Fire and Ice Sherrilyn Kenyon Read Online Free

  Fire AND ICE

The League Serial Volume 4

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Chapter 1

Adron Quiakides had never been the type of man one approached recklessly.

Not if one wanted to alive, anyway.

And tonight, while he sat lone in a back booth of The Golden Crona nursing a canteen of expensive Grenna alcohol, the final thing he wanted was for anyone to disturb him.

His pleasures in life were minimal, and consuming buckets total of the yellow-orange liquid gave him the solace his battered soul craved.

Because tonight, more than ever earlier, his memories hurt.

This very hour marked the 5th anniversary of the night he had fabricated the decision he would spend the rest of his life paying for.

Adron gripped the bottle tight in his right mitt, unable to believe it'd been that long since he'd concluding walked without a pronounced limp. Moved without pain. Spoken without his throat aching from the endeavor of it.

Five years since he'd experienced any comfort or peace any.

He'd lain in bed for hours trying to sleep. Trying to forget, and finally he'd realized the only way to silence his demons was to drown them out.

And nothing worked meliorate than Grenna.

Tipping the large bottle to his lips, he let the fire pour down his pharynx.

"Hey, baby," an bonny red caput said as she sauntered over to him and propped a sparse hip against his tabular array. "You want some visitor?"

"I have company," he said, his raspy phonation grating on his ears. "Me, myself and I."

She raked a hungry look over his trunk, then leaned across the table to show him her ample breasts. "Well, at that place'due south plenty of me to make all three of you happy."

There had been a fourth dimension, once, when he wouldn't have hesitated to have her up on that offer.

But and so life was naught if not e'er-irresolute, and usually it altered on the hairpin of a second.

She licked her lips. "C'mon, handsome, buy me a potable."

Adron glared at her. She wasn't the beginning adult female to proposition him tonight. And in truth information technology mystified him that whatsoever adult female would bother given the savage scar on his face. But then, the women in The Golden Crona weren't all that discriminating, especially not when they sensed money.

"Pitiful," he said coldly. "None of usa are interested."

She sighed dramatically. "Well, if whatsoever of yous change your minds, yous allow me know." With one last wistful look at him, she headed dorsum into the human and alien oversupply that drifted through the packed bar.

Adron shifted uncomfortably in his seat as a bone-deep pain shot through his left leg. Clenching his teeth, he growled low in his pharynx.

One would remember the corporeality of pain-killers he lived on when combined with the alcohol would squelch any amount of anguish. But it barely numbed his physical torment.

And it did nothing for the burning desperation in his heart.

"Damn information technology to hell," he snarled under his jiff, so he threw his head back and finished off his drink.

He grabbed a passing green-fleshed waitress and ordered 2 more than bottles.

As he waited for her to return, he saw some other adult female headed his style. The fierce glare he narrowed on her, sent her scurrying away.

He was through playing effectually. Tonight he intended to go fully flagged and he pitied the next fool stupid enough to approach him. Unless they came bearing more than alcohol.

###

Livia typpa Vista had lived the whole of her life in protective custody. More than earnest than princess, she'd long grown weary of anybody'southward dictates for her beliefs, and at age twenty-six, she'd had enough.

She was not a child.

And she was not going to ally Clypper Thoran in ii weeks. Not even if he were the final male in the universe!

"Y'all will do as you are told."

She winced at her begetter'south imperious command. High Eminence he might be, but she, non her older blood brother, had inherited his stubbornness. No matter the cost, she refused to marry a Territorial Governor sixteen years her male parent's senior.

Since Clypper had demanded a virgin for his helpmate, she knew a way to thwart them both.

After this evening, she would be a virgin no more.

Tomorrow, her male parent would kill her for information technology. Only better to die than to be married to a cruel, goat-faced ancient who groped her with cold hands every time he got near her.

"The Golden Crona."

