Page 7 of On a Pale Horse
The club.
Instead of answering, she went home to change. The closet was lined with clothes from one side to the other. One was hers, the other his, and she had to restrain herself from grabbing one of his shirts and sniffing it. His scent turned her on as much as his presence, his voice, all of it.
Would it be so bad to give in? Let him take the lead and see where they ended? The idea worked her up even more. Her desires were no secret in their little family. She liked to be in control. It wouldn’t hurt her to give that control up for one night. See how they fared. The idea of Hades issuing her a command in that voice of his… She blinked away the image, her skin flushing warm as she stripped and changed into a black leather dress. Her clothes were pretty conservative for the club, but she liked to look the part as she passed through the halls. It gave her a little thrill for the men and woman to fall at her feet in worship. It was a little like the old days.
The black leather hugged her curves tightly, and she slipped into a pair of red sole heels for effect. It took moments to materialize at her office in the club. She kept the door locked and only she and Hades had the key, so she had no fear of someone seeing her come and go.
Instead of leaving her hair up in an artful chignon, she pulled out the pins and let her hair fall in waves to the center of her back. She never wore it down, it always seemed to get in the way.
Hades loved running his fingers through the tresses.
If she were going to surprise him, then he’d definitely prefer her hair down.
She smiled to herself as she fluffed it up and then exited to the main floor.
Tonight, was going to be perfect. Work first. Fun later.
Four
Gwyn
“How do you think your Katherine would feel if her hellhound died?” Gwyn asked Bianca as they stepped through a mirror portal into her bedroom. She’d redecorated in shades of silver and navy blue, her massive bed swathed in moonlight both from the fabric and fairy beyond her balcony. She jerked to a halt barely far enough into the room that Victor and Gwyn could get around her.
She leveled her steeliest gaze at him, eyes narrowed, lips ready to fling profanities in just the way he liked. “Why are you asking?”
He shrugged but wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Come here.”
He ducked his head and knelt at her feet. The sharp bite in her tone sent chills down his spine unlike any other woman could conjure. Oh, how he loved her.
She didn’t kneel down to him, but towered over him, imperial and commanding. Her blouse gaping over her cleavage, sending a tingle through him. She was everything he could want in a queen and more.
“Tell me what you have planned,” she demanded. “And no fancy wording or you won’t touch me for a week.”
He almost sobbed aloud at the idea, reaching out to trail his hand up the back of her calf. It took a moment, but he composed himself to explain as simply as he could. He was fae; he had a natural predilection for complicated wording. “I think I can get some water from Avalon. It will allow the sight for a short period of time, but it must be drunk by someone who can withstand it. An immortal, or probably a horseman.”
“Why not you or me since we are both familiar with premonition?”
He shook his head. “It won’t work on us. We are faerie. Even you now. It will only work on someone from outside our world. Someone who isn’t fae … in their blood.”
She leaned down now, tilting his face to hers. Gaze scanning his lips, his cheeks, his hair. “What about Baldir?”
He tried to keep from shivering, but it was useless. She knew every way to elicit a reaction. “I don’t think we could find him even if we wanted to. You know how he can be when he disappears.”
She bit her lip as if lost in thought for a moment. “You’re right.” She let out a long sigh and refocused her eyes on him. Then she dipped her head and planted a soft, gentle peck against his lips before standing. “Let’s go see if we can dig something else up in the library. That’s where this whole idea began. Maybe something else there can shed some light on where we might start.”
Victor threw himself on her bed. “I’m going to take a nap.”
Outside of faerie it took everything in him to stay corporeal, so he needed to recharge whenever he returned.
Bianca blew Victor a kiss and then led Gwyn by his shirt to the library. A few of his people lingered but skittered out alternate entrances when she swept into the room.
He loved that about her. How magnificent she would look commanding an army. The image of her amidst the wild hunt came back to his mind, but he shook it away quickly. Not one of his proudest moments. And he sought to repent every day she would let him kneel at her feet.
He focused back on the present, she’d found a chair and had her feet slung up on the table, hands behind her head. “Why don’t you go see about this water, just in case, while I dig through some books.”
He bowed his head and left her to the library. It was unlikely he’d be able to focus today, anyway. All he had on his mind was the different ways she might tie him up after the sunset. He remembered Hades had asked Bianca for the same thing, and he had to push that image out of his mind. Hades was breathtaking on his bad days, no doubt he looked delectable strung up in ropes and leather. Maybe he could get Bianca to take a picture for him.
