Dragon: Allie's War Book Nine (24 page)

I started to notice he was touching me more. He did it gradually, working it into the background of our conversations almost without my noticing at first. He started by massaging my shoulder with one hand, then my thigh, then further down to my calf.

I’d already taken my shoes off by then and said the hell with it and sat cross-legged despite the dress, since my feet had been falling asleep the other way and it was too dark for me to care at that point. Sitting in the candlelight so close to the low table, it’s not like anyone was looking at my crotch anyway.

Even Revik didn’t look down at me much, not even while he touched me. After a few more minutes of rubbing my calf, he started massaging my feet through the sheer stockings, too.

His hands were lulling, soothing.

His light most definitely was not.

In fact, it hit me suddenly, as I laughed at something Dalai said, that the dense, sick feeling in my gut was mostly coming from him. Once I realized that much, it was impossible to ignore his light, or his hands. Pain seethed off him, more pain than I’d felt on him even before Dubai, when we’d been re-bonding overtly.

I didn’t know how to deal with it.

I ended up fidgeting a lot. Blushing. Not knowing what to do with my hands.

I drank more, instead of less. I probably ate more, too.

I could feel others reacting to his light. I saw eyes noticing his hands on me, even though he was being more or less discreet about it. I saw Torek and Raddi watching in particular, both of whom I somehow hadn’t noticed were there until then. I also saw Varlan watching us. Given that I’d seen him getting his dick sucked pretty enthusiastically by Feigran only a few days ago, I couldn’t make myself return his stare.

In fact, the memory weirded me out enough that I fought to shove my awareness of Varlan even being there out of my mind and out of my light.

I saw Dalai and Argo watching us as well, the latter of whom I was beginning to think might have a crush on Revik, if a mild one.

I tried not to let that bother me, either.

I found myself noticing more faces the longer I sat there…until I was really looking at them, letting myself see them all for the first time since I’d come upstairs. Jon and Wreg, who I’d been studiously avoiding looking at, sat around the other table, thank goodness, so that their backs were to us. I briefly watched Wreg rub Jon’s shoulder with a muscular hand while he ate, then averted my gaze from them, too.

Most of the others I’d known for years now. They were friends.

Balidor. Neela. Yumi. Mutkar. Hondo. Jax and Holo. Tenzi. Poresh. Illeg. Wanai. Mila. Pagoj. Vikram.

Then there were seers I knew but didn’t know personally.

Like the other intermediary, Stanley. And the aforementioned Varlan. I knew there’d been some debate about whether or not to even include Varlan, given his past with the Rooks and his obscenely high sight rank in actual. In the end, I guessed Revik decided Varlan was just too important of an infiltrator not to include.

The rest were seers I didn’t know at all.

The new Adhipan seers, Dalai and Nulek.

Mara, another new Adhipan seer who reminded me vaguely of Kat and got my hackles up pretty much right off by staring at Revik’s ass for a lot too long.

Chandre’s ex-girlfriend, Talei.

I noticed who wasn’t there, too.

Ullysa. Kat. Chandre.

Mika, Chinja and Anale weren’t there, either…they’d all left with Loki a few days ago. Deklan left with Chandre that afternoon. Surli also joined Chandre’s team, along with Jorag. Apparently Balidor fought for those last three names to be included in this, but Revik vetoed Surli and Jorag outright, refusing to discuss either one of them.

I knew that was part of the reason why Revik pushed Chandre and her team to leave about fourteen hours early, too. Originally the plan had them leaving tomorrow morning.

Yarli didn’t make it, presumably because of Balidor.

Tarsi wasn’t there, either (thank the gods).

I was pretty sure Dalejem was still being monitored by the medical techs or we might have had to discuss him, too.

Maygar, being Revik’s blood son, had not been invited.

Loki wasn’t there either, but only because he’d already left for Afghanistan…something I’d been chewed out for pretty heatedly by Loki’s new girlfriend, Gina, just that morning. I could feel on her light that she hadn’t been too happy with some of the assignments to Loki’s team, either…Mika especially. I sensed a story behind that but didn’t probe her to learn what it was.

I glanced around at all of them, not counting heads but maybe getting used to the idea all over again. I looked at them and I didn’t look at Revik.

I felt my skin flush regardless, growing increasingly warm as his hands massaged my skin. I knew it might be bothering him how little I was engaging with him on this. If so, I couldn’t feel it on his light. As for me, I mostly felt confused. Some of that might have been simply shock that he was actually touching me. Some of it might have been the whole idea of this, meaning doing the group thing with all of our friends.

And yeah, Revik had barely let me near him in weeks. I guess I’d assumed I’d need to be the aggressor with him tonight, too.

As it turned out, not so much.

He leaned by my ear as I thought it, speaking low.

“Is it too early?” he murmured. “Do you want me to leave you alone?”

Thinking, I shook my head, once.

No,
I sent.

I felt a coil of reaction on his light, but I still didn’t look up at his face.

When I didn’t say any more, he slid an arm around me carefully. He wrapped his hand around my hip just as cautiously, sliding me over nearer to him, a hint of asking permission in his light. When I softened my aleimi in response, his fingers tightened.

He had me more or less in his lap a few seconds later.

