9. Taryn

NINE

TARYN

I’m momentarily surprised at the direct statement. Since I’m usually believed to be either a vampire myself or a human, depending on the company I’m in, no one’s ever guessed that before. Obviously, the world of others have speculated as to why the Romanov Clan has an ability no others do, but the how is a well-kept secret. Not even the clan members know where Dmitri gets the elixir from.

“I won’t tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Finn holds up his right hand. “Fae Scout’s honor.”

The corner of my mouth tips up. There’s no such thing, but as he was able to make the claim out loud, by default I know he’s telling the truth.

“Yes. Dmitri wanted the ability to conduct his business with the humans during the day, so he asked for my help. It’s what’s helped us build the empire we have today. Dmitri’s is the wealthiest of all the vampire clans because of it.”

“Smart. And it’s as easy as drinking a conjurer’s spelled elixir,” he muses, clearly impressed. He makes a fourth half-hitch. With ten lines of rope, there’s enough that I can see the design now. With each pass around my bent leg, the knots move up on a diagonal line toward my shin.

“Not quite as simple as that,” I say. “All magic has a checks and balances system. The only way acquiring an advantage as powerful as permanently day-walking is by sacrificing one they already have.”

He pauses, realization dawning on his handsome face. “That’s why they can’t compel. Damn, that’s one hell of a magic trick to give up. He could’ve just compelled the humans into believing it wasn’t weird dealing with him in the middle of the night. Seems strange to give up that kind of power just to semi-tolerate the sun.”

“Not if you already refuse to use compulsion. For Dmitri, it was an easy choice.” He opens his mouth to ask the obvious question, but I stop with a shake of my head. “Nope, it’s my turn now. And I wouldn’t waste your next question on that, either, because it’s not my story to tell.”

“Fair enough.” He tucks his fingers beneath the rope in several places, testing the tension. “How’s it feel so far? Anything too tight or pinching?”

I shake my head. “No, it feels fine.”

“Good. I can stop here if you want, or I can add the next rope and keep going.”

“Keep going.”

Finn gives me a crooked smile that flashes a single dimple. Then he sets to work unraveling the bubblegum pink coil and anchoring it to the existing rope on the inside of my calf. We sit in silence for a while—him methodically wrapping, threading, pulling, and wrapping again as I observe his movements and enjoy the multitude of sensations and sip my whiskey.

The experience so far is pleasant and not anything like what I thought it would be. I expected this to be a utilitarian exercise, something along the lines of how a shop manager dresses a mannequin for a floor display with quick efficiency.

By now I understand the pattern. I could easily do it myself and do it much faster, but it’s clear to me now that shibari isn’t about the end result as much as it is the process of getting there. With each pass, the fingers of his right hand drag along the double strand as he pulls it around while the flat of his left hand follows behind, smoothing and tightening the slack along the way. It’s intentional, sensual. And with the sparks of desire I can’t seem to quell around him, it’s easy to imagine this as an incredibly erotic activity.

“You’ve run out of road,” I say. The rising diagonal line of half-hitches that started on the side of my upper thigh has reached my shin, about midway to my knee. “Or do you continue around the inside of my leg?”

“No, now I’ll reverse the direction so the line goes up toward you instead of away. And I’m almost out of this color, so I’ll add the last rope and the finished look will be an ombre effect with a sideways V pattern. It’ll be great.”

He looks at me in such a way that feels perilously close to seeing beyond my mask. Whenever someone wanders too near to my truth, I grow uncomfortable and automatically shore up my defenses. But the reason for my current discomfort is the continued realization that I’m surprisingly comfortable with Finnian Verran.

Which is all the more reason to keep him at a distance.

“I believe it’s my turn to ask the next question,” he says finally.

“That’s debatable since you brought up the day-walking, but I’m pleasantly buzzed right now, so I’ll let it slide.”

“What made you decide to leave Faerie?”

The question slams into me like a kick to the chest. It steals the air from my lungs and cracks the mental barrier holding back the memories of that day, allowing them to infect my mind like an all-consuming virus.

I drop to my hands and knees, doubling over from the pain. Gods, the pain! Lightning courses in my veins, my heart pumping bolt after bolt of fiery currents through my body until I’m burning alive from the inside out. It’s killing me. I’m going to die. I want to die…

“Taryn! Hey, are you okay?”

The rich timbre of Finn’s voice interrupts the memory and brings me back into the great room of the penthouse. My chest is still tight, and my breathing is ragged. Turning my head away, I close my eyes and try to will my muscles into relaxing their painful grip on my bones.

“Taryn—”

“I’m fine,” I manage through clenched teeth.

