Chapter 36 Sealing the Bargain
Sealing the Bargain
A future secret.
Radven’s new offer was intriguing. One side of me wondered if he’d taken pity on me and this was his attempt to give me an easy way out of our bargain—after all, there was no guarantee I’d even have some sort of big, juicy secret in the future.
The savvier side of me was absolutely convinced this was a trap.
“Who decides when the secret is given?” I demanded.
“I do,” he replied immediately, slipping the dagger he’d been twirling back up in his sleeve.
He’d clearly thought about this. “It’s only fair, considering you’re the one who isn’t fulfilling our original deal.
You get the benefit of time, as well as foreknowledge.
I get the benefit of having the complete power to call in the debt. ”
I was probably an idiot for even considering it…but I was done talking about my virginity with these brothers. And given that I wasn’t the sort of person who generally kept secrets anyway…
“Deal,” I said before I could stop myself. I stuck out my hand to shake on it.
He grasped my fingers in his, his eyes shining with something wild as he echoed, “Deal, butterfly.” His lips curled up as he added, “Though this isn’t how I’d prefer to seal the bargain.”
Heat sizzled through me, crackling up my arm from where our hands still met. And I realized how stupid I’d been, angst-ing over Octavian when there was a man right here who was willing to give me everything I’d been asking for—with enthusiasm.
“How would you seal it, then?” I asked quietly, the flush already rising up my neck.
His response was to pull me closer, his smile deepening. “By finishing what we started last night.”
His arm looped around my waist, and before I could come up with any sort of clever, teasing comeback, his lips were on mine.
In less than a second, he had me pinned up against the wall behind me, his hands everywhere, his skilled mouth claiming mine, giving and taking at once. There was no hesitation, no reservations.
Just hot, wild desire.
And I sighed beneath his kiss, opening to him as easily as breathing. This was what I’d wanted—pleasure, and heat, and breathless magic. Something enchanting and exhilarating to cling to in this strange world, if only for a moment. And I clung to him, my fingers clawing at his shoulders, his back.
With Radven, there was no shame, no embarrassment, for indulging this side of myself. Just the thrill, the fire.
“You taste like Nectar,” he rasped against my lips.
“I’m not drunk,” I insisted.
“Good,” he said. “Because I want to know that you want this.”
“I do,” I breathed.
His smile was lazy, devilish. “And I want you fully present for this.”
He pulled further away, despite my sounds of protest, but he didn’t go far.
He moved down my body, his lips brushing against my collarbone, then at the neckline of my dress, then over my bellybutton, until he was on his knees in front of me.
One hand slipped beneath the flowing layers of my skirt, finding my ankle, while the other lifted all the layers of gauzy fabric until he could dip his head beneath.
I slumped against the wall, my body already flooding with heat.
I knew we shouldn’t be doing this here, with crowds of people literally fifteen feet away, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask him to stop.
We were in the shadows of an alley, I told myself.
And everyone else was too focused on their celebrations to notice two lovers stealing a moment to themselves.
But mostly I didn’t think at all, except to notice the way the word lovers pooled warm and liquid in my belly.
Beneath my skirts, Radven’s lips landed lightly on the side of my shin. Then my knee. His hand skimmed up the back of my leg, his callused fingers drifting lazily across my skin, his touch so light it would have tickled if I hadn’t been so caught up in the fire it left in its wake.
His mouth touched my thigh next, and my breath caught. His hand paused, then gently gripped the back of my leg.
His next kiss came against my inner thigh, and this time I bit down on my bottom lip to make sure I didn’t make any noises I might regret. His nose nudged me, urging me to spread my legs wider, and I obliged, grateful the wall was there for support.
And then he lifted his mouth higher.
Sweet mercy.
The moment his tongue touched me, my knees attempted to buckle. My fingers gripped desperately at the wall behind me as I silently thanked Ary for forgetting to bring me any underwear when she furnished me with clothes for tonight.
I’d never felt anything like this in my life. I had no idea a tongue could feel so different from my own fingers, wet and warm and—
I nearly choked as his tongue shifted, dancing over me with a skill that made stars spin across my eyes. Why had I waited so many years to let myself experience this?
