SIX
The two brawny Varil towered over the slender Rose, yet there was no fear at all on her delicate face as she faced them. Her dagger glowed like a torch, sending the reptiles’ shadows dancing like demons on the stone walls.
“Look, my kevil,” Blue Stripe hissed, “a little treat before the feast.”
“All you will eat is my blade if you do not get yourselves gone,” Amaris snapped, brandishing her blazing knife.
It might as well have been a glowing toothpick against the raiders’ power and size. Raniero could take no more. “Get out, Amaris! Summon help!”
Too late. Blue Stripe lunged at her, massive arms extended. She spun aside like a bull dancer, and the glowing blade flashed.
A splatter of green droplets rained through the air as the Varil howled in startled pain. “She cut me, Cari’f! The little git’fe cut me!”
But she had already made Cari’f her target, darting in with that ridiculous blade to slash the raider’s fanged muzzle. He yowled and swiped a massive hand at her face. The blow would have taken her head if it had landed, but she spun aside. Bloody claws caught only one silken curl.
Raniero ground his teeth in frustration. Amaris was much faster than the Varil, but all they had to do was land one blow and she was finished. He threw himself against his chains with all his vampire strength, simultaneously knifing his magic into the draining spell. He had to get free before they killed her.
His magic died as the chains held firm. He cursed and gathered himself to try again.
Amaris buried her blade in Blue Stripe’s thigh, then barely managed to yank it out again and dive aside before he could knock her into the nearest wall.
“What goes here?” a human voice bellowed.
Wizard Lord Korban stalked past the splintered door, half a dozen guards at his heels. “Cease!” he roared, flinging a spell globe at Blue Stripe. Just in time. The creature had finally succeeded in grabbing Amaris, and was about to rake her face open with his claws. The globe hit him in a splash of red light, and he yowled, releasing Amaris to paw at his burned shoulder.
“They were attempting to eat your captive, Korban,” Amaris said.
“Nay!” Cari’f hissed. “It was . . . her! She tried to free him. We but stopped her.”
“Which is, I suppose, why he is still chained and covered in the marks of your claws,” Korban snarled. “Do not try to play me for a fool, reptile. You have not the wit for it. Get out of my sight before I slay you on the spot.” A red glow gathered around his lifted hands.
“Have a care, wizard,” Blue Stripe growled. “Our masters—”
“—Will be most displeased if I tell them the Great Barrier will not fall because you two got hungry.” The glow blazed up in warning, bright as firelight. “Get you gone!”
Snarling, the two Varil limped out, hissing insults at the guards who brandished swords to speed them on their way.
Korban turned to Amaris, who was breathing hard, the bloody knife in her hand. Her thin gown was splashed with blood, both green and red.
Raniero tensed. She was hurt.
“It appears you saved my captive.” Korban eyed her up and down, gaze lingering on the shadows of her nipples, visible through the thin fabric. “My thanks.”
She curled a lip, her hand tightening on her knife until her knuckles went white. “I didn’t save him for you. I would not see anyone helpless before those beasts.”
He shrugged. “As you will.” Turning to look down at Raniero, he studied the wounds that raked across his chest and arms. “You are fortunate she summoned me and came to your aid. Otherwise your injuries would have been far worse.”
Raniero let his cold rage show in his eyes. He wouldn’t have been helpless before those monsters if it hadn’t been for Korban’s plotting. “I am well aware of what I owe you both.”
“Where were his guards?” Amaris demanded, a frown on her pretty face. “There were four human guards watching his door when I went downstairs, but they were gone when I returned. Yet their watch was not over.”
The chill smile vanished from Korban’s face, and his eyes narrowed. “That is a very good point. I believe I’ll have a word with the guard captain.” He turned, but before he stepped into the corridor, he looked back at Amaris. “Heal the vampire. He won’t be able to take care of those injuries himself in those bespelled chains. And I’d as soon he doesn’t die of blood-fever.” Korban stalked out, the hem of his robe vanishing after him with a swish like a cat’s tail.
His servants and hangers-on slipped out in his wake, leaving Raniero alone with the Rose. He eyed her in the firelight, frowning. “Why?”
She closed the door behind the last of the mob before turning to look at him. “Why what?”
“Why did you risk your life? You could have run for the guard.”
Amaris shrugged as she crossed the room with a Rose’s habitual floating grace. “I didn’t think you had the time. I feared they’d rip you apart before I could bring help.”
“Instead they might well have ripped us both apart.”
Her green eyes sparked, magic flashing clear and blue in the depths of her pupils. “I am not so easy to kill.”
“Still, you took a great risk.” He studied her lovely face. “Thank you.”
Amaris bent to examine the wounds raking across his chest. “As I told Korban, I would not see anyone at the mercy of those monsters.” She touched delicate fingertips to his chest over a particularly deep set of claw marks.
Raniero caught his breath as her magic danced across his skin, delicate as butterfly wings at first, building to a rapid burn as she forced torn flesh to heal.
