Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
Caden didn’t want to leave my side, but Maja shooed him out when Dr. Karl came, saying how improper it was, which was hilarious to me.
After everything I had been through, being seen naked seemed so insignificant.
In Halálház, I’d showered as people fucked next to me.
Shit in a room full of people. I had been stripped, beaten, and stabbed around crowds of people.
I saw prostitutes walk around naked, felt them pounding against the bedroom wall I shared with the most feared legend in this country.
I had murdered.
The old doctor checked me from head to toe, taking my blood, getting my vitals, and even though I said I had no sexual encounters, he still demanded a pelvic examination.
Finally, after he left, Maja shoved me into the tub. She massaged shampoo through my hair, talking nonstop about my miraculous return, how her god heard her prayers and brought me back.
Only I knew I was sitting in this tub not because of any god—though I bet he considered himself one—but because of a folk tale.
A confounding one. Why had Warwick come back for me?
He destroyed any alliance he might have had with Killian.
Why had he betrayed me and given me to Killian only to risk everything to get me out?
“Let the conditioner sit for a bit; your hair feels like straw,” Maja twittered.
“I need to go see Istvan now.”
“Oh, lófütty!” Horse’s whistle! She swished her hand. “He can wait.” She fluttered around like a mama bird, fizzing with elation. “I will go get you some tea. Nothing better than a cup of tea to make everything better.”
Tea. Sure.
“I have missed you so much, baratnom.” My girl.
She clasped her hands over her heart. “You coming back to us is a miracle. It will bring life back here again. To Caden.” She brushed a tear from her eyes.
“He was not right with you gone. Empty and lost. As if all life had left him.” She sniffed, whisking away her sorrow, pinning a smile back on her face.
“Oh, right, your tea. I will be back.” She bustled out, closing the door behind her.
Her departure left me with a strange fear. As if I was left in an unknown place, not the bathroom I used for the last six years.
The events of the day finally hit me, and I glanced down at my trembling limbs, noticing the deep abrasions, which covered my flesh earlier, were already looking better.
“What the fuck?” I looked over the leg I had fallen heaviest on. It was still covered in bruises and cuts, but all the wounds were closed. Healing. Scars and marks decorated my body, but nothing looked new or fresh like it happened only an hour ago.
Between Nyx and the crash, I should have been in the hospital, unable to move for weeks.
My pulse tapped rapidly in my neck like Morse code, my breath struggling through my nose, my head spinning. I was practical—facts and science. Not that I didn’t believe in magic; the air was filled with it. But there still had to be a logical reason. Fae could heal quickly. Humans couldn’t.
My hand flattened over my racing heart. I slowly sucked in air, squeezing my lids shut in an attempt to calm myself. The need to feel safe, not drifting away in space, had me tugging my knees into my chest. Breathe, I ordered myself. There is a perfectly good reason for this.
A derisive scoff pitched my lids back open, where a massive figure leaned against the door.
“Oh, gods.” My spine splashed back into the tub, water gushing onto the floor, my lips gasping out a cry.
Once again, the abundance of ruthless power and raw sexuality smacked into me, ripping the air from my lungs.
“We really need to stop meeting like this, Kovacs.” Warwick smirked, folding his bulging arms over his naked chest. His body was also covered with injuries, the bullet wound in his side red and angry, but it also looked as if it had been healing for weeks.
“Starting to think you enjoy me watching you take a bath.”
“How-how are you here . . . ?” My tongue stumbled over itself, faltering as I peered around. I was in my bathroom.
“Me?” One eyebrow drew up, his mouth twisting into a deeper sneer. “This time it’s all you, princess.”
Did I fall asleep? Was I dreaming him like I had earlier?
The pinch of my skin against the porcelain suggested I was awake.
You didn’t feel pain in dreams. “How did you get in here?” I searched the room, knowing there were no windows.
The only way in was the door he leaned against. “Get past the guards?”
He snorted, rubbing his beard. The intensity of his gaze felt like he could see through the bubbles. The sensation of fingers trailing up my inner thigh bolted me out of the water. I grabbed for a towel, my guard up and locked on him.
