Page 16 of Fallen Stars
Ariete stumbled in, already intoxicated, his eyes deep red, pupils blown. A pretty woman was at his waist, Ariete’s arm slung around her. “And it seems like you’ve been having fun.”
Ariete only smiled viciously, raking a hand through his red-striped hair as the woman nuzzled into his neck.
“I missed you too.”
Eli took a sip of his drink, assessing the woman in their midst.
She was beautiful, as were all of Ariete’s women. Eli looked a little closer, seeing the ram tattooed on her upper arm. Ah, so she was a priestess. Devoted too, by the looks of it.
Eli pulled out a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it with a furrowed brow.
“They’re not good for you, you know?” Ariete said, sitting on the chaise lounge opposite Eli. The priestess followed, a look of desire on her face as she draped herself around Ariete.
“Neither is fucking and drugging your way through my kingdom,” Eli drawled back, grinning.
“Touché,” Ariete chuckled. The music continued, deep and thrumming through the room. Aphrosmoke was pumping through the air too, leaving Eli’s head dizzy. He could see the Aphrosmoke was having a different effect on Ariete and the priestess, the woman now straddling the Star as she kissed his neck. She went to his lips, but Ariete tutted, pulling his head back.
“Not the mouth,” he murmured before grazing his nose down the priestess’s neck.
Eli had seen the scene a thousand times before, had seen the way Ariete’s priestesses especially worshipped him.
It was the first thing Eli had done—eradicate them from Castor. He didn’t want to be worshipped, didn’t need to be.
“So why weren’t you in the heavens the other week?” Eli asked, crossing his arms.
Ariete’s eyes flashed with anger briefly. “I’m a king. I can do as I wish.”
“Sure you aren’t hiding after your latest loss?”
Ariete moved fast, but Eli had already anticipated his reaction, standing swiftly before Ariete could wrap his hands around his throat. He held his own two hands up in placation.
“No insult meant, my king. Just that, the King of Stars doesn’t usually run from battle.”
Ariete paced back to the sofa and the narrow-eyed priestess on it, pulling her back onto his lap. “I didn’t fucking run,” he hissed. “But things are…far more complicated than you realise.”
“How’s that?” Eli asked, feigning boredom as he looked around the room.
Ariete flicked his eyes to the priestess beginning to dance on him before looking back to Eli. “A discussion for another time. Just know that I was left little choice.” He turned back to the woman.
The priestess pulled out a small dagger, and Eli looked heavenwards, settling further into his seat. Predictable.
With a moan, the priestess made a small cut between her breasts.
Ariete groaned, the noise escaping him as though he had no control, and his mouth buried in her ample chest, his tongue flicking out and lapping the blood from the small wound. “Fuck,” he said, freeing a nipple from the priestess’s gown. He swirled his bloody tongue over it, leaving a mark.
Eli examined his fingernails, frowning at the dirt underneath one of them.
“Mind if I—? No, I suppose not,” he muttered to himself as he swiped the dagger from where it was lying on the chaise and brought it to his fingernail, carving the dirt out of it.
The priestess was now writhing above Ariete, grinding against him, their clothes still on as Ariete continued to suck and lick at her.
He was blood-drunk now, Eli could tell by this point, satiated and happy and extremely uninhibited. Ariete growled, his hands clenching into the curves of the priestess’s hips as he drove her pelvis down onto him, the two still grinding.
The woman flicked her gaze to Eli, a question in them.
Eli paused, setting his glass down as he ran his eyes down the woman.
Curves for days, long brown hair and dark eyes… She was a beauty—Persean through and through. But the fact that Ariete was her type was unattractive enough.