He had, and he’d informed me of the goings-on in Tanselm. After that… I rubbed my temples, surprised when I felt the rustle of soft cotton over bare flesh. I realized I lay naked on my bed.
“What the hell?”
I sat up and put my hands to my head to steady myself. How had I gotten in here? I’d spoken with Jonas, shared his concerns about the encroaching Church of Illumination, tried to gauge Sin Garu’s next move, and tossed ideas about his possible whereabouts. Jonas had made me a cup of my favorite Earl Grey tea. Then we’d relaxed and popped in a movie.
A touch of normalcy to give the illusion I was only a tired working woman taking a holiday. And then I’d woken up to this. Whatever “this” was.
A groan made me start, and I looked around me but saw nothing. Another groan, deep, as if from a man. The sound came from the floor to my left, so I leaned over the side of the bed.
The sight of a naked man left me breathless and had my heart racing. Arim Valens, my ex-lover, ex-friend, and the man I couldn’t stop wanting even after several centuries, lay on the floor bound in Dark-hide rope.
I blinked several times and leaned farther over the bed, trying to validate the incredible sight before me. “Arim?” I didn’t expect him to respond. But as I pondered how the heck I’d gotten into this predicament, only one idea came to mind. Jonas must have drugged me.
A knockout with hallucinogenic side-effects. Perhaps a Djinn poison? But I was immune to most toxins. Perhaps the demon’s hold on my soul had made me more than magically weak but physically ill as well.
“Sava, you bastard,” Arim slurred, struggling in his bonds. He looked uncomfortable, though scrumptiously naked. Sprawled as he was on the floor, and at an awkward angle from the chair, I figured he’d been tied up in it and had fallen out of the leather recliner onto the floor. His current position allowed a view I hadn’t seen in way too long.
A creature of Light, Arim had a sun-bronzed complexion that highlighted the muscular contours of his form. Though a sorcerer, Arim had the physique of a warrior. He had powerful shoulders, a broad chest, and ropy arms thick with strength. His legs were both long and well-developed, and the flesh between his thighs was thick, long, and growing as I stared at it.
Shocked, I glanced back at his face and saw the Killer of Shadow staring up at me with a look of hunger I hadn’t seen in what felt like forever. His response to me made me wonder, again, if I was experiencing odd effects from the drug Jonas must have fed me.
Because Arim only ever looked at me with hostility or rage, never with lust clearly riding his dark brown eyes turning black with desire.
“Blue?” Arim licked his lips, his gaze leaving my face to linger on my chest.
Blue. What he used to call me when we’d been in love. And later, what he called me to remind me of how much we’d lost. It had been some time since I’d heard my nickname uttered in such a raspy, sexual tone.
To my mortification, my nipples hardened, and I felt uncomfortably aroused. Had I not known better, I’d think Arim had cast a spell. Unfortunately, my body always reacted in his presence, and today was no exception.
“Where are your clothes?” He seemed taken with what he could see of me as I leaned over the bed.
Not embarrassed about my looks, I nonetheless backed up onto the bed and lay belly-down, giving Arim no more than a view of my face. Bad enough, my magic was all but gone. I needed at least the surface protection of the bed to gain a psychological edge against such a powerful opponent.
“What are you doing here?”
“Here?” Arim tried to sit up but could only lift his head before he gasped and leaned back. “The damn Dark-hide is stealing my energy.” The minute he admitted his weakened state, he froze. “Are you behind this?”
The lust flaring between us faded as his suspicion took hold.
“I might ask you the same.” I scowled at him, wondering why he couldn’t have stayed silent longer. At least give me a minute or two to enjoy the sight if not the sound of him. But no. He had to ruin it by opening his big mouth. “Why are you here? How did you find me?”
“I didn’t.” Arim swore. “Sava duped me. Set me up and brought me to you. Said Jonas —” He halted, his jaw clenched so tight I wondered if it hurt.
“Jonas what?”
Arim’s eyes burned a bright red, making him look very much like his fire-starter nephew. I was reminded again of his ties to the Storm Lords, his royal nephews so close to restoring Tanselm to what it once was.
Thanks in no small part to me.
The smug look I sent him had him snarling, and he roared as he tried to break free of the magical ropes. Such a temper. A pity it made him that much more attractive. For all that Arim was one of the most powerful Light Bringers I’d ever met, his anger had always been incredibly Dark, and one of his more attractive features. Too bad it had taken a terrible tragedy to show me his true colors.
“I repeat. Jonas what?” I asked again, my attraction to the stubborn idiot under control.
“Did Jonas fuck you in here? On that bed? Is that why you’re naked and I’m tied up? To watch while that traitor takes what’s mine?”
I gaped in shock. I didn’t know what surprised me more. The insane tripe Arim was spouting, or the notion that he considered me his. “Are you out of your mind?”
He glared up at me. As he stared, I realized what it was about him that was different. Not his nudity or even his presence in my home, but the absence of his aura. I focused on the magic inherent in his being. To my astonishment, I saw nothing.