“Now you get modest? Seems pointless since I’ve seen everything multiple times.” His mouth twitched, staring at the towel I tried to cover myself with. “And we’ve been through this many times. You’re not my type, princess.”
“You keep saying that, but here you are, finding me once again naked in the bath.”
“For a second time, this is all you.”
“Me? How is your being here my fault?”
“You brought me here.”
“Huh?”
“I was about to enjoy four curvy women who are about to fuck me into oblivion.” He tilted his head. “The last place I want to be is here. Unless you want to watch . . .”
Suddenly I was no longer in my bathroom, but standing in an all too familiar room.
The bedroom we shared at Kitty’s. Four naked women squirmed on the bed, curling their fingers to him, touching his chest, kissing his torso.
One of them I recognized. The siren, Nerissa, who had called to him the first night we arrived.
The women did not look over at me or seem to see me at all, their focus on the beast in front of them, their hands tearing at his dirty and ripped trousers hungrily.
“What the hell?” Terror and shock gripped me. My gaze flipped around wildly. How was I there? How was this possible? I had to be dreaming. Must have fallen asleep in the tub.
“Not a dream, Kovacs. Believe me . . .” He hissed as Nerissa yanked down his pants, taking him in her hand, cooing and moaning for him.
“Baby, you know I can make your wildest dreams come true,” she said to him, licking her lips. With a humming sound, she leaned over, running her tongue along his erection, then took him in her mouth as the others moved around him, touching and kissing him.
Shock, embarrassment, and disgust screamed in my head to turn away, to wake up.
But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Against my will, my nipples hardened, and an ache throbbed between my legs as he bucked against her mouth, his moan spearing me with pure lust. I inhaled violently, his groan wrapping around me, sliding down my hips, licking my pussy.
“You like that, Kovacs? Watching?” He breathed out heavily, his hips bucking, head tipping slightly back, keeping his eyes on me. “Wish it was you?”
Yes. I felt the answer in my body. I swallowed, turning my head to the side, my veins burning with heat.
I was losing my mind. This was not real. Wake up, Brex. I shook my head, trying to rouse myself.
I heard him chuckle. “Keep trying, princess.”
“I am.” Nerissa looked up, replying to what he said to me.
“But you’re fucking enormous. Gods, Warwick, you are making my pussy so wet, and you know how much that turns me on.
” Nerissa lowered her mouth back down on him, clearly struggling to take all of him in.
Another woman lowered herself to her knees, licking and sucking the area Nerissa couldn’t reach.
The other two fae circled around him, enjoying the rest of his body.
I rolled my eyes with annoyance, staring at the far wall.
“Anything in what she said not true?” he rumbled, his voice once again was like stroking hands, slipping up underneath the towel. It was true, but it sounded so cheesy, and his ego didn’t need any more fluffing.
“I’ve seen better.”
He snorted again.
“Are we not pleasing you? What do you want us to do?” A prostitute I didn’t recognize dropped to her knees behind him, grabbing his ass.
She flicked her long, forked tongue between his ass cheeks, causing him to grunt, his hips rocking harder, and I almost choked on my saliva.
She was a snake-shifter, and I didn’t want to think about where she was putting her tongue right now.
“Baszd meg.” Fuck you, I hissed, turning away, but his energy shoved me, skimming and skating over every inch of my skin. My spine arched, my breath quickening, my skin aching and alive.
“You can leave at any time,” he growled at me.
“Never . . . we begged to be here,” one of the girls responded, groaning with need. “Let us pleasure you.” I could hear sounds of their eagerness, wanting to satisfy the great Warwick Farkas.
I felt sick. Anger, desire, and another sensation I didn’t want to acknowledge coated my tongue.
The feel of him behind me, pressing into me, hitched my breath in fear. I knew he hadn’t moved, still standing across the room from me.
“How?” I choked, oxygen barely touching my lungs, making me gasp for more.
