Page 35 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

Candlelight

I nsider RS knowledge (or maybe just Antheme’s ): the way she was able to “secret” people was using some of her dark fae magic to throw a glamour over me.

Strictly speaking, this was highly illegal. You had to register the use of a glamour so the authorities could trace any appearance you might assume back to you.

It was awesome magic, but if people could change their appearance whenever they wanted, they could rob a thousand banks (and get up to other bad stuff), and maybe never get caught.

But I guessed it was okay for the RS to use it whenever they wanted.

This meant, that evening, even if the street had been cleared, there were still quite a number of people loitering outside the front door (and they weren’t lining up to go to the Pink and Black Club ), we were able to nip in her craft to the back door in the alley without a cavalcade of paparazzi chasing us.

And although there were others who were skulking in the alley to catch me or Aleksei out, they didn’t recognize me or Antheme (she’d glamoured herself too), as we ducked into a back-alley door.

As an aside: I wasn’t having pleasant thoughts about all this attention.

Although Aleksei and I talked about it, and I’d watched him run the gauntlet to the door to the gallery, being in the thick of it (or, more accurately, taking such care in trying not to be), was an altogether different, and alarming, thing.

Once we were in a lift that was tucked into a private vestibule that had stunning gothic damask, black and silver wallpaper and an impressive chandelier dripping with crystals (oh, and an RS agent at the entry to it), she dropped both our glamours.

“He’s programmed you in, but he wants us to test it,” she said after the doors closed. “ Put your hand on the print pad. You’ll feel a slight prick. It reads print, but it also tests DNA .”

And this would explain why we didn’t hit the landing pad and came in at the back alley. Aleksei wanted to test to make sure I could get up to his penthouse without delay.

I glanced at the silver plate gleaming against the matte black of the lift interior.

“Are you serious?” I asked.

She nodded shortly, all business, which was what I’d learned that day was Antheme .

“Also blood oxygen and adrenaline levels so if someone cut off your hand, dragged your dead body in here or forced your hand to the plate under duress, it’d know you weren’t actually the one operating the lift.”

I’d never heard of tech like that. I was impressed.

And boy, one could say that was thorough.

I put my hand on the pad, felt a minor prick, and almost instantly, my stomach dropped due to the speed with which the lift started racing up.

“Nifty,” I muttered.

“Secure,” she replied.

Mm-hmm.

All business.

“Thanks for looking after me today,” I said.

“I’d say you’re welcome, but I get paid a lot to do it. I’ve been made head of your detail, so now, I get paid a lot more than I used to. This means, if you keep thanking me, you’re going to be saying that to me every day.”

“Right,” I mumbled.

“I’m not unfriendly,” she stated in a straightforward, unemotional, thus mildly unfriendly way. “ I’m a cool chick. But you’re my responsibility. I take it seriously. It’s my job to die for you. So we are never going to be that.”

“Right,” I repeated.

Message received.

The doors opened.

I knew the drill and waited while she stepped off.

However, a heavenly smell wafted in, so giving her the three seconds it took for her to return to the lift and jerk her head at me to tell me it was safe to exit was a test of willpower I couldn’t believe I bested.

But then I hit Aleksei’s penthouse.

And my whole world fell away.

I learned the low ledge in the living room wasn’t dead space.

Oh no.

The entire length of it was a fireplace, which was now lit with cozily dancing purple flames.

Thousands of pinprick drone lights floated randomly in the air all over the living and dining areas making it look like Aleksei had welcomed the night into his penthouse.

The rest of the lights in that area had been set, at best, to ten percent.

The effect was soft, peaceful, welcoming, but sophisticated.

Oh, and romantic.

Very, very romantic.

There was full lighting over the kitchen, however, which was an absolute disaster, sharing the intel that Aleksei was a messy cook.

There was also a cluster of white tapers in crystal candlesticks, lit and glowing around a squat oval bowl stuffed bloom to bloom with perfect, creamy-white roses. This adorned corner seating at the kitchen bar set with black plates, placemats, napkins, shining cutlery and sparkling wineglasses.

Mellow classical music filled the air.

My cats had taken to their luxurious new digs with the haughty entitlement only cats could make work.

I knew this because Comet was sitting on a stool at the kitchen bar, just his eyes tall enough to see over it to the food. He was quiet for once, openly content, his fluffy tail sweeping along the side of the seat (which made me wonder if Aleksei had been feeding him scraps).

