Page 157 of Between Soul and Vessel
Thump.She landed against the door.
“Von . . .” she breathed, her sky-blue eyes flirting with mine. Her breasts arched up toward me, begging for my undue attention. Whatever emotion she sensed down the bond from me was off, although it wasn’t necessarily wrong. There was a part of me that wondered if I could fuck a little common sense into her, although if we looked at our track record, senseless seemed more accurate.
“Do you have any idea how infuriating you are?” I asked, my anger like acid, eating through my restraint.
Her eyes narrowed, her offered chest deflating. “What are you talking about?” she snipped back.
I let out a low, rough, irritated chuckle as I placed my forearm against the door. I arched over her, bathing her inmy shadow. “I’m talking about you entertaining the idea of allowing some stranger to cut into you.”
“I’m notjustentertaining it,” she growled. “And I know you are an archaic, stubborn old goat, but that’s what a chirurgeon healer does.”
A stubborn old goat?If I wasn’t so frustrated, perhaps I’d find the insult amusing. But now was not the time for that. I tried to reason with her. “What if this is all some big ploy by the Goddess of Knowledge? What if there is something more sinister at play here, something we are missing?”
“She guarded the Creator’s secret about me for millennia. Sheservedhim, not her sister. Besides, look at the place she has built, a sanctuary for male scholars. In doing so, she has gone against the empress’s laws.”
I gave her a skeptical look. “Do you always take people at face value?”
“Do you always think the worst of others?”
I snorted.
She tugged her chin from my hand, ducked under my arm, and started for the bathing chamber. The invisible chain between us gave a good yank, our newly mended bond toying with my emotions. I knew she felt it too.
I rubbed my hand over my face, forced a breath of air to and from my lungs, and then stalked after her. She was a walking red cape, and I was the bull, eternally damned to chase after her.
The bathing room was a fair size, consisting of all the usual fixtures—sink, tub,shitter. You get the idea. Immediately, my gaze went to my aggravating, seductive other half. She stood by the circular raised tub, large enough to fit three people, full of hot, steaming water.
She peeled off her tunic and dropped it onto the stone floor. Next to go were her shoes.
I leaned against the wall, watching. “Sage, we need to discuss this.”
“There is nothing to discuss,” she stated as she wiggled out of her pants, allowing them to pool at her feet. She stepped over them, her fingers reaching for the pitiful bit of cloth that covered her sex.
As she stripped it off, I said, “I want to find our child just as much as you do, but there are certain things I will not risk. Your safety is one of them.”
Sage turned toward me, granting me a view of her sexy body. Her snow-white hair tumbled over her shoulders, framing her beautiful face and plump breasts, surrounded by my ink. Her perky, pierced nipples were hard and ready, begging for the flick of my tongue or the graze of my teeth. She had one toe pointed toward the ground, accentuating the length of her leg and the curvature of her hips. She gestured to herself. “I am a goddess, am I not?”
“You are.”
“Then what do I have to fear?” she asked as she placed her hand over her crescent moon tattoo. Slowly, she trailed her hand between her breasts and down the length of her torso, luring my attention along with it, all the way down to her sex. “Besides, you can heal me when it’s done.”
“You are not very sneaky,” I murmured, unable to pullmy eyes away from her poorly deceptive hand.
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t working.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Slowly, she stepped back until her heel thumped lightly against the tub. With her eyes on mine, she lowered herself onto the ledge. She slid her legs open, showing me her glistening sex, sleek and swollen. Ready for me.
My cock pressed against my leathers, creating a prominent bulge.
Thisfemale.
“I showed you mine,” she spoke sensually. Her gaze lowered. “Now show me yours.” She bit her bottom lip, her breath picking up.
“Turn around first,” I directed her, my voice as wicked as the game she was playing.
She gave me a confused look before she stood and turned around.
