Chapter 31 Ares
ARES
Ember was so light on her feet that she hardly winced as we touched down. My feet and knees stung, but she pulled me into a sprint away from the Valnord before I could think much about it. The cops were gathered around the other side of the building, near the more traditional entrances and exits.
We, however, were racing down back alleys, skirting trash and scuttling rats as we left the scene of our crime. I didn’t have time to think about the wisdom of what we’d done back there, destroying Cromvale’s apartment that way, but I knew there might be consequences.
Ember finally slowed down enough that I was able to start to piece things together. If we were going to cover our asses, I was going to have to wrangle some top notch shit, and fast. As I pulled my phone from my back pocket, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I had a text from Eli Cabot. It was just the address of an exclusive club uptown that Lourdes Thaumas owned, called the Rosewood, with the words, Come in through the back door.
I showed my phone to Ember, whose lips were still swollen from kissing me.
Her eyes were glazed over with lust, fear still chasing her as it did me, but she nodded.
We moved as one, continuing to skirt through back alleys and rooftops, staying out of sight.
She didn’t ask me if I trusted Cabot. She just followed, her body moving in perfect time with mine.
It was as though we were still connected, as though I was still inside her.
It was a trial not to pull her against me and taste every inch of her.
Now that I’d given in to what I wanted most, I was starving for her. When a squad car screamed by us, and I pulled her against me in a dark alley, just a block from the Rosewood, my cock hardened in an instant.
“Do you know what kind of place the Rosewood is?” I asked. She couldn’t go into this ignorant.
Her response was a laugh, low and sultry. “I’ve heard it described as a den of iniquity.” Her back bowed slightly, and the little moan that whispered through the alley had me burying my face in her neck, drinking in the soft, warm scent of her skin. “It’s perfect for a cover.”
“You’re sure?” I asked. “The best way to make sure our alibi is solid is to make… a scene.”
She grinned up at me, fisting my sweater in her hands. “Fuck me on a table six ways from Tuesday, while the entire Authority watches, if it pleases you.”
My mouth slid down her neck, one hand covering her lips so she wouldn’t make a sound as I slid my free hand into her pants.
She was still wet from our encounter in the Senator’s apartment.
Her eyes fell closed as she leaned against me.
It began to rain, soaking us both as I pushed two fingers inside her.
“We should go,” she moaned against my hand.
“I know,” I breathed in her ear. “But that was too fast back there. I need more time with you.”
The truth was, my brain was sex-hazed. I was desperate to be alone with her, to taste her, to find out every way I could touch her that would elicit the delicious noises she made right now.
Such soft, sweet sounds from a creature as vicious as Ember Verona.
I wanted her pussy clenched around my cock as she rode me into oblivion.
The way her hips moved to take me deeper was too much, and her ass ground against my cock, making me harder than I’d been in my whole life. She turned in my arms, my fingers sliding out of her. Her eyes were wide.
“We need to get to the Rosewood,” she whispered. “You can fuck me there, and then again at home, if you still want to.”
If I still wanted to. I laughed, a rough noise I was unused to making. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’m in no danger of tiring of you.”
The relief in her eyes pained me. I’d meant it as a joke, but I hadn’t lied.
There was no way I would fuck her once and then ignore her.
Why would she think that? My long history of one-night stands surfaced in my memory.
So she had been paying attention to me, as I had to her.
But surely she knew that she was different.
That the way I wanted her was about more than my physical needs being met.
“We should go,” she said again.
I caught her hand. “You understand the way I want you, don’t you?”
She looked back at me, suddenly vulnerable and small. “Sure.” Her teeth sank into her lip and she averted her eyes. “Now.”
“No,” I said, voice insistent. “Not just now. Before now. For a long, long time. And for more than just sex, Ember.”
She blinked a few times, as though she might be welling up, but her head was turned far enough away from me that I couldn’t see clearly. I pulled her back against me, stroking the back of her hair. “I don’t just want to fuck you. Despite the games we play, I do actually like you.”
It was more than that—more than like. But I couldn’t say that without scaring her, that much I knew. If she could hardly believe I wanted to fuck her, she would shy away from hearing just how hard I’d fallen. That the way I needed her wasn’t just bone deep. It went through to my soul.
