Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Sixty-FiveEvaline

Chapter Sixty-Five

Evaline

T he unease from the morning had all but dissipated by the time Maddox and I left Otto’s shop and aimed for home. My heart raced with excitement over my new barbed wire and how it would feel knowing that my braid would not only be a weapon, but that it would be displayed as one, too.

It was then that I realized that I didn’t want to head back to the manor just yet, and when I saw a tavern in my peripheral, I slipped my hand into Maddox’s and stopped walking.

A smirk lifted the corner of his mouth when he saw where I wanted to go.

“Want to have some fun?”

I nodded and pulled him toward the door. “I thought we could repair a previous memory,” I said, looking back at him as I grabbed for the door despite the arm he tried to snake around me to pull it open for me. “Last time we had a few drinks at a tavern, things didn’t go so well.”

I was referring to the tavern and inn we’d stopped at after escaping Kembertus, when Cradley had flirted with me, and Maddox had been jealous. It was the night we were together for the first time, and the night before Gabriehl abducted me.

“It is my recollection that the night ended exactly as I’d hoped it would,” Maddox’s voice was low in my ear as he propped the door open behind me, and we walked in.

It was only the afternoon and I hadn’t expected it to be busy, but there was hardly a table available.

I craned my neck to look over shoulders and heads for an open seat.

“I more so meant the portion of the evening when you nearly ripped off a man’s hand for reaching to touch me,” I mused.

He pointed to a table in the back, the last one by the looks of it, and we headed there.

Maddox dropped his head to my ear as we walked so I could hear him over the dull roar of the crowd.

“And perhaps if I had taken that hand, they would’ve thought twice about taking you the next day.” His voice was hard when he said the words, and I knew he was reliving the anger, the grief, of those few days apart, when neither of us knew whether the other was safe, or if we’d ever see each other again.

Gods, I was so tired of that fear.

I nodded as I slid down into a chair. “True.”

He pulled his chair from where it sat across the table and plopped it beside me so we both sat in the corner and could look out at the crowd.

But as his hand enclosed over my thigh, I knew the real reason was only that he wanted to be closer.

A waitress was quick to our table. “Hi Maddox,” she said, then swung her eyes to me. “I’m Cynthia. What can I get you two?”

Maddox ordered rum, and while I had never been fond of the taste before, I decided to try something new, and ordered the same.

He tilted his head toward me when she left. “You do want to have fun,” he mused.

I swatted his chest. “Don’t make fun of me, I’m just happy.”

His hand on my leg tightened and he slouched down into the back of his chair so we were at a similar height.

“I only meant that a couple glasses of wine hits you hard, I can’t imagine how much rum it’ll take.”

I flicked my braid onto my back. “Perhaps in the months we’ve been apart I’ve become more accustomed to alcohol.”

It was meant to be a joke, but I saw the pain that flickered in his eyes and felt an immediate wave of guilt.

“I’m sorry,” I said, closing my hand over his forearm. “It was a bad joke.”

He nodded slowly for a moment, then quirked a brow up at me. “So your jokes haven’t improved in that time, then?” He couldn’t even finish the sentence without cracking a smile and I laughed, shaking my head.

“Don’t try to pretend that I’m not hilarious.”

He rolled his eyes in feigned annoyance. “Gods, you’re just as humble as Wyott.”

Cynthia came back then with a small bottle of rum and two glasses before running off to take the next order from the many patrons with their hands in the air, waiting to be served.

Maddox poured two small portions and we lifted our glasses.

“To no more risks, to no more sacrifices,” he said softly, meeting my gaze.

I gave him a small smile. “To fighting whatever comes next, side by side.”

We kissed our glasses, and then he dipped his head to catch my lips, too.

I tried not to smell the drink as I brought it to my lips, and didn’t miss the way that Maddox paused the glass at his mouth in order to watch me sip mine.

The alcohol seared through my mouth and down my throat and I couldn’t help the way my face contorted at the taste.