“Hey, come here, look at me.” A large hand cups the side of my face and guides it back to him, but I’m afraid he’ll see my nightmares reflected in my eyes if I look at him. “ Otkroy svoi glaze. Poshaluysta.”

Open your eyes. Please.

Whether it’s his use of my adoptive language or the ‘please’ that does it, I draw in a shaky breath and do as he asks. “Good girl,” he says affectionately as he studies my face to get a read on me. I try desperately to hold my mask in place, but my trembling body betrays me.

“Take some deep breaths for me, sweetheart. In through your nose, and out through your mouth. Good. We’ll just breathe together for a bit. That’s it.”

Keeping his left hand cupping my face, Finn rubs comforting circles on my back with his right as I continue taking slow, deep breaths in time with his. I patch up my mental barrier and focus on the golden light in his eyes and the gentle caress of his thumb on my cheek.

Soon, the tightness in my chest eases and my heart rate returns to normal.

“Better?” he asks in a low voice.

I nod. “Sorry,” I say, embarrassed anyone other than Dmitri saw me so vulnerable. “It’s rare that that happens. I guess it just caught me off-guard.”

“I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have pried into something so personal like that. I wasn’t thinking.”

Concern is etched into the lines of his face, and I’m surprised at how badly I want to smooth them away with my fingers, my lips. Instead, I settle for words and a reassuring squeeze on his knee.

“I’m fine,” I say with a practiced smile. Excellent. Mask is back in place. Give this girlie an Oscar. “I should probably call it a night, though. I’m still not caught up on my sleep.” When he doesn’t immediately move, I nod to my bound leg. “Would you mind? Or I can?—”

His hand closes over mine where I grabbed the loose ends and he gently pulls it away. “It doesn’t matter this wasn’t a real scene. If I bind you with my rope, it’s my responsibility—and pleasure—to un bind you.”

Not trusting my voice to sound normal, I simply nod.

He begins unraveling the design in an efficient manner. Not quick or hurried, but with deliberate movements that make sure the ends of the rope don’t snap my leg when he pulls the half-hitches out. There’s a certain rhythm to the removal—unwind, pull down and through, unwind—and it’s almost just as meditative and calming as it was getting it on. “So, what was with the ‘little Darkling’ jab earlier? Are the males typically bigger than me back in Tír Tairngire?”

I laugh lightly. “It wasn’t a comment on your size, you behemoth. You were born in this realm so you have to be at least half my age.”

Finn arches a thick, dubious brow and scrutinizes me for a few seconds before replying. “I’ll make you a deal. I won’t call you princess, and you don’t call me that .”

“Deal. How old are you, anyway?”

His boyish smirk pops the twin dimples into his cheeks as he keeps his focus on undoing the futomomo. “Old enough for all the things that matter. There you go, you’re free.”

I glance down at my unbound leg, prepared to get up and head to the room, but what I see shocks me into stillness. “Oh wow, they’re…” I trail my fingertips over the marks on my thigh.

“Beautiful,” he finishes.

Before now I never would’ve thought to describe the striations left behind from tightly tied rope as beautiful. But he’s right, they are. When I start to move, he places his hands on my leg.

“Hold on,” he says. “It’s been confined for a while now. Go slow.”

His golden gaze holds mine prisoner as he carefully guides my leg down, his long fingers gently gripping my calf, and all I can think about is how they would feel touching me in more sensitive areas. My starved libido is pulsing between my thighs in time with my racing heartbeat, demanding to be fed. A wave of fiery lust rolls through me, dampening the silk covering my pussy, and betraying me with the musk-sweet scent of my arousal.

Finn’s nostrils flare as he blatantly draws the scent deep into his lungs. He exhales on a tortured hiss, his pupils nearly swallowing the darkening irises of his eyes. Somehow, we’ve closed the distance between us. He’s leaning into me, his chest against my left arm, our faces hovering mere inches from each other.

It’s probably the fact that I haven’t been with anyone in what feels like forever, but I can’t remember wanting anyone more than I want Finnian Verran in this moment. And it’s that wanting that shatters any reservations I have for messing around with a Celestial royal.

Finn's eyes hold an intense fire. Excitement ripples through me as a tantalizing shiver trips down my spine. The room pulses with anticipation, the air heavy with raw hunger.

“Now that I think about it, there’s something else besides sleep I’d like to catch up on,” I say, dropping my gaze to where the tips of his fangs tease me from behind his delectable lips.

Finn dips his head and nuzzles his nose along my cheek, keeping his lips a mere breath away from mine. When I advance, he withdraws, controlling the situation, heightening my thirst…and my impatience.

I reach up and plunge my fingers into his hair, fisting it as a mewl of frustration escapes me. Finn cups my face, his thumbs grazing my jawline. His touch sends delicious chills across my flesh, resurrecting burning desires that were forced to lie dormant for far too long.

