22. Chapter 22

Istared down at Aahil, where he still knelt on the rug, a few feet away from me. "Aahil," I breathed, craving the distraction he was offering, but afraid of what it might mean for him. "Are you sure?"

Aahil was slowly becoming more comfortable with intimacy when we were alone together. And when he was with Hasumi. The jinn liked to pretend he wasn"t just as attached to the water weaver as he was to me, but it was pretty obvious. He didn"t let anyone else close. Didn"t show the raw, wounded edges of his destroyed ego and sense of self to others, the way he did with us. And until recently, he and Zhong seemed more likely to murder one another than… whatever it was Aahil was suggesting here.

I didn"t want Aahil to feel like he had to force intimacy, with me or with anyone else, just to get attention or to make me feel better.

He just arched a dark brow at me, his golden eyes flicking over my body, then moving to Zhong sitting beside me. The gargoyle was being very quiet and very still, as if he had turned to stone. Aahil"s long, dark lashes lowered over his high cheekbones as he looked down at his hands. For a moment, I thought he would change his mind. He was probably regretting his impulsive offer. But he was too proud to take back his words, so I rushed to give him an out.

"I really have more important things to do right now than have sex while the world falls apart," I said evenly. I started to stand up, but Aahil"s darkly sensual voice froze me in place, a trace of his magic coiling low in my gut and making me shiver.

"Sit down, witch," he said as he glanced back up at me. "But take off your clothes first."

I swallowed hard. I recognized that tone in his voice. The one that promised more pleasure than I could probably handle. I was more than willing to do as he commanded—not only for the thrill of it, but also because this was important. It was Aahil reclaiming a bit of his personal power, taking back a little of what made him who he was.

But I wasn"t the only one in the room, and no one had bothered to ask Zhong how he felt about sharing with the guy he usually wanted to squash like an annoying bug. Also, I had no idea how the big, sweet gargoyle felt about taking orders. That was clearly the mood Aahil was in right now, and past experience said he wasn"t likely to be kind about it.

I turned to look at Zhong, noting the faint dusky pink color that tinged his marble gray cheeks and the tips of his ears. "You don"t have to stay," I told him. "I–"

But Aahil cut me off. "No one asked you, witch. You very much do have to stay, Zhong. And if both of you can"t shut up and do as I say, then this isn"t happening." He gave us both a sly smirk that was so full of his old confidence that my heart sang with joy. "I think you forget, Oleander, that I have some ability to sense what fun, depraved sexual experiences people desire. And we all know you"d both regret missing out on the gift I"m about to bestow upon you."

Rising, Aahil gracefully crossed to the padded footstool, dragged it closer to the bed, then pulled off the oversized shirt he had been hiding beneath since his return from the O"Leary coven.

The move left him in nothing but a thin pair of sleep pants that did nothing to hide the growing tent he had going on. He seemed completely unbothered by the eyes on him as he arranged himself cross-legged on the footstool, planting his palms behind him and leaning back slightly. His lean dancer"s body was as beautiful as ever. Red-brown skin, smooth and unblemished, with a faint golden luster as if he was glowing from within. He glinted with gold everywhere. A dangling chain of gold and gemstones at his ear. The vee of delicate gold chain between his collarbones that held his fire suppression charm. Gold hoops at his nipples. And rubies in a gold setting pierced through his belly button.

I wanted to touch so badly, wanted to feel the unnatural heat that I knew lived in his skin, wanted to thread his dark, silky hair with its red veins through my fingers and pull him close. But the look in his eyes kept me at bay.

He was exuding confidence like pixie dust from every pore right now. It was something I hadn"t seen in him in ages. And I didn"t want to do anything to disrupt that.

"I believe I asked you to strip, witch," he reminded me, his voice sultry still, but carrying a warning that said he wouldn"t ask again.

I glanced at Zhong one last time, but the giant of a man sure didn"t look like he was about to run away any time soon. His yellow eyes glowed faintly as he dragged his gaze away from the jinn to stare at me, silent anticipation etched on his handsome face.

I can be so slow sometimes. It only then occurred to me that Zong loved calling me master. That he literally felt the need to serve in his DNA, in the very core of his being.

I had a feeling he wanted to be ordered around. Especially if those orders involved pleasing his witchy master. And Aahil knew it.

"Fuck," I whispered, pressing my thighs together as that realization sank in. The jinn was an evil genius.

"Oleander," Aahil said in a deceptively soft voice. One that said I had just crossed the line with my hesitation.

I hurried to pull off my clothes and toss them aside, then stood there stark naked before the two men. "Well?" I asked in a playfully snarky tone, "Happy?"

One corner of Aahil"s lips twitched, but he suppressed the smirk to glare at me. "I told you to shut up and do as you were told, witch. But still you yammer on. Apparently, you like being punished." He did smile then, slow and wicked, as he glanced at Zhong. "Put her over your knee and spank her until she begs you to stop. Then keep going until I tell you to stop."

