Dark Harmony by Laura Thalassa

Chapter 24

We don’t speak until we’re a block away from the building.

“How would you like a beer?” the Bargainer finally says.

“Des.” It’s barely a whisper.

“I need a beer.”

“Des.” I stop. I feel like I can’t catch my breath. “You can’t just pretend the last ten minutes didn’t happen.”

The Bargainer mutters something under his breath. He turns to me, his hair looking like snow against the grey London backdrop.

“Callie, nothing is going to happen to me.” He sounds so sure of himself. Like he’s impervious to harm.

I want to shake him. “That seer said the darkness would betray you, Des!”

“The seer is a little prick who got too big for his breeches.”

Why is he not listening? “He looked into your future!”

“Callie.” He takes my hand, rolling my engagement ring a little. (Always have to be wearing a piece of the Bargainer’s jewelry.) “It’s alright. I’m not discounting Collin’s words. What will come to pass will come to pass, but you need to trust in me. Can you do that?”

No. Ugh, yes.

“It feels like I just got you back.” I glance down at my feet before looking at the Bargainer again. “I can’t lose you twice.”

“Who said anything about losing me?” Des asks. “Don’t let your mind play tricks on you now, love. Betrayal is not the same as death.”

I take a deep breath. He’s right. Begrudgingly I nod.

“You good?” Des asks.

Nope. Not really.

“I want those body shots.”

Desmond found us a themed club after all. One that offers body shots.

Alchemy, a nightclub in London, is decked out to look like a sorcerer’s paradise, every last decoration tied into black magic and spellcasting.

“Cherub, this is a bad idea.” Des gazes up at me from where he lays, fake flickering candles encircling him. He looks like a sacrificial offering among it all, and I guess that’s the point.

“You love bad ideas,” I say. I hold a little vial of salt in one hand, and a lime in the other.

So fucking excited.

“Normally. This one I’m not so sure of.” Under his breath he says, “Would’ve been more fun if our roles were reversed.”

I lean in close, my mouth inches from his. “I’ll make sure you enjoy yourself.” I punctuate the statement by running the lime wedge around the Bargainer’s navel. His eyes brighten, and through our bond I sense the barest hint of his excitement.

He is such a liar. He’s thrilled about the situation just as much as I am.

My attention moves from his face to his torso. I follow the lime wedge with a circle of salt.

Honestly, this is so sexy it should be illegal.

Des flashes me a wolfish smile. “Enjoying yourself, cherub?”

“Just a little.” I place the lime wedge in his mouth, and flag down the waiter.

A man dressed in sorcerer’s robes comes over with a handle of tequila. At my signal, he pours the amber liquid into Des’s navel.

Once he’s done, I lean in.

I smile at Des as I lick the salt off his abdomen.

A groan slips from between his teeth.

Pressing my lips to his navel, I swallow down the tequila.

Beneath my mouth, the Bargainer’s muscles flex. I place a hand against them as I rise, the alcohol burning down my throat.

I lean in again, pressing my lips against the Bargainer’s, then take the lime wedge between my teeth, the citrus cutting through the bite of the alcohol.

Once I set the lime aside, Des sits up and swivels to face me, kicking off an array of candles in the process.

He places his hand on a slab between his legs. “Have you had your fill, love?”

That’s a trick question, right?

I lean in. “Not even close.”

Des keeps his shirt off for the rest of the night, and the entire female population of this place can’t handle it.

Seriously, they can’t. It’s a problem.

“Everyone is looking at you,” I say.

Des sits on the bar, drinking straight from a bottle of fancy whiskey. He’s really not supposed to be doing either, but when I told him that, he simply said, “Rules are meant to be broken.” Then he winked, took a sip of his whiskey, and I spontaneously orgasmed.

Okay, the last one didn’t happen, but it was a near thing.

I sit on the barstool like normal, grown-ass woman … while my fairy king all but pins me in with his legs.

Not that I’m complaining about it. At all.

I mean, I’m right at eye level with his abs. There are worse views.

Des lowers his bottle of whiskey. “Everyone is looking at you, cherub.” He shakes his head. “The years may pass, but at the end of the day, you’re still that high school girl who’s woefully unaware of her own beauty.”

A woman steps up to the bar next to us, her arm innocuously brushing Des’s thigh.

“Sorry,” she says, apologizing even though half the people in this place are touching the other half.

I give the Bargainer a pointed look. See?

He ignores the woman, instead leaning forward. “Your wings are starting to show, baby siren.”

I’m keenly aware of that. Alcohol plus fae possessiveness plus all my lusty thoughts are making it nearly impossible to hide them.

The woman leans into Des, and this time when her arm brushes his thigh, it’s no accident.

“Do you come here often?” she asks Des, ignoring me completely.

My skin brightens, and I look at the woman. “Scoot.”

Without another word the woman pushes away from the bar, moving back into the crowd.

So that was technically against the law … but God it felt good.

“Is someone jealous?” Des flashes a devilish smile, taking another swig from his bottle.

“Pssh, no.” Yes.

I glance at my skin and frown as it dims. “This is a supernatural bar, right?”

“Not exclusively.” Using the hand that holds the bottle of whiskey, Des crooks a finger at me. I don’t move so much as his magic presses me up against him. “Which means that, much as I love these—” He touches a wing.

