The Invisible Ring

trees Lia insisted come with them.
    Thank the Darkness, some of Talon’s men knew how to handle a Coach, so there was no problem now about finding drivers.
    With luck, Talon would be checking on something else that had to be readied for their departure, and it would take some time to find him. Maybe by then, Lia would have reconsidered.
    He shook his head. Not with Thera’s warning riding her.
    Before he took two steps, Talon turned the corner.
    Groaning, Jared sagged against the wall again.
    “She still upset?” Talon asked, eyeing the bedroom door.
    “Not exactly,” Jared muttered.
    Talon’s eyes narrowed. “She feeling all right?”
    “She’s doing fine.” Jared looked Talon in the eyes. “She wants her Virgin Night.”
    Talon gaped at him. “ Now ?”
    “Yes. Now. I was just coming to look for you.”
    Watching Talon sag against the wall made Jared feel better.
    Talon rubbed a hand over his chest. “She wants me to—”
    “No,” Jared said too quickly.
    A slow, wicked smile curved Talon’s mouth. “In that case, Warlord, since the woman and the bed are in there, why are you out here?”
    Jared’s face heated. He shifted so that his back was fully pressed against the wall. “I’ve been a pleasure slave since I was eighteen.”
    Talon nodded in understanding. “That’s a long time to know the bed without ever knowing intimacy or pleasure. And at that age . . . Hell’s fire, you can probably count the number of times you were really with a woman.”
    “I could count it on one hand and not use all my fingers.”
    Talon rubbed his forehead. “Mother Night, you’re almost a virgin yourself. Are you sure you want to do this?”
    Jared stared at the opposite wall. “She asked me.” He paused. “Would you consider seeing a witch through her Virgin Night a duty?”
    Talon stiffened. “I’d call it an honor.”
    Satisfied, Jared nodded. “You’ve done it?”
    “A few times. It’s safer when the male wears the darker Jewel.”
    Talon settled more comfortably against the wall and crossed his arms. “It’s not that difficult, really.”
    “It’s dangerous,” Jared argued.
    “It can be if you forget why you’re in the bed—or if she panics.”
    Well, that helped.
    It took less than five minutes for Talon to explain what he had to do for the Virgin Night.
    “That’s it?” Jared asked.
    Talon shrugged. “That’s it. Just take it slow. Let her get comfortable with each step before you go on to the next, and you’ll do all right.”
    Jared glanced at the end of the hall.
    “Go on,” Talon said with a smile. “I’ll stay here and make sure she doesn’t bolt.”
    Jared took a deep breath, blew it out, and then walked to the bathroom at the end of the hall.
    After cleaning his teeth, he paused and sniffed himself. He shook his head and stripped. Halfway through the fast bath, he realized he’d accepted what he was about to do and felt steady.
    More than steady.
    He dried off, vanished the sweaty clothes he’d been working in, then called in the trousers Daemon had given him and put them on. No point wearing anything more, he thought as his hand closed over the Red Jewel around his neck. He ran his other hand over the trousers. Did clothes retain something of the person who had worn them? Right now, he wouldn’t mind absorbing some of Daemon’s bedroom skills.
    Jared closed his eyes and took a couple of deep, quiet breaths. He thought of the way Daemon’s hands glided over a woman’s body, coaxing, caressing. It became a slow, delicious dance that a woman was helpless to resist. It changed so subtly from cool water to fire she never had a chance to see the blaze before it consumed her in pleasure.
    Smiling, Jared returned to the bedroom door.
    Talon gave him an assessing look, returned the smile, and walked away. At the corner, he raised his hand. A Sapphire shield blocked the hall.
    “That will make sure you’re not disturbed,” Talon said. He gave Jared an easy salute and left.
    Taking one last deep breath, Jared opened the bedroom door.
    Lia sat in the chair, fretting the sweater.
    Jared leaned against the door and smiled when she peeked at him through her lashes.
    “It’s not as if you haven’t seen me before,” Jared said, charmed by the shyness.
    “That was different,” Lia muttered, focusing on his bare feet.
    Jared took another breath . . .
    . . . and heard the drums.
    Heard the Priestess’s voice rising out of the twilight to call the men to the dance.
    His nostrils flared. His blood heated. Tension flowed out of him as desire saturated his