M&L03 - SS (23 page)

“I always enjoy myself when I
work my magic,” I told her, opening my arms so that she could cuddle up close
to me. She molded her body along the length of mine and rested her head against
my chest.

I glanced down at the maze
and found the fire demon nearing an exit. He quickly changed directions when I
sent a bolt of lightning down in front of him.

In my distraction, Renee had
started kissing my neck and was now rubbing my back with her hands beneath my
shirt.

“What are you doing Renee?” I
asked, trying to maintain my focus on the maze.

“I’m stealing third base,”
she whispered, nipping at my earlobe.

I was instantly hard and
couldn’t find the strength to protest.

She continued exploring my
neck and ears with her mouth while her hands caressed my back and chest. Then
she added the occasional scrape of nails and I knew I was in trouble. I kept my
eyes glued to the maze but my mind barely registered anything I saw. Renee had
my full attention as she kissed, and licked, and sucked, and rubbed her warm
body against mine.

She rolled the hem of my
shirt up and pulled it over my head. Then her hands slid around to the front of
my pants and she started undoing my belt while her tongue teased my nipple.
When she popped my button free, she moved to my other nipple and swirled her
tongue around it a few times before kissing a trail down the center of my chest.
By the time she reached my stomach, my zipper was down and my erection was
throbbing with anticipation.

“This might not be the best
time for this Renee,” I managed to choke out as she pushed my pants halfway
down my thighs.

“I think it’s the perfect
time for this,” she breathed, her eyes fixed on my aroused flesh as she went
down on her knees before me.

I had just enough time to
make sure the fire demon wasn’t anywhere near an exit before her tongue slid up
my shaft from root to tip. A tremor ran through my body and I leaned forward to
brace my hands on the short stone wall in front of me.

The noise from the crowd
suddenly grew to deafening levels and I looked down to find Doyle and Kaleb
tearing each other apart near the center of the maze.

Renee’s lips closed over the
swollen head of my cock and my vision blurred as unbelievable pleasure pulsed
through my entire being. Thankfully she took it slow at first, teasing me with
swirling licks around the tip as she caressed the long length with her soft
hand.

My vision cleared enough for
me to check the maze. Danarius was in the cage, Noah was wandering around in a
time loop that Rook helped me create and Doyle and Kaleb were still going at
it. No one was actively pursuing the prey, but the fire demon was still nowhere
near an exit.

Renee’s mouth slid down the
length of my shaft hard and fast, spreading a thick layer of wetness to ease
the slide of her hand. Up and down her head bobbed, fingers squeezing, tongue
swirling, mouth sucking. Time flew by as I lost myself to her rhythm, to the
mind-blowing sensations ravaging my body.

The roar of the crowd broke
through my pleasurable haze and I looked down just in time to see that the fire
demon was only three steps away from an exit. I opened a portal that brought
him back to the center of the maze where Doyle and Kaleb were still battling it
out. I thought surely one of them would finish off the prey and end this round
in no time.

Renee’s fingers dug into my
ass and she pulled me forward, ramming my hard length all the way down her
throat. She held me there, letting her throat convulse around my cock while I
shuddered above her. Then she urged me to move, pulling me and pushing me until
I was thrusting into her mouth with forceful strokes. Harder, faster, she swallowed
me, devouring me with her hot, wet mouth.

The maze was nearly forgotten
but I glanced down just in time to see the fire demon almost escape yet again.
Where the fuck were all the damn contestants? I tried to think of a way to stop
the fire demon but nothing came to mind as Renee sucked harder and the wave of
orgasm crashed over me.

Spasms of pleasure racked my
body sending spurts of semen jetting into her throat. Inspiration stuck me and
I pushed the fire demon back from the exit with several short spurts of water
jetting with the force of a hundred fire hoses.

When the pleasurable spasms
finally stopped, I reached down to caress Renee’s head while I looked for the
fire demon. Thankfully, Danarius had finally escaped from the cage and he now
had the fire demon in his grasp. With a quick twist of his hands, the fire
demon lost his head and Danarius won the round.

I released Noah from the time
loop and sent a deluge of water to separate Doyle and Kaleb. Whatever Doyle’s
wolf had against Kaleb it was obviously more important than winning the
tournament because he’d spent the entire round beating on Kaleb instead of the
intended prey.

Renee stood and looked over
the edge. “Everything go okay down there?”

I couldn’t speak. I just
grabbed her and claimed her lips for a devouring kiss.

Moments later, I was about to
reach down and rip off her pants when Grayson came through the door. His face
turned bright red and he turned away from the sight of my naked ass. “I’m
sorry; I thought you were alone up here.”

Renee froze in my arms and I
knew I had to get a grip on myself. No matter how much I wanted her in that
moment, I wasn’t going to fuck her with Grayson standing a few feet away, and
he needed to set up the chambers for the next round of sword fights - in which
I was expected to participate.