As the cold rain poured over her, Livia stared at the sign higher up her head. Her maid, Krista, had told her near the order. Inside information technology held all manner of heroes and villains, and though she would rather give up her virginity to a hero, she honestly didn't care. So long as he was passably attractive and gentle, he would be expert enough for the night.

Gathering her courage, Livia opened the door and stopped dead in her tracks.

Never had she seen anything similar it. A sea of aliens and humans danced and bobbed through the smoky bar that smelled of sweat from many species, and of cheap alcohol. The obnoxious music was and then loud, it made her ears throb.

A big, orange reptilian male gave her a frown every bit she hesitated in the doorway.

"In or out," he snarled.

She took a deep breath to fortify her backbone. That, and she mentally conjured an prototype of Clypper's fatty jowls and beady, lust-filled eyes.

Shuddering, she stepped inside and let the door pulse close behind her.

"Twenty-v credits," the reptile-homo demanded.

"Excuse me?"

"Twenty-five credits. You pay or I toss you out on your donkey."

Livia arched a brow at him. It was on the tip of her tongue to put him in his place, but and then she remembered he had no idea who she was. And she must keep it that mode.

If anyone learned she was a Vistan princess, she would exist sent back to the hotel where they were staying.

Not to mention the fact that her time was short. She had to find a human before someone missed her and started a search.

Pulling out the money she'd stolen from her brother, she paid the fee.

"Okay," she whispered to herself as she surveyed the bar full of people. "Information technology's time to find him."

She walked through the crowd and flinched equally several unwashed humans eyed her with interest.

Livia quickly amended her list of qualifications to include a human who bathed.

A tall, nighttime human male smiled at her, displaying a set of black teeth.

Okay, she would also add together i who knew how to employ a toothbrush.

As she crossed the room, she saw a brunette at the bar who looked like a hopeful prospect. She headed for him. But as soon as she drew near, she froze.

Information technology was her father's personal runner.

If she knew how to curse, she would definitely curse at her luck.

Just don't let him see me.

Falling back into the crowd, Livia kept an eye on him while trying to scan the crowd for her target. Surely, there was someone hither who could...

A mayhem in the entrance defenseless her attention.

Livia turned to look.

Oh no! She panicked at the sight of her male parent'south Royal Baby-sit swarming into the bar. Immediately, the gray clad soldiers began questioning patrons equally they spread out to cover as much of the bar as they could.

She trembled. For them to be here in force and grim meant Krista had volunteered her location and no doubt, her intent likewise. Livia groaned at the very thought.

How could Krista betray her? Her maid had been so helpful in the planning and execution of her escape.

But then for some unknown reason, Krista lived in fear of Livia's begetter and one scowl from him would take easily caused her maid to tell everything.

Right downwardly to the grittiest of details.

Livia cringed at the thought of her male parent'southward reaction. Simply at to the lowest degree Krista, unlike her, would b

east spared his outrage.

Krista was protected by their laws. Simply a male of her family could punish her, and Krista had no living male person relative.

Livia was non so fortunate, and there was no telling what her father would exercise to her for this.

Guiltlessness was one of the highest virtues whatsoever woman could possess on her world. In fact, men and women were merely allowed to mix during meals, chaste, imperial functions, and when married couples performed conjugal duties. For a woman to seek out a human being non related to her was strictly forbidden.

And punished severely.

She shook the fear away. She'd known the consequences before she fix out. Either manner, she was going to pay for her indiscretion, and if she had to pay, then she was going to brand sure she completed the deed.

Clenching her teeth, Livia scanned the room for a hiding place. At the back of the club were a line of booths. She headed for them.

Unfortunately, all of them were occupied.

Drat!

"Hey, babe," a rough looking homo asked her. "You want some company?"

She considered information technology until he reached out and grabbed her arm. He pulled her toward him, his manus biting fiercely into the flesh of her upper arm. "C'mon," he said with a slick grinning as he roughly ran his hand through her wet hair, "what say you and me head to the back?"

She jerked abroad from him earlier he hurt her anymore. "No, thanks."