Maddox only gave a small chuckle, Gods save him, and tipped his cup back.

I waved my hand. “Maybe I’ll acquire a taste for it,” I offered, setting my drink down.

He lowered his and straightened in his seat, turned slightly to face me, and dropped his elbows on the table.

“If not, that’s okay,” he cringed, as if a painful memory flashed in his mind. “Trust me, there are some burns you never get used to.”

I snorted and tried to cover the sound with my hand when his eyes lit with amusement.

Here I was complaining about the burn of liquor when he’d experienced a far worse and horrific burn every time he tried to drink from anyone other than me.

“I forgot about that,” I whispered.

He shook his head. “I don’t think I ever could.” Then gave what seemed to be an involuntary shudder.

I wrapped my hands around the bulge of his arm and pulled myself closer to him.

“I’m here now, so it doesn’t matter.”

His eyes seemed to ease at that, as if he needed the reminder every so often, and he nodded.

“You are,” his words were soft, but I think his gaze was softer as it landed on my lips before he leaned in to kiss me.

We spent the next hour or so there—it was hard to tell how much time had passed because most of the windows in the front were blocked by the crowd.

I choked down two small glasses of rum before I caved and ordered wine, and we just enjoyed each other’s company. For the first time, maybe ever, we pretended that nothing was wrong, that no one wanted me dead, that there was no conflict brewing a continent away. We just drank, and joked, and held onto one another.

The alcohol had definitely begun to seep through my veins. I wasn’t drunk, just giddy off the buzz that vibrated through my blood.

Maddox drank a lot more than I had, because of his heightened tolerance, and seemed to be in the same place I was.

He was smiling at me, coming down from laughing at the joke I’d just made, when his eyes grew serious.

“You want to know what I wanted to do that night at the tavern, what I would’ve done if it hadn’t been our first time?”

He didn’t need to elaborate on what he meant, the heat in his gaze told me all I needed to know.

“What?” I asked anyway.

His hand crept up my thigh.

I wanted to take you into the closet that sat below the stairs .

He used the bond, and my skin flushed at the implication that he didn’t want anyone else to hear this conversation.

I was having too much fun not to play along.

And what would we have done in that closet? I asked, lowering my hand to cover his and grabbing my wine glass with the other, to take a sip.

His fingers prodded higher up my leg.

I would have fucked you.

His eyes watched intently as I nearly choked on my gulp of wine at his words.

I finished my swallow, and slowly so as to torture him, sat my glass down, then turned to look him in the eye.

I’d be willing to bet this tavern has a closet.

Maddox’s eyes darkened, and I tried to maintain my sultry expression despite the quiet thrill that shook through my body at the sight, at the idea of the two of us, together, nearly in public.

It’s not nice to tease . Even down the bond, his voice was low.

I raised my glass back to my lips, and took satisfaction in watching the way his eyes tracked it all the way to my mouth, the glass pressing to my lips, gaze rippling hungrily over my throat as I swallowed.

Who said I was teasing?

At that, he straightened, and took a shaky breath, his hand on my thigh flexing.

His eyes darted all around us, as if someone could hear what we were saying, but only found the dozens of people around us caught up in conversation, drinking, or gambling. Or all three.

Maddox smoothed his free hand down the leg of his own pants and shook his head.

I don’t know that closets have Rominium in the walls, he said, tilting his head to look at me. Everyone would hear us.

I crossed my legs, trapping him between my thighs, and raised a hand to caress the back of his neck.

Then I guess you’re lucky you’re mated to the woman you are.

Without effort, I threw a small shield up around us, and in an instant, the crowd around us quieted to nothing.

His eyes widened slightly with recognition, and he licked his lips.

“Don’t be cruel, Eva,” he said aloud, eyes tracking the rise and fall of my chest with my excited breaths.

“I’m not.”

He swallowed, then raised his eyes to meet mine.

“Are we really doing this?”

