STORY EXCERPT

He came awake with his cheek pressed against the stone-cold surface, his body aching and his head pounding. Aelsie waited a moment, taking stock of all the assorted aches and pains currently plaguing his body. He was feeling worse than after a three-day leave spent drinking and carousing in some of Ceterscera’s more exotic bordellos, and Ceterscera being Ceterscera, they were many and varied, and he knew all of them. Scratch that, Aelsie amended, he was feeling worse than a human after a three-day leave spent drinking and carousing in some of Ceterscera’s more exotic bordellos, and he was not human. He groaned, trying to move, uncurling his stiffened body with exaggerated care, gritting his teeth when a flash of pain speared his forehead. He still refused to open his eyes, floating in and out of consciousness. A nagging feeling that he ought to wake up wouldn’t leave him. The floor under his head was blessedly cold and hard, nudging him out of the darkness blanketing him. He rolled over to his belly, bringing his hands up. Something clinked, a sound of metal scraping over stone jarring and hurting his sensitive ears. He winced.

“He is beginning to wake,” a familiar voice said. “Good. I was starting to get worried.”

Rhedan? Aelsie thought, furrowing his brow. His mind supplied a picture of one of his senior Knights, a burly blond who looked like he ought to be guarding the door somewhere in Red District and had a mind as sharp as any of the mages on the Governing Council.“Commander?” Rhedan asked, his voice no more than a whisper. Aelsie grimaced. That’s all he needed, for one of his men to witness him in such a state. It was definitely bad for his image as Commander of the Knights to be seen lying in a heap on the floor. Added to that, he didn’t remember how he’d ended up there. At least their presence meant he was safe. 

He grunted, hoping Rhedan would be satisfied with that as an answer.

“He is waking up,” Rhedan said again, this time with a distinct overtone of relief. He sounded like he was some distance away from Aelsie, and above him. Aelsie wondered why, then, was he still on the floor. And where his men were when something put him there.

“He is one of the more powerful mages among us, and whatever it was that he used to knock us out must have done a good job on him. He must be hurting right now. I know I was.”

He was, Aelsie acknowledged. He waited for his body to calm. A wave of nausea hit him, made him open his lips to suck in shuddering breath. He whimpered, waited for it to pass.

“I’m awake.” His voice sounded raspy and weak. Not at all like a Commander should do. Aelsie coughed, regretting it as his head started pounding mercilessly. He wet his dry lips hesitantly.

He was awake. Sort of, anyway. He didn’t feel an overwhelming urge to sink into oblivion anymore.

“Just go slowly,” was his comforting answer.

Damn it. What happened? Aelsie forced his eyes to open.

Only to find himself staring at the line of iron bars that separated him from the two of his Knights, Danaer and Leat, fire-wielding siblings, who stared at him from their own cell. He blinked. Something was wrong. He wasn’t supposed to be in a cell. They weren’t supposed to be in a cell. Metal bit into his belly and chest as he tried to sit up, drawing his attention. He looked down, and comprehension dawned. Metal cuffs gleamed on his wrists, heavy magic surrounding them like a mist, and a long chain connecting them, clinking against the stone floor he was sitting on.

“What the hell?” he said in an annoyed voice.

Danaer chuckled humorlessly. He looked pale. There was an ugly-looking bruise on his jaw. “That was my reaction, too.”

Aelsie brought himself upright, let himself lean on his arm. When he was reasonably sure he wasn’t going to collapse, he let his gaze sweep his surroundings. Cells. More cells filled with his men. They quieted now that he was awake, and he could feel the weight of their looks on himself. A small window at the upper half of his cell let the sunlight in.

“What happened?”

There was a foul taste in his mouth. He waited for an answer, not that he hadn’t had a pretty good picture anyway. The magic binding cuffs he wore, his men, too, the fact that he was in a cell—there was a reason he was a Commander of the Silver Knights, a law-enforcement entity based on the Rhodos Island. The island was tiny and intersected with numerous canals and lakes. It used to be swampland until the future duke of Rhodos decided to make it a sanctuary for mages and declared its independence. Positioned as it was between the shores of the Empire of Thrall and the Kingdom of Sahria and Warima, the only thing that made it and its very lucrative harbor independent were many mages that made the island their home.

Unfortunately, the many mages living on the island and the many riches they earned also made a very tempting target for anyone who wanted to get rich and by less-than-honest means. The Silver Knights were ostensibly established to stop magical beings on Rhodos from killing or hurting each other, which was a full-time job. In reality, they were there to discourage anyone from appropriating the island for themselves.

Needless to say, the Silver Knights boasted some of the finest warriors in all seven kingdoms. It seemed like all those warriors were locked up right now.

ADULT EXCERPT

“Do you like this?” Aelsie’s voice was a seductive rope which caught and held him fast. Dayne resisted its spell, but it was hard to with every nerve ending in his body responding to its silken caresses. Without opening his eyes, Dayne tightened his arms around the man resting on top of him.