Stepping abroad, she saw the guards heading her style as they skimmed the crowd.

Her heart hammering, she ran to the final booth and sat on the empty bench before the baby-sit saw her.

"What the hell are yous doing?"

She shifted her gaze from the baby-sit to the man who sat across from her. Livia's breath caught in her throat.

He was more than than passable.

In fact, she'd never in her life seen a man so incredibly handsome. His features were precipitous and aristocratically boned. His dark brownish eyebrows biconvex finely over the virtually piercingly blue eyes she'd ever seen.

Dressed all in blackness, he had long, white blond hair tied back into a neat queue. Make clean-shaven and washed, he had an air of refinement and power surrounding him.

Simply his eyes were cold equally he watched her. Guarded.

An aureola of danger clung to him and by the set up of his jaw, she could tell he didn't desire company.

He tugged at the black gloves over his hands as he eyed her with malice.

She should get up and go out, specially since he had a tearing scar that ran beyond his cheekbone, to his hairline and then down along his jaw. Information technology looked similar someone had intentionally carved it there, which made her wonder just what kind of man he was.

What had he done to deserve such a wound?

Biting her lip in indecision, she glanced back to the baby-sit who was steadily headed this way.

What should she practise?

Adron arched a forehead at the woman who had nonetheless to exit him.

He was drunk, but not then drunk that he didn't realize the wet niggling mouse sitting across from him didn't vest in this swoop. He could olfactory property the innocence on her.

And information technology turned his stomach.

Her night dark-brown hair was loose, spilling over her sparse shoulders in waves.

She had large, celestial optics. Greenish eyes that had no past haunting her. They were completely

guileless and honest.

A shiver ran over him. Who in this solar day and historic period had optics like that? And what right did she accept looking at him with them?

"I'm hiding from someone," she confided. "Do you listen?"

"Hell, yeah, I mind."

Livia frowned at the stranger. His angry tone set her dorsum, and if information technology wasn't for the fact that one of the guards was scanning the booths, she would take left.

Think of something!

The baby-sit stopped two booths up and held out a holo-cube to the aliens sitting in it. "Have you seen this woman?"

Her programme in ruins, she only knew i manner to thwart her father. She got upwards from her seat and sat adjacent to the stranger.

He scowled at her.

Earlier he could say anything, Livia leaned forward and kissed him.

Adron sabbatum in stunned silence as she placed her tightly closed lips over his. It was the nigh chaste kiss a woman not related to him had ever given him.

By the style she held his head in her hands, he could tell she thought this was the fashion a kiss should be given.

But worse than the innocence he tasted, he hadn't kissed a woman in over five years and the experience of those plump, full lips on his was more than his drunk mind could handle.

And her smell...

Lord, how he'd missed the sweetness, intoxicating scent of a adult female.

Endmost his optics, he let get of the bottle, and cupped her confront in his easily equally he took control of the situation.

Livia trembled equally he opened her lips and slid his tongue into her rima oris. She'd seen people osculation like this in plays and reels, merely no one had e'er dared such insolence with her before.

She tasted the sweet, fragrant alcohol on his tongue, smelled the warm, make clean scent of him as he ran his hands over her back and held her and then gently that information technology made her quiver.

He was definitely the one, she idea equally her torso burned from his touch. This was the man she would give her virginity to. A man with tormented blue eyes and a tender touch.

A homo who made her breathless and weak, and at the same time hot and strangely powerful.

In his arms, she truly felt as if she had command of her life. Her body.

And she liked it.

Adron had never tasted anything meliorate than her mouth. He felt her inexperience as she hesitantly met his tongue with hers. And his trunk roared to life with a long forgotten throbbing that demanded more just her lips.

Oh God, it was heaven and he'd lived in hell for so long that he had forgotten the taste and feel of it.

"Excuse me," a homo said as he stopped in front of them. "Have you lot seen this-"

Adron broke abroad from the kiss only long enough to pass a lethal glare at the newcomer. "Go away or die."

