Page 59 of Black Sea

“To do what?” I asked in a whisper.

Amlach ran his fingers through my hair, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Thinking about what you’ve done.”

I allowed him to move my hair aside, tremendously aware of his touch, of his closeness. “How do you know that’s what I was thinking about?”

“Because I’ve gotten to know you,” he replied in a suddenly dark tone, almost hinting at irritation.

His hands appeared at the edges of my field of vision, resting near my elbows. They gripped the tub’s edge so tightly that the veins on the backs of his hands swelled, and his knuckles turned white. By trapping me in his arms, he moved closer and pinned me against the tub wall with his body.

Although I didn’t have a mate, I knew the male anatomy. And I was frighteningly aware of the erection pressing against my lower back.

Suddenly, the water felt so hot that I was panting. “Amlach—”

“Quiet,” he growled in my ear, and the dangerous brush of his teeth against my lobe made me shiver.

Amlach slammed his forehead against my head with such force that it hurt a bit. His breath in my wet hair felt as scorching as a dragon’s and matched the quick rhythm of my own.

After what felt like an eternity, during which neither of us dared to move, Amlach lifted one hand from the edge of the tub. In the next moment, I felt his rough fingertips tracing a path around the laceration on my shoulder.

“When I saw that arrow . . .” He could not finish the sentence, and his furious breath puffed against my neck.

“I’ve never been wounded in a fight before,” I thought aloud, focused on the burning sensation that Amlach’s fingers stimulated around the fresh lesion.

“Never?” he taunted me, and the pressure of his touch increased just a little. “Are you certain of it?”

I frowned, feeling once more Mornon the Abomination’s black blade cut my thigh and my cheek. Once again, I saw my blood gush and stain the ground, scorched by his wickedness.

However, no scar remained to bear witness to my victory over the greatest enemy of the Lands of the East, erased by a special ointment that, millennia ago, our healers created from the leaves of red maple with the help of druids and the approval of the Spirits.

But now no ointment could restore my skin’s flawlessness. From this point on, I would be different from other elves.

I would be imperfect.

“I’m so weak here,” I said in a breathless rage. “So—”

“Human?” Amlach mocked me.

I half smiled, then my face darkened again. “We must leave.” Needless to add: Before one of us receives much more serious injuries.

I felt his lips against my hair. “We’ll find a way,” he replied, echoing the promise I had made when we had been captured.

I resisted the urge to lean my head back against his chest, allowing myself to relax into him, and redirected my attention to something else. “Let me take a look at that cut of yours,” I said, trying to turn around.

Suddenly, Amlach grabbed me by the hips and held me so firmly that I winced in pain.

Shocked, I did not dare fight him, scream, or say something. Anything. I could not even think.

There was only him.

His fierce breath in my ear. The heat of his solid body against mine. His fingers digging into my skin as if they wanted to pierce it and reach my luscious flesh, my bones.

My soul.

Then his fingers started to move, and my mind fell into darkness.

Amlach’s right hand rose up to my breast, tracing its shape with the space between his thumb and forefinger. My breath hiccupped. I was overwhelmed by the enveloping sensation that spread from my chest to my lower belly.

Amlach slowly moved his other hand further down, toward the inside of my leg, between my thighs. He traced his finger along my sex, and a wave of pleasure surged through me so intensely that I tilted my head back with a moan.