Chapter 26 True Lust’s Kiss
True Lust’s Kiss
Fortuitously, Cha spotted a roadside ambrosia station and pulled in, the place mostly deserted except for a couple of haulers.
Evening had progressed enough that the tourists and joyriders had cleared out, leaving only the pros on the lines.
She didn’t recognize either of the male cargo jockeys, but she waved back companionably as Katu rolled onto the slow black and came to a halt.
Azul eyed them as he hauled himself out of the carriage. “More of your men in every port?”
“You can’t be jealous,” she taunted, throwing his words back at him and feeling ever so much better about herself.
“No,” he answered on a sigh. “I can’t.”
Was it her imagination that he’d deliberately echoed her words, also, and that they carried a similar weight of regret?
Yes, Bandit, she told herself. It is your imagination, so get a grip.
You haven’t mooned after an unattainable guy since Miss Mulry’s and you’re never going back to that pitiful state.
“Clear?” She rather snapped out the question, deciding not to tell Azul the truth, that she’d never seen either of those guys before in her life. Petty of her, but a girl had her pride.
He reached into the passenger seat and snagged the magic wand. “Now I am.”
“Everything folds up in Katu when he changes,” she explained. “You can leave that inside.”
“You grabbed your sword,” he pointed out.
“Force of habit—and you never know.”
“Exactly,” he replied, this time pitching his voice higher, clearly in imitation of her.
“You’re not funny,” she told him, triggering Katu to shift back to animal form.
The carriage shimmered, clicking and condensing, until the black jaguar leapt onto the black grass, stretching and panting.
She was glad she’d made the decision to stop.
Katu looked parched and a little worn. She’d like to give him a rest, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“Come on, baby cat,” she crooned, stroking a hand over his solid, glossy black head. “Let’s get you fed.”
Unlike Giant Jo’s, this place had no restaurant, nor did it have—as she supposed was standard for the “we hate helpful signs of all kinds” fae—any posted rules. So, she left Katu off leash and guided him to the closest ambrosia station.
“Is that safe?” Azul asked, jutting his chin at Katu.
“Being off leash? Sure. Katu and I have been together since he was a kitten.” She scratched behind his ears and he pushed his whiskers along her hand in affection.
“He’s my one true love.” She waited for the scathing retort to that as she fumbled coins into the pump, swearing at the prices. But Azul said nothing.
As Katu eagerly drank, she stepped back and found Azul leaning against a post with folded arms and crossed ankles, watching them intently. Her prince was always a broody one, but this felt different. “Something wrong?” she asked, not certain what that very serious expression meant.
His face cleared and he shrugged off whatever mood that had been. “I keep expecting fell wolves to emerge from the shadows. Or an iron demon. Or something even worse.”
“There’s worse?” she returned lightly.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Yeah, I probably don’t. My motto in life is that I’m happier not knowing shit. Keep my eyes on my own work. Let the rest of the world take care of itself.”
“Except for Dy and Katu.”
“Even them. Katu is fine without me and Dy can take care of herself. She doesn’t need me.” Hadn’t for years, which shouldn’t sting. It was good that Dy had more people to look after her.
Uncomfortable with the conversation for no good reason, Cha checked the level in the trough.
Katu still had a bit to go. She tapped a foot and crossed her arms, then felt like she was mirroring Azul, who still leaned against the post, observing her with that unnerving scrutiny, and uncrossed them again.
She was restless to get going, that was the problem.
Itching to get back on schedule. It had been ages since she’d been nervous around a boy and she sure wasn’t relapsing to the bad old days.
“Can I ask you something, Arantxa?” Azul uncoiled from his lounging position and stepped closer to her.
They hadn’t spent really any time together when they’d both been standing up, and she realized now that he topped even her lanky height by half a head.
For no good reason, her heart skipped several beats, then settled on a thudding, up-tempo rhythm that made her twitch inside her skin.
“I don’t know why you’re asking permission now—nothing seems to have held you back so far,” she cracked, hoping to lighten the mood and lessen the tension. It didn’t work.
“This is different. Personal. Important.” He eased closer, that intent expression on his face stirring her blood to an even wilder temperature, a sultry hum in the air. “Intimate.”
