Decision made. Head high and palms sweating, she walked through the glittery air of her own volition. Magic tickled her skin, the strongest magic she’d ever encountered.
One second she stood in a hotel ballroom, the next she stood in a bunkroom, aka military barracks. A row of bunkbeds lined each plain white wall. A couch and table occupied the center of the enclosure, creating a common meeting space. In back, there was a small kitchenette complete with a sink, stove and locked refrigerator. There were no decorations, no colors. No doors, either. Not that she could see.
The other codebreakers huddled in a far corner, most crying, the rest whispering words of comfort.
William entered behind Sunny. Exuding complete satisfaction, he moved to Sunny’s side. “Has everyone been disarmed?” he asked his sibling.
“Yep,” his sister replied. Her brow wrinkled with distaste. “I confiscated a handful of nail files and tweezers.”
“I could kill everyone here with a nail file or a pair of tweezers.” As he spoke, he pivoted into Sunny, just as he’d done in the elevator. His warm breath fanned her face, his hard, muscular chest pressing against her breasts. Eyes magnetic and hypnotic, he leaned down, putting his mouth at her ear. “Time for your weapons check, duna.”
Her heart rate picked up speed, her nerve endings tingling. Sage! How did he affect her so strongly?
How else? He was the epitome of seduction and temptation, and she had no defenses.
“Go ahead,” she said, hating the quiver in her voice. “Get your mauling and pawing over with.”
“Mauling and pawing?” A muscle jumped underneath his eye. He hooked one hand around her waist and yanked her closer. Every point of contact sparked a current of electricity, and she trembled.
His gaze never left hers as he unwound her braid and pulled out the pens. Her scalp tingled. Next, he ran his big, calloused hands over her shoulders, down her arms and her sides, then along her legs. Every weapon he encountered, he dropped. Three daggers, the gun-ring and a locket filled with poison. The medallion—the most powerful weapon—he studied but left alone. Fool! All the while, she floundered between total vulnerability, abject helplessness and wild arousal.
In the end, the arousal won. Sweet freesia! His hands on me...feel so good. Trust issues, smush issues. Sunny couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed a touch, or anticipated more.
Maybe, just maybe, she could keep her mind in the game if he kissed her again...
Nope. As soon as she got into it, enjoying herself, paranoia set in, and she stiffened. A single moment of distraction can cost you everything. “Hurry up,” she demanded.
“Why? Do you enjoy my touch too much?” He squeezed her waist. “You do, don’t you? Don’t try to deny it. Your pupils are blown.”
Something she’d learned as a child. When you needed to get your point across without admitting the truth, shout. “Deny!”
Unfortunately, he wasn’t buying it. And why would he? She’d started to pant. “Tsk-tsk. If you truly wish me to stop, you have to say, William, darling, I want you to remove your magnificent hands from my aching body.”
She couldn’t say those words, so she pressed her lips together instead, acting stubborn.
“Very well.” He waved a hand, unleashing a stream of magic. A blurry veil appeared around them, shielding them from the others.
Her breath caught. What did he have planned?
“Must check the rest of you.” With a sinfully delicious glint in his baby blues, he moved behind her, pressing his chest flush against her back.
Tremors whipped through her as he reached around to cup her aching breasts. Tell him to stop. Do it! But...once again, her mouth refused to obey. I want more.
“Be honest,” he whispered. “My duna craves passion. Needs it. She wants to be ridden.”
His duna? Do not tremble again. Don’t you dare. “Wrong,” she whispered back. “She wants to be ridden well.”
“And I bring you no pleasure. Say it. Get the insults over with, and I’ll move on.”
“You spoke...t-true? You’re so unskilled?” The words emerged as questions rather than statements, and her cheeks blazed. Oh, how she longed to lie.
“So why haven’t you told me to stop?” he rasped, then bit her earlobe. When her nipples stiffened against his palms, he uttered a husky chuckle. “We both know why. Parts of you love these unskilled hands.”
