Chapter 11

11

Malone

Icatch sight of Ivy walking through the door, Aurora behind her, and almost get Sara’s massive fist to my face for my distraction. I throw myself back, but even then I can feel the air displacement from their strike. Sara really isn’t capable of pulling their punches, which is part of the reason I prefer sparring with them. It keeps me sharp.

Or it would if Aurora hadn’t just walked into this room.

I go on the defensive, moving around the mat, dodging Sara’s attacks, so I can get a look at Aurora. Foolish. In a real fight, it’d likely mean my death. Knowing that doesn’t stop me. She’s wearing a cute little outfit that shows off her body, and I recognize it as one of the ones I purchased for her before this assignation started. Why is she here?

I duck under Sara’s next attack and come up quickly, using all my strength to drive my fist into their stomach. Sara’s breath releases in an agonized groan, but it’s not enough to put them on the floor. No, they’re made of tougher stuff than that.

“We have guests.”

Sara nods, but they curse a bit under their breath. “I almost had you.”

“Yes, you did.” There are many reasons why Sara is my second-in-command; their deadliness in a number of arenas ranks high on that list.

I stride to where Aurora and Ivy stand and accept a towel from Ivy to wipe my face. “What are you doing here?”

Aurora is looking at me like she simultaneously wants to knock me on my ass and devour me whole. “You’re fast.”

“That’s not an answer.”

She shrugs. “I have too much pent-up energy. I need to run it off somehow.”

“Then obviously I haven’t done my job correctly,” I murmur.

She looks away. “She said there would be people to spar with.” She jerks her thumb at Ivy. “I don’t see anyone else.”

“Shift change was two hours ago. Most of them have finished up and gone home.” Why am I telling her this? I should send her back to the penthouse, or at least to another room. I suspect I’m not going to be able to concentrate properly with her here, and that’s a recipe for a black eye when sparring with Sara. I have absolutely no intention of walking around with a marked face because I was distracted when I shouldn’t have been. “Go find somewhere else to run off that energy.” I motion to Ivy.

“Do you only spar with Sara?”

I stop short. “What?”

Aurora finally looks at me, a stubborn set to her expression. “Do you only spar with Sara?”

“Aurora,” I say her name slowly. “I know you’re a masochist, but this is not a scene and I have no desire to harm you.”

“Malone.” She matches my tone and yanks a hair tie off her wrist to pull her hair back. “Maybe I’m the one who will hurt you.”

Who is this woman? I’ve spent far too long studying her, to the point where it borders on inappropriate. Distraction does not begin to describe Aurora. She’s a blazing light in any room she walks into. I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t have the desire to bottle it up and keep it for myself. But this? I don’t have the information to respond appropriately to this. I’ve only ever seen her in the club.

It never really occurred to me that she’d have hobbies outside the Underworld. Or that it would matter. After all, we become our truest selves in that place. All the polite masks are removed and there’s only base need. No right way, no shame, no rules but consent. I know Aurora right down to her core.

But I also know next to nothing about her on a surface level.

“Clear the room.” I speak without looking away from her.

Sara sighs. “Try not to break her.” They nudge Ivy with their shoulder as they walk past, which prompts her to pick her jaw off the floor and follow Sara from the room.

I wait for the door to close behind them to motion Aurora onto the mat. “I’m not capable of going easy.”

“I don’t expect you to.” She rolls her shoulders and, after some consideration, kicks off her shoes and socks.

I try to view her through the lens of an opponent, but it’s like my brain skips every time I look at her. All I can see are her graceful movements, the curious tilt of her head, how fucking breakable she is. No matter what she believes, it was never my intention to shatter Aurora. I’m not sure I can do this without harming her. “Aurora—”

“Are you ready?”

“Yes.” I answer without thinking, still trying to find the right words to let her down gently without harming her pride.

She comes at me like a whirlwind. One moment, she’s several feet away, and the next she’s too close, delivering a punishing kick to my thigh and following it up with a right hook I barely dodge. Fuck, she’s quick. And well-trained.

I move out of the way before she kicks the same spot on my thigh. A few more hits there and the leg will buckle. Damn. I shove my hesitations away and feint a few times, testing out her response time. Fast. So fucking fast. “You’ve done this before.”

“Many, many times.” Aurora knocks my hand away, but I’m expecting it, and I come in with my other fist, forcing her to block me to avoid a hit to her face.

I retreat, still studying her. Now that I know what I’m looking at, I realize I recognize the way she moves. Smooth and dangerous and intent on her mission. Not like Aurora at all. No, she looks like… “Allecto.”

Aurora grins. “We’re good friends.”

I know that, of course. In the last year or so, it’s been impossible to miss the strange sort of friendship that’s cropped up with Aurora and several other women in the Underworld. Maybe it was always there, but they’re out in the open with it now.

Allecto is one of the few people in Carver City that gives me pause. She could be an Amazon for how superior she is to everyone around her in every way. She’s smart, capable, and famously brutal with the people who cross Hades. I always assumed her friendship with Aurora was one where she took on a dominant role and looked after the younger woman like a protective older sister.

If they’ve trained enough to make Aurora this skilled, they’re closer to equals than I could have imagined.

Which means Aurora is a threat in a way I didn’t anticipate.