Well, shit. If he planned to ask what she thought—okay, hoped—he might, the timing stunk.
She’d have to say no, since they had zero time for dallying, and she hated risking that he’d take the rejection badly.
In Cha’s experience, if you told a new guy ‘no’ once, even telling him ‘later,’ they got all butthurt and wrote you off.
Sometimes, even the tried-and-true guys who should be reasonably sure you meant the ‘later’ in all sincerity still had hissy fits.
And none of this mattered, because there wouldn’t be a later for Azul and her.
After she dropped him wherever he wanted to get to, they’d never see each other again.
This could be her one chance to sample his sweet, deep blue delights and she had no choice but to bypass it.
Being responsible sucked. She wanted to explain all of this to Azul, that she really wanted him, and not just as a temporary release, though that would be more than nice. But, wait, how did she want him then?
Well it didn’t matter—see aforementioned imminent separation—and there wasn’t any point in trying to explain any of this, especially since emotional competence wasn’t her forte.
“So?” She drawled instead, emotionally incompetent jackass that she was. “Ask.”
She’d meant to be all nonchalant, to soften the looming rejection she had to hand him, but apparently her body hadn’t gotten the memo from her brain that they had to be responsible, because her voice came out breathy and her breasts rose and fell with excitement, very nearly brushing his spectacular chest that, in a fair world, she’d get to explore at leisure.
But the world was very far from fair. She’d learned that young and shouldn’t be forgetting it now.
He lifted a hand to feather fingertips along her cheekbone, surprising her with the gentleness of the sensual caress, delighting her that he was actually touching her, however chastely.
Trailing his fingers along the sensitive skin on the underside of her jaw, he left sparking heat behind that burrowed into her system, frying it like pixie dust, but in a non-dead-soon way.
Her heart thrummed like a hummingbird and the pussy sparkle leapt to life so hard she expected glitter to fly from her nethers.
“If I ask,” he murmured, “do you promise to answer honestly?”
No amount of sensual allure could get her to agree to that. “Uh, no. Not until I hear the question.”
Arrested, he stared at her, fingers still against her jaw, lifting her chin ever so slightly. “Seriously?”
“Hey, you just said you wanted honesty.”
“Most women would just promise and then decide.”
“Don’t you mean most people?”
He canted his head, considering, then shook it. “I haven’t had a lot of experience with broad swathes of…people.”
Again, something in the way he said “people” made her think “humans.” Instead of demanding to know just how fae he was, she asked, like a jealous bitch, “Just Lenorae?”
“And others of her…ilk.”
Ilk. Interesting. “It’s probably fair to say that I’m not like most people.”
“No, you’re not.” His fingers tightened on her jaw and he searched her face. “Which I find oddly compelling.”
Hoo boy. The pussy sparkle leapt like fireworks.
“All right then,” he continued, still holding her jaw, hooded eyes drifting to her mouth.
“I’m wondering, Arantxa, once this is done, would you consider…
” He trailed off, his enticing lips hovering temptingly near.
The scent of caramelized sugar and a hint of blueberry wafted around her in seductive tendrils.
Not the sharp sweet of new blueberries, but the slow, lingering flavor of sun-warmed juices.
“Yes,” she answered, not needing to hear the question.
Her body closed the distance between them without her making a conscious decision, her lips seeking his with sensual hunger, pressing into him with aching need that blazed from smoldering coals to an inferno in the space of a thought.
She threaded her hands behind his neck and into that deliciously silky hair, levering herself onto tiptoes to perfect the angle of the kiss.
Even as she gloried in the taste of him—sizzling sugar browned hot enough to burn—she realized her mistake.
He’d stiffened in shock, not returning the kiss. How humiliating. She released him, words crowding to her tingling lips to form some kind of apology.
But—hallelujah!—he pulled her back via tightening fingers on her jaw.
His other hand settled on her lower back, just above the curve of her ass, pulling her to him.
He returned the kiss, as if answering a question she had asked, deepening it, opening his lips to hers and sweeping his tongue within as if tasting her, making a deep melodious sound like a growl.
He kissed her like a starving man, the hand on her hip vising into her flesh, sizzling into her bones, pressing her against his groin where he proved to be truly into her with impressive size and enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, his lips on hers worked magic, richly, deeply stirring, slipping against hers with musical dexterity, a kiss like no other.