These were declarations for another time—when she’d had more time to think through what she wanted. We were different in thousands of ways, but the way we saw the world, the way we processed things? That was the same. I’d just gotten a head start on loving her.
Loving. Her.
The words sputtered in my mind. Did I actually love Ember Verona?
Her arms went around me, and she buried her face in my chest. Could she hear the way my heart pounded? Could she feel the emotions coursing through me as I clung to her?
I could feel the shuddering breath go through her as she tried not to cry. “I like you too,” she said into my chest. When she looked up at me, her eyes were bright. “Now, take me to the Rosewood and have your way with me.”
Her voice was light, but I saw the seriousness in her eyes. She needed to keep going. The fear that nearly struck us both down in Cromvale’s apartment chased us both. We needed this. Needed to feel something we could trust tonight.
So I didn’t say anything else about how I felt about her. No matter what I said, she wouldn’t believe it right now any more than I would. So I just nodded. She slipped out of my arms and I followed her as she hurried down the alley.
We made it the next few blocks unseen and slipped through the unlocked back door of the club.
There, in the storeroom, Lux Medios sat waiting.
So this was a full-on Trinity operation now.
Something in me shifted, past the fear I’d felt earlier and straight through to hope.
Lux, Eli, Lourdes… the Maere. Me. We were all in this together, and whatever came next, this was progress. This was us changing things.
When we entered, Lux locked the door securely behind us, using an enormous deadbolt.
Tonight she wore a silver sequined jumpsuit that contrasted beautifully with her rich brown skin.
Her hair was bright pink, and her makeup was relatively subdued, despite the fact that it sparkled like a disco-ball.
“Took you long enough,” she whispered, handing us each a garment bag. “Right now, the two of you are in the bathroom. Presumably fucking each other’s brains out. Make sure to come out looking… well-used.”
Ember frowned slightly, but took the garment bag.
“Eli?” I asked. He was the only Thaumas I knew that had such mastery over illusion.
Lux nodded as I took my bag, and turned to walk away, but Ember interrupted her. “Was my hair up?”
Lux smiled, stroking Ember’s face with her long fingers. “Yes, but I doubt it will be when you come out. Well. Used.” Lux brushed a kiss to Ember’s cheek and whispered. “Be the dirty little slut I know you are, love. Or at least look like one.”
Ember laughed, a soft, sexy noise, then saluted Lux, an irreverent expression on her flushed face. “Will do.”
“Leave your clothes in the garment bags,” Lux replied. “Just stick them in the closet and I’ll send them to the incinerator. Lourdes will take care of the rest.”
“Thank you,” I said, catching hold of Lux’s arm as she made to leave. “Really.”
She nodded, her mouth tightening with emotion. I knew when Lux Medios might cry, and this was one of those moments. “I’m sorry you had to see all that, Ares. But I’m glad Amanita is at peace now.”
She’d seen it all. Whether before or after I’d found out was of no consequence.
Lux never held anything back that she didn’t have to.
We had enough history for me to trust that.
We’d grown up in the same neighborhood and she was only a little older than I was.
She’d known Amanita and my parents. Everyone knew each other in those days.
I swallowed the pain that threatened to lodge itself in my throat and choke me.
Lux squeezed my arm, and said. “You be a dirty slut too, Ares. Don’t let this chance to fuck Verona’s brains out pass you by.”
Ember snorted as Lux left me wide-eyed and slightly shocked. When the Seer was gone, Ember stripped naked, and I nearly followed Lux’s command on the spot. But Ember shook her head, her honey-colored hair damp from the rain.
I watched her lithe body as she slid into the slinky red dress Lux left her, and a pair of stilettos with straps around the ankles. There was lingerie in the bag, but Ember left it behind. Her nipples were hard, poking through the thin fabric of the dress. A low growl rumbled through my chest.
“Get dressed,” Ember hissed. “So I can be your dirty little slut.” She smiled while she said it, but her voice had dropped into a husky register that told me she had no intention of pretending.
I stripped quickly, changing into the suit Lux left for me.
I zipped up the bag and grabbed Ember’s hand.
Her fingers closed around mine, squeezing hard as I pulled her down the hall, towards the bathroom.
There was a line outside the door, but no one seemed to see us.
Ember glanced back at me, wonder in her eyes.