He bent his head and grabbed the belt of my robe with his teeth and pulled it open. The cloth fell away just as we reached the bed, and he placed me gently on the sheets.
His gaze was fire on my skin. There was no subtlety in his touch, landing each palm on my breasts.
“Be careful of your burn, Elex…”
He nodded and then demonstrated how much I had to worry, which was not at all.
The shock of his touch pearled the tips harder, almost painfully.
“Clothes, Elex. Please get naked. Now. Please.”
Taking his time, he massaged the mounds before he backed up and dropped his clothes in a flash. He climbed on the bed, and he was already erect. I wasn’t sure I wanted to wait.
I wanted him between my legs, but he lay down next to me, instead. Slowly, he began drawing circles with his fingers on my skin, which grew larger and turned into patterns of whirls and lines and zigzags.
Light, barely making contact, it raised bumps on my skin and sent bolts of lightning straight to my sex. I couldn’t stop my legs from working against the sheets, wanting more of what he was doing while wanting him to stop and just get inside me.
Tugging on his hands didn’t stop him at all. Instead, he found my lips with his, giving me open-mouthed kisses, his tongue only dancing in and out quickly. Stealing tastes. Teasing and promising.
I’d missed this. He was a patient and inventive lover, and I very much enjoyed being his experiment.
“Elex…”
I tried to speak, tried to beg him, but his hand dropped between my legs and found my very hot and swollen clit. He barely touched me, and I jerked.
My sex reacted as well, sending out a wave of my own cream, slicking all of me, preparing me for his cock.
Elex pulled back a bit when I laughed into his kiss.
“I miss this. I miss you in the bed. I miss you in my pussy. Please, don’t stay away so long.”
His answer was a wicked grin and a flick of my clit. I gasped and squirmed again.
“Not if I can help it.” His kisses moved from my mouth, down the column of my neck, and very quickly, he reached my breast and popped a nipple in to suck on.
Shit, that felt good.
A sweet assault on my breasts while his finger played with my clit—and one slipped inside me.
I gasped.
He laughed and looked up at me. “Oops. Did I do that? Finger has a mind of its own.”
“I like the way it thinks.”
My hand found his erection.
He was taking his time with me. Where I had been merely hoping for a quickie, it looked like now I was going to get the full Elex package.
And what a lovely package that was.
My thumb smoothed over the crown of his cock, and grabbed the drop of precum, spreading the silky liquid all around him, loving the way it felt as the skin of his rock-hard erection softened just a bit.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Oh, come on!” I snapped.
“Ignore it.” His hot breath flowed over my skin.
I did and continued to play with his shaft.
Bang! Bang!
Still ignoring it, I took the opportunity to tease the erection in my hand, pumping him a few times.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
“Fuck!” I screamed, pulling away from him.
“Just ignore it,” he snapped.
“They’ll bust the door down if I don’t open it.” I grabbed the robe and threw it on. “They’ll walk right in here while your hands are in places they don’t need to know about.”
Leaving the bedroom was not so much walking as storming out. I could hear Elex scrambling after me. My gaze on the door was probably enough to shatter it into a thousand pieces.
I yanked it open and—
—had no idea who was standing there.
Dressed in full livery, I realized he was a messenger from the university.
I screamed. “No!”
The messenger took a step back, looking shocked and confused as Elex stepped up behind me.
“Professor, the alarm has gone off. I was dispatched to retrieve you.”
“No!” I whirled to Elex. “No! You promised!”
Contrition was written on his face. “I have to go.”
“Elex!”
He put his hands on my shoulders. “Kimber, please. Please. What we’re working on could save all of S’Kir from the tremors. This is vitally important, and I simply have to go.”
Using his own magic, he whisked a shirt to him and pulled it on as he shoved his feet in shoes.
“Elex, you can’t go. If that machine you’re working on can predict tremors, you have to stay. You have to.”
“I don’t know that it’s the right alarm,” he answered. “I don’t know what’s going on with it.” He started to walk out of the apartment.
“Elex, no! No, come back!” I grabbed his arm. “The alarm can wait! The professor is there, the other students will be there.”
“But this is my project, Kimber.” His hand covered mine.
I jerked away from him. “No, Elex. Learn to delegate.”
“I have to go. S’Kir needs this warning system.”
He walked away.
I crumbled into a heap in the doorway.
He walked away.
The two men started running halfway down the hall and disappeared into the stairs a moment later.
He.
Walked.
Away.
Because S’Kir needed his infernal machine.
S’Kir didn’t need his machine.
It needed me with power so I could stop the tremors until the proper time.
It needed me, to guide the mountain down, so people didn’t die.
It needed me, to keep the gate clear and accessible.
I wept.
Crumbled into a heap in the door of my apartment, covered by nothing but a thin robe, I cried and couldn’t move from the spot.
I had no idea how long I sat there, crying. I didn’t understand why Elex couldn’t give up control of his project for half an hour.
Not that we could have gone right back to where we were in the bedroom—because talk about a mood killer—but with just a little while to calm down, we would have.
Still, he left. I didn’t think I had to explain to him that magic needed power and power needed sex. He had been through the defensive classes. He’d had this explained to him, even if I was a na?ve idiot.
A tremor began deep in the ground.
I raised my head and watched the walls start to tremble.
There was no way I could stop this one.
I was the Breaker of the Spine.
I failed.
Now, I was the destruction of S’Kir.
Chapter Fifteen
Kimber
The shaking grew more and more violent, but I was resigned to death.
The tapestries trembled, the chandelier in the foyer tinkled, shook, creating a familiar cacophony of sound. I watched it as the crystal cast the sunlight into a thousand sparks on the walls and floors. It was hypnotic and not altogether unpleasant.
It would be nice to die surrounded by beauty.
“Kimber!”
My head snapped around on instinct.
Master Dorian strode through the hall directly toward me, and he was, as usual, scowling. “What are you doing, girl?”
“Trying to figure out how I want to die.”
“The Spine is shaking! You need to do your job.”
I leaned back against the door and let out a mirthless laugh. “Well, I’d be happy to, except I still haven’t gotten laid, and my penis of choice just walked away from me again.”
Squatting down to stare at me, eye level, he was obviously pissed. “What? Rilen and Roran—”
I waved him off. “Yeah, it almost worked, but then duty called again. Actually, duty banged on the door, and now you see me in the latest state of coitus interruptus.”
“Where did he go?”
“To the university. To his infernal machine.” I looked up at him. “Because S’Kir needs him.”
Master Dorian’s face twisted even more, to a hateful grimace.
I hadn’t a moment to protest before I found myself scooped up, and Master Dorian strode to a different stairwell than the one Elex had used.
He grabbed a panicked, hurried pageboy by the shoulder. “You are to spread the word immediately that Masters Rilen and Roran need to get to the roof.”
Releasing him, he pointed a chin, and the boy ran off.
Carrying me up the stairs, we burst out onto the roof in the midmorning sun. It was warm and pleasant and would have been a perfectly lovely day except for the trembling and shaking.