Zhong seemed to be frozen for a second. Then he grinned back at the jinn, showing fangs. "Yes…"

"Syd," Aahil supplied with a curl of his perfect lips.

"Syd," Zhong echoed, dutifully copying the Arabic inflection that colored Aahil"s words. Then the gargoyle turned toward me, grabbed me around the waist and flipped me over his thighs. I landed ass-up with a little grunt as all the air rushed out of my lungs. But I didn"t have time to catch my breath before Zhong"s massive hand descended on my ass with a loud crack of sound.

I yelped, then sucked in a breath as Zhong stroked his hand over my burning ass cheek, sending tingles through my ass and directly to my core. He gave me a moment to feel it out. To decide if I was going to protest or not. When I remained silent, he did it again. And again.

One large hand spanned across my back and held me immobile, my torso and breasts squashed against his massive thighs, while the other hand delivered a steady pace of slaps across my ass, altering sides now and then, but never letting up.

I loved every second of it, my senses becoming more and more heightened as my body anticipated every blow. And… somehow, Zhong delivered the spanking perfectly, almost as if…

"You"ve. Done. This. Before," I huffed out between slaps that made me writhe against him.

A deep chuckle was my only answer. I wanted to wonder at that, to figure out how my sweet, blushing, somewhat submissive gargoyle knew all about this kink. But then again, maybe I didn"t want to know. Maybe it had to do with the half-nymph woman who had betrayed him and sold him out to my ancestors. So, I just shut up and enjoyed the ride.

Soon, his tail joined in on the torment, curling around to brush against my face. He shifted my body enough that my breasts spilled over the side of his thigh like a ripe fruit ready for plucking. And the spade tip of his tail brushed across them, teasing the nipples, adding to the sensations already threatening to overwhelm my body.

"Zhong," I pleaded, breathless and aching for more. "Let me up."

But he just kept going, and I remembered Aahil"s command. He had told Zhong to spank me until I begged him to stop, and then keep going until Aahil told him to stop. Aahil, who was still nearby, watching.

I turned my head, struggling to get the hair out of my face so I could see the jinn. Each solid smack against my ass, each rub of that fleshy tail against my tits, drove me higher. And I could feel the massive ridge of Zhong"s trapped erection pressing into my side. But when my gaze met the molten gold eyes that were watching us, the lust spiked even higher, spiraling through my core, and I let out a little whimper.

Aahil smirked at me and drew a hand downward over his beautiful torso, drawing attention to every lickable inch of him, before sliding the flat of his palm over the thin fabric of his pants, stroking himself slowly through his clothes. "Goddess," I panted, wriggling against Zhong"s hold on me, trying to get out from under the palm that had my ass throbbing with heat by this point. "Please."

Aahil arched a dark brow at me, and I was certain he was about to tell Zhong to keep going for another hour or so, but instead, he stood.

"Don"t stop," he told the gargoyle. "Put all those muscles to good use and hold her there. Make sure she remembers this tomorrow. I want her to think of your hand on her ass every time she sits."

I groaned at his ridiculousness, but it came out as more of a desperate sob. Then Aahil was standing before me, and his graceful hand was raking through my hair, claws dragging over my scalp with delicious threat, before he gripped a handful of hair and dragged my head up and back. I braced my hands against Zhong"s leg and arched my back to keep Aahil from injuring my neck, which made my tits jut out like a display. Aahil"s face lit up like he"d just found a favorite new toy. "Harder," he told the gargoyle. "Yes, just like that. Look at how those beautiful tits bounce with every blow."

I let out a strangled sound when the next slap to my ass did just what Aahil demanded. It was painful, but not horribly. And my body was so in the zone now that it only drove me higher.

Then Aahil"s free hand was touching himself again, toying with one of his nipple piercings to draw my eye. He slid the flat of his palm down the center of his perfect abs, then beneath the waistband of his pants.

I sucked in a sharp breath at the pleasure-pain of the next slap against my ass, and the way Zhong slid his hand across the heated flesh in a brief parting caress before the next blow fell. Then I let the breath out on a moan as Aahil pulled his gorgeous cock out and stroked himself right in front of my face. His other hand still held my hair, keeping my head back, forcing me to look up at him.

And if I hadn"t glanced at those lust-drenched, power-drunk eyes at exactly that moment, I might have missed the little wobble in his performance, the little crack in his showmanship that showed how nervous Aahil really was.

Before I could comment, he moved closer. Time stood still as my jinn urged my head down a bit and slowly dragged the head of his cock over my lips. He didn"t give me a chance to ask him if he was sure he wanted me to touch him, if he was ready for this. His silky, compelling voice didn"t hold any of the nervousness that had briefly shown in his eyes seconds before. "Open," he commanded, soft but sure.