Page 57 of Dishonor Among Thieves
I knew instinctively what he meant.
His venom. He was offering to bite me.
“What is it like?” I asked. But then I shook my head. “I don’t care. I don’t need to know. I just want you to do it. Drink from me. Please.”
He stood up from the bed and helped me carefully adjust into a sitting position. He wore only his tunic and breeches, his leather armor piled on a small table by the window. He climbed behind me, leaning his broad back against the wall and spreading his legs apart. Then he helped me scoot backward so my rear end rested between his splayed legs. He wrapped his arms around my waist and bent his head to brush his lips against my ear. He moved my hair away from the back of my neck, teasing my skin with soft kisses.
“You can hold your pillow flowers,” he growled, a smirk in his voice.
I leaned back against his chest, letting his strong form support my weight. “What should I do?” I asked.
“I can drink from your arm or leg,” he said. “But with how bruised your ribs and throat are, drinking from here will deliver the venom faster.”
He trailed his fingers along the sensitive column of my neck, and I groaned, pleasure flooding through my body despite the pain.
“Yes,” I whispered. “Please. Do it.”
He lowered his lips to the side of my neck, his thighs anchoring mine in place. “You may feel…” He chuckled. “Good. Very good. But just relax. If you see colors or visions, do not think I am controlling your mind. It’s not an illusion. I don’t have magic. Everyone reacts differently to the venom. But you and I have a…connection. So it’s likely going to feel very stimulating.”
I nodded, my long hair hanging over my shoulder, one side of my neck completely exposed to him. “I’ll be fine,” I promised.
I felt nothing but gentle pressure as Neo’s fangs pierced my skin. For a moment, I wasn’t sure anything was happening at all, but then… I felt like I was falling, and I understood why Neo had positioned himself behind me. His arms were tight around me, so even though the room moved as though I might tip out of bed, I was not afraid.
I happily gave in to the sensations. My eyelids drooped closed as I watched a cascade of colors behind the darkness. Vibrant red, oceanic blue, and the unforgettable golden honey of Neo’s eyes encircled me in a blanket of living colors. The sharp pricks of pain from my injuries loosened as my muscles relaxed, my vitality returning my body to not just a normal state of being, but to something far, far better. I sighed, a warm bath of sensation flooding my legs, arms, fingers, and toes. The intensity increased as it traveled through my core, a distinctly sensual heat hardening my nipples to peaks.
I lost control of my words, sound slipping from my lips as I uttered moans of delight. I felt free, strong, as if I could not just leap from bed, but could fly. I stretched into the sensation, aware of Neo’s strong arms securing me, his thighs hot alongside mine. Just as I began to grow comfortable with the feeling—greedy, even, for more—it was over. My eyes ripped open, and I pouted. “Why? Why did you stop?”
I looked over my shoulder at Neo’s lips, parted by his fangs, his eyes glowing a fiendish red. He stroked the spots on my neck and closed his eyes as his elongated fangs retracted into unmistakably normal-looking teeth. He swallowed then opened his eyes. The crimson color had faded back to the yellow-gold, but the intensity remained as he searched my face.
“Too much will kill you.” He sighed and rested his chin on the top of my head. “If I drank any more, I’d be in danger of draining you dry. My Brexia. By the gods, woman…”
Enlivened by the lack of pain, the absolute bliss of his venom still coursing through my body, I wiggled out of his hold and turned to face him. Climbing between his legs, I straddled his thighs with mine. Reaching for his face, I parted my lips and probed his mouth with my tongue. He gripped my hips and tugged me against him, his arousal straining against his breeches. He fisted my hair while I tugged at his, our kisses a clash of powerful beings chasing an even more powerful high. Teeth clinking against teeth, we kissed with ferocious intensity. Our hands grappled to explore each other’s skin, our lips’ breathless kisses matching the pace that our hips worked against each other.
This was not just the venom, not just lust. This was something deeper than blood and desire.
I leaned away from him and gazed into his eyes. “If we don’t stop now…”
“We’ve been married two days, and yet already have five children,” Neo agreed with a harsh laugh. “We may wish to slow things down.”
“Six,” I reminded him, “if you consider Elgit. Not so much a child, I suppose, but a dependent.”
“Then I count seven,” he growled, planting a gentle kiss against my lips. “I consider Flynn a dependent.”
I laughed, and kissed him lightly, sweetly. A reluctant transition from passion to practicality. “Let’s make dinner. We have a lot of packing to do.”
“The sooner we leave, the better,” Neo said, his voice growing concerned. “We’ll wake the children at first light and make for Omrora as soon as the trolls and the vengersax have gone to sleep.”
I held my hand out to him, and he climbed off the bed. I tucked the strip of pillowcase into my leg harness. Two of the knives were missing, but I was sure I’d find them downstairs. One might still be inside Gini’s belly. “Do you think we’re in danger?” I asked. “Did Gia see anything else in the records?”
He smoothed his mussed hair and sighed. “Whether it was true or not, Gini seemed terrified that she was being watched by spies of the queen. Gia found long, rambling passages—the thoughts of a woman nearly gone mad with the obsessions of her mind.”
“Madness?” I asked. It made sense that something was afoot. Gini and I had lived together for years. It wasn’t until the merchant arrived—and was killed—that I began to suspect something was very, very wrong. “Do you think Gini’s magic was being used against her in some way? An illusion reflected back to create a belief in something she was afraid of?”
“I’ve considered it,” he said. He smoothed his tunic over the bulge in his breeches that would have scandalized the foundlings if they’d seen it. To be honest, I was a little scandalized myself, but in the best possible way. “If Haeloc was dabbling in magic, he might have attracted the attention of the queen. If Gini sold a foundling to the wrong people…” He sighed. “One fire extinguished, but many others still burn.”
He was right. We might have been safe from Gini, but there was still the massacre of the goblins and Neo’s torturer, Rekker Haeloc, to deal with.
A high-pitched shriek and the pounding of several sets of feet distracted us from further conversation.
