Snarling as he forced himself to still, Er’it rubbed her clit faster, pinching and pulling on the abused nub until Aida wailed and fell shivering to the ground. No longer straining against him, she gasped for every ragged breath, her eyes wide and dazed. A splintered hum tumbled over torn lips when Er’it feathered kisses over her jaw and scrubbed her scalp.
“Soon,kou’va,” Er’it whispered against the corner of her lips, though Aida’s eyes fluttered shut and her deep, even breathing came to him under the sound of the water.
She didn’t sleep long. Hair drying to wispy curls around her face, she groaned and squinted against the sun as her eyes opened. A shudder racking her body shifted his aching cock inside her, Er’it gritting his teeth through the sensation as Aida whined and flinched.
His cock so hard it pained him, Er’it muttered quiet curses and soothing words even though she wouldn’t understand them, not as he spoke in his native tongue. Easing free to kneel behind her prone body, wanting nothing more than to drive back in, Er’it fell to the side. Staring up at the cloudless sky, he listened to her crawl away to curl up on herself in the scrub grass. A glance showed him Aida’s back, her narrow shoulders trembling. Perhaps crying again. Perhaps hating him even more.
It mattered, but it did not matter. He would do whatever it took to keep his people safe, and whatever this was between them, it would end the moment he ended her. Inhaling until his lungs were fit to burst, Er’it rolled to his feet. Stooping to grab Aida up into his arms, he cradled her against his chest as he walked into the chilled water. He didn’t drop her this time, instead going to one knee in the sandy silt to set her down. Cupping the water in his large palm to smooth over her skin, he cleaned away the sweat and dirt.
From the beginning, he couldn’t get enough of her. He’d been obsessed with the feel of her skin, her scent. Now was no different. Reveling in the sensations, he washed her clean, even supporting her with a splayed hand at her back as he tipped her backward to rinse her hair. Er’it wanted nothing more than to bury his face against her soft skin and inhale her scent as he licked up the droplets of cool water, warming her chilled skin with far more than his breath.
Grunting, he turned away and performed the same acts on his body with far more violence and rancor than he’d had for her. Er’it whirled, his lip curled and a challenging growl emanating from his chest as something touched his side. Both sat back, more than a little dumbfounded, as Aida raised a shaky hand to point at his hair.
With most of his braids torn ragged from traipsing through the woods, he didn’t doubt he looked as savage as she thought him to be. He had no intention of performing the long process here and now, but his surprise at her offer had something within him softening. Not his cock, never that. It grew thicker, harder the longer he stared at her with one dark brow quirked.
She shied away from him. He continued to watch her as she wrapped her arms around her chest to hide away her breasts, her anxiety coating his tongue in bitter ash.
“Come.” Er’it snapped his fingers in front of her face, hating the way she flinched. Knowing she would, he did it anyway. Climbing out of the water, he left her to scramble out on her own and made her scurry behind him as he stalked through the woods back to their camp.
With his wounds healed and everything in disarray, they needed to get back to the others. He could ride Kal now, and the Phylix could carry them both. Nodding his head at his thoughts, Er’it paced the small glen to collect their clothing. Lips twisting into a taut line, he held up the ruined pieces of her tunic, the pants not much better with long tears at the hips and down the legs. Er’it didn’t remember ripping them when he took them off her, but he must have.
Exhaling hard, he wadded up his tunic and flung it at her. “Put that on.”
Aida followed his command, staying well out of his way as Er’it tugged his pants over his wet skin and hauled on his boots. As if she sensed his fouling mood, she stood motionless in the center of the clearing, head bowed and hugging the wide folds of his tunic close. It made him want her all the more, the teasing glimpses of her creamy thighs between the slits at the sides making his mouth water.
He knew they shouldn’t remain there. He needed to find Ath’asho and the others in case this Rhyn tried to come for Aida again or worse. Yet Er’it was loath to leave now. Plans for managing her near nakedness and his lack of anything but a dulled sword fled his mind the longer he stared. Anger melted away until nothing but his need for her remained. As one, they turned to the mossy bed where the delicate blossoms began to unfurl as the sun peeked through the thick canopy.
They stood amid trees made stronger by her in a magical storm, one she had no control over, yet he did not question it was indeed her power that was responsible. Er’it felt it down to his bones. He felt it against his skin, in his soul, as they came together. He saw it with his own eyes, the pure blue of it painful to look upon. How, then, did those dusty books claim Omegas had no power of their own?
“Come here, Aida,” Er’it said, quiet as he went to a knee beside the remains of their fire. Tossing bits of kindling into the pile, he tipped his head back to see her wide, doe eyes. His lips slid up at one corner as she continued to eye him, his smile widening the deeper the line between her sable brows became. “I want to show you something.”
Chapter 9
Aida
Breath frozen in her lungs, she could do nothing more than stare. He called her by name, his tone gentle and soft. The hand he held out to her was in invitation, not demand, no snapping of his fingers. Not believing this sudden turn of character, she stood as still as she could. Aida was just another frightened animal in the forest, hoping and praying the predator did not notice them.
“It is a simple thing, but it requires thought. Come,” he said, opening his hand to gesture at the space on the other side of the fresh sticks and charred remains of their fire.
Turning her head aside to watch him from the corner of her eye as she edged a step closer, she refused to sit. On her feet, she had a chance to run… not that she would. Despite everything, Aida knew she would not leave him again. Still, it gave her a measure of comfort to remain above him, as if she retained some control over this exchange, though his head was level with her chest even kneeling as he was.
“Do you recall what you did last night?”
“Do not ask that of me!”
“Not that,kou’va, no. When you helped me heal the wounds, do you remember it?” Er’it’s lips twitched, a half-smile gone before it began as he turned his topaz gaze to the charred sticks.
Brow puckering, Aida slid forward. Angling her chin to view the blackened circle as Er’it did, she looked for something only he seemed to see. “Yes, what of it?”
“I wish to show you something. I would do that again.” Looking up at her, Er’it sat on his backside in the soft grass, presenting a harmless façade that Aida refused to believe.
“You have no wounds.” Aida huffed and crossed her arms, standing to her inconsiderable height.
“My back would disagree. That is not what I would teach you, though.”
Aida’s cheeks pinkened at his words and upon seeing the edges of deep welts lining his shoulders. They were the marks her fingers left when her nails had scraped through layers of flesh, when she lost all sense of herself, when she’d been little more than a fierce tumult of need. Helpless whimper fleeing her taut lips, Aida fell to her knees opposite him.
“Why are you shamed?” Er’it demanded in a vicious hiss, grabbing Aida by the nape to pull her to him. Mouth hovering over hers, his golden eyes blazed with an emotion Aida could not name.