I closed my eyes and drew in
a long, deep breath. Then another, and then another before I was finally able
to put my pants back in order and grab my shirt off the ground. 

I took Renee’s hand in mine
and turned to face the other sorcerer. “No need to apologize Grayson, the booth
is all yours.”

He stepped aside to let us
pass and closed the door behind us. In the corridor Renee said, “That was
fairly awkward.”

I tucked her hair behind her
ear. “It could have been worse.”

“True,” she agreed, grinning.
“He could have shown up a few minutes earlier or later. Either way would have
been a lot more embarrassing.”

“For you at least - and
probably him.” I shrugged. “I personally don’t give a damn who sees me having
sex. In some situations I actually enjoy knowing people are watching me give
and take pleasure.”

Her eyes widened a bit. “I’m
not sure if I’ll ever be able to give you that Solomon.”

“I know,” I told her,
caressing the side of her face. “I don’t expect you to do anything that makes
you feel uncomfortable, but don’t ever hold back just because we’re not alone.
If you feel the time is right, then it is and I’ll be happy to go along for the
ride.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she
promised. “Do you have to go now?”

“Yes, I have to get ready for
the next round of sword fights.”

“Then I won’t keep you.”

She gave me a quick but very
memorable kiss, then she wished me luck and left me there to find her friends
in the stands. I pulled my shirt over my head and hurried down to the locker
rooms. The next few hours would not only be a test of my sword fighting skills,
but also of my strength of will as I fought the urge to forfeit the tournament
and track down my mate.

Thanks to her, third base was
behind us, but waiting twenty-four hours to keep my word seemed like an
impossible feat. Especially when I allowed myself to remember how soft she felt
beneath my hands and how responsive she was to my touch. I wanted to spend
hours exploring every inch of her body, giving her so much pleasure that she’d
never want for more, but all that would have to wait for just one more day.

One more day
and Renee would truly be mine.

~ Solomon ~

Once the sword fights began,
you never knew who you were going to face next. You just walked into the
chamber, smeared a little blood on the black wall or the red wall, whichever
one was closest, and then you started swinging your sword. If you drew your
opponent’s blood three times you got to walk through a portal into the next
chamber where you would repeat the whole process. If your opponent drew your
blood three times, you’d get to walk through a portal back to the locker rooms.

I’d been repeating that
process for hours as I worked my way through the chambers and the unworthy
opponents I left behind. Now I was sitting in the sand, leaning back against
the red wall of the latest chamber waiting for my next adversary to arrive. I’d
already polished my sword and donated a drop of blood so that the referee spell
would recognize me as the red competitor.

A few minutes later, a portal
opened in front of the black wall and I could have sworn Christmas came early
this year.

“Tired already?” Dimitri
asked me, taking in my seated position.

“Not at all,” I told him,
rising to my feet. “Just bored of waiting all morning for you to arrive.”

That was the secret to this
kind of competition - get your three strikes in quickly and you’d have time to
recover before you had to face the next challenger.

I rotated my sword a few
times, warming up my wrist while Dimitri smeared a drop of his blood on the
black wall. We paced to the center of the chamber, circling when we were almost
close enough to strike.

“How does it feel to know
you’ve taken the free will of a strong woman and sentenced her to a life of
slavery?”

“If you’re talking about
Renee, you don’t know the first thing about her, or about mating bonds. If you
did, you’d know that she is exactly where she’s always wanted to be. You’d also
know she only took you into her body that night in Supernova because I made the
mistake of leaving her wanting. If she’d had a choice, it would have been my
dick she was riding, not yours.”

Dimitri scoffed. “You’d like
to believe that wouldn’t you?”

“I do believe that, and you
should too.” I raised my sword in front of me, anticipating his strike. “We
both saw whose face was in her mind. Think about it. She was riding your cock,
drinking your blood, and still it wasn’t enough to get her off. She had to
think about me to push her over the edge.”

It was like waving a red flag
in front of a raging bull. Dimitri charged, swinging his sword wildly and I
stepped aside, turning as he flew by me to slice my sword across his chest. The
room turned bright red for a moment and I spun around to meet his next attack.

This time when he came at me
our swords clashed and the sound of metal clanging together echoed through the
chamber. Again and again, he came for me, his strikes more controlled but still
driven by rage. It wasn’t long before I was able to draw blood again, this time
with a deep gash across his cheek. The room turned red once again and I heard
the crowd cheering wildly in the stadium.

He stopped for a moment,
wiping the blood from his face. The red flames in his eyes burned hotter than
the pits of hell, and for just an instant flames flared over his hands.

“Uh, uh, uh. We aren’t
supposed to use anything but the swords. If you attack me with fire, I will be forced
to defend myself with magic.”

