“Oh, God,” he breathed as he looked at her sex.

“Did you forget already?” She smiled as she lowered her lids. “That they gave me everything but the panties?”

“Mmm, no, I remember.”

He moved her around, pulling her forward so that he could split her legs around his hips. Leaning down over her, he put his mouth on the side of her neck and then drew his tongue up until he nipped at her earlobe.

“You know what the hardest thing is?”

He punctuated the question with a thrust of his pelvis, his arousal pushing into her bare sex through the fine fabric of his slacks. As she gasped, his fingers drifted over the bodice of the dress.

“Hmmm?” he murmured, nipping at her again as if to chastise her. “Do you?”

“I have a good idea,” she moaned.

“It’s not this.” He pushed into her core again, stroking her with his erection. “Believe it or not.”

“Wha-what…?”

He put his mouth next to her ear. “It’s not ripping your dress off with my teeth. I want to take you to Last Meal after this, and as much as I respect the Brothers…” Trez kissed his way down to her shoulder. “I’d have to kill them all if they saw you naked. And that’s a lot of clean-up.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Sit up for me.”

She was dizzy as she did what he asked, but it was from the passion, the heat … the need. “Now … what?”

“We very carefully get rid of this.” Grasping the hem, he pulled the black wisp up over her waist … over her breasts. “Fuuuuuuuuuck.”

As he tossed the silk to the floor, he just stared at what he had revealed. “Oh, that’s what I want.”

With his palms stroking up and down her thighs, he dropped his head to one of her nipples, sucking her in, nursing at her, his dark head contrasting with her paler skin. Letting her head fall back, she gave him the access he wanted, spreading her knees even further.

The sound he made was all male animal, and the hold he sank into her hips was rough as he jerked her forward.

“Gimme,” he demanded. There was a quick zip! as he released himself, and then that growl was back. “All night. Thought about this all night.”

He pushed into her with a thrust of his hips, and she grabbed onto his wrists, arching up again. With hard drives, he let himself go and she took everything he gave her, a powerful release gathering momentum immediately. So hot, so wild … the culmination of the thoughtful dinner, the crazy ride home, the constant anticipation she’d had when she was around him.

Dragging him back down to her mouth, she clung to the power of him, seeking his lips and sucking his tongue inside of her until the rhythm of penetrations below made that impossible. Faster, harder, and then the orgasm hit her.

And it was just like careening through those panes of glass, a gathering speed and then a spectacular shattering.

Except it was her body coming apart.

In a wonderful way.

Just as she was beginning to float down, she found his wrist at her lips. “Take from me,” he grunted. “I want to feel your teeth in my flesh.”

Instantly, the heat rose again and she pushed his arm out of the way. As her fangs descended in a rush, she hissed and struck the side of his throat, right at the thick vein that ran up from his heart.

Trez cried out her name and clasped her to him, tilting his head and encouraging her to take more, take everything she needed—as his hips locked against her, his erection jerking as he came deep inside her body.

His release called another out of her, taking her to the edge again.

And all the while, she’d never felt safer or more loved.

THIRTY-NINE

As the cell door shut tightly behind him and maichen, iAm yanked the headdress off and tossed it. “Let her go.”

s’Ex shifted his powerful legs off the bedding platform and got to his feet. “Do you know what my biggest failing is? I don’t take orders well.”

“She’s not part of this. It’s between you and me.”

“Yeah, see, you’re still getting it wrong. You and I are actually just bit players in the real drama, but that’s beside the point.”

The executioner walked forward, and iAm put his hands out, shielding maichen. “Stop.”

“Or what.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

s’Ex halted right in front of him and stared down his nose. “Really.”

“Yes.” iAm curled his hands into fists and felt his fangs drop down. “If it’s a question of you or her walking out of here alive, I will guarantee that she will be the one still on her feet when the door opens. And I don’t care if I die in the process.”

s’Ex frowned and glanced at the maid. Addressing her, he said, “Wrong brother. You know that, right?”

iAm leaned to the side and blocked the eye contact. “So are we doing this?”

“You’d be a fool to fight me. Considering I came to get you out of here.”

iAm refused to be distracted. “Are you throwing the first punch or am I.”

“Did you hear what I said? I came here to take you to the fucking library—but I’m assuming that’s where you two are coming back from? Or are we swinging by there on the way to the exit.”

In the silence that followed, iAm ran the executioner’s words back and forth, checking the syllables for meaning. Then he frowned. “I don’t get it.”

“If you don’t mind, we need to do this now, because I have to be back at court in about twenty minutes.”

What the fuck was this, iAm wondered.

s’Ex rolled his eyes. “I told you I’d get you in and out, didn’t I?”

“You put me in here! You had me hit on the head—”

“No, asshole. One of my guards did that. I’ve been working behind the scenes to try and get you free—you’re not supposed to be in this goddamn cell. That wasn’t our agreement.”

Blink.

“We have been to the library,” maichen interjected. “We were unsuccessful. And I’m coming as well. I want to be sure he makes it out alive.”

s’Ex and iAm both looked at her and barked, “No.”

“See?” the executioner said as he walked around them to the door. “We can agree about something. Now, can we do this.”

And the bastard wasn’t talking about fighting.

Holy. Shit. It looked as though his trust hadn’t been as misplaced as he’d thought.

iAm looked at maichen. In a soft voice, he whispered, “Don’t follow us.”

“You cannot tell her what to do,” s’Ex said as he triggered the exit. “Now let us proceed—unless you want to rot in this cell?”

iAm shook his head at the maid. “Do not—”

“I’m waiting,” s’Ex said.

“maichen—”

“I shall follow you if I wish,” was all she said as she steamed by him and joined s’Ex in the hall.

iAm’s hair was on fire as he followed, still wearing that maid uniform he’d sneaked around in. “I’m not going to have it on my conscience if you get yourself killed for a dumb-ass reason.”

As they went down the corridor, she paid no attention to his bitching. Duh. She didn’t seem to have a brain in her head.

Or maybe that was him … because he found himself not wanting to leave her.

Which was nuts.

s’Ex led them through the halls, taking a different path than maichen had. And all the way, iAm was prepared for an ambush, a confrontation, a sold-up-the-river outcome that was going to fuck him in the ass.

But fifteen or twenty minutes later, he was out of the palace, past the vacant servants’ quarters … and standing in front of the wall that separated the Territory from the human world.

iAm looked over at the executioner. “You’re just letting me go?” he whispered into the darkness.

“Like I said, that was our arrangement, wasn’t it?” When iAm didn’t reply, s’Ex shook his head. “Herewith lies the ending for the three of us. At least until after the mourning, when I have to come get your brother.”

“Won’t they notice I’m gone?”

“Why would anyone care? I dispatch delinquents regularly—and I have already erased the memory of your marking in any who had knowledge of it.” s’Ex glanced at maichen. “Although all this would have been so much easier if you hadn’t insisted on turning that cell into a furniture showroom.”

iAm stuck out his palm. “I didn’t expect you to be honest.”

“Fuck you, too.” s’Ex shook what was extended to him. “Now go.”

Just like that, the way out was open to him. He didn’t even have to dematerialize over the barrier.

iAm paused and glanced back at the maid.

In the silence that followed, s’Ex let out a vicious curse. “I do not approve of any of this between you two. But you know how to close things up after he leaves.”