Page 24 of Synnr's Ride

Jori tried to focus on the movements, to loosen his body and sway with her, but her curves pressed against him wove a seductive spell that he couldn't ignore. Every place they touched seemed alive, like an electric current bound them together.

He loosened up. There was no other option. Hanna was heat and sex and everything he couldn't want. And she was looking at him like he was her whole world.

He had to remember it was fake. This was for a job. All jokes aside, she was an Apsyn spy. Or rather, an Apsyn spying for the Synnrs.

Nothing between them was real. It couldn't be. The only thing that existed was the job.

When it finally happened, the kiss didn’t feel pretend. The warmth, the spark firing in his blood, the way his heart raced in anticipation. He'd kissed before, too many times to count. He knew his reputation. No one permanent. Nothing beyond a night or two.

This kiss threatened to destroy his life.

That didn't stop him from deepening it with slow, sensual strokes of his tongue. The heat between them surged, and she moaned against him, letting him swallow the sound.

They were one swaying body of desire, and as his hand roamed down her side, she shivered. Jori wanted to roar in triumph. Her body didn't lie, and it was as much under this spell as he was.

He wanted this moment to last forever. This was a stolen fragment of what could have been, if they were different people.

But nothing could make their pasts evaporate, and Jori forced himself to pull back before he crossed a line he couldn't uncross.

Hanna stared up at him, and at some point she'd summoned her wings. They wrapped around him, hovering and hugging and hiding them from view of the rest of the crowd.

She wasn't the only one shining. Kark's red wings were flared wide as Zilly went to her knees in front of him and displayed her own lilac wings, using them to obscure her from view as she took him in her mouth.

One of the women from outside was wearing only her wings as two of Kark's gang kissed their way up her body, her head thrown back in pleasure.

And Jori had worried the kiss was risqué.

Hanna vanished her wings and nodded towards the door, holding her hand out to him.

No one noticed as they left.

Jori didn't drop her hand on the entire walk home.

* * *

Hanna heaved a crate off the pallet and carefully set it on the bar, grabbing two bottles of liquor and putting them in their place. Zilly had a whole stack of dirty glasses she was washing carefully, drying them off afterwards so thoroughly that not even a speck of water was left.

"It's just not the same," Zilly said, grabbing the next glass. "I don't know what it is, but something's different. Morn never used to be like this." There was a bit of a whine to her voice, but she was meticulously careful not to chip the cups.

Hanna hoped she sounded sympathetic. In the three days since Jori had gotten his in with the gang, Zilly had been complaining nonstop. And her complaints were frustratingly vague. "I'm sorry," she said. "Maybe he's just got something on his mind. You know how men are."

Zilly snorted. She stopped drying her glass and watched as Hanna heaved a second crate. "I don't think he even notices me outside of sex," she said. "We haven't had a decent conversation in weeks. And we were going to sneak over to our little hideaway, but he cancelled that!"

Morn Kark didn't seem like the kind of man to have heart to hearts with women, especially not with the girlfriend who was half his age. If Zilly was really Hanna's friend, she'd be giving her real talk. Hanna tried not to hate herself for her job. "Maybe he's just busy," she said. "The bar has been packed these last few days. And I know you've been having sex." She'd seen far more than she expected or wanted to.

Zilly's eyes went soft, and she smiled on a sigh. "Yeah, he never lets me down there. His tongue..."

"I'm sure." Hanna didn't need commentary. There was nothing attractive to her about Morn Kark, but she'd been living out a nightmare of sexual frustration, being so close to Jori. She didn't need to hear a well-fucked woman wax poetic about her man.

Especially not when that man was killing innocent people.

"What about you? You and the new guy disappeared early the other night." She gave Hanna a sly look.

"He's a bit shy." Hanna grinned as lewdly as she could. "But when we got home..."

"Don't keep him all to yourself. I expect you both to stay until the end the next time we party, even if you stick to one another." She picked up her next glass and started cleaning again. "Do you need help with those crates?"

"No, I think I'm good." Hanna rested for a moment and looked out at the room beyond the bar.

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