“I’m not afraid of you
sorcerer,” he spat.

“Then raise you sword and
let’s get this over with.”

I took a defensive stance
like I was going to wait for his attack. Then, just before he could make a
move, I rushed in and thrust my sword into his gut, twisting it hard before
pulling it back out. He dropped his sword and fell to his knees. The room turned
red and stayed that way indicating I’d won the match. His hands went to the
open wound trying to staunch the bleeding. Fire demons healed quickly, but not
anywhere near as fast as vampires or nightshifters.

I looked down at him without
pity. “You’re only alive because my king asked us not to kill anyone during the
tournament. Next time our paths cross this will have a very different ending,
and I don’t think I need to tell you that Renee is off limits.”

I turned to walk through my
next portal and felt the buildup of heat behind me. I’d known he would try to
take me out, so I was ready when the massive fireball came hurtling towards my
head. I spun around, unleashing a vortex of wind that caught the fireball and
used it to heat the sand funneling up through its center. Dimitri shrieked in
agony as the vortex swallowed him whole and he was quickly covered in molten
glass. With a flick of my wrist, I sent a blast of arctic air into the vortex
to cool the glass, leaving Dimitri encased in a thick block of multicolored
glass.

The crowd went ballistic and
I took a bow. Then the chambers disappeared and I saw that Katerina and I were
the only two competitors left on the battlefield. Well, aside from the Dimitri
shaped statue anyway. Knowing that meant we were finished until the semifinals
began, I opened a portal into the locker rooms. The marksmanship competition
was up next so Renee was likely to be at the food booths outside the stadium. I
took a quick shower, threw on some clean clothes, and then headed out to find
my beautiful mate. I knew she’d be upset about Dimitri. The question was; how
upset would she be?

When we met up outside the
stadium Renee glared at me and walked away. I followed her and we filled our
plates. Then we ate in silence while our friends talked about the afternoon
events. Dragon and Danarius were currently running neck and neck for first
place in the hand-to-hand competition, Lucien was the leading marksman and it
looked like the usual suspects, including myself, Katerina, and Renee would
likely advance to the semifinals in the sword fights.

After everyone finished
eating and the conversation died down I walked Renee to the locker rooms. It
was nearly time for the next round of sword fights and she needed to get ready.
When it became obvious that she was going to disappear into the women’s
changing area without even saying goodbye I asked, “How long are you going to
keep up the silent treatment Renee?”

She spun around to face me
with green fire blazing in her eyes. “Until I can look at you and not want to
scream.”

I slid my hands into my
pockets and rocked back on my heels. “What was I supposed to do Renee? He
launched a massive fireball at my head.”

“And you had nothing to do
with him throwing that fireball at your head?” she asked, her tone heavy on the
sarcasm.

“Of course not,” I scoffed.
“You saw me walk away from him. It’s not my fault he chose to attack me as soon
as my back was turned.”

She put her hands on her
hips. “You didn’t say anything to goad him into attacking you?”

“We traded a few insults, but
it wasn’t anything more than the usual smack talk,” I told her honestly, then
went for a bit of levity with, “If you ask me he’s just a little bit unstable.”

Now she rolled her eyes and I
breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how mad she was, if her eyes were rolling
I was all but forgiven. “I’ve seen him fight Solomon. I’ve even sparred with
him myself. Whatever you said to him must have really hit home for him to lose
control like that.”

I shrugged. “Look, he said
some things to me; I said some things to him. I kept my cool, he didn’t. I won,
he lost.”

She leaned back against the
wall. “That’s not the end of it; is it?”

“No Renee, that’s not the end
of it,” I said, moving to stand in front of her. “I’m sure by now he’s melted
his way out of the glass and he’s licking his wounds. It takes a lot to burn a
fire demon, but molten glass will do the trick. The burns will heal quickly,
but his stomach will take a bit longer. Probably by the end of the tournament
he’ll be good to go and then he’ll be gunning for me.”

“Why didn’t you just finish
him there in the arena? Why toy with him like this?”

I reached out to caress her
jaw, tipping her chin up so she’d look me in the eyes. “I wasn’t toying with
him Renee. Dragon asked us not to kill anyone during the tournament or believe
me; I would have ended his existence without batting an eye.”

“Promise me you won’t let
this happen again Solomon. Dimitri is my friend but I understand that one of
you is going to die. The next time you face him I want you to end it quickly.
Don’t make him suffer, just end it.”

“I’m sorry your friend has to
die. I won’t miss him myself, but I do regret that you have to suffer the loss.
When the time comes, I promise to make his death as quick as possible.”

She nodded her head,
satisfied, and I leaned in to kiss her. While our lips moved together the
tension between us drained away leaving a sense of peace in its place. There
were things to be done, and not all of them pleasant, but for now ev
erything was right in my world.