Amaris met his gaze, and desire shivered between them, lush and impossibly tempting.
The Blood Rose had saved him at risk of her own life. It made no sense. Roses schemed, lied, led a man around by his dick.
Look at his stepmother. Thanks to her lies, her son was now heir to the fief that should have been Raniero’s.
Yet this Rose had put herself at hazard for one who could do her no good.
Raniero watched her, struggling with the mystery of it as her delicate fingers floated over his bloody flesh, healing his wounds with dancing waves of magic. His temples began to throb, a deep and sullen pulse.
Finishing at last, Amaris started to rise. And hesitated, her gaze on his face. She frowned. “Does your head ache?”
Raniero stirred in his bonds, gazing up at her warily. “Aye.”
She made as if to go again, then stopped and sighed, as if yielding to a weakness. Cool fingers touched him between his gathered brows, and the pain drained away like water.
And that act, he knew, could have no other motive than simple kindness.
Again, the Rose turned to go.
“May I offer you pleasure in payment?”
Her lips twisted with such cynicism; it occurred to him that he was not the only one who doubted the motives of the other. “I need no payment.”
“Then perhaps pleasure for its own sake?” When she started to speak again, he added, “I would offer you my mouth.”
He could not have known.
Orel had been a selfish lover, though she hadn’t the experience to realize it at the time. Cunnilingus was a pleasure he’d never offered her, though she’d heard much of it from the other Roses.
Her Garden mates had often rhapsodized about the sensation, comparing the tongue talents of this lover or that, until Amaris had been wild with curiosity.
No, Raniero could not have known. But once he’d made the offer, a dozen Varil raiders could not have dragged her from the room.
She hesitated, eying him. “But you are bound. How would you . . . ?”
Dark brows lifted. “You need only lower yourself over my head.”
Oh, she saw how he could accomplish it now. And what a wicked idea. Unable to resist, Amaris plucked her blood-stained gown over her head and kicked off her slippers. Only to hesitate, suddenly flustered. “I am bloody.”
He gave her a very male smile. “I care not.”
Come to think of it, neither did she.
There was a moment’s awkwardness as Amaris dealt with the problem of arranging her legs to accommodate his broad shoulders and bound arms. Then she settled down over his face, her own heating in self-consciousness.
Which she promptly forgot with the first molten flick of his tongue.
The sensation was startling in its intensity. Wet, hot, and piercingly sweet. Amaris settled down a little lower to give him better access, then raised up quickly, biting her lip. “Can you breathe?”
“Very well. Come back here.” There was laughter in his voice.
She eased down again and was rewarded with a long, incredibly skillful lap that sent exotic sensations shooting up her spine.
And that was only the start of the delicious pleasure.
Sometimes he traced exotic runes over her jutting * with the very tip of his tongue. Sometimes he lapped between her folds, or thrust deep into her sex in a maddening tease, or suckled her until the muscles of her thighs danced and quivered.
Amaris had thought herself experienced in the ways of passion, but Raniero taught her differently. He seemed to know her body far better than she did.
And he used that knowledge to whip her into an orgasm that rolled over her and drowned her in sweet fire.
Gods, what lush pleasure. The scent of the Rose flooded Raniero’s head as her taste flowed over his tongue, astringent yet impossibly delicious, reminding him of a juicily ripe persimmon. Warm thighs clasped his head as slender fingers fisted in his hair, demanding and begging by turns.
Driving him mad with frustration.
He ached to touch her, to jerk free from his bonds and tumble her down and thrust his cock deep in that luscious peach of a cunt. But he was helpless.
Yet he’d never felt more powerful. Bound, he explored the power he could wield with only his tongue, his teeth, his lips. Nibbling, sucking, licking, he listened to her helpless cries of pleasure as his balls tightened into burning knots and his aching cock stretched up the length of his belly.
She’d fought for him. She was half his weight and a fraction of his strength, but she’d gone against those towering reptilian monsters to save his life.
Yet he was the one who was supposed to do the saving.
And now her delicate body quivered and jumped against his mouth, right there against his face—so frustratingly far from where he most wanted her.
She came again, her voice lifting in high, helpless cries of pleasure.
He dragged his chin up until he could gaze along the length of her beautiful body. “F*ck me,” Raniero growled at last, unable to take anymore. “Red God’s balls, f*ck me.”
She looked down at him with dazed eyes. And then she rose from his face.
For a moment he was afraid she’d leave him like this—aching, furious, his cock hard as a sword hilt.
But then she moved down over his hips and freed his sex from his breeches. He almost moaned in relief. Grabbing the thick shaft of his cock, Amaris impaled herself, sliding the length of him in one deliciously tight swoop. Raniero shivered at the sensation—tight as a cream-slick fist, hot and dazzling.
He threw back his head and ground upward, desperate for the climax that was just inches out of reach.
So damned close.