what are we here for, Josie?” His voice came out rough with the conflict of wanting to kiss her stupid, right here and now, maybe find a quiet room with a stout lock on the door…and wondering just what she was about, the thrill of the unknown, of twisting someone till they screamed, or maybe till he screamed. Hard to tell, with Josie.
She moved closer and the rest of the world ceased to exist. It was just the two of them, in their own little bubble. No palace, no servants plying everyone with drinks, no Yelen, no guards or mages or even ships to return to. Just Van Gast, with his desperate urge to say “fuck it” to the lot of them, to kiss her, to lick that little bead of sweat forming in the dark, inviting cleft between her breasts, to make things right and have her back again. And Josie, with her devious grin that thrilled him, her uneven breath as he drew closer. Just him and her, how it should be.
Her soft, smoky voice. “Best two reasons there are, Van. Revenge and money. Lots of money. How about it?”
Her voice wavered, just a touch on that last. Her gaze found his, pinned him with the gray of her eyes, storm-bound, blowing through him like a good sou’wester, and he couldn’t resist any more. Might get a knife in his back for his trouble, but Kyr’s mercy, it’d be a good way to go. Rob, kill or delight. Odds were one in three.
“How about this instead?” He kissed her, pulling her in, a kiss to make him crazy. A heartbeat’s hesitation, and then her hand was warm on the back of his neck, her other hand twining with his, squeezing as though she dare not let him go, needing him, making him hope. He slid his lips around, across her neck, down to that tantalizing bead of sweat…
Her low laugh sent chills across his shoulders. “Andor Van Gast, is that all you ever think of?”
He licked the sweat, savored the salt on his tongue and watched a ripple of gooseflesh run across her breast. “Pretty much. You are all I ever think of.”
Her hand stroked at the back of his neck, feather soft as it tangled his hair. “While you’re down there, Van—”
“I thought you’d never ask.” He could have stayed there all day, watching the heave of her breasts, licking the sweat. “Though I might burst. Could be messy.”
Her hand clipped the back of his head. “Inside the neckline. A key.”
“Oh.” Now he looked, sadly disappointed, there was a discreet bulge at one side of her cleavage. A key wrapped in a scrap of cloth. It was fun getting it out though. “Is business all you think about?”
“No, not all.”
The smile was one he hadn’t seen for a long time, maybe not since the first time he’d met her, alone and not wanting anyone to know it, covering it since then with sharp words and sharper steel. A sad smile from a fractured heart for something lost, a fleeting look that was gone as soon as it was there.
Her hand stroked his cheek, ran across his lips. “Do you trust me?”
She always asked the most awkward damned questions. Did he? Could he? He hadn’t before and that was why he was here now, not knowing for sure whether she was trying to give him his chance or get him killed. “Josie, I—yes. And I should have before, I know—”
Her fingers on his lips shut him up. “Ready to prove it?”
His heart seemed to be thudding right behind his eyes. He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
She pulled his head to her, kissed him slowly, thoroughly, shivering his heart and parts more diverse. When she stopped he had to take a gulp of breath to steady himself.
“Hide the key, wherever you can. Key to the cell, or should be. The special cell. Wait for us.”
“The cell?”
Her mouth hooked up in her lopsided grin. Oh, trouble for someone. “Thing is, Van, you’re the bait. Ten thousand golden sharks was just too good to pass up.”
“Wh—”
Van Gast didn’t have time for more, didn’t have time to feel the shock, or to turn and try to run before a meaty hand landed on his shoulder with the force of a cannonball, yanked him out into the open atrium and spun him round.
“What in Oku’s name do you think you’re doing with my wife?” Skrymir bellowed. The fist that followed had Van Gast off his