Page 94 of Kept to Kill
He gave it to her and showed her how to pull it, to nock the arrow, to hold it properly with her two fingers to keep the arrow level, and to let it loose. He demonstrated to her the correct technique, shooting a bolt into a tree thirty paces in front of them.
‘Your turn,’ he said.
She did as he did, and he helped correct her stance. She let the arrow loose and it flew into a thicket past the tree. She stared at the tree in such consternation that he flicked her nose.
‘Takes time. Practice.’
She pulled the bow for her next shot and he put his hand into her breeches, cupping her intimately.
She turned on him. ‘I cannot be expected to make this shot with you doing that,’ she admonished as he played with her gently.
‘Learn to focus,’ he chided back.
He took the bow from her hand and set it on the ground. The arrow he kept in his hand. He heard the others still just on the other side of the boulder and smirked. They must know what he was doing.
‘Hands over your head,’ he said, and she did as he told her. Taking her breeches back down to her ankles, he pushed her back against the boulder so that he could take them off completely.
‘Your tunic,’ he said, watching her fumble with the clasp, but she took it off, standing in front of him in just her thin undershirt. He could see her chemise underneath.
‘The rest of it,’ he growled and watched a tremor take her.
‘But it’s cold.’
‘I’ll warm you,’ he promised. He drew the shirt and chemise over her head. When she was naked and shivering in front of him, he held the arrow by its shaft and drew the feather fletching over her breast. She gasped as it cut her and he grinned as he licked the tiny trail of raw skin it had left in its wake. He did it again and she shuddered, not making a sound as he cut a path in quick flicks down past her navel. His tongue traveled along those as well.
‘You like that,’ he whispered against her stomach, kissing her navel and laving down to her mound. He pushed her back against the boulder and gripped her thighs, lifting her legs to put them over his shoulders.
His tongue delved deeply into her and she arched her back with a cry, grabbing his hair and pulling it, pulling him to where she wanted his tongue. He smiled as he licked her and for once did not tease her, giving her what she wanted quickly. She cried out, biting her knuckles to muffle the sound as if the others wouldn’t know.
He’d noticed Quin in his periphery some time ago, watching from the tree line so that she didn’t know he was there, his gaze hungry. Mal had decided to give his Brother a show. They needed Quin to admit that he wanted Lily as much as he and Bastian did. That was his plan.
It was the only way he could think of so that Quin would not acquiesce to her wishes. Now that she had that fucking collar, she could easily leave them if she could make Quin unbind her. A part of him knew it would be for the best, but as he had already told her, he was not a good man.
He made her cry out again and brought her to her peak, pretending that Quin was not staring at them wishing that he was tasting her instead.
When he finally let Lily down. Quin was gone. Mal met her eyes with a chuckle and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He kissed her lips hard.
‘Going to fuck you later,’ he vowed, leaning in to whisper in her ear, ‘and let the others watch.’
He heard her sharp intake of breath. ‘Both of them?’
‘Yes,’ he promised darkly, helping her on with her clothes.
When they emerged from behind the boulder, Bastian gave him and Lily a slow look. Quin was nowhere to be seen. Bastian flicked his head into the trees.
‘He’s gone ahead,’ he said, with a knowing chuckle.
Bastian knew what Mal was doing, and if Mal knew his Brother, Bastian would be doing the same before the week was out and they caught their southbound ship from the Strait. By then, they’d be well on their way to breaking Quin, and his notions of unbinding Lily from their unit would be crushed once and for all.
There was no way they were going to let her go without a fight even if she wanted to leave them. Mal and Bastian would ensure that she didn’t by any means. By the time they got back down to their camp, breaking the bond would be the furthest thing from Quin’s mind … and hers.
Chapter 14
Bastian
Their journey that day was monotonous, which, considering they hadn’t seen another living soul since Kane’s unit had left them, was welcome.
Bastian, for one, was glad to see the back of the other unit. Lana recognized him and she had tried to speak to him about seeing him in the God Realm all those weeks ago. He’d pretended ignorance, told her she must be confused, that she had mistaken him for someone else, but he knew she was suspicious and he still wasn’t ready to tell his unit the truth.