Instead of responding, I dropped the shield and stood. I walked in the small space between the table and his chair, so he had to feel the brush of me against him, and I turned down a hallway.

Not a second passed before he was on my heels.

The heat of his gaze swathed down my neck, down my back as we walked. I could feel it curl over my ass, then back up again, as I spotted a door.

Two men stumbled drunk down the hall toward us, coming from a turn in the hall, and my anxiety spiked, as if we’d been caught. As if these men could read our minds, as if they knew what we were about to do.

But they only shuffled past us. I took a steadying breath as Maddox and I stopped in front of the first available door, and I sent a prayer to Rominiava as my hand closed over the handle that it was, in fact, a closet and not a room where dozens of other people sat.

Maddox didn’t touch me as I swung open the door, but he didn’t have to. He was a breath off my back, and the tension that coiled between us was palpable.

Barrels, shelved and corked, lined the walls, and on the wall directly ahead of us, a shelf stood with several sealed bottles of alcohol.

We slipped inside the room quickly, and I turned to face him but noticed that there wasn’t a lock on the door. He seemed to notice, too, because he grabbed one of the spare chairs that stood beside the door, and wedged it under the handle.

When he turned back, there was a pace separating us, but his eyes bore into mine all the same as his chest heaved.

He was waiting for me to make a move, to confirm this was what I wanted.

I smiled and cast a shield around the room, and the dull roar from outside quieted into nothing. I pressed extra air against the door, just in case someone really did try to come in, and caught the smirk on his lips.

But he still didn’t come forward, still needed further consent, so I moved my hands to the bandolier at my chest and pulled it over my head. Maddox’s eyes watched as I let it fall to the floor beside me, and my fingers flew down the buttons of my shirt, until I pulled it open, and revealed myself to him.

The air between us was so wrought with tension that it was almost painful to breathe, but it turned out that I didn’t need to because in an instant he’d blurred across the room to grasp at my jaw and collapse his lips onto mine.

My hands ripped at the holsters on his chest until they too, fell to the floor, as his hands grasped desperately at my neck, at my back, at my hips. Our lips moved quickly against each other, teeth grazing and tongues sliding as I pulled at his shirt.

He broke apart from me to yank it off, eyes never leaving mine.

He was yanking at the holster on my thigh, while he planted kisses against my stomach, my side, all bare as his head stuck in the opening of my shirt.

When the holster was on the ground he straightened to kiss me as his hands worked at the fastener on my pants, and I kicked off my boots.

I kicked at one heel especially hard in my desperation and knocked my own foot out from underneath me. Maddox had to catch me with an arm locked around my waist.

We could only laugh into each other’s lips as I finished off the boots and he helped me slide my pants down my hips, until they were on the floor, too.

The moment my lower half was naked, he plucked me off the ground so I had to swing my legs around his hips, and turn us until I felt the press of the wooden barrels at my back.

His chest moved with labored breaths when he pulled away and straightened to look above my head, and then his eyes lit.

Slowly he pulled my hands from his neck and raised them above my head.

“Hold on here,” he said, his voice hoarse.

I looked up to see the top plank of the shelving that held the barrels behind me. It was thin enough and with no top that I could reach up and quirk my wrists to turn my hands and hold on.

He still supported most of my weight, but now he was able to pull back slightly and look down my body. At the shirt that hung off my arms, down behind my back where it reached for the floor. At my breasts, fully exposed and arched toward him. Down to my hips, where I had my legs locked around his waist to support myself.

“Is this so I contribute to some of the labor, or because you just want a better view?” I teased as he moved his hands below my ass to unfasten his own pants.

His eyes shot up to mine, a smirk on his lips.

“My Goddess, I’d gladly labor like this every moment of my life.”

I shivered at his words, and then at the feel of him below me, where he’d finally shoved his pants down enough to reveal his cock.

His hands settled back on my hips, easing some of the tension on my hands, and his eyes flicked up to mine as he lined himself up.