“Oh yeah,” he answered, grinding his hips against Aelsie’s, a shameless display of need. His cock, hard and wanting, rubbed against Aelsie, layers of their clothing separating them just adding to his frustration and his desire.

He groaned.

Aelsie laughed, the sound pure, satisfied male.

“I can feel that,” he whispered against Dayne’s neck, and losing his patience, Dayne tightened his grip on Aelsie, caught the back of his neck, and tilted his head until warm lips found his. He fed a long, drawn-out moan into Aelsie’s mouth, his heartbeat speeding up, sensations swirling inside him.

The kiss was frighteningly short.

“Stop playing, Aelsie.”

“You are…very demanding,” Aelsie murmured against his lips, and then his weight disappeared.

Dayne’s eyes snapped open.

He was lying in a four-poster bed with plush, dark blue velvet drapes. Silver threads of moonlight spilled from the narrow slits of window somewhere to his left, illuminating the room. It was an unfamiliar room, but his body was resting quite comfortably on silken sheets, and the other man’s hands on his body distracted him quite successfully.

Aelsie moved back until he was straddling him then pulled his tunic over his head. His dark hair spilled over his chest, and Dayne’s hungry gaze traveled over his muscular chest and firm belly. His cock, trapped under Aelsie’s ass, gave an interested twitch. Aelsie laughed again. His shirt landed on the floor.

“Your turn,” he purred, leaning down and bracing one arm next to Dayne’s shoulder. The other one reached to open his tunic, push the material away to bare one already-hard, flat male nipple. Dayne closed his eyes again when Aelsie’s fingers started to tease it, featherlight touches making his skin burn. He arched off the bed, the movement pressing his groin into Aelsie’s ass. He shuddered.

“I want—” he started then reached to grab that wandering hand.

“What’s the matter?” Aelsie sounded highly amused.

“It’s nice…very nice,” Dayne answered, “but that isn’t where I want your hand to be.”

He squeezed it warningly and pulled it off his chest. He didn’t have time to do anything more as warm breath flew over his exposed chest and then a wet tongue swirled around his nipple. He groaned, his hand on Aelsie’s going slack.

“You were saying…” Aelsie whispered, pausing before sucking his nipple again. It was hard to think with that masterful tongue playing with his nipple, sucking on it, an inflaming hint of what Aelsie could have done to his cock.

“Never mind,” Dayne murmured, reveling in the feel of Aelsie’s lips on him.

He stiffened when he felt his belt being unsnapped. Aelsie’s eyes met his, and he shivered as he watched his pink tongue lie flat against his nipple, Aelsie giving him one last long lick before moving back into sitting position.

His cock was caught and fished out, Aelsie’s palm coming to rest on his thigh. Dayne gritted his teeth. “Please…”

In answer, Aelsie wrapped his fingers around the hard column of flesh. Dayne gasped, buckled, pleasure shooting up his spine. He was embarrassed at how fast he was going to finish, but as Aelsie pumped him, he found he didn’t really care. He hovered on the brink of orgasm, his eyes glued to the hand on his dick. He wanted to see his cum spilling over Aelsie’s elegant, long fingers.

He groaned in frustration when Aelsie let go of him, struggled to get up.

Aelsie pressed him back into bed. He gave Dayne a wicked smile before leaning over him to deposit a quick peck on his lips. Confused, Dayne stared at him. Then dug his fingers into bedsheets as Aelsie moved down on him, locks of his hair gliding over the oversensitized skin of his naked chest. Aelsie put both of his hands on Dayne’s thighs, effectively blocking any movement Dayne might have wished to make. His lips hovered over the head of Dayne’s exposed cock.

Dayne swallowed. “You are not going to…”

“Why not?”

“You are…my superior,” Dayne replied and felt even more blood surge in his cock at his words. Gods. He was finding this…arousing.

“And you are”—Aelsie tilted his head to mouth the base of Dayne’s engorged organ—“completely at my mercy.”

Dayne waited.

“Aren’t you?” Aelsie moved again, this time to lap a drop of pre-cum glistening on the purple head. Dayne whimpered.

Aelsie swallowed him down, and Dayne closed his eyes in bliss. He let out a long, shuddering breath. His relief was short-lived, though, as Aelsie stopped too soon.

“What…what do you want?” he asked, finally coming to the realization that there must be something Aelsie wanted of him. Instead of answering, Aelsie dipped his tongue into Dayne’s navel, the movement bringing Dayne’s now-wet cock against his throat. He felt Aelsie's Adam’s apple bobbing against his flesh. His whole body tightened.

“What do you want?”

Tendrils of desire rose from his belly, dug painfully into his muscles, squeezing breath out of his lungs. He sagged into the mattress in defeat.

“Suck me.”

It felt like the moment was frozen in ice. Dayne waited with bated breath. At least until Aelsie’s mouth once again closed around his cock.