door crashing open. The finches cry out in alarm.

A pale woman with dark hair skids around the corner, hurtling at full speed down her walkway. She’s fully dressed in casual clothes, which probably means she’s another initiate, but I’ve never seen her before.

She isn’t alone. A shadowy figure races around the corner behind her, dressed in a sister’s scarlet robes.

“Shit!” My hand flies to my mouth. The finches’ shrieks are deafening.

Ailen’s hand is on my arm, gripping so hard that I stare at it and then at her. “Keep moving, girl.”

“But—”

The initiate’s unbound hair flies in her face as the sister lunges forward, tackling her to the ground. A panic-stricken wail explodes from the girl, rising in pitch and volume until goosebumps sweep every inch of my body. What in gods’ names?

Ailen tugs my arm hard enough that I stumble. My hands shoot out, my fingers wrapping around the wrought iron barrier as I vie to stay in place.

“What’s happening?” I wheeze, locking my knees.

“Butt out and let her deal with her own consequences, eh?”

What consequences? Every hair on my body stands on end. My horrified gaze swings between Ailen and the initiate as she grapples against whoever is assailing her.

Between the violent flurry of limbs and the shifting shadows, I can’t discern much about the sister. She’s too far away to identify.

The initiate's wails are rising. My mouth runs dry, my eyes rooted to the scuffle.

Ailen yanks me backward so hard she grunts with the effort. My fingers smart, the flesh raw and burning from being abruptly torn from rigid metal. I gape at her, shocked. She’s got to be in her seventies and uses a cane to walk. How can she be so strong?

The initiate is screaming now. She’s shrieking incoherently, and the sound cuts through me so fiercely my knees buckle.

The atrium finches are in a state of cacophony. Their frantic calls rend the air to rival the girl’s screams.

Her hand flies to the back of her head, her body contorting as if she’s being dragged by the hair. I can’t make sense of the frenzy; I hardly know what I’m looking at.

Her screams become ear-splitting— gut-wrenching —as the sister rises behind her.

What the hell? What the hell? What in the blazing Netherworld hell? Grooved wood grates against my spine, alerting me that I’ve backed into the carved door of someone’s room, that I’m uncontrollably trembling. There’s a surreal sense of self-awareness while I glance around.

Wait. Where did Ailen go?

It’s at this precise moment that the overcast sky breaks wide open. Moonlight pours through the glass and iron dome, showering the atrium in silver light.

The initiate—the Screamer —looks up, spotting me through her tumbled hair. She’s low to the ground, one floor up, and almost out of view, but from her jerky movements she must be kicking against the sister’s grip for all she’s worth.

Grabbing hold of the barrier, she hauls herself forward until her face is against the filigree ironwork. Moonlight cascades over her, her expression twisted with anguish.

She heaves for breath and bellows, “GET OUT. RUN. ” It’s powerful enough to cut through the finches’ terrified screams. “DON’T LET THEM— aaaAAHH !” She’s yanked back, her warning obliterated along with her vocal cords.

She disappears from view only to re-emerge, scrabbling and clawing.

She’s trying desperately to get her feet beneath her, her oval-shaped face imploring me for the breadth of a second.

There’s a prominent beauty mark on her cheekbone, just below the outer corner of her right eye.

Bathed in silvery light, it stands out starkly against her pallor. She can’t be that much older than me.

For the briefest moment our eyes lock. Her mouth moves, silently pleading for help I can’t provide. I should yell. Try to distract the sister. Run to the initiate’s aid. Anything but cowering against a gods-be-damned door.

Instead I choke on the dread clotting in my throat, paralyzed and useless.

Behind her, the sister lurches closer, into the light.

Oh, shit. Oh, hell.. . It’s Sister Kerrigan.

The Screamer is torn backward with an animalistic roar. Kerrigan comes into full view, stepping into the moonlight. Her face is contorted with rage and flushed with exertion.

I watch, my heart lashing against my ribs, as she raises a blunt object I can’t identify high above the Screamer’s head. She brings it down hard. The act is so shocking, so sudden, I barely have time to shriek.

The resulting crack is sickening. It reverberates across the atrium, making me retch. The Screamer slumps to the floor, suddenly too still and quiet after so much noise and violence.

Panic surges through me. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. My face feels blanched; my ears and the tips of my nose and fingers are nuggets of ice.

Horrified isn’t an apt enough word to describe it.

Shrouded in shadows again, Kerrigan bends over the motionless mound that used to be a breathing, screaming woman. Then she’s dragging the poor girl like a corpse, disappearing into shadows and back around the corner. Gone as if none of it happened.

A door opens somewhere and, a few moments later, slams so hard it rattles my bones. I cower, rooted in place.

The finches are worn ragged. Disjointed shrieks still go up, but it’s nowhere near the caterwauling from before. If not for that, I’d be questioning my perception of reality.

Managing to get myself somewhat under control, I creep to the edge of the walkway and risk peeking into the atrium.

Nobody’s down there. A quick look around confirms nobody’s on the other walkways either. Other than Sister Ailen—wherever the hell she went—nobody knows I saw that. At least for now .

Head spinning, nausea churning my gut, I find my room and close myself inside.

Alone in the dark, I’m technically safe, but dread settles in my bones. I’m shaking all over—trembling so hard, my teeth chatter. Tears stream down my face, but I can’t pinpoint at what point I started bawling.

“GET OUT. RUN. DON’T LET THEM—”

“What?” I sit on the floor at the foot of my bed, sobbing into my hands. “Don’t let them do what ?”

I’d give anything to know the end of that sentence, and yet, I’m grateful that I don’t.

“What is this place, and who in the hell put me here?” I cry into the static silence. “Because it sure as shit wasn’t me!”