She smiled softly at his grin. “I think you could charm anyone into putting up with anything.”
“A nice thought.” Really, it shouldn’t make him feel so giddy to hear such things from her. It was like being drunk on the smoothest, rarest whiskey in the world. “Ready for the next step?”
Her smile faded. “Maybe.”
He backed up a few steps. “Sheathe your blades. I’m going to attack you. You will pull both daggers and use them to defend yourself and hit me with your magic at the same time.”
She frowned, looking at her hands. “I’m not sure I can.”
“Do you need your hands to shoot lightning or whatever at me?”
“Well, no, but it’s—”
“There’s no ‘but’ to it,” he interrupted. “Your hands belong to your daggers.”
“It’s easier to use my hands to shape the magic,” she insisted.
“This isn’t about easy. This is about life and death. Learn to do it the hard way.” He leapt at her.
She shrieked in surprise, fending him off with her bare hands.
“No!” he shouted in her face, seizing her wrists and backing her against the wall. “You just died.”
She gaped at him, hurt in her expression that was like a dagger to his own heart. “You scared me.”
“Good!” He wanted her to be scared, didn’t know how else to get her to react to danger.
“That’s harsh, Jak.”
“Yes, it is.” He leaned his forehead against hers, hating that he’d had to frighten her like that. “Time is slipping away. I don’t have the luxury of easing you into this. Fight me.”
“All right,” she agreed shakily. “You just took me by surprise.”
“I know. Enemies don’t usually introduce themselves before they attack. This has to become reflex.” Releasing her, he backed up a few steps.
This time, though shaky, she watched him warily. She held her hands poised near the sheaths. Too much of a tell, but they could refine that later. This time when he leapt at her, she drew the daggers and managed to hit him with a puff of something that burned a little. He still pinned her to the wall because she didn’t actually point the daggers at him, but it was a big step.
“Better.” He grinned at her. “Again, but stronger. Don’t let me pin you. I pin you like this, you’re dead.”
She looked up through her lashes, eyes crystal through black lace, her body thrumming against his. “This isn’t exactly a punishment.”
“No,” he agreed. “If we had time, I’d exact a toll from you each time I managed to pin you.”
“Like what?” She moved against him, her hips pressing into him, though he doubted she was aware of it.
He shouldn’t play this game, but it was far too tempting to tease her. “You’d forfeit a piece of clothing for each failure,” he murmured, caressing her cheek with his lips. She trembled, but not in pain. “And once you were completely naked, I’d put you over my knee and spank you.”
Her whole body moaned. “That… doesn’t sound like a punishment either,” she breathed.
“Danu, Stella, don’t say that to me.” Everything in him slavered to make that image come true. He made himself let her go. “Let’s do it again.”
She groaned in frustration, sheathing her blades. “You’re a tyrant!”
“When it comes to saving your gorgeous ass, yes I am.” He grinned at her consternation, then leapt.
It was a full two hours before Gen and Lena announced the meal was ready. By then, both he and Stella were drenched in sweat—and he was sporting new bruises from hitting the wall when she blasted him with her magic, and bleeding profusely from a decent slice across his chest.
“Well, well, well,” Zeph said from the doorway, arching her brows. “I’ve heard of blood play as kink before, but…”
Stella pointed a finger at her. “Don’t start. Jak made me do it.”
“I’m sure that’s what all the girls say,” Zeph drawled, then ducked with shapeshifter speed as a fireball winged at her head. She watched it splatter against the wall behind her, leaving a singed spot as sparks showered down. Whistling, Zeph eyed Stella with new respect. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I didn’t either,” Stella admitted. Going to Jak, she traced the cut on his chest, the tingle of her healing magic as profound as if she’d stroked his cock. Jak stared firmly at the wall so Zeph wouldn’t detect his misery. “Jak’s an excellent combat teacher.”
“If that’s what you kids are calling it these days,” Zeph agreed cheerfully. She shone with happy satiety, practically preening her unseen feathers, leaving no doubt how she and Astar had spent the last two hours. Jak envied them, but he couldn’t be bitter about it—Stella really had come a long way. “Anyway,” Zeph continued, “the meal is almost ready. I’ve been sent to summon you.”
“We’ll be right down,” Stella replied absently, infusing him with a general flood of well-being to catch the last of the bruises.
“As you say,” Zeph replied and skipped off, humming a bawdy tune he recognized, about pirates deflowering maidens.
“Any pain?” Stella asked, looking through him with silvery eyes.
“None at all,” he lied. Between the physical proximity to her and the repeated healing, he’d reached a state of almost transcendent need. Agonizing, but also giving him an edge that would serve him well on this mission to the alter-realm.
He leaned back against the wall, settling his hands on her hips and drawing her to lean against him. A side benefit of the last grueling hours was that—paradoxically, given how he’d repeatedly attacked and frightened her—she’d grown used to touching him. She wasn’t skittish around him at all, immediately softening against him.
Splaying her hands over his chest, she fiddled with the slice in his fancy dress shirt. “I’m very sorry to have ruined these.”
“I’m not. I might be in a bad way for clothes, but I’m glad to know you’ll use those blades with a solid strike. That’s worth any price. Remember: if you can see them, go for the eyes and ears.”
She made a face. “Eyew.”
“Lovely, squishy targets.”
“That does not help, Jak.”
He laughed, but she regarded him gravely. “Promise you’ll come back?”
“What will you give me if I do?” he teased.
“You’ll have to come back to find out,” she replied, a hint of humor sparkling through her obvious worry for him.
“Then you have to promise to be here when I return.”
She nodded somberly. “If anything comes at me, I’ll be ready.”
“I know you will be.” She’d come so far, showing rare grit and determination. Once she got over the fear of hurting him, she’d demonstrated a delightful predatory side. He had to trust in that.
“We should head down to eat,” he said, though he made no move to go.
“We should.” Her gaze went to his mouth. “But first… Jak?”