Chapter 19
ARES
The Maere’s penthouse apartment was beautiful—all heavy stone walls and arched windows with leaded glass.
This part of the Carlyle was older than the wing our offices were in.
The architecture was gothic, sweeping and mysterious in a way that lent an almost castle-like feel to each of the penthouse’s various rooms.
As we entered, Bronte and Verona turned, and it was clear I’d interrupted a moment between them, but Av was still in the cozy little parlor calling spirits, and she’d scolded Eryx and me for interrupting her.
I’d just followed the voices into the kitchen, which was a haven of state-of-the-art appliances, a lot of white marble, and painted white cabinetry.
Rhiannon Bronte glanced behind me and her expression shifted, but I couldn’t tell why. I looked over my shoulder to find Eryx standing in the doorway, his mouth practically hanging open, staring at her. Her nostrils flared slightly, and I recognized it for what it was, frustration.
I smacked my brother’s burly chest, frowning at him in disapproval. We needed the Maere. He couldn’t be gawking at Rhiannon like she was some sort of goddess, just stepped out of the clouds.
His mouth closed as his brow furrowed. “Apologies,” he said, his usually deep voice a bit higher than I expected. He cleared his throat, his eyes on the floor. “Truly, Ms. Bronte. My apologies. It’s just that you were… amazing tonight.”
One of the assassin’s eyebrows lifted. “Are you complimenting my skills?”
Ember bit her bottom lip, her long, spindly fingers covering a smile.
She averted her eyes from the awkward scene before us, pretending to examine some invisible speck of dust on some dimly glowing glass light fixtures.
The room was bright by design, but the overhead lighting had been carefully chosen not to exacerbate the light sensitivity that most parapsychs experienced.
Eryx struggled behind me. “I… Yes.” He glanced at me, practically helpless. Usually, he was very good with women. Smooth, even. But Rhiannon Bronte had reduced him to a nervous wreck. “You are also very beautiful,” he blurted out. “But of course, you know that.”
It took everything I had not to groan aloud. I had never seen or heard my brother so awkward before. I joined Ember in her examination of the seeded glass globes that hung over the island.
“Yes,” Rhiannon agreed, taking up her mug of coffee. “Please excuse me. I need a bath.”
As she swept out of the room, Eryx’s cheeks flushed red, probably at the image conjured in his head of her in the bath.
He hadn’t the nerve, apparently, to watch her leave, but his mouth pressed into a grim line.
“Where is your office?” he asked Ember. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to get our tech set up before we determine what our next move should be. ”
Ember nodded, her face completely serious, telling him where to find the office and the codes he needed to bypass her security. My brother’s shoulders squared off, and he seemed himself again as he left.
When his footsteps faded away, Ember dissolved into bubbly laughter. “Rhi’ll destroy him,” she whispered.
The words were harsh, but the delivery was not unkind.
In fact, it was conspiratorial—like a secret between us.
Nor was she wrong. I’d never seen someone so unaffected by my brother as Rhiannon Bronte.
Typically, people fell at his feet, practically begging to be admired by him, though he rarely indulged in such attention. He might have finally met his match.
A low laugh rose from my belly, twining with the musical sound of her laughter. Ember’s eyes caught mine. “You have a nice smile.”
My heart fell victim to her soft expression and crinkled eyes.
In my mind, I took three steps across the kitchen and pushed her onto the counter, kissing her so hard she couldn’t breathe.
In my mind, her arms twined around my neck as her back arched, pushing those perfect breasts into me.
In reality, I stood stock still, the smile falling from my face as I tried not to act on every instinct in me that told me to claim this woman as my own.
She frowned. “Did I say something wrong?”
I shook my head. “No. You’re perfect.” It wasn’t what I’d meant to say, but it was true. To me, for me, Ember Verona was perfect. I couldn’t keep denying it to myself, even if I could never have her the way I wanted to.
“Ares,” she breathed, setting her mug down. “You can’t say things like that to me.”
I nodded, solemn. I couldn’t. We couldn’t. She was right. I glanced at the clock that hung on the wall next to the refrigerator. “It’s late. Where do you want everyone to sleep?”
She took a deep breath, as though showing me to a bedroom would take immense effort. “So, we’re just going to talk about everything tomorrow, then?”
I nodded. “I think that’s best, don’t you?”
“Why not?” she replied, motioning for me to follow her.
An hour later, Av was done with the spirit-warding, and we were settled in our rooms. The penthouse was huge, with many more bedrooms than necessary, which wasn’t that surprising. The Consulate owed the Maere plenty, the least of which was lavish accommodations.
My bedroom was small, but handsomely appointed in midnight blue, with a giant bed that nearly took up the entire room.
The worst thing about it was that it shared a wall with Ember.
Imagining her, just feet away from me, tangled up in her bedsheets, was more than I could handle.
I tossed and turned for an hour, trying not to think of her, my cock almost painfully hard.
I got up to go to the bathroom, thinking a dousing of cold water might help. Just as I was about to turn the shower on, I heard the sound of my bedroom door opening, and soft footsteps creeping across the room. My heart beat faster as I turned the shower on.
Slowly, I moved towards the door, hoping to catch the intruder unawares. But when I burst out of the bathroom, all I found was Ember, eyes wide. “Hi,” she squeaked. “I was just checking on you. You’ve been tossing and turning for what feels like hours.”
“You can hear me?” I growled.
Her eyes locked on my bare chest, sliding down to my still-present erection. She wore nothing but a thin, white t-shirt that barely covered her hips, and as she stared at my cock, her nipples hardened.
“No,” she whispered. “But every time you toss or turn, you send a little vibration through the wall. My headboard shares a wall with yours.”
