Merry Gentry 03 - Seduced by Moonlight by Laurell K. Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

almost any touch would have done. I slid my arm across his shoulders and leaned into his body as he licked my tears away.
    Rhys was behind me, on his knees, on the bed. He hugged me from behind. And because Kitto and I were so close, he was forced to hug Kitto as well. Only those of us in the room understood what a breakthrough it was for him to willingly come that close to Kitto. Just his willingness to do it made me feel better.
    "Not a year, Merry, not even for your tears. Not even for that look on your face." Kurag still stood, so wide that he seemed to fill the mirror. He loomed over us, partly because the mirror was raised, and partly because he was standing too close to the glass on his side.
    Kitto had drunk me clean on that side of my face. He had to turn the front of his body more firmly against me as he tried to reach my other cheek. He was pressed tight in the circle of Rhys's arm and my body. I expected Rhys to open his arm enough to let Kitto move to the other side of my body, but he didn't. He kept us pressed together in the crush of his arms. The moment I realized we were effectively trapped, unless Rhys released us, my breath caught, my pulse speeding against my throat.
    My voice breathed from my body full of that pulse, and that sudden awareness. "Are my tears worth a month, Kurag?"
    Kitto twisted against the strength of Rhys's arms. It forced Kitto's body hard against mine, but it was Rhys's whisper against my hair, "Turn your face to him," that made me turn so that he could reach the other cheek.
    Kitto's tongue caressed my cheek, his breath almost hot against my skin. Rhys tightened his arms, and it was like being bound in chains of flesh and muscle. I couldn't concentrate, couldn't think.
    "A fuck and a food to turn any goblin's head," Kurag said, and his own voice was low, growling, but not with anger.
    I whispered, "Rhys, please, can't think."
    He loosened his arms, but only enough to give the illusion of freedom. I knew the game, but the middle of political negotiations was not the time for it. Part of me wanted to tell Rhys to let us go, but part of me loved the feel of his arms around us, the solidness of his body pressed against my back, the whisper of his breath against my hair. I knew that Kitto liked few things better than being ordered around, being given no choices. It made him feel safe. It was comforting, but for me it wasn't safety I was seeking.
    I managed to focus on Kurag, but I knew that my face showed some of what I was feeling. I kept waiting for Doyle to interfere, to stop this unseemly display, but it was as if the room held only Rhys, and Kitto, and me.
    "Let me show you what a real goblin can do for you, Merry," Kurag said. His gaze slid to Rhys. "Let me cut off a choice piece of flesh. It'll grow back if it's done right. For that I'd agree to almost anything."
    It was Rhys who said, "You left Kitto out of the bargaining." His voice was almost husky.
    "He is a goblin, and I can do to him what I choose, when I choose."
    "I don't think so," I said.
    "He's sidhe now," Rhys said, in that deliciously low voice. "He was anyone's meat once, but that has changed."
    "He is still as he was. He still craves someone to dominate him. I fear no one who seeks a master."
    I found my voice, and it was almost normal again. "Yet you talk about cutting up someone who is his master. What logic is that, Kurag?"
    "I do not need his permission to take what I want from Kitto. I can take what I like from any goblin if he has not the strength to keep it from me." He pointed at Kitto. "And he is not that strong."
    I said, "There are many kinds of strength, Kurag."
    He stepped back from the mirror and sank into his chair once more. He was shaking his head. "No, Merry, there is only one kind of strength: the strength to take what you want."
    "And the strength to keep it," a male voice said out of sight of the mirror.
    Kurag flashed a frown in the direction of the voice, then turned back to me. "Let me fuck you,