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“How will it know to come back?”
“Kezriel is trained to respond to my needs.”
“Kezriel…a curious name.”
Tehdra sank onto the blanket that Ajali laid out without ceremony, he sat facing her. She arched a brow at the food unpacked from the basket.
“I do not think that even if we were here for a week we would be able to eat all this food,” she murmured. She had observed cakes, cheeses, roasted meats, baked apples, spiced custard, peaches, fruits and at least three types of wines amongst their supplies.
“My blades will give us a few hours alone before hunger drives them closer to the food.”
She glanced in all directions. His blades were noticeably absent.
“They do not obey your orders unquestionably?”
His slow smile warmed her insides in the most delicious way. “If protecting me means disobeying my orders, that is what they will do it seems.”
What did they know that she did not? “Protect you from what? I see no threat on the horizon.”
He glanced at her with an expression that she could only call censorious.
“The desire of my enemy is to see my kingdom fall. I am my kingdom.”
She did not see arrogance, just knowledge reflected deep in his emerald gaze.
“Are you saying if you were to perish your kingdom would fall?”
She shivered slightly as his heated stare caressed her face, seeking what, she could not decipher.
“Let’s eat.”
Tehdra arched an eyebrow. “Will you just ignore my questions?
A smile tugged at his lips. “Kingdoms and kings are intertwined, dependent on each other to succeed, to flourish. If I fall my kingdom would survive. My lieges, my parents fell before me, yet our nation has flourished exponentially. To avoid the painful transition Nuria would undergo, it is best I die a natural death.”
She understood. It was the same for her realm. “Your people would avenge your murder, fanning the flames of the next war. The grief and torment of your demise would drive your people to do almost any act to satisfy their honor, their pain,” she murmured into the silence that frothed with a deceptive kind of intimacy.
“A perception that a hari, ignorant in taijiu, should not possess.”
“I do not claim ignorance in strategic warfare, simply the art of killing. I contend that if one can read the tomes that great kings and lords have written, one can infer and make assessments using their wisdom.”
The sensual smile that slashed his face invited her to smile with him, so she did. The gentle flutters in her stomach felt wonderful and strange. Ajali drew himself close to her then dipped his head and licked the dribble of juice from the corner of her lips, then his tongue invaded her mouth with decadent hunger. Sweet and utterly intoxicating. Her skin ignited beneath his touch and desire fanned between them. His hands threaded into the silky length of her hair, and he anchored her to him firmly as he thoroughly explored the recesses of her mouth. Tehdra growled in greedy passion beneath his kiss and she responded with sensual voracity.
He drew away from her, holding her gaze with somber intensity.
What was it?
A shadow crossed over his features. “Present yourself in my chambers after the evening dinner.”
“I am here now.” She wanted the restless need that ate at her assuaged.
“I did not peg you for an exhibitionist.”
“An exhibitionist!”
“We are within sight and sound of all my blades.”
“Impossible.”