Finally, he yields, and his urgent lips meet mine, setting my world on fire. He tastes like sweet ambrosia and expensive whiskey, and if it was possible to bottle it, it’d be the only thing I drink for the rest of my days. The forceful thrusts of his tongue demand I give him all that I have and unleash coils of electric ecstasy straight to my clit. I’m so turned on that I can feel an orgasm building without any direct stimulation. I’m so desperate for the release that I don’t even care.

Suddenly, I’m in his lap and straddling his hips. It happened so fast I don’t know which of us moved first. As I settle my aching pussy over the hard bulge in his jeans, we groan in unison and finally break our kiss to drag in much-needed air.

Growling against my ear, he palms the flesh of my ass thanks to my thong, and grinds me against the ridge of his length again and again.

“Oh, fuck , Finn, yes .” I wrap my arms around his neck, like I’m holding onto a tree in a hurricane just trying not to get swept away by the storm and ride him just like that.

“You’re like the fucking sun, you know that? You’ve been pulling me into your orbit from the first time I heard your name, and it only got stronger once I had your Armas. Since finding you, all I’ve wanted was to be around you; to bask in the warmth of your light.”

“Careful,” I pant with a smile. “You know what happened to Icarus when he got too close to the sun.”

He pulls back just enough to hold my face and stare into my eyes. “ Yesli ya goryu, ya goryu .”

If I burn, I burn.

Dear gods, this male. Every time he speaks in Russian it affects me more and more. It shouldn’t. It’s not like hearing my adopted language is a taste of something exotic or that he learned it especially for me. The most logical reason is because it’s in his best interest—for multiple reasons—to forge a connection with me.

But part of me can’t help feel it’s also his way of honoring me ; not the princess I was expected to be, but rather the fighter I chose to become. And that gives me all sorts of complicated feelings I can’t separate out from this conflagration of desire consuming me right now as my first orgasm in forever begins to crest.

My fingers contract with the building tension, my nails digging into his muscular shoulders hard enough to break skin. “Oh gods, Finn, I… I’m…”

“Yessss,” he growls into my ear before nipping my earlobe with a sharp fang. “Come for me, solnyshko. ”

I scream as the tension inside me detonates and the white-hot heat of euphoric pleasure explodes. Coordinated movements are no longer possible with the force of the tremors, but Finn’s large hands are directing the roll of my hips over his hard cock, helping me ride out every last wave.

Our mouths find each other in the aftermath, and it only takes seconds for my energy to return with the rekindling of my desire for more. More touching, more kissing, more friction. More everything .

“Gods, Taryn,” he says between kisses. “I could watch you come all damn night.”

“So what’s stopping you?”

I shouldn’t have tested the fates because Finn’s phone chooses that exact moment to ring. Groaning his frustration at having to pause our fun, he slips it out of his back pocket and glances at the screen. “Apparently, your brother is.”

My eyes widen and I practically jump off Finn’s lap like Dmitri can see through the cell. It makes Finn laugh, and I’m instantly irritated at myself for acting like a teenager caught messing around after curfew.

“Afraid big brother won’t approve?” Finn asks with a double-dimple grin.

I scoff. “If he ever dared to comment on my sexual partners, I’d stab him?—”

“With your silver dagger,” he finishes for me. I arch a brow in surprise. “He may have mentioned your preferred retaliation when he riles your temper.”

I shrug as I grab the phone. “He should know not to piss me off.” Hitting the button to accept the call, I put it on speaker. “You’d better be in one piece, or so help me Brigid, I’ll stake you myself.”

“I am fine, moy sever .” Hearing my brother’s affectionate chuckle float from the cell makes my heart swell near to bursting, and I exhale a sigh of relief. “A few scratches. I will be healed by morning.”

I know that “scratches” for Dmitri means stab wounds. But aside from decapitation or a wooden stake to the heart, vampires heal almost as fast as fae when they have access to blood. And Dmitri is probably bathing in it if he killed everyone working at that compound.

“So we can assume you laid waste to everyone at the facility then,” Finn says, resting an arm on his bent knee.

“ Da . There were no other prisoners, and the general still lives, as promised. Though he does so with one less eye.”

Finn and I share a look, neither of us showing much concern. “Thank you for avenging me, moya brat ,” I say. “Will you come here to get me or should I meet you in L.A.?”

As much as I want to finally be home, I’m suddenly having reservations about leaving Vegas so soon. Things were just getting fun. Maybe I’ll tell Dmitri we need Finn for another job so he can be in Los Angeles until we’re through having fun with each other.