“Oh,” I replied, unsure about what to say or do next. My cock was so hard it ached, made worse by the sight of her body through the thin fabric of the t-shirt.
“But… you’re fine. So, I’ll go.”
She said the words, but didn’t move. The HVAC in the Carlyle was shit, so the room was far colder than it might be otherwise, but my skin heated as she stared at me. It was like she was stuck. Her eyes were wide and desperate, but she didn’t move a muscle to leave.
I couldn’t stand this a moment longer. I took the three steps toward her that I regretted not taking in the kitchen and tipped her chin up towards my face. “What do you want, Ember?”
She pulled away from me, so much pain in her eyes that it nearly broke me. “Something no one can give me,” she said, finally backing away.
Ember sank onto the bed, cradling her head in her hands. All thoughts I’d had about what might happen next flew out of my head—she was upset. I pulled an upholstered stool from next to the wardrobe up to the edge of the bed and sat directly in front of her. Our knees touched.
“Talk to me,” I said, keeping my voice soft. This felt like a moment for gentleness, which was not my forte, but for her I would try. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”
Slowly, her eyes raised to mine. In the dim light from the bathroom, I could just make out the surprise written in the invisible lines of her face. “I am lonely.”
Those three words sank deep into every wound I had, right into my soul.
It wasn’t just the words, but the hollow sound of each syllable, the ache in the silence between us.
It was the knowledge that no matter what, or who, I wanted for myself, that I would always find myself alone at some point, making the decisions no one else would or could.
This had to be why I was so drawn to her. Maybe if I acknowledged it, it would have less power over me. So I nodded. “Me too.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “How could you be? You have your brother and Avaline.”
I sighed, resting my elbow on my knee, and my chin in my hand.
Our faces were so close I might kiss her.
It felt good to be close like this, but not touch.
There was an intimacy in it better than fucking, though I was certain there were few things in the world that might feel better than burying my cock in her.
But this. This was something else. Her kaleidoscope eyes locked on mine, searching for the answer to my question. “They’re best friends,” I explained. “And I love them dearly… But I am always…” I trailed off, searching for the right words.
“On the outside,” she murmured, her breath grazing my face.
“Yes,” I answered.
She held my gaze for a long moment, her chin tipping upward, so slowly it hurt to watch. When her mouth grazed mine, she was hesitant, but I did not pull back. Nor did I rush in the way my body screamed at me to do. Instead, I opened for her slowly, letting her tongue drift into my mouth.
She tasted like fresh air and a long-forgotten mountain stream. My fingers grazed her jaw, and she moaned in my mouth as they trailed down the silken column of her neck. I deepened the kiss, pulling her forward so gently it gave her every opportunity to say no.
Ember slid, in one fluid motion, onto my lap. Her t-shirt went up above her hips as she straddled me. “Keep me company tonight, Ares,” she breathed as she pushed her shirt above her head, exposing those perfect breasts to the cool night air. “Help me not to be so lonely.”
All thoughts of lessening the power she seemed to have over me flew out of my head. I nodded, my lips closing around one of her nipples, my hands palming her breasts as she arched into me, her hips rocking slowly over the hard length of my erection.
Here, alone with her in the quiet of this bedroom, I could be honest with myself.
There was almost no one in the world I allowed to have power over me.
As much as I loved my brother and Av, even they did not compel me the way that Ember did.
For her, it seemed I would lose all my hard-won control.
I slid my hands down her sides, luxuriating in every inch of her soft skin, then pulled her tight against me as I rose.
She clung to me so tightly I groaned with the pleasure of feeling her damp nipples press against my chest. Over the years, I’d refused to think of her, though every time I saw her, my cock twitched with this same pulsing need. And now, I had her in my arms. Had her in my grasp.
There was no way I would rush through this. I lowered her slowly to the bed. She pulled me down on her, her mouth meeting mine with desperation as she raised her hips, grinding against me.
Her need drove me, as I slid my hand between us, playing with the waistband of her panties as she worked herself against me.
My cock strained against my pants, and the thin fabric between us felt like miles.
I rolled off her, and she whimpered beneath me, arching her back off the bed, and spreading her legs just a little.
I stroked my fingers down the center of her panties, until I found the damp spot between her legs. Her legs spread wider as I circled her clit so lightly I hardly knew if I’d touched her until she moaned my name. Her arms went around my neck as she kissed me harder.
“Touch me,” she begged in my mouth. “Please touch me.”
My previous resolve to go slow shattered into a thousand pieces with those pleas.
There was no mistaking what was between us now.
Anything she wanted, I would have to give to her.
And besides, I wanted to know how wet she was, to feel the evidence of how I affected her.
I pulled her panties aside, exposing her pussy to the cool air of the bedroom.
“Yes,” she hissed, her knees falling open.
So slowly it nearly drove me wild, I pushed one finger inside her.
I couldn’t wait to taste her, but I wouldn’t rush.
I wanted her begging for my tongue. Her eyelids fluttered, a whimper eking from her lips in slow, sultry tones.
The deeper I pushed inside her, the more she lost control beneath my hands.
“More,” she whispered. “Please, Ares—”
Whatever she was going to say was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream. Both of us startled, uncharacteristically slow to react, as she yanked back from my touch. Her breath heaved as she pulled her t-shirt down, her eyes wide and dazed, as though maybe we’d both hallucinated the scream.
In moments, there was rustling in the hallway. Voices. Ember’s eyes fell closed in obvious frustration, and she shook her head. “Go,” she whispered. “I’ll follow.”
I nodded, grabbing my sweater off the bench at the end of the bed. When I glanced back at her, she was gone.