Prodigal Steelwielder (Seals of the Duelists Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

stone, third from the right, he’d added after he and Sabella had first lain together. Their first coupling had happened over a year ago, but it had taken him over a season to earn the stone that symbolized his mastery of passion. Not only was she distracting, but the effect she had on him had made it nearly impossible to concentrate on his magic. But he had eventually managed it, and it was the nights when she demanded proof of his skills that he found his efforts most rewarding.
    You want the hexmage, you get the hexmage. The silk and bright sparks of metal that made up what little costume she wore were made of anima and Earth. His trousers were Wood. He grasped all three substances, poured his consciousness into them, identified them as individual items within the world, and then disintegrated them. Sabella’s hot skin suddenly pressed against his own, and he gave an aroused hum at her impressed gasp. He let his focus slip inside her mouth with her breath, rode it down to her lungs, enjoyed the warmth of her flesh, then sent his anima lower within her.
    He was hard as a rock, pressing against her soft warmth from below. His consciousness warmed her from within. He heard her moan in anticipation and pleasure. She rolled her hips involuntarily, and wetness slid across his hot, throbbing skin.
    Just you wait. His focus split, part of it returning to his own body, anima and anima. Then he bent the world around them and bent himself within her. Without moving, he suddenly occupied her most precious space, and Sabella arched, throwing back her head just as she had during her performance, and swayed her torso, arching her breasts over his eyes.
    “Nearly cheating, Bayan,” she gasped, even as she rocked her hips atop his.
    “Nearly.” He felt the spiral of his own need begin deep within him. Sabella’s own anima was spreading through his body, invading and mastering him. “And that’s nearly treason, where I come from.”
    Her fingers traced their way along the flushed skin of her torso, letting her nails scratch, her fingers pinch, her palms cup. Hex tattoos formed and vanished upon her skin, accentuating her curves with fluid motions. Her body seemed to twin for a breathless heartbeat—one Sabella arching her hips against him, the other studying him with unblinking focus—and Bayan’s body shivered with thrills. At once helpless and in control, he lay on his back, quickly losing the battle against Sabella’s elemental magic hexed with anima. If he let himself, he would reach his fall in mere moments.
    She sensed his nearness to completion: his anima felt her anticipation rise. “Don’t wait. Pleasure is our toy, not our master. Take it.”
    He embraced his own pleasure, holding on to his focus even as it quaked through him in white-hot waves. He directed its overflow back into Sabella’s body—she always let her exquisite control over her anima slip when she was with Bayan. Her body arched as she rode him in his ecstasy, and she out flung her arms, skin alight from within, letting fire trail under her skin and spiced breezes tangle her hair. The golden tent lit like the sun, and Bayan didn’t care who knew. His hands clasped Sabella’s hips, held her hard against him, rode out every last spasm of pleasure, until she collapsed atop him, weeping and laughing.
    He held her close, extinguished the tent light, and wrapped them both in sleep. Tomorrow, the circus would move on, and he and Sabella would need all the energy they could spare. Tomorrow, the world moved for others. Tonight, he’d made it move for them alone.

A Bloodthirsty Sea
     
    “If you had been here longer, Calder, you would get to stay warm and dry in the duel den, sipping spiced cider, waiting for one of the nobles to hire you,” Teos said. “You’re the back-end plow horse.”
    “Sure an’ you’d still be out here, though, wouldna you, with whoever was that plow horse?” Calder asked.
    “Someone, they have to teach you newniks how to