A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One (21 page)

Blushing she dipped her head and tried to step away from him. He would have none of it, however, and merely pulled her in tighter and closer.

“Bess, did you have any trouble today?” Dendri asked.

Yasra knew immediately that Dendri’s guards would have reported anything of significance to Dendri already. What he was doing was checking to see if she was all right. His thoughtfulness toward Bess…a girl who was technically just a servant…continued to amaze and impress her. His kindness touched her.

“Oh no. Not really,” Bess said easily. “The guards helped me pack and carry the trunks to the carriage.”

“I meant did anyone trouble you,” he said with amusement lighting his fern green eyes.

“Oh no. Not at all,” she assured him.

“Good. I am glad to hear it. If anyone should trouble you, you would come to me about it yes?”

Bess smiled at him. “If you insist.”

“I do. You are both in my care and I will not have anything troubling either of you, be it big or small.”

“Well you can’t control every little thing that might disturb us,” Yasra said with a small laugh.

“Just you watch me try,” Dendri said.

Right then Yasra could believe he was capable of doing whatever it took to see to their comfort. He was such a capable man, a man in control of his own universe. It must be exhausting, she thought, to have to be in control of everything at all times. And now he was trying to control her.

She should feel smothered by that. In fact, on occasion she did feel that way. When he kept her from doing things on her own, for instance, but she knew that that was about her own protection and not about a maniacal need to have control over everything she did.

“How are you feeling,” he asked her then, his voice soft and tender, the touch of his fingers against her cheek warm and sensitive. He brushed the pad of his thumb over her full bottom lip.

“I’m fine,” she said breathily.

“Then let us go in to dinner. Cook has promised me all my favorite foods tonight. That tends to happen whenever the servants are pleased with the way things are going in my life.”

Yasra laughed. “And what is it they like?”

“I think it’s you.”

“Me?” she asked in surprise. “What could they possibly like or even know about me?”

“I do not know. But, like children and animals, my staff has the ability to sense the true nature of a person almost immediately. And it seems they have decided you are good for me.”

He put his hand on her waist and guided her toward the dining room. He held out his free arm to Bess, who took it with a smile. He led both women into the grand dining room. The table was set with the usual sparkling brilliance of fine china and cut crystal.

“I have to say I agree with them,” Dendri added as he pulled her chair out for her and saw her neatly tucked up to the table. He did the same for Bess.

“You are good for Yasra too,” Bess piped up. She smiled when Yasra glared at her.

Dendri chuckled, the sound rich and low.

“I can only hope that is true,” Dendri said. He reached out for her hand as he took his seat and in a gesture that put Ky to shame, he brought her knuckles to his lips and kissed them warmly.

It wasn't the simple contact of his mouth that affected her, although that was part of it. It was the smoldering look in his eyes that took her breath away and made her go liquid and hot inside. He looked at her as though he were stripping her naked right then and there…as though he were thinking of a z    b host of lascivious things he would do to her once she actually was sans her clothing.

I want to have you in my bed. Beneath me. Crying out my name. The sound filling my ears as I fill your body with mine,
he whispered into her mind.

She flushed, feeling suddenly uncomfortable in her clothes. Why did people have to wear so many damnable clothes? she thought.

Her eyes tracked over him. He was impeccably dressed as always. Cravat and velvet jacket and a linen shirt with a high starched collar. Skin tight buff colored breeches and tall black boots. It was almost like a different man from the one she had seen naked and lazily passionate all afternoon.

“How is your shoulder?” Bess asked.

“It’s fine, thank you,” he said with a dismissive shrug as he dropped her hand slowly. She noted that the shrug was with his good shoulder only.

“I can’t believe someone would come onto the property like that,” Bess said with a grave shaking of her head.

“It was very foolish,” Dendri said. “It made little sense. But people aren’t always very smart.”

“I have firsthand experience with that,” Bess said with a chuckle.

“I think we all do.”

“Some would say this attempt you are about to make at Delongo is very foolish,” Yasra said quietly.

He reached to catch up her hand again, his warm palm swallowing hers.

“But it must be done,” he said.

“Yes,” she said with a sigh. “It must be done.”

Chapter Sixteen

Dendri awoke before the sun was up the next morning. He was lying in bed with Yasra’s long, warm, slender limbs thrown across his body. For a moment last night, he had thought she would sleep with Bess. He had watched her considering it carefully. Then, apparently, she had decided that the horse had already run from the field, there was no sense pretending the gate was closed.

He trailed thoughtful fingers up the length of her smooth skin on her upper arm and considered his situation for a moment.

She was an extraordinary woman was his little majji. She had to be terrified, and yet she was allowing him to go after the bastard Delongo with a full heart. In fact, he would bet she was far more afraid of something happening to him because she cared about him than she did because his death could affect her so negatively. And she had reason to worry. Fighting Delongo would take everything he had. Mainly because Delongo had once been his apprentice.

He had not shared that bit of information with her. She was too clever by half and would have realized that it meant Delongo was very familiar to his ways and actions. Delongo also knew, Dendri was sure, that they would be sending Dendri after him. He would be on his guard.

He should get up. He should dress and get ready to meet with Ky and Jal. Together they would travel to Delongo’s camp, which was about a day’s ride on a fast horse. Then they would make their plans based on what they found there. He already had an idea of what they would have to do once they got there, but it would be a liquid situation.