He felt slightly cool, as if he’d come inside from a winter storm, but the magic in him burned with sparking heat, the dual input frying her senses.
She wanted that coolly sheathed heat all along her skin, inside of her, to writhe in wringing pleasure under him as he took her over and over again.
Somewhere in the background, her newly minted responsible self shouted and banged its fists against the door of the closet her far more powerful, lustful self had shoved it into.
Katu sawed loudly, announcing that he was done with his meal, and head-butted her leg hard enough to make her stagger sideways, breaking the contact with Azul. Fantastic timing.
Actually, she realized, as she blinked away the sensual fog, seriously questioning all of her life choices—including a load of regret for both kissing Prince Charming and stopping kissing him in equal measures, which didn’t help her mental clarity at all—it had been fantastic timing.
Locating that mental closet where her responsible self sulked sullenly in the back of her mind, she unlocked the door and shoved her lustful self inside instead.
A bit late and a lot painful, especially as her responsible self lit into an immediate tirade about Cha’s many failings, while her lustful self wailed in frustrated disappointment.
“Both of you, shut up,” she muttered under her breath. She couldn’t win for losing.
“Arantxa?” Making her name into a question, Azul reached for her again and she forced herself to step back instead of climbing him like a tree.
His face fell, briefly mirroring her own disappointment, then settled into rigid, brooding lines of his haughty expression that looked ever so slightly mean and turned her on even more. Dammitall.
“Katu’s done,” she said, pointing at the jaguar, in case Azul had forgotten the cat’s name or something.
“I hate to say no—only a temporary no,” she hastily added, not that it would make any difference.
“If that was the question,” she added, belatedly and abashedly.
Heat flooded her face, and not from desire, as he slowly shook his head from side to side.
“It… wasn’t,” he said, sounding like a man having the truth dragged out of him. “It didn’t occur to me that you would—”
“Yes, well,” she broke in, unable to bear it. “That’s me. Impulsive. Man in every port, you know.” She regretted that quip, too, as his expression shuttered.
“I know it doesn’t mean anything to you,” he offered, seeming like he was searching for the right words. “It’s just that—”
“But it did,” she insisted. “Because that was great. Really great!” She searched her arousal-limp brain for a new, different, and better word. “Excellent!” So much for that effort. “I would absolutely be on board to keep going, but we’re so lean on time that we should—”
“No, no. I understand.” Azul interrupted her babbling and put even more distance between him and the crazy person. “Just as well.”
Uh oh. “Just as well” was always a bad sign, though she could hardly blame him for thinking so, with her certifiable gushing. “We could pick up again later,” she invited, hopefully enough that that sounded like a question.
He shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, looking off into some distance as they trotted back to the slow black.
His white shirt had parted more—no doubt from her ravaging hands—and the lights of the ambrosia station made his skin gleam like pale blue moonlight.
“No, it would be a bad idea. I had been thinking, but… no.”
Cha restrained herself from suggesting a myriad of filthy things she had been thinking that perhaps had also been on his mind. “It’s not a bad idea. It’s a great idea,” she insisted, really wishing the word “great” would stop coming out of her mouth. “It’s just bad timing.”
“It is bad timing—and I’m taking Katu’s interruption as a sign,” he replied grimly.
“It was a coincidence.”
“There are no coincidences. Omens are important.”
“You sorcerers and your omens,” she grumbled.
“Only a non-sorcerer would dismiss the importance of such a precisely timed omen.”
She couldn’t think up an argument to that other than “nuh uh,” which—aside from being pointless and juvenile—wouldn’t be accurate, as it was true.
Cha was always on the side of luck and coincidences, while Dy was forever chiding her for ignoring very real portents and omens.
They’d been arguing about it since their school days and hadn’t come to an agreement yet.
Therefore, for once in her life, Cha seized the opportunity to keep her mouth shut and not dig herself in deeper.
She still had time and opportunity to make “later” happen. At least now she knew Azul wanted her as much as she wanted him. If Cha knew nothing else, she knew how to rig the game to win. She wasn’t a champion for nothing, especially when the prize was so very enticing.
She could still win this one. She just had to find the path no one else had.