Thick as Thieves by Tali Spencer Read Free Book Online Page B

uneventful. After being divested of a bagful of coarse and tangled hair, the big man was on the verge of looking well-groomed.
    “There you go.” The woman stepped back and wiped her razor on a cloth. She gave Madd a lifted eyebrow of congratulations. “Under all that was a promising man.”
    He didn’t deny it. Vorgell’s hair was drying so it gleamed like a lion’s golden mane, and the shorter beard revealed strong, shapely lips and a rugged jawline. Even shorn, the man looked disturbingly virile. Blue eyes shaded by golden lashes swept the woman with smiling invitation. To Madd’s alarm, she responded by flicking the pink tip of her tongue across her lip.
    “Get out. Can’t you see he likes men?” Madd closed the hide curtain as soon as she’d left. “No witches for you,” he told Vorgell pointedly.
    “Why not?” The big man shot him a glare. “She looks pleasant enough. Women have always been the best fit for my needs. You are not the first man to refuse my advances. I have often resorted to the soft bodies of women.”
    “Well, find some other wench to plow. She’s a witch. Witch women use sex to create magic. And, you, my friend, have magical spunk.”
    Vorgell at least appeared to grasp his point. He turned his back on Madd and reached for his clothes. Madd savored a glorious view of immense shoulders, a trim waist, powerful thighs, and a beautiful, sculpted ass. Damn it, but the barbarian was built like a god! And not just any god. Vorgell could only be one of the greater gods, a god of storms or of war, capable of crushing the god of poetry in his fist. The look he cast back at Madd over his shoulder possessed heat enough to ignite an inferno.
    If he wasn’t careful, it just might ignite trouble.
    Madd wanted to curse but bit his tongue. What the hell. Why shouldn’t he be pleased that a man like Vorgell wanted him? It was so different from every other time men had wanted him that he didn’t know how to take it—but neither did he completely want to put a stop to it. So what if the blond giant was the size of two ordinary men put together and needed to be handled like some exotic beast? He had nothing to fear. Vorgell actually listened to him. In the course of a single day, the barbarian had proven himself the most reliable ally Madd had ever had. It wasn’t as though he’d had many. He’d been a neglected child who had fled to Gurgh as soon as he’d turned fifteen and decided he’d rather suck men than join a Circle. There he’d grown up on the streets, where no one had believed in him or had his back. When he’d gotten in trouble, only his grandmother had wanted anything to do with him, and she had found more faults in him than good.
    Trouble was… Vorgell was gigantic and wanted to screw everything in sight. Madd had to be insane to even think about encouraging him. With his luck it was just the collar’s magic anyway, making him think of sex and causing trouble.
    It was a good thing Ibeena had demanded to see them right after the bath.
    “Come on, big guy,” he said.
     
     
    I BEENA ’ S chair of gnarled and twisted branches seemed rooted to the floor and cradled her rag-wrapped bones as if they belonged there. Her tiny bright eyes and knowing smirk told Madd the old woman had not forgotten their previous encounters.
    “You owe me a debt.” Ibeena directed the two men to sit where hides lay piled on the floor. “I hid you, fed you, and sent you from the city to safety with your grandmother. I cleansed your name from the streets. And now, look, I am hiding you again.”
    The witch was gloating. Women of his kind always did. Witches had little use for men except for creating magic—or life. All male magic was suspect in their eyes, and they controlled it the same way they controlled the fires in their cookstoves.
    Madd settled on the hides with Vorgell at his side. The big man’s hair stood out brightly in the dark little room.
    “I’m not hiding,” Madd said. “I have a