Oh crap, they’re out again.

“—we’re going to have to put them away.”

Beneath his palm, I feel Des’s magic pour into me, just as it did the last time he hid my wings, back at my house. There’s a momentary pressure as the magic forces them to disappear, and then they’re gone.

We stay at the nightclub for another hour, moving from the bar to the dancefloor to an area where we can just stand and mingle.

The entire time the patrons of this place watch me and Des, and there’s so much in their looks. Lust, envy, avarice. The Bargainer does nothing but seed it; I can taste his magic in the air, reckless and wild, beckoning people to make bad decisions.

Eventually they do. They drink more, touch more, and creep ever closer to us. Soon fights are breaking out, at least two couples appear to be participating in some heavy petting, and Des and I have scared off a dozen people interested in poaching on this relationship.

“Do you do this at every party you attend?” I ask.

“Do what?” he asks, appearing innocent.

“Rile people up.”

He smiles. “Are you not having a good time?”

“I literally almost clawed a woman apart five minutes ago.” She’d inserted herself between me and Des, and then proceeded to flirt with my mate—at least until he conveniently side-stepped her to rejoin me.

“Shame I stopped that so soon.”

Ugh. This is what happens when your soulmate is a fairy. True shows of devotion often involve spilling blood.

“But you’re forgetting all the men and women who’ve approached you,” he adds.

Men and women who then took one look at the menacing Bargainer and rethought their game plans.

Des sets the beer he now holds on a nearby table. “Why don’t we call it a night?”

The body shots have been drunk, the good times have been had, and everyone else here is now a sloppier mess than either of us. It’s as good a time as any to get going.

The two of us leave the club, heading down a couple blocks until we get to a local cemetery. Once there, Des leads me through a ley line entrance, the air wavering as we step through.

It takes less than a minute to travel from London back to California, and when we step off the ley line, we’re back in Des’s house.

The Bargainer whisks me out of the circular portal room, the door clicking shut at my back, lock after intricate lock engaging.

I glance at Des, who leans against the door for a moment. He’s got the devil in his eyes when he looks at me.

“What?” I say. My blood is beginning to rush through my veins.

“You didn’t think I’d let you take those body shots without repayment now, did you?” Des says.

In a blink he’s in front of me.

Shamefully, his shirt is back on. It brushes against mine as he steps into my space, backing me against a nearby wall.

“How do you want it—on the floor, against the wall, or over the counter?”

Christ. My skin begins to glow as my siren awakens, drawn by sex and magic.

His hand dips into my pants and cups my sex. “Or would you rather I choose for you?”

I gasp, my hands coming to his upper arms, my fingers digging in.

It takes little effort for him to slide my panties aside and dip a finger into my core. “I’m taking that as choose for me.”

“Des.”

He’s feral and overwhelming and silver-tongued and so very, very fae.

A second finger dips in. I moan at the sensation.

My fingernails sharpen as I clutch him, my claws pricking his skin. My nails dig deeper, and the King of the Night grins when they pierce his flesh.

We really are a twisted pair, getting off on blood and sex.

My breath is coming in pants, my legs parting wider as I urge him on.

His nose and lips brush my flush cheeks. “Or perhaps I’ll choose none of that. How I do love seeing you fall apart at my touch. Perhaps my touch is all you’ll get.” He nips at my chin, toying with me. Clearly enjoying that I’m clay in his hands right now, ready to be molded into whatever shape he wants.

A minute ago I wasn’t thinking of sex, now I’m lamenting the slow torture of him burning me up without properly filling me.

I begin to reach for his pants when he catches my wrist and pins it to the wall.

“Ah ah. That’s not how this works.” Des kisses my neck then moves his attention to my mouth, tasting like liquor and dark deeds. All the while his deft fingers stroke me up and down.

He takes my lower lip between his teeth, rolling it around, his clever eyes particularly devious.

He releases my lip.

“Come against my hand,” Des demands.

It’s the same pushy order he used to give me back when I had a bracelet of beads.

And even though the bracelet is long gone, I feel the Bargainer’s magic bloom between my legs, strange and forbidden.

My knees go weak as my orgasm is pulled from me, sweeping through my system. The pleasure is violent and sudden. It seems to stretch on and on, and even once the waves of it abate, the comedown seems to last a lifetime.

I lean my head against the wall, breathless and flushed. “You are such a bastard,” I murmur.

“Awww, you don’t really mean that, cherub,” Des says, removing his fingers from my panties. He places the two of them in his mouth, licking them clean.

Have I mentioned how dirty he is?

It only takes a minute or so for me to regroup from getting fingered within an inch of my life. My siren is riding high. Far from being satiated, she’s only just gotten a taste of sex.

Pushing off the wall, I prowl over to the Bargainer. Taking his jaw gruffly, I kiss his mouth.

“For a guy that specializes in favors, your repayment plans lately could use some work,” I say, tapping the side of his jaw with a clawed forefinger.

I’m sure I look just as devious as he does.

Releasing his jaw, I kneel down in front of him.

“Callie …”

I begin to unbutton his pants, glancing up at him. Des’s eyes are crackling with desire; Des wants to tell me to stop, but he also wants my lips around his cock—and he wants that very badly.

The zipper makes a hissing noise as I pull it down. “Lucky for you, when it comes to repayment, I’m willing to help.”