Free Threads of Desire by Eleri Stone Page A

with sure firm strokes.
    “Kal,” she said again, because she liked the way his body tightened. “Kal, Kal.”
    His cock swelled, growing harder, and his pace became nearly urgent.
    “Kal.”
    He pinched her, and his lips parted on a broken sigh. This was what she’d wanted...to see him shattered and helpless, desperate and needy. She came as his body trembled above her, his eyes squeezed shut as he found his own release. It was like surrendering to her magic. This was magic.
    Even better, because this could be shared.

Chapter Eight
    Rael accompanied him to the warehouse, a silent and disapproving shadow stalking him through the twisting streets. A blot on the cloudless day. Kal wanted to see Nira, and Rael thought he visited too often. He thought that Kal should have told Ily the truth before bringing her into his home.
    No stomach for risk, Rael. But he adored Nira nearly as much as Kal himself did. He’d protect her with his life, and that was all Kal could ask of him. There was no better servant in all of Saria. More brother than not, which was why Rael felt comfortable turning his head to regard his master with open disgust.
    “We could be gone from Lasura by now.”
    “Lasura is my home, Rael, and yours. It’s not such an awful place to be in the full flush of spring with the trade winds casting the wealth of the empire upon our shores. We’ll be gone long before summer fully settles on the city.”
    Everyone who could do so fled the capital when summer came. When the sun bleached the stones, the heat sucked the air from your lungs and even the water in the fountains failed to bring relief. Kal had always stayed in the city as had his father before him. Their home was situated high enough to catch the wind off the ocean, and he was wealthy enough to be able to purchase ice from the mountains and guild-spelled marble to keep the villa bearably cool.
    This summer he would be gone. In fact, he was unlikely to return until the emperor called the court to assemble again in the spring. Provided that all went as planned and Ily agreed to his proposition.
    “Nira—”
    “Don’t speak her name,” Kal snapped. Rael flinched and he moderated his tone. “Regardless of your opinion that I’ve mishandled Ily, we can’t afford to be careless. Not now.”
    “My apologies, Saer. I won’t misspeak again.”
    Kal clapped him on the shoulder and they turned from the main thoroughfare that passed north and south through the city. He knew the slip hadn’t been intentional—Rael was rarely careless. Perhaps they both needed the reminder. Last night, with Ily warm and sated in his arms, he’d almost told her. That Seli had noticed the guild mark on her wrist when she’d shielded the orphan boy from Calef. That Seli had then promptly sold that information to Kal, who’d found out all he could about the guild-trained artist living in the Southton slums.
    He hadn’t believed it at first. She wouldn’t have been the first person to mark the tattoo on her wrist in an attempt to deceive her customers. He’d sent Rael to discover what he could and Rael had returned with the information that yes, she was guild trained. There’d been some sort of scandal at the University involving the guildmaster, and Ily had been quietly cast out in disgrace. The guild was secretive about the details, saying only that they no longer sanctioned her work.
    Kal had been touring his vineyards then. It had been high summer, so the event had passed by largely unnoticed by the court. Karak’s man told Rael that his master had been approached by the girl but he’d turned her away, not wanting to risk the guildmaster’s displeasure. That was three years ago. Rael hadn’t been able to learn anything of her from that point on. She’d disappeared without a trace.
    Three years . Kal strongly suspected that she’d been living here, in the Southton slums all that time. Lanel sending his pet to the villa yesterday only reinforced that belief. Truly