I’m thinking too hard. It slows my reaction time, which is the only excuse I have for Aurora sneaking past my guard and clipping my chin. It’s a glancing blow, but it snaps me into the present. I step back a few times, putting myself out of her range, and touch the spot. “Are you angry at me, Aurora?”

A fine sheen of sweat glistens on her skin. She clenches and unclenches her fists. “Why would I be angry at you, Mistress?”

Answering with a question is its own kind of confirmation. The knowledge creates a strange feeling in my stomach. No matter what else has happened, I’ve inundated her with orgasms this afternoon. She shouldn’t want anyone touching her pussy for a few hours yet, no matter how insatiable she is. Surely she’s not still angry that I pushed the issue with aftercare?

Aurora takes advantage of my distraction. She comes at me in a concentrated effort, alternating kicks and punches until I’m scrambling to keep any of the hits from landing. The little asshole feints with her leg, aiming for the same spot now aching from that first kick, and when I move to block, she punches me in the face.

I’m on her before I make the conscious decision to move, bearing her to the ground. She tries to roll us, but I’m stronger, and I have as much experience grappling as I do with the rest of it. I straddle her hips and hook her thighs with my feet, pinning her lower body to the mat. She tries to hit me again, but I easily catch her wrists and shove them down, holding her in place.

My leg hurts, but it has nothing on the throbbing in my face. I move my jaw carefully, but everything seems to be functioning as it should. “You didn’t pull your punch.”

“Oops.” She doesn’t sound the least bit sorry.

It should piss me off, but the feeling surging through me isn’t anger. It’s admiration. Admiration and a heavy dose of lust. This delicate flower has more thorns than I could have imagined. Instead of turning me off, it makes her that much more interesting. I stare down at her. “I should have expected this.” I’m the one who pointed out how dangerous she is, how ready to do violence when incited.

“Sounds like a you problem.”

I sit back a little, careful to keep her wrists in place. “Can you shoot? Use weapons beyond fire?”

Aurora’s gorgeous face takes on a stubborn set. “Want to grab some guns and find out?”

That surprises a laugh out of me. “So you can shoot me? I don’t think so.” But it also answers my question in a roundabout way. “What was Allecto preparing you for?”

Aurora narrows her eyes. “Who says she was preparing me for anything? Maybe it has nothing to do with her at all.”

I’m making assumptions again, something she’s proven time and time again that I can’t afford to do. I trace her inner wrists with my thumbs and am gratified to see her breath catch. “I have you pinned. To the victor goes the spoils.”

“Am I the spoils of war now?” The way she says it is all wrong. She might like the way I touch her, but she is furious. Far angrier than this loss warrants, especially since she landed such well-placed blows.

I contemplate her for several long moments, but she offers me nothing. I don’t know the source of her rage, which means I can’t work with it. Surely it’s not… I take a breath. “Are you angry because it took eight years for me to circle back to you?”

“Yes. Next question.”

No, she answered too easily. It’s the truth, yes, but not the full truth. Gods, this woman is a puzzle I only have half the pieces to. If I have one vice, curiosity claims the honor. Aurora’s layers are what draw me to her, and realizing they go deeper than I expect is like a gift just for me.

I settle myself more firmly on top of her. “We’ll add sparring to our schedule.”

“Pass.”

I ignore that and nod to myself. “A bet, if you will. Winner gets a favor.”

She opens her mouth but seems to reconsider whatever she was about to say. Aurora frowns up at me. “What kind of favor?”

Got you.

“Whatever you like, within reason.” I allow myself a satisfied smile. “Today, I win.”

“Give me a rematch now that the terms are set.”

I chuckle. “I don’t think so.”

She licks her lips. “What do you want?”

I should demand answers, information to sate my curiosity. This woman has secrets upon secrets, and I want to hack my way through her barriers to get to them. “A kiss.”

She blinks. “A kiss?”

“Yes.” I lean down, pressing myself to her. Gods, she’s something else. Soft and strong and straining to kick my ass. But the anger has faded from her eyes, and she’s watching my mouth as if craving a taste. I’m only too happy to close the distance and touch my lips to hers. She tenses, as if she expected me to plunder her mouth. Another time, I might—I will. Right now, I intend to enjoy my prize to the fullest extent.

I nip her bottom lip and trace the spot with my tongue, deepening the kiss when she gasps a little. Pretty Aurora. She’s a revelation. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times she’s experienced something, how many people she’s kissed. She reacts like this is the first time, like it’s a shock. Or maybe I’m projecting. There’s something about this woman that brings a fierceness to the fore. I want to conquer her, to brand our shared experience all over her hot little body. The desire is inconvenient, but if I could get rid of it, I would have done it by now. That’s what these two weeks are about: purging her from my system.

She kisses me back. I shift, settling on top of her and pressing my thigh between her legs. Aurora instantly digs her heels into the mat and arches up to rub herself against me. Wicked little thing.

I don’t mean to lace my fingers through hers. It seems the most natural thing in the world to go from gripping her wrists to pressing palm to palm. The shock is almost enough to jolt me out of this moment, but then she makes a delicious little whimpering sound, and I push away my misgivings in favor of drawing that sound from her again.

She rocks against me, and I press my thigh more firmly to her, giving her the friction she obviously needs. She kisses me like she needs me more than she needs air. It doesn’t matter that this is pure chemistry. That it doesn’t mean anything. I sink into the feeling of Aurora with everything I have.

Fuck, but if I were a different person, I might decide to keep her.