Light My Fire (32 page)

I smiled and undulated at him.

“Technically it means a horseback raid, but in this in
stance, it is a ritual performed by those about to undergo
a challenge.” His eyes narrowed when I ran a hand down
my breastbone, the irises in his eyes all but disappearing
as my back arched, exposing my breasts.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that challenge.
What exactly is going to happen? And what do I need to
do? And why aren’t you naked and inside me yet?”

A splash was all the answer he needed to make. Before
I could wipe the water from my eyes, I was in his arms,
my nipples rubbing against his now-slick chest. I squirmed
a happy little squirm that had as much of me touching
him as possible, licking a couple of drops of water off his
chin.

“Dmitri has chosen trial by combat for the challenge.
In specific, swords. You need do nothing other than be
present. And believe me,
kincsem,
being inside you is all
I can think about. We have been parted too many times
today. I have been hungry for you.”

My hands slid around his hips to the proof of his
hunger. “Good, because I’m positively famished.”

His hands closed around mine, gently prying them off
his penis. “Aisling, right now I do not think I can bear
your touch for long.”

I rubbed my hips against him. He groaned and grabbed
my butt to stop me from moving.

“In the mood for a quickie, eh? That’s fine with me.
My pot has been simmering all day. It’s not going to take
much to make me boil.”

“I’m afraid that’s all I have time for.” His breath was
hot on my mouth as he backed me up against the wall of
the pool. The water was just over breast height on me,
high enough to give me sufficient buoyancy to wrap my
legs around his hips while I kissed the fire right out of
him.

His body was hot and hard against me as I all but
purred, squirming against him to feel as much of him as
possible. My body ached for him, waited with every mus
cle clenched for the familiar invasion, needing him the
way I needed to breathe.

“Drake, are you here? We will be late for the . . . ah.”

Pal’s voice echoed slightly in the room. Drake swore into my mouth. I made embarrassed eeking noises and
sank into the water until I was submerged to my neck, my
arms over my breasts.

Pal had his back to us, evidently examining a water
pipe that ran across the ceiling. “I’m sorry to disturb you,
but the
chevauchee
is to commence in fifteen minutes.
Shall I tell Dmitri that you will be delayed?”

Drake swore again, his lips hot on mine as he gave me
a quick, hard kiss that promised almost as much as the
look in his eyes. “That would give him the opportunity to
claim I defaulted on the challenge. I am ready.”

I cocked an eyebrow at his naked butt as he strode over
to his clothing, snatching up a towel from a nearby stack.
“OK. It’ll take me a few minutes to get ready, but I can
put on makeup in the car.”

“You cannot attend the
chevauchee, kincsem.
It is a rit
ual cleansing for the combatants only. There is no need
for you to hurry—Istvan will remain behind to bring you
to the fencing club.”

“You’re holding a challenge in a fencing club?”

“Yes. Is there something wrong with that?” He pulled
on his black pants and the heavy silk green shirt I loved
for him to wear because the material seemed to caress his
skin
.

No, it’s just kind of an incongruous place to hold
something so serious as a challenge, isn’t it?”

He finished with his shoes, grabbed another towel, and
shook it out for me. I made sure Pal still had his back to
me, hurrying out of the pool to clasp the towel around me.

“It is no less incongruous than holding a challenge in
a bar.”

I smiled. “Yes, but my challenge to you wasn’t serious.
I hope you’ll notice that I’m not freaking out about this at all. I haven’t even asked you how good you are with a
sword.”

“I noticed.” His mouth burned on mine for a moment,
his fire being shared between us as his tongue twined
around mine in a fiery—albeit brief—dance. “You are
learning to have faith in me as is proper between a mate
and her wyvern.”

“No, I am learning to ask around. Pal told me earlier
today that Dmitri had picked swords and that you were
pleased because you were some sort of master swords
man a few centuries ago. You’d better not have forgotten
anything.”

Pal peeked at me out of the corner of his eye, his grin not too obvious. Drake pinched my bare behind as pun
ishment for my saucy tone. “I never forget. Istvan will
drive you when you are ready. The challenge is not for an
hour. Do not be late.”

“Happy
chevauchee-ing,”
I called, feeling remarkably
happy.

Pal hesitated at the door. “There was another phone
call for you, but I thought you were resting.”

“Phone? Who was it?” Just about everyone I knew on
this side of the world was in the same house as me.

“Apparently it was the demon lord Ariton.”

I sighed. “Him again. What a pest. Did you take a
message?”

“Yes. He said if you will not come to him, he will
come to you.” Pal’s eyes were dark as he considered me.
“You are not in some sort of trouble?”

“Just the usual stuff.”

“Ah. Should I inform Drake?”

“Naw. I’ve got Nora to help me if Ariton gets bossy.
Thanks for covering for me, though.”

Pal left with a cheery smile that I wholeheartedly
shared. Life was finally starting to come together for me. Oh, there were trouble spots, but nothing I couldn’t han
dle. I just had a demon lord to placate, and a dragon war
to end, and the Guardians’ Guild to convince. “No big
deal, really,” I said aloud as I walked over to the bench.