Well, sitting in front of him to be more accurate…but it
felt
like being in his lap.

Either way, I think I turned red up to my hairline. He wrapped an arm around my waist when I leaned against his chest, his other arm sliding around me in a near-hug as he gripped my opposite shoulder and pressed his chest to my back.

Another hard coil of pain left his light.

He’d always liked to hold me that way. He’d done it since we first started dating…if you could call it that, given that we’d already been married at the time. He liked doing it during sex, too, especially when we were far inside one another’s light.

And yeah, it was just as distracting now as it had been the first time he’d done it, in that upstairs bedroom in Vash’s compound in Seertown.

I fought to relax, and to listen to the others talk.

They’d veered back into shop-talk by then.

“…Did I really hear the Americans are thinking of nuking Asia?” Raddi said. Popping what looked like a piece of mango in his mouth, he looked directly at me. I felt a pulse of heat off his light once he had, right before his eyes shifted to Revik sitting behind me.

I didn’t follow his gaze to see what he was looking at.

“I don’t know,” I told him, flushing. “I only heard about it a few hours ago––”

“We’re not talking about that tonight,” Wreg cut in, turning to look over his shoulder at us from the other table. His black eyes met mine. “Not tonight, princess. You said so yourself. It will be there in the morning…”

Barely hesitating, I nodded.

I was about to say something, maybe to change the subject, but Revik picked then to kiss my neck, putting a heated thread of light into his lips and tongue and causing my vision to slant. My mind stuttered in the same set of seconds, even before he started using his teeth lightly on my skin, pulling on me sensually with his light.

Something about the combination of his light and his teeth forced me silent.

Raddi laughed. I felt pain on him too.

“Gods. You should see your wife’s face, Illustrious Sword…”

“Don’t encourage him,” Wreg joked, again looking over from the other table. “Brother Sword’s got the patience of a drunk adolescent tonight…not that I blame him.”

Jon smacked Wreg in the chest from the other side, using the flat of his hand.

I felt a pulse of real anger on him as he did it. When I glanced at Jon, quirking an eyebrow, I saw him flush, blushing nearly to the roots of his blond-streaked hair.

He barely looked at me. When I continued to stare at him, he exuded a pale cloud of annoyance in my general direction.

Do you mind?
he sent.
I’m trying to forget you’re here…

I laughed. My voice sounded strange to my ears…but then, it was probably more discomfort and surprise than real humor.

Still, I sent a pulse of agreement his way.

I plan to be as far away from you as humanly possible,
Jon added, maybe to emphasize the point.
So control your husband’s exhibitionist tendencies…or at least warn me. Jesus.

Yeah,
I sighed.
Gotcha…and ditto. But you’re on your own with Revik.

I mean it, Al…

So do I. Trust me. If I could control him, I would.

Jon’s light retracted slightly, conceding defeat, but I felt his discomfort there still. More than discomfort. His emotions felt charged into a near-anger, mixed with confusion as he gazed out over the city lights now visible past the edges of the roof. I could feel him reacting to the group dynamic in that, too, which probably only jacked up his emotions even more.

It reminded me that Jon had never dealt with this before.

Meaning the whole group dynamic thing with seers. He was probably having a lot harder time with this than I’d really let myself think about before now.

You can leave,
I offered to him.
Seriously, Jon. I know Revik really wants you and Wreg here, but if this flat-out isn’t working for you––

I’ll be fine,
Jon sent back, sharper.
I get what this is for…Revik was articulate on that point. And I promised him I’d stay. Just keep your distance, Al. Stay away from Wreg, too. I mean it…

I fought another weird burst of inappropriate laughter.

It only hit me then that Jon was drunk.

Like, really drunk. Drunker than I’d felt on him since me and Revik’s wedding ceremony.

Jon was drunker than Wreg, which had to be a first.

I looked away from both of them when Revik started nuzzling my neck again. Pain pulsed off his light as he felt me react. I found myself looking up at him that time, turning my head before I thought about it well enough to stop myself. When I met his gaze, I got lost there for a few seconds. His eyes were glowing, which was part of it.

His face was infiltrator smooth, but even with the light in his eyes, they were strangely expressive. Or maybe that was his light, too.

Either way, I reached up, caressing his face and jaw with my hand. I found myself looking at what I could see of his collarbones and chest at the V of his partly open shirt. I had a nearly overwhelming urge to slide my hand under the fabric, even before I felt him reacting to my stare. It hit me again how long it had been.

I noticed his hand then, where he’d coiled it around my thigh.

His knuckles were bruised. With new bruises. Brand spanking new, in fact…the knuckles on his left hand were actually swollen and still red.

How had I not noticed that before now?

Knowing him, he’d probably been hiding it from me.

I clicked at him, frowning before the thought fully penetrated.

“Jesus,” I slid my fingers under his palm, raising his hand closer to my eyes. “Revik. You didn’t. Did you? Really?”

When I glanced up, his skin had darkened. I didn’t feel embarrassment on him though, more a low throb of anger. The pain in his light retracted slightly, but his expression didn’t change and he didn’t let me go. After a few more seconds, he shrugged.

The infiltrator thing leaked to his eyes, too.

“It’s none of your business, Allie,” he said.