My head tilted back against the wall, my eyes falling closed. With every stroke of his tongue, the heat in my core bloomed further, building, swelling until even the music and the scents and the energy of the festival seemed far away. Like a distant dream.
But the magic of it all still lingered, wrapping around me, enveloping me as the pleasure inside me continued to build. Up and up, until I felt like I was floating, flying, carried like a fallen blossom on the wind, completely at the mercy of those sweet gusts.
I wanted more. Needed him to—
“Ahem.”
My eyes flew open, at the same time that Radven’s head jerked up. Unfortunately, he was still under my skirts, and he practically knocked me over as he scrambled to free himself. By the time he emerged, though, he already had a knife in his hand, and he swung around to face the intruder.
It was Alastor.
“Gods, Brother,” Radven said, relaxing immediately. “Was it truly necessary to sneak up on me like that?”
Alastor didn’t look amused. “I wasn’t aware you’d be preoccupied when I came to find you.”
“Well, I’d appreciate it if you tried to be less of a cockblock in the future.” Radven shoved his dagger back up his sleeve. His hair was ruffled, and his cheeks slightly redder than usual, but otherwise he was recovering with enviable quickness.
I, meanwhile, was still trying to catch my breath. And regain the feeling in my limbs.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Alastor’s eyes shifted to me, but only briefly. They continued on to our surroundings. “I can’t imagine why you’d be interested in doing anything in a filthy alley.”
“It’s actually pretty clean, as far as alleys go,” his brother replied. “But clearly, you have no sense of adventure.”
Alastor looked very much like he wanted to roll his eyes, but apparently he was too dignified to do so. “You told me to come find you when your contact got in touch. I had no way of knowing you’d be…” —another glance in my direction—“preoccupied.”
“My contact can wait a few minutes,” Radven said, gesturing for his brother to leave. “Give us some privacy. We’re in the middle of something.”
Wait—he actually intended to continue what we’d started?
“I… You can go,” I stammered to Radven. “We can finish later.” I was wild enough to go at it in a dark alleyway, but I was definitely not wild enough to go at it in a dark alleyway with the guy’s brother lingering nearby, fully aware of everything we were doing.
Radven looked disappointed, but he didn’t push it.
“Then I look forward to later, butterfly.” He pulled me close to him again, kissing me deeply despite Alastor’s presence—maybe even because of Alastor’s presence, because he made a show of it, threading his fingers through my hair and dipping me slightly back.
I tasted myself on his tongue. Despite the awkwardness of having an audience, it still left me breathless.
There really was no shame with Radven.
“Did you want me to come with you?” Alastor asked his brother once Radven had released me again.
“I can handle Dirk on my own,” Radven said, flashing a wicked smile as, with a flick of his wrist, that dagger suddenly appeared in his hand again.
“You should go enjoy the Festival, Brother. Have a drink, meet a nice girl. A little fun would do you some good. We’re back in Therador—we all deserve to celebrate a little.
” He glanced back in my direction and added, “Marigold, make sure he doesn’t just run back under the Hill. Take him dancing or something.”
And with that, Radven disappeared into the street. Leaving me alone with a sullen, irritable Alastor, who looked like he’d just been told he’d have to spend the rest of the night babysitting a rabid raccoon.
I studied him. He’d changed out of the mud-streaked clothes he’d had on this morning, but unlike his brothers, he hadn’t done anything special to dress up for the festivities, sticking instead to dull—if polished—shades of gray.
And of course, his usual Resting Asshole Face was just the cherry on top.
I guess every group’s got a party pooper, I thought, smoothing out my skirts.
“I have no interest in dancing,” he said stiffly.
“I never asked,” I retorted. I was secretly relieved, though, since I wasn’t ready to return to the hilltop and potentially run into Octavian. “You can just go back under the Hill if you want. I promise I won’t snitch on you.”
Alastor gave a heavy sigh and crossed his arms. ”As delightful as that sounds, I suspect neither of my brothers would forgive me for abandoning you in the middle of all of…this.” He gestured to the street behind him as if it were some sort of violent mob.
I wanted to make some snarky comment about not needing a babysitter, but who was I kidding?
I knew it was stupid for me to go off on my own in this strange place.
And I really wasn’t ready to call it a night.
At the very least, I needed to work off some of the tension in my body.
Being interrupted when we were, right at the moment I was about to…