Behind me, glass tinkled to the stone floor. Before I could turn to look, something stung my back, right be
tween my shoulder blades.

I was out even before I hit the floor.

19

The voices around me were not speaking English. For
some reason, that grated on my nerves. “It’s very rude to
speak in a language that people can’t understand,” my
voice said.

I frowned at the sound. I wasn’t aware I’d given my mouth the order to speak, but then, I didn’t quite understand why I was drifting somewhere on a gently rolling
dark cloud of oblivion, or who was standing near me talk
ing in a lyrical foreign language.

The voices stopped.

“Cara, you are with us again?”

I frowned again. That voice was familiar, as was the
brush of cool fingers across my neck. My shoulder twitched
in response. “Goddamn it, Fiat. What have you done to me? Why can’t I see? Do I have a blindfold on? Did you
cast some sort of blinding spell on me?”

His voice was filled with dry humor. “Nothing quite so
drastic. Your eyes are closed,
cara.
You will see again if
you open them.”

“Oh.” I thought about that for a moment, wondering
why something so simple seemed to take such an exag
gerated amount of time to be processed in my brain. The
answer came a few seconds later. The sting on my back!
He’d shot me, and I was in shock!

“Do you need help?”

The cool fingers were back, this time gently pulling
one of my eyelids upward. My eye rolled up and took its
time focusing on the blurry figure in front of me.

“And now the other one.”

“I can do it myself,” I grumbled, slapping at his hand.
I got my other eyelid opened, and my gaze focused, but it
took far longer than it should have. “You drugged me or
something.”

“I regret that is so. There was no other way to get you
out of Drake’s house.”

That filtered through the drug-induced haze in my
mind. A thought formed right after that, a good thought, a welcome thought. I opened my mouth to give voice to
it. “Effrijim, I summ—”

A hand slapped over my mouth. “I do not believe we
need your demon along for the evening’s events,” Fiat
said. I realized then that I was lying on my side along
the seat of a car, which explained the rolling motion. I
propped my head up to glare at Fiat, but it swam so badly,
I let it fall back to the seat.

“You will feel the effects of the drug for a short while yet, I’m afraid. If I have your assurance that you will not
try to summon your minion, I will release you.”

I was very aware of Fiat’s cool fingers on my mouth. It was not a pleasant sensation. I thought about what he
was saying, tried to figure out any reason he had for kid
napping me from Drake’s house, and decided there wasn’t
much I could do in the current circumstances. I gave a
sharp nod of agreement.

“Excellent. Now, you no doubt—”

“Effrijimlsummonthee,” I said at warp speed the sec
ond his fingers left my lips.

Fiat sighed as the familiar furry black shape of Jim
formed and solidified in front of me.

“Wow. You’re naked, Ash.
Hi, Fiat. Hi, Renaldo.
We’re
going for a ride?”

Carefully, so as not to dislodge the towel I still wore
wrapped around my torso—and, more important, to give
my head time to cope with movement—I sat upright in
the seat, glaring at both Fiat and Renaldo, his bodyguard,
who sat next to him blatantly ogling me.

“Eyes up
here!”
I told the latter, pointing to my face,
one hand making sure the towel was securely tucked into
itself. Fortunately, it was long enough that it went almost
to my knees, so there wasn’t too much of me exposed ...
if you can call being kidnapped while clad in a towel not
too exposed.

“Nice car,” Jim said, looking around. “Does it run to
snacks?”

For a moment, a chink showed in Fiat’s armor.
“Cam,
I must insist that you control your demon.”

“What? I haven’t done anything! I didn’t point out that
your limo isn’t as big as Drake’s, or that you’ve got a
nasty scuff on one of your shoes, or even that someone
stuck a wad of gum under your seat. I’ve been good.”

I smiled at Jim, both relieved and somewhat reassured by its presence. Jim may not be much protection, but we
had made it out of some sticky situations together.

A flash of true anger showed in Fiat’s clear blue eyes.
“If you do not subdue your demon, I will do it for you.”

“You and what army?”

“Hey, now!” I pulled on Jim’s collar as the demon
bared its teeth. “Jim, stop being rude. Fiat, stop picking
on Jim. It hasn’t done anything.”

“Its mere existence offends me.”

I was a bit surprised by the vehemence in his voice. Fiat
showed even less emotion than Drake, but this time the
naked anger was visible for a moment before his usual po
lite, handsome, Greek-god mask settled into place.

“I am—”

“Going to be quiet,” I finished for Jim. “Until I say
otherwise.”

Jim shot me a look, but I ignored it to level a quelling
glare at Fiat. “I don’t have time for your odd games. I
have no idea what you think you’re proving by kidnapping me, but I don’t have time to find out. I have to go to
a challenge.”

‘That is where I am taking you,
cara.
Do not get
your”—his gaze dropped to the bare lower half of my
thigh—”panties in a twist.”

Jim bared its teeth again, silently this time. I put a
warning hand on its head, gently stroking its ears. I knew
when I was deliberately being baited, and I wasn’t going
to lose my cool with Fiat. “Speaking of that, you couldn’t
have kidnapped my clothing along with me?”