Mmm. Yes. It was a miracle and an inconvenience. A surprise and a puzzle. Of all the men in all the worlds, why him? Sunny hadn’t even desired her husband this intently. Actually, she hadn’t desired Blaze, period. He’d been chosen for her.
Her mind drifted to the past...to the day of her sixteenth birthday, when she’d wed Prince Blaze Lane, the king’s eldest son. Blaze and Sunny had grown up together, yet they’d never really gotten along. He’d been selfish, and had lacked a backbone and self-control. Neither side of her had respected him. Still, her parents had agreed to the match, so she’d done her duty. If she’d refused, she would have been banished, along with everyone in her line. Mostly, though, she’d said yes because she’d felt fated to rule, had strongly believed Princess Sunny would one day become Queen Sunny.
Alas, Lucifer attacked only a few years later. Her hopes for becoming queen, dashed. Her status as princess, done. Her husband, dead.
At the time of the attack, Sunny had been trapped in a pit, only able to listen to a cacophony of noises. Agonized screams. Gleeful laughter. Unheeded pleas for mercy. The whoosh of different weapons. Metal clanging against metal. The pop of breaking bones. The gurgle of blood. The wheeze of death. And, of course, Lucifer’s war cry, “For William!”
Earlier that week, the king had sentenced her to two weeks of solitary confinement. Her crime? Embarrassing her husband in public.
“—paying attention to me?” William snapped, his irritation clanging like a bell.
“No, I’m not,” she admitted, blinking into focus. Gross. She’d gotten lost in her head again. That wasn’t good. Wasn’t good at all. Attentiveness was often the difference between life and death. “If you must know, I was thinking of another man.”
A low growl rumbled deep in his chest. The same growl she’d heard in the elevator, just before he’d kissed her. This time, he dropped his arms, severing contact, and stepped back.
Had she gained the upper hand? That had to bother him. Why not make it worse? “Shouldn’t you do a body cavity search? I could be packing daggers in my panties.”
Menace palpable, he released an angry huff and waved his hand, erasing the veil that separated them from the others. “I’ll return in an hour to meet with each of you privately. You will show me the extent of your decoding talents. Be ready.” Without casting a glance her way, he opened a new portal.
After his sister and son had walked through, he followed on their heels. Why this fit of pique? Unless... Had the thought of her with someone else roused jealousy?
No. No way. She shifted from one slipper to the other. But hopefully? She’d promised him punishment, after all. What better way to start?
“You sure you want to go?” Sunny called, fighting a grin. “No telling what I’ll do, or who I’ll do it with, while you’re gone.”
The muscles in his back knotted, bulging, and he faced her once again. Rage simmered in his eyes. “Do whatever you wish, with whomever you wish.”
Bluebell! His dismissal doesn’t matter. Actually, he doesn’t matter.
“Where are you going?” she grumbled. “Why do you need an hour?” Before, he’d frothed at the mouth, eager to get his book decoded. Now he couldn’t wait to abandon ship? Why?
“Perhaps there’s a beautiful woman waiting in my bed, ready for my return. Someone who doesn’t think of others while she’s with me.”
Her temper took the wheel, and she snipped, “Good! You could use the practice.” No doubt
this nameless, faceless woman would be screaming his name in a matter of minutes. Sunny balled her hands. Hold up. Now I’m jealous?
Maybe. Probably. But he was for sure jealous, too. No doubt about it now. In this, they were equals.
And now I want to grin? Well, yeah. No one had ever been jealous over her before.
Another growl rumbled from William. Behind him, both Green and Pandora gave her a pitying glance.
“What?” she snapped at them.
The newest portal closed before they had a chance to respond. Silence reigned in the bunkroom, thick and oppressive.
Then everyone spoke at once.
“What are we going to do?”
“That man killed Harry. Shot him dead.”
“How well do you know our captors, Sunny?”