Fear flickered across the man's eyes. It was a expect Adron was used to.

Without another word, the human left them.

Adron returned to her lips.

Livia moaned as he deepened his kiss.

The guards and her fright forgotten, she sighed in pleasure. Strange emotions tore through her as he cached his lips against her neck and sent white-hot chills through her. His arms tightened around her waist as her breasts swelled.

What was this deep seated throbbing she felt?

This unbearable ache?

He made her light-headed and breathless. And she wanted him desperately.

"Would you make love to me?"

Adron pulled back in surprise. Had he been sober, he would have sent her abroad, but there was something about her that called out to him in a way he'd long forgotten.

It'd been an eternity since he last slept with a adult female. Years of bitter, aching loneliness and hurting.

And hither she was offering herself to him.

Send her abroad.

Merely he didn't. Instead, he found himself getting up from the booth and leading her through the crowd.

Livia didn't know where they were going. In the dorsum of her heed, she was terrified. She didn't know anything about this man.

Not even his name.

Never in her life had she done anything so foolish. And still she instinctively knew he wouldn't hurt her.

There was pain in his icy blue eyes, simply non cruelty.

He kept a possessive arm draped over her. And he walked by leaning heavily on a gilded-tipped cane.

She wanted to ask him what had happened to his face and leg, just didn't dare lest it cause him to reconsider.

He led her outside the club, to a transport.

After they got in, they rode three levels down to an upper scale apartment building.

Livia relaxed a tiny bit as they entered the 1000 lobby. At least she wouldn't be seduced in a dark, filthy back room somewhere.

Krista had well prepped her o

due north what to expect. Correct down to an estimation of how long a human being would last before he allow her become.

Taking a deep breath for courage, Livia figured she would be back in her hotel room past midnight. There would exist questioning, and eventually her father would learn the truth.

God have mercy on her so.

But she had made her conclusion and in one case her mind was set on something, that was it. She would not be swayed.

Without a discussion to each other, they took a lift to the top floor.

He led her into a flat that was nigh the size of her palace chambers. And equally before long as he closed the door, he pulled her into his arms.

This time his kiss was fierce. Demanding. His kiss stole her breath as he pressed her back against the wall.

Her head swam at the powerful feel of his hands roaming over her.

What are you doing?

Shut-up, she shouted at her mind, squelching the guilt and fear.

It was her life and she was going to claim it.

With that thought in mind, she started unbuttoning his shirt.

Adron sucked his breath in sharply at the feel of her hand confronting his bare breast. Her impact singed him. He could but vaguely recall someone other than doctors, nurses or therapists touching his mankind.

To her credit, she didn't cringe or comment about the multitude of scars that bisected his body. She didn't even seem to notice them.

That was why he hadn't been with a woman since that long agone dark. He hadn't wanted to explicate the scars. To recount where they had come up from.

To take to face his lover in the early morning time light.

Mayhap that was why he'd chosen a stranger this evening. He owed her no explanation. Owed her nothing at all.

He didn't want to see pity or repugnance on a lover'south face.

Merely at that place was zilch in her pale dark-green eyes except curiosity and hunger.

Livia had never seen a man'due south bare breast earlier, at least nowhere other than on reels.

Fascinated by it, she ran her hands over the smooth, tawny pare that was stretched tight over hard, steely muscles. Like velvet over steel. The contrast amazed her.

"You feel so wonderful," she breathed.

Adron pulled dorsum to look at her. There was a strange note of awe in her voice, a gentle hesitancy in her affect. And in that instant, a feeling of dread consumed him.

He was drunk, merely he wasn't that drunk. "You're a virgin."

Her face turned brilliant red.

"Shit!" he snarled as he stepped abroad from her.

His erection ached and his entire trunk burned. Leave it to him to find the just virgin he was sure had ever set foot inside The Golden Crona.

Gripping his cane, he limped his mode to his bar and poured some other beverage. But the watered downwardly

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