“He’s not at full strength,” Sava explained. “I brought him back from a fate worse than death. The demons have a hold on Tanselm. They’d love nothing more than to take Arim as well. The Light in his soul is especially attractive to demons, and our irritable sorcerer is far from being at full strength. His energy wavers, weakened from his sorrow for Ravyn, as well as his uncertainty about Lexa.”
“What?” Since when was Arim “uncertain” about his feelings for me? What did Sava know that I didn’t?
“You’ve never told him how you feel about him, have you?”
I squirmed, not wanting this conversation, and especially not with Jonas holding onto every word. “This isn’t the time or place, Sava.”
Regretfully, my time with Arim seemed to have made me less of a threat. Sava and Jonas showed no sign of disinterest in the conversation.
“My Dark Mistress, even for you, that’s cold.” Jonas shook his head in disapproval. “You’re having his babies, and you haven’t even told him you love him? What are you waiting for?”
“Yes, Dark Mistress. What are you waiting for?” Arim asked in a deceptively quiet voice, standing right behind me.
“Jonas,” I hissed, promising myself I’d make him pay for his loud mouth.
“I’ve got to go. Djinn to command. You know how it is.” Jonas winked and vanished.
Sava sighed. “I’ll be in the commons with a trencher of much needed food and wine, coming up with a plan. Find me when you’re done arguing, or whatever it is you two do together so much lately.” He glanced purposefully between us, muttered something about hardheaded magic-users and sex, and vanished as well.
Chapter 27
Lexa
I glanced beyond Arim, only to see everyone in the room staring at me. Crap.
“What?” I asked, feeling defensive. “Oh please. Just because everyone else in this Light-forsaken room is pregnant doesn’t mean I am.”
“You’re pregnant?” Darius asked, his eyes so wide they looked like bright red rubies.
“Dark Lord babies, in Tanselm?” Marcus stared down his nose at me, and I wanted to turn him into a royal popsicle.
“I’m not pregnant.” I glared at the lot of them.
“I think it’s great.” Alandra smiled, sharing a grin with the other affai — now baby-crazy women who would probably consider even Sin Garu’s child a gift.
I heard nothing more because Arim whisked me away in the next heartbeat. Blinking, I found myself in his room, a place I hadn’t visited since I’d escaped several months ago — or by Tanselm time, weeks ago.
Without warning, Arim took me in his arms and kissed the breath out of me while pressing a hand to my back and another to my belly, awkwardly caging me.
After a minute, he broke the kiss and stared into my eyes, his own swirling with color, his breath raspy. “I can’t tell. Damn me, but I don’t feel anything unusual inside you but my Light.”
“Bastard.” I wanted to push him away for his high-handedness, but all my strength seemed to have left me as sexual anticipation made me weak in the knees.
“Would it be so bad, Blue? A belly full of our children?” Arim asked as he caressed my belly then cupped my breasts. “To see your nipples distended, your breasts rounded and full of milk as you suckle our babes?” I wasn’t sure why, but all his talk of mothering was making me hot. “With your eyes and my temperament, of course. Light Bringers with a core of Dark Lord within them. They’ll be perfect.”
I groaned when he dragged kisses over the column of my neck and up my throat to my ear.
“If you’re not carrying yet, maybe we need to work harder.” He nipped at my earlobe and tongued the sensitive shell of my ear, driving me into instant, all-consuming lust.
“Wait,” I rasped, trying to clear my hazy thoughts. “Shouldn’t we be going after a blood-drinking Dark Lord?”
“Don’t rush me.” Arim lifted me in his arms, carried me to the nearest wall, and leaned me against it, grinding his erection against my throbbing clit. “I’ve almost got my Dark Lord right where I want her. Now to do away with our clothes.”
I wished it before he did and shuddered at the feel of our skin pressing tight. His warmth always aroused me, but the feel of his hard cock surging inside me in one thick push was enough to bring me to instant climax.
I keened while he groaned and thrust deeper, until he could go no farther, so deep inside me we felt like one being.
“I love you so much, Blue. You saved me twice now. I think I owe you.”
