The Council (Darkness #5)(5)

The “associate,” an aging guy with salt and pepper hair and a neck as big as my thigh, stepped forward. “Follow me,” he barked, turning at once and marching away to the right. Dominicous was led left.

There weren’t any connecting rooms with Toa and Dominicous. The Council attendants were separating us and judging by Dominicous’ severe bad mood, that was intended. Divide and conquer, starting now.

Our progression of eight people in all, followed Mr. Happy through mostly empty hallways and elevators until we got to the back of the third floor, a distance that felt like a football field. He stopped in front of a deep blue door and glanced at Stefan for a brief moment. “This is your suite. I was told you wished to share with your mage…”

“Correct,” Stefan acknowledged.

The man nodded and took a step back, leaving Stefan to open the door and usher me in. He waited until the rest of his guys were ushered into their rooms down the hall before he closed the door.

I wandered into the spacious room, a space plain and sparse compared to what Stefan and his people might’ve done with it. A few paintings of flowers or landscapes dotted the cream-colored walls, a couch and chair faced a tube TV with a desk in the corner, and through a small archway sat a large King-sized bed. I assumed the bathroom was beyond.

“Not real homey, is it?” I asked, plopping onto the couch.

Stefan had a quick glance around before his eyes settled on me. His chest heaved with a deep exhale. “We won’t be together much these two weeks, I fear.”

“Why is that?”

He regarded me solemnly. “They’ll keep me busy. I’ll have challenges constantly, I assume. They want to see my power, how I handle myself, and above all, how much shit I’ll take. Or won’t take, as the case may be. You’ll be…”

He took two slow steps and sank beside me on the couch. His muscular arm came around me and gathered me close. “You’ll be a science experiment. There are quite a few humans within these walls, and they have their agendas—don’t think they’re just ignorant pets—but none of them are mages. None have people at their back, supporting them. And none bear a mark of one of my kind. Not one.”

“How do you know?”

“Because none bear a mark, human or otherwise, that is under two hundred years old. I probably shouldn’t have done it. I probably should’ve waited until you were firmly aware of the implications.”

I thought back to that episode where he crashed through my door and made me his. I shivered with the exquisite memory of it. “Thankfully, I don’t think you were strategizing at the time.”

“Hmm.” He leaned down to me. I shivered again as the heat from his breath warmed my skin. “I wasn’t, no.”

I closed my eyes as his lips trailed down to my throat. His hand slipped in between my thighs, applying pressure as it worked its way up.

“We have one night of no drama,” I said in a sigh. “Or day, I guess. Let’s make the most of it before the world goes to shit.”

His hand reached my apex and started to massage. Hot waves of pleasure vibrated up my body. His mouth drifted lower, lingering over my pulse before inching down a little more. Deft fingers left my crotch to quickly strip me of my shirt and bra. His hot mouth surrounded a nipple, sucking gently until a moan escaped my throat, and then increasing the suction to the pleasing side of painful. My head dropped against the couch.

“Sounds good,” he said quietly.

With a quick movement he lifted me and carried me to the bed. After he set me down gently, he stripped my pants and knickers and spread my legs. His tongue worked up my inner thighs, making a hot trail leading directly to my throbbing sex. He expertly parted my folds and licked up my center before sucking.

“Hmmm, Stefan,” I breathed, running my fingers through his hair.

I spread my legs wider as he worked, sucking and licking, one finger entering my body. The heat coalesced, burning now. I arched into him, tingles working through me, followed by fire. My stomach tightened, and then my core, two fingers now plunging. Faster he worked, harder he sucked. My h*ps swung up to him, my breath tearing out of me in fast pants.

“Almost…”

I couldn’t complete the sentence with the waves of pleasure battering me. I held my breath, everything tightening. So intense.

“Oh god!” I exalted. An explosion rocked my body. Tremors tore through me as he lazily circled my sex with his tongue, letting me come down.

Breathless and languid, I relished in his kisses as he worked up my body. He flicked a nipple with his tongue and then suckled the other, his hands tracing my hot skin with his fingertips. He backed off a second so he could rip off his shirt and slip out of his pants. His large erection bobbed up, drawing my eyes.

“I got lucky with you,” I whispered, closing my eyes as his hands roamed my body slowly.

“What, because I’m well-endowed?” he laughed, nestling between my legs so he could pay more attention to my br**sts.

“Because I could never do all this without you. Any of this. Life. Even without magic, without you I’d still feel achingly alone. Just… left to the side, you know? An outcast. The way I’d felt my whole life before I met you. But with you I fit in somewhere. Even if it was just the two of us, with you everything makes sense. I’m happy in a way I didn’t know a person could be happy.”