The tone in Dmitri’s voice is sobering. “I am sorry, sestra , but you cannot go home.”

My stomach drops. I look to Finn, but he shakes his head. He didn’t know about this. “Why not?”

“Alexi contacted me and confirmed what I have suspected for some time. We have a rat problem.”

He means Edevane somehow infiltrated our clan. We have traitors in our family.

Angry tears prick the back of my eyes. After I was captured, I couldn’t stop running possible explanations for how it happened, but eventually I forced myself to let it go. It was an unsolvable puzzle, and I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to spare.

Since getting rescued, I allowed myself to naively believe I could simply go home and carry on with life as though nothing happened. But reality’s already pounding at the door and demanding to be seen.

“It is only until I find the rats responsible and exterminate them. Give me a few days, sestra , then you can come home.”

I’m torn. I’ve never let anyone, including Dmitri, fight my battles for me. I’d rather be with him, working together to find our betrayers, and dealing with them once we do. But there’s a hint of desperation in Dmitri’s voice I can’t ignore. He’s afraid of something happening to me again so soon, and I know the guilt he feels for the past year—whether or not it’s justified—is already weighing heavily on him.

When it comes down to it, my brother needs me to be safe more than I need to fight. So, it’s not very hard to give him this. “Then I guess I’ll wish you happy hunting.”

“You will be safe with the young prince. He may only be a century old?—”

“A century and seventeen, fuck you very much,” Finn interjects.

My eyes widen and my mouth drops open. I knew he was decently younger than me, but I never would’ve guessed he’s one-sixth of my age. Especially not with the way he commanded my body just now. As though he can read my thoughts, he arches a single dark brow, silently daring me to challenge his life experience. And with the way I’m still tingling with need, I’m happy to do just that as soon as we end this call with my brother.

Dmitri continues like he was never interrupted. “—but I would not leave you in his charge if I did not trust him implicitly. You know this.”

I do know. Dmitri has only given the Blood Oath to one other living soul: me. Making that vow to Finn was the highest form of respect and trust Dmitri could bestow.

But beyond what that says about Finn’s character, I trust my own judgement. And within the short time I’ve known him, I’ve seen his innate goodness and sensed his desire to help and care for others. It’s not the state-of-the-art security system that makes me feel safe here. It’s him .

“I’ll be fine,” I say to the phone. “Just let me know when it’s done.”

Dmitri agrees before we end the call, and I hand the phone back to Finn. “You okay,” he asks, his golden gaze seeing too much, as usual.

“Yeah, I’m good. Are you? My brother didn’t exactly ask if this arrangement was acceptable to you.”

One corner of his mouth curves up. “He didn’t ask because he already knows my answer. He won’t rest until he’s sure you’re safe. Neither will I.”

His words stir up feelings I can’t name, nor do I want to try. Better not to acknowledge them and hope they go away. Lust and carnal desires are one thing. Anything else is an unwanted complication.

“Well then, for the sake of your time and my sanity, let’s hope he’s sure soon,” I say lightly, then hide a yawn behind my hand, suddenly feeling exhausted. “Sorry, that came out of nowhere.”

“You should get some sleep,” he says. “You’re still recovering.”

“I suppose you’re right. Thank you for the fantastic dinner and even better dessert.” I wink, letting him know I’m referring to the orgasm and not the after-dinner drinks, then I lean in to give him a chaste peck of gratitude.

At least that’s what I intended it to be. But as my lips touch his, they part with an invitation for more. He frames my face with his large hands as he dips his tongue in to slide against mine briefly before retreating. I try to give chase, my earlier desires sparking to life once again, but he holds me firm to punctuate the moment with a trio of sweet kisses to my forehead, the tip of my nose, and finally my lips.

He pulls away and curls his hands into fists as though needing to physically stop himself from reaching for me again. “Goodnight, solnyshko ,” he says, his voice gruff with threadbare restraint I feel in my bones.

Little sun. The reminder of his new endearment for me has me on the verge of blushing like a Fireling, so I bid him goodnight in return and make a hasty retreat. Just as I reach the bedroom door, he stops me. “Taryn…”

I turn back, a little too quickly to be casual, but I do my best to sound it. “Yes?”

His gaze is arresting, his expression serious as he references my teasing words from earlier on the balcony. “A fae would have to be blind not to have eyes for you.”

The butterflies kick up again, and I can’t stop the wide grin spreading across my face. “Looks like a few drops of that charm trickled down to you, after all, Prince Finnian.”

And before I can do something foolish, like retrace my steps and pick up where we left off, I duck into his room where I lie in his bed, surrounded by his scent, and caress the rope lines on my leg until I’m dreaming of bright golden eyes…and his lips on mine.