Nova was curled asleep in an armchair.

And Jupiter was fully visible, enjoying the heat from the fireplace and his spectacular view, lying hunkered down on his belly on the ledge by the window, his attention to the craft traffic and city lights.

And from Aleksei’s oven came the mouthwatering scent of roasting meat.

More mouthwatering, the amazing male standing among all of this, the lights gleaming blue on his jet-black hair, his shoulders strong and wide enough to hold up an entire realm, his eyes, twin nights, aimed at me.

Suddenly and inexplicably, at this reminder I was being courted by the True Heir , who happened to be my fated mate, and just how much effort he was putting into that, I was struck shy.

And moved deep to my soul.

To hide that, I quipped, “ Why , your royal highness, I sense you intend to seduce me.”

Standing at the kitchen counter, building a salad, he ordered, “ Come here.”

I went right there.

I mean, what would you do?

I set my bag on the kitchen counter.

Aleksei pulled a dishtowel off his shoulder, wiped his hands, tossed it aside, and was at the ready to cup my face in both hands and dip right in for a lip touch when I made it to him.

He didn’t lift his head far nor take his hands from my face, when he asked, his voice straight to rich velvet, “ How was your day?”

“Bodi, that’s my director, told me I don’t have to bother with offering another direction for the costumes. He’s all in with where we are. Casting is almost complete. We’ll start fittings in a few weeks. Oh , and he congratulates both of us on our mating.”

“Mm,” he hummed, and he could have been doing that right between my legs, such was that area’s response to the sound.

So, when I continued, it was breathy. “ And I figured out how to make troll skin.”

His brows rose with heartwarming interest in my work. “ How’s that?”

“I was trying overlapping. When that failed, gathering. But I should have been scoring. It’s perfect.”

“Excellent.”

“How are you?”

“Better, now that you’re home.”

Gods, this male, this amazing male, was my male.

For sure, I could stand there, my face in his hands, his face all I could see, and I suspected I could do that for a long time.

Maybe years.

And definitely, that timidity I felt was still there, low level, partly because I couldn’t believe my luck. Mostly because he was just so magnificent.

But farg this noise.

I threw my arms around his neck, got up to the tips of my toes and kissed him.

My tongue darted inside to taste his heat and musk, but his forced it out to feast on mine. Together , they danced delightfully as his hands slid from my face, one going into my hair, the other trailing a delicious line of fire down my back.

I pressed closer, feeling his heat, his hardness, his strength, his immense energy, and when he nipped my lower lip between deep kisses, I whimpered.

At the sound, his head shot back.

Losing him, I whimpered again and dazedly opened my eyes.

It was then, he growled .

And that was when I learned he’d been keeping it light.

The kiss he came back with was greedy, hungry, devouring .

I’d never been kissed so thoroughly.

I’d never had any lover demand so much of me, while giving the world in return.

I pressed all the closer, practically burrowing into him, and moaned into his mouth.

He hauled me up his chest then smacked my behind, causing a ripple of decadent sensation to tingle over my entire body, and I knew instantly what he was demanding.

I wrapped my legs around his waist.

He turned, and all the while kissing, up the steps we went, into his room.

He lifted a knee, and then we were down on his bed.

Yes, good call.

This was so much better.

I wanted to flip him to get more of him, but there was none of that happening.

Oh no.

Aleksei kept me firmly under him as he plundered my mouth. He pillaged my neck. He invaded the shells of my ears.

All the while his hands moved, dragging, gripping, claiming.

I was able to get mine up his shirt and another whimper escaped at encountering the silken heat and hardness, skin to skin, of his back.

My hands were removed, though, when he arched away, and my shirt was up, so my arms were too, then my shirt was gone, my hair flying all over his bedclothes.

His darkened gaze raked over my face, my body, a soft, amethyst light mingling with the night in his eyes, and then I watched his head drop down.

With a scrape of teeth against my skin, and a deft flick of his tongue, the front fastener of my bra released.

Holy Hecate .

Smooth .

Released, the cups popped aside, my breast (swollen), my nipples (beaded and aching) were exposed to his gaze, and my hips drove up, feeling the hard, promising line of his cock pressing into my thigh as his head dropped again.

He blew on one nipple while his hand curved over my other breast. And then he took it hungrily into his mouth just as his fingers pinched the opposite one.

By the gods .