Yasra stirred, her face nuzzling against his shoulder. It brought his thoughts back to her. She was magnificent. The best part was she didn’t even realize it. She thought she was weak and a hindrance when in fact he had never known anyone stronger to enter his life. To be plunged into such a situation and yet adapt to it so quickly? That took a remarkable individual. He had run roughshod over her in many ways since the very beginning and she had accepted it all. He should have given her space. Time to breathe. Instead he had pressed her and seduced her and had been determined to have her in his bed. Now she was here, so lithe and becoming…sleep warmed and tousled…bare and beautiful. There was nothing quite like being inside of her. Nothing had prepared him for the experience.

It had been reported that sex between a Gestalt couple was highly erotic and pleasurable. That it outstripped sex between two normal individuals…even two Aspano who could both use sex majic on one another. He supposed it was because both individuals had access to all of the schools of majic as long as they were touching and that allowed them access to any number of sexual stimulants that each of the schools could bring. Sex majic between Aspanos being one of them. The ability to heat up one’s hands from Torenic. The ability to chill the air from Vendii, making nipples pucker and hot bodies cool. Necromay could sense the future, anticipating the needs of their partner on a level beyond the instinctual. Padoni could tap into the most animalistic of their nature and the nature around them…not to mention the ability to change into any animal they desire…making love as a mated pair of that animal of choice.

The possibilities were endless.

Still, Yasra would have to master each of those skills…as would he. They weren’t yet able to bring them to their bed. That meant what was already incredible would only get better.

In spite of those skills lacking from their bed at the moment, the sex was still extraordinary. He had had many women over the years, and had sex both with Aspanos and without. While it had been gratifying in some ways, he had always felt he had wanted more. What that more was he did not understand entirely…but he suspected it might have to do with his inability to connect with others on an emotional level.

He was very cautious with his feelings. He did not throw them about lightly or with any great ease. In fact, it was safe to say they were as old and rusty as humanly possible. He was close to very few people. Even his friends were held at an emotional distance. All save Wil. Wil was like a brother to him. He had never had siblings growing up and, being a child of great promise and power from a very young age, he had been kept separate and apart from most other children his age. But Wil…Wil meant a great deal to him. And he allowed Wil to know it.

Outside of Wil there was no one he could claim closeness to within his protected circle, and he did not let others into that circle easily. Oh, he had his mentors. The two old Aspanos who had apprenticed him. He cared for them a great deal. Even though he had outstripped their power years ago he still held them in great esteem and respect. However, he didn’t think he held any great affection for them.

He had considered himself a very cold man. Passionate, yes. But emotionally…cold. He had to be. How else could he explain the fact that he had never fallen in love with a woman? Had never even had an infatuation. He had certainly felt physical passion, but never emotional closeness.

He was beginning to despair of ever being the sort of man to find comfort in the simplest things where his emotions were involved. Or even the more complex…like love.

But Yasra…Yasra was getting under his skin in a way he had never felt before. He wouldn’t call it love…even though he was certain he wouldn’t recognize the feeling if it came up and bit him on his emotionally rusty ass, but he was definitely coming to care for her.

When he had seen her in the arms of that bastard yesterday…gagged, and tied and perched precariously atop a wall fifteen feet from the ground, his heart had gone stone cold in his chest. His stomach had plummeted as though it had been dropped that fifteen feet and pierced by the bramble and thorns below. In his haste and desperation to get to her he had used no finesse when disabling the other men, causing debilitating strokes instead of, say, merely stimulating the pain receptors in their brains to incapacitate them. The only way they could recover would be via a great deal of rehabilitation; preferably at the hands of a high level Aspano who could slowly work to reverse the damage or create new pathways in the brain to help take over for the damaged ones. But Aspanos of that level took money and it was very unlikely that nons like that would have access to those kinds of funds.

But seeing her…seeing her at the mercy of those who would harm her because of her connection to him…it had just about killed him on the spot.

He had not had time to examine the sensations, so he was doing so now. It seemed that all of his dealings with her since had been tinged with a sense of…desperation. He had been desperate to make love to her after the incident. To be close to her any way he could. To fill her with him and claim her and know that she was safe in his arms.

He had never felt anything like it before. He wasn’t sure he liked it. It felt out of his control. Wild even. And yet as much as it intimidated him, he could not put her at arms’ length. So he had done the only thing he could. He had brought her closer. Drawing her in tight. Protecting her and holding her and determining to do whatever it took to keep her safe. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She was sleeping with her cheek pillowed on his shoulder, her face seeming to fit perfectly to the contours of his body there. In fact, she fit well all along his side. She was comfortable and soft, relaxed and easy.

And yet she could make him burn. Desperately so. Even now he couldn’t keep his hands off of her as he stroked what he could find of her breast where it was flattened against his body. His free fingers drifted into the crescent of her ribs waist and hip.

He wanted her again. Right now. Before he moved from that bed. He wanted the very last memory he had of her to be ferocious and hot and he wanted to leave his stamp on her every thought…every nerve. She would never forget him. Oh, it was selfish for him to weave even more connection with her than there was already, but whatever happened, he didn’t want her to forget him.

His hand drifted over one round cheek of her bottom beneath the covers, his fingertips flirting along the crease between. The stimulation made her twitch and she turned away from him to turn her bottom onto the bed where she shifted to remove the tickling sensation in her sleep.

Now that she was on her back, the entire landscape of her body was available to him once again. It had grown cold as the fire had died down hours ago and she was covered from the ribs down in a heavy quilt. Her breasts were now exposed, her nipples puckering in the chill room air. She shivered now that she had left his warmth. Still in her sleep, she grabbed the covers and drew them up to her shoulder, snuggling down into them and turning her back to him.