“I thought I could just wear my current awesome look.”
He barked out a humorless laugh.“Not a chance of that.She’s making a point—to you and to me.You’ll see.”He unfolded his right wing to point in the direction of a chair with a pile of glinting stuff on it.
Hmm.Cha went to it and found an amethyst collar the twin of Katu’s, only large enough for a human neck.Somehow she was not in the least surprised.Fucking Lenorae having to drive her point home with a sledgehammer.A long length of chain attached to the collar.Besides that, there were a few scraps of what looked like silvery chain mail embedded with amethysts.
“Where’s the rest of it?”she asked, mostly to be a smartass as this was obviously all there was to it.
“That’s all of it.”He sighed again and turned to face her, crossing his arms and clearly bracing for a fight.“You don’t have to wear it.”
“What happens if I don’t?”She was curious on that point.
He met her gaze evenly.“If you show up for the ceremony wearing anything but that, she’ll likely have you stripped and put in worse chains.”
No surprise there either.“Is it me she wants to humiliate or both of us?”
His lips twitched, a hint of startled humor.“She’s not stupid.It works effectively to strike at us both at once.”
“Yeah.What I figured.”Cha plopped her butt down and pulled off the amazing boots.Then stripped off her jacket, sorry to let the badass outfit go.“I don’t suppose I can keep this?”
“Yes.”He waved a negligent hand as if the outrageously expensive costume meant nothing to him, which it probably did.“What are you doing?”
She continued undressing.“Changing clothes.I know we mortals have to do it step by step instead of in one magical flick of the fingers, but I thought you’d at least recognize the process.”
“You’re just going to put it on…here.Now?”He’d lost his combative stance, instead watching her with increasing hunger.
“We don’t have that much time,” she pointed out.“The pixies aren’t here to help and it’s not as if you haven’t seen me in the altogether.“Unlace me?”She went to him and turned her back so he could undo the laces on the corset-style bodice.
After a moment’s pause, he did so, delicately picking the knots apart so the whole thing loosened.Holding it up, she started to step away again, but he feathered his fingers over her bare upper back.She shivered at the sensuous caress, as if she had sensitive wings, too.In truth, his least touch seemed to arouse her.Maybe it didn’t matter why; it just was.
“I didn’t expect you to agree so easily,” he said quietly, and she knew his words expressed the gratitude he couldn’t verbalize.
She turned to face him.Trailed a finger along his cheek.Maybe this gesture would go some way toward mitigating his inevitable fury later.There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you,she wanted to say, but that would be terribly unwise.Shimmying out of the corset and the pants, she posed naked for him and gestured to herself.
“Azul, we might as well own it.I have no false modesty.If your blushing bride thinks I’ll be humiliated to show off my extremely hot body for the Citrine Court—sexiness, by the way, that I come by naturally, with zero glamour—then I’m happy to oblige.”
Since he seemed to be momentarily speechless, for which she congratulated herself, Cha plucked up the bits of chain mail, figuring out the drape of them.Two little triangles to (barely) cover her nipples, suspended by finely wrought chains around her neck and back.A low slung girdle of amethysts with narrow mesh panels fore and aft that dangled to her upper thighs, barely covering her pussy and ass-crack, leaving the rest of her hips bare.Good thing they kept it warm inside the palace.As it was, her nipples stood taut, brushing against the fine metal mesh in a way that would no doubt become torturous in a few hours.
Striking a similar pose for Azul, who appeared to have been struck dumb, although she knew for a fact he regularly saw more nudity than this, she asked, “Do I have it right?”
He cleared his throat.“Yes,” he answered hoarsely.“Let me tighten this.”
Gesturing for her to turn, he clipped the back chain a little shorter, which indeed kept the triangles from swaying back and forth so much.He smoothed his hands over her hips, then cleared his throat again.“There.”
“Appreciate it,” she said, tossing him a grin over her shoulder.She picked up the collar and held it out.“I think you should do the honors.”
He stared at her a long, humming moment, then took the collar from her.“You think I wouldn’t do it,” he murmured, undoing the clasp.
“On the contrary,” she purred back.“I think you will do it and, more, I think you’ll enjoy it.”
Slipping the collar around her throat, he held her gaze.The feel of it did crazy things to her already jumping nerves.Never breaking eye contact, he snapped the clasp closed, snugging the collar tight around her throat.She nearly came right then and there.
“I admit to certain fantasies related to this,” he said, long fingers stroking her throat, “though not under these circumstances.”
“The circumstances suck,” she agreed, “but we can enjoy the ride.”She took one of his hands and guided it down to her pussy, conveniently open to the elements, letting him feel the slickness on her thighs and leaving it up to him how much higher he wanted to delve.“Maybe I should keep this outfit, too, just in case we meet again some day.”
“We won’t meet again.This has to be goodbye,” he said raggedly, enough that he sounded uncertain of that.His fingers stroked her inner thigh, almost of their own accord, it seemed.His wings unfurled, wrapping around them in a violet shroud of privacy.
She didn’t mind a bit being able to test his restraint, helpfully spreading her legs wider.“Then maybe you should give me something to remember you by,” she invited silkily.When he took her up on the invitation, sliding his fingers into her slick folds, she clutched his shoulders and dropped her head back on a gasp.“Fuck me, you’re good at that.”