“How do you feel me?” His harsh voice was in my ear, freezing me in place. “I don’t fucking know, but tell me how, right now, I have a siren humming and singing around my cock like it’s her only mission in life to make me pass out . . . and all I feel is you, Kovacs, since the moment I met you?”
Blistering heat pulsed through my core painfully, desire tingling my skin, drying my throat.
He snarled against my neck. “I thought it was gone. For a month, I had peace. Now you are everywhere. In fucking everything.” Fury trailed down the curve of my neck, inaudibly parting my lips. “I want nothing except for you to get out of my head.”
“Same, Farkas.” I gritted through my teeth as yearning crawled over every inch of me.
“And yet here you are,” he taunted.
“Why did you come for me?” The question came out involuntary.
A needy moan came from one of the girls, and I couldn’t stop from looking over my shoulder.
His eyes glowed, burning into me as he quickened his pace, grabbing Nerissa’s head, pushing her to take him even deeper, her song filling the room, bringing everyone to ecstasy.
The other fae with Nerissa sucked and played with his balls, the snake-shifter still behind him, licking him, as the fourth laid on the bed spread open, pleasuring herself for his viewing enjoyment.
I felt his fingers trace through my folds, as his gaze locked on mine.
“Because . . .” he growled, slipping in a finger deep inside me. I slammed my eyes closed as I moaned.
Loudly.
“Brexley?” The familiar voice jarred my eyes open, blinking in bewilderment, absorbing my location. Marble tile, white walls, and a crystal chandelier hung over my head. Pristine and perfect.
Caden peered around the bathroom door, still wearing his uniform from guard duty, his forehead furrowed, his eyes darting around suspiciously. “Are you okay? I heard you cry out.”
I gulped over my dry throat, nodding, expecting to see a semen-covered bed with a man and four naked women in the corner.
It wasn’t real. You were dreaming the whole thing.
Sleeping while standing up . . . Sure.
I bunched the towel tighter around me, my toes curling into the soaking bathmat, water pooling on the floor.
“Brex?”
“Yes.” I jerked up to look at him. “Fine.”
No, I was not.
His eyes moved over me, a fire sparking in them, his steps bringing him an inch from me.
“Gods, I’ve missed you,” he whispered hoarsely. “Part of me died when I thought I lost you. I haven’t been right, Brex. I don’t work without you. I lost it.”
“I heard.”
“You heard?” His head tipped to the side.
Right, they didn’t know about Aron. That we had been in the same place. That I had killed him.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I glanced away. Caden’s hand slid over my cheek, curling into my wet hair.
“Brex.” He whispered my name, his eyes darting between mine.
“You don’t even know . . . that night on the roof has haunted me every night.
Tortured me. I was such a fool. I regret my choice.
But I have a second chance now.” His eyes dropped down to my bottom lip, which made my stomach twist. He tugged my body flat against his, his mouth inching toward mine.
I was getting what I always wanted. What I always dreamed of.
“I want you.” His lips grazed mine before he fully claimed my mouth.
Over a horse-shifter or fae lord . . . and certainly over a betraying asshole, Caden’s kiss should’ve dissolved them all away, the boy I had loved almost all my life. He finally felt the same way as I had. He wanted me too.
“Stop thinking about me, Kovacs,” Warwick’s deep voice rumbled in my ear, jerking me back. I searched the empty space behind me, my eyes scanning everywhere.
“Brex?” Caden dropped his grip to my arms.
Fuck, Farkas. He had to ruin everything.
“Brexley?” Caden’s tone went up, bringing me back to him. Confusion strained his handsome features. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I wagged my head. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” He wrapped his arms around me. “I know you’ve been through something very traumatic. I want you to feel safe and loved again.” He tucked his chin over my head. “I love you, Brexley. Losing you made me see how stupid I was for pushing you away. I want to be with you.”
I blinked, staring at our images in the mirror.
He had finally said the words I dreamed about hearing since I was fourteen. The words I longed for . . .
The girl who had sat on the roof that night, the one who would have given anything to be with him. Begged for just a kiss.
She was no longer the woman reflected back at me.