“Yeah, except for that old fortune-teller. She always said you were in contact with the spirit world. I don’t know how the hell anyone took her seriously when she smelled like a bar.” And for one moment he smiled, open and free and emotionally intimate, and it was the three of them again, making a scruff of their neck escape and laughing about it once danger had passed, and the jolt that passed through her chest when Esh turned that smiling gaze to her.
“Well, anyway,” she said, not responding to his smile, breaking the moment, and his face settled back into harsh lines, though he didn’t back away. “I can’t cast magic – I’m not a wizard, that’s true – but I can sense magic, and I can break it. I can unwind it, reverse the spells, make it like they never existed. It’s known as being a Magic Breaker.”
Esh’s eyebrows rose, though no other signs of hesitant disbelief appeared on his face. Considering she’d never heard of Magic Breakers until the Guild entered her life, she wouldn’t have blamed him if he laughed outright at the thought. “You can’t cast spells?”
“Nope,” she said, popping the p at the end.
“But if you come to a house that has a magical lock on the door…”
“I can open it, twist the handle and go right on in. It’s amazing how many people will lock up their houses with layers of magic but not use a ten-dollar deadbolt.”
Esh crossed his arms over his chest and breathed deep, as if settling everything he’d learned inside him. “So the Guild thinks Beylor, what, lives in one of these magic-free zones you were talking about and they expect you to walk in and grab this piece of jewelry?”
He looked skeptical, and she didn’t blame him. “Not quite. I’m not going to be alone. There’s a thief I’ll be meeting there. I need to find the item, and they’re going to steal it.”
His hands went to his hips and he widened his stance, and damned if she was going to admit the dominating aura did anything to her insides, because like hell she’d ever give him that type of ammunition. “If they got a thief, why do they need you?”
“Beylor is known for making multiple fakes of his valuables. Multiple fakes in multiple vaults, so I’m needed to lead my contact to the correct item.”
“And it’s got to be you because you’re a Magic Breaker?”
“Exactly. A wizard would be useless, but what I’m able to do isn’t the same, so I’ll be able to function.”
His stance was still aggressive, those large hands resting on trim hips. “That’s all well and good, but you’re not a warrior. Beylor’ll have an army of thugs wandering around.”
“I’ll deal with it.”
Wrong thing to say, because he went from calm to pissed, veins in his neck raising beneath the skin. “Like fuck you’ll deal with it! You think I’ll let you just walk into that shit? Beylor has access to the best fighters, and none of them would have a second thought about hurting a woman.”
Ten minutes after walking in the door, and he thought he had the right to an opinion? Like hell. “What makes you think you have any say in my life? I’ve been doing just fine.”
“And if I don’t help you?” he challenged.
“Then there’s plan B,” she responded, flinging her hands up in frustration. “They might have determined this to be the best plan, but I guarantee they’ll have someone else I can travel with. I don’t need your help.”
She turned, but his fingers wrapped around her upper arm stopped her from leaving. She twisted to face him but didn’t get a chance to speak before he claimed her mouth, his lips on hers and his tongue demanding entrance.
Familiar yet new. So many times he’d done this, evoked fire in her body, flames that started low in her belly and spread to engulf her whole body. He dominated her, taking possession with his mouth, forcing her to receive pleasure as he deemed to give it.
Only white existed in her thoughts. She was all feeling, all senses. His touch, the calloused hand rough and tender as it slid along her back. His scent, sweat from the match still on his skin, woodsmoke, and the musky male undertone that was pure Esh.
Nalah’s hands were weak, trembling, as she pushed at him, breaking free enough to whisper, “We can’t. Esh.”
He groaned as she said his name and retook her mouth, a languid conquest where he drew out sighs and groans from her against her will.
It was his hands sliding down to cup her ass that brought back damned reality to the forefront. This time her push against him was harder and caught him off guard, enough that she was able to escape.