“Yes,” I rasped, not waiting for him to ask the question. To voice whether I was sure.

His lips curled into a smile and mine parted to moan as he pushed into me, and our hips met.

The moment he sank in fully, a vicious shiver shook through him and I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips at the sight of it. At the sight of his wide eyes and slackened jaw.

He moved again, and this time I propelled my own hips to meet his, using my legs around his waist as leverage.

“Fuck,” he groaned at the contact as our hips slammed back together, and I couldn’t help the whimper that fell from my lips, either.

I wasn’t sure if it was the position, the cold of the room biting at my exposed skin, or the rush of knowing mere paces from us was a room filled with dozens of people, but it’d never felt this delicious, this perfect .

We moved against each other, sweat pooling on our brows and over his chest, as I held onto the shelf behind me for dear life, and he grunted and moaned and cursed.

Maddox pushed into me especially hard—a stroke of my own making with the way I’d thrown my hips toward his—and one of my hands slipped off the shelf.

For a moment I was falling, he was thrusting, and both of us were gasping at the angle he hit, before he wrapped an arm around my waist to hold me up, and continued.

I took the newfound freedom of my fallen hand and dropped it between my legs, swirled it around my clit because I’d never felt so good but knew I could still feel better.

And it was incredible.

Maddox’s eyes lowered to my hand, watched it move against me as he moved inside me, and his entire body shook with the growl he loosed.

“Oh Gods,” he rasped. “You’re so fucking perfect.” His eyes drank it all in hungrily, never leaving that spot where my fingers stroked and where his cock thrusted into me.

And the sight of it turning him on, turned me on.

I threw my head back as I felt the pleasure swell through me, to heights so staggering I couldn’t breathe, could only make desperate gasps and hope some of the air made its way to my lungs.

My magic pulsed around me, and for a moment I thought it was because of the orgasm that was so near I could hardly focus on anything, but when it pulsed again, harder this time, I realized it was because someone was knocking at the door.

My eyes shot open and I looked down at Maddox, wide eyed.

“Someone’s at the door,” I managed between gasps.

His hips thrusted harder, and I heard an annoyed growl rip through his chest.

I pushed my magic harder against the door, even though I knew Kova couldn’t get through my shield, but kept my hand moving, kept my hips slamming against his.

A knock rattled my magic again, and I flicked my eyes to the door, and Maddox must’ve seen my worry, because he slowed.

I shook my head, tightening my legs to pull him into me.

“Oh Gods, please don’t stop,” I cried and he continued without hesitating.

His hand tightened on my hip, his arm gripped around my waist. We moved harder against one another, my hand moved so fast a pain sprouted in my wrist from fatigue, but neither of us slowed.

The knocking ceased and just as I realized it, Maddox slid against that sensitive spot inside of me and my body seized for a moment as the orgasm wrecked through me. It stole my breath and my voice, it locked my eyes and parted my lips.

And this time, when my magic flittered all around me, everywhere that I used it, I knew it was from the pleasure.

Maddox had come apart, too, but still moved inside of me until we’d both fallen from the high of our climaxes, until he fell forward, resting his forehead against my shoulder, and I lowered the arm that held on above me and wrapped myself around him.

It took several minutes to gather ourselves, to breathe normally, to redress, and to aim for the door.

Gods, even when we opened it and strode through, my feet were still unsteady below me.

But there wasn’t anyone waiting outside the door, and I thanked the Gods. Perhaps they’d given up.

Maddox’s hand was locked around my waist as he paid for the drinks we’d had, and then he pulled me through the throng of people, leading me to the exit.

As we walked, I looked around to see if we had caught any attention, but no one seemed to give us a second glance or notice the newly formed wrinkles in our clothes.

When the door shut behind us, and we entered the throng of people walking through the street, Maddox lowered his lips to my ear.

“Careful, Eva. Start giving me a taste for adventures like that, and we’ll never get anything done.”