Page 104 of Blood of the Sands

“It wasn’t the hunger or the thirst or the constant danger of predators that got to me in the end,” she said as if she could hear my thoughts, running the nearly disintegrated straps of the sling through her fingers. “It was the isolation. Knowing that there wasn’t anybody in the world who cared if I lived or died.”

I knew what it was like to feel alone, but it paled in comparison to what lay before me now. I had been isolated by my power and the distance caused by the overwhelming weight of expectations piled onto my shoulders. Out here in the wilderness, Keera had been truly alone.

My arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her to me. She came willingly, turning into me and burying her face in my chest—a far cry from the feral woman I’d encountered at this very oasis. I clutched her to me so tightly, it was as if I could press her shape into my very soul.

“You’re not alone anymore,” I murmured into her hair, burying my nose in the tangled strands and taking in the acrid smell of smoke that couldn’t quite hide Keera’s warm earthy scent. “And I cared whether you lived or died the moment you spit in my face.”

Keera snorted into my chest but wound her arms around my waist. “I think you landed firmly on the side of wanting me dead.”

I shook my head, my lips brushing back and forth over the top of her head. “From the moment I saw you, feral and defiant, you started weaving yourself into my fate. After you rode off into the night, I kept seeing your face in my mind, even if I didn’t know why then.”

“Do you know now?”

Keera tipped her face up to look at me, reddened from the heat and the sun, and a single tear tracked down her cheek. I cupped her face and wiped that salty drop away with my thumb. “I think the desert was telling me something. Normally, the whispers of power in my head are distracting at best and maddening at worst, but this time, they wanted me to know that you were the one person who could be my equal—who could understand my loneliness and crack through the hardened shell I had isolated myself in.”

With a flutter of her eyelids, Keera blinked away the wetness clinging to her lashes. “Let’s take a bath.”

I drew back at the non-sequitur, and the ghost of a smile tugged at her lips.

“I want to make a good memory here to drown out the bad.”

I stood, scooping Keera up into my arms as I went. She looped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist, only letting go when we got to the edge of the water.

There, she toed off her boots, the rest of her clothes falling to the ground with soft swishes. I had to tear my eyes away from every inch of skin she revealed to turn my attention to my own clothes. I unstrapped my sword from my back, laying it gently in the sand before turning toward the rest of my clothes. By the time I finished undressing, Keera had already started wading into the water, water lapping at her muscular thighs.

I hurried to follow her, stopping only to grab a lump of soap out of my packs. When I joined Keera, she stood in water up to her waist, proudly displaying sun-kissed curves that did nothing to detract from what had quickly become a warrior’s body. More than that though, what made my mouth suddenly dry, was the look in her eyes as her gaze raked over my bare chest and shoulders before moving lower. After so long hiding every inch of skin, the intensity of her focus made me dizzy.

She stepped toward me, meeting me halfway before plucking the soap from my fingers, hanging limply at my side.

Then she began to wash me. She dragged the soap over my chest and abdomen, taking her time to run her fingers over every bit of my skin, investigating the dips and valleys of my muscles. I itched to return the favor, but I seemed to have lost agency over my body, overwhelmed at the sensation of being explored so thoroughly. Different than our coupling before, which had been hot and intense and spontaneous, Keera’s touch was slow and intentional, leaving me utterly exposed.

She walked around me, continuing her attentions on my back. She worked the soap through my hair, and I shivered as she rubbed her fingers where it curled at the nape of my neck. She moved her lower, her touch heartachingly gentle as it skated over the brands on my shoulders, alternately sensitive and numb where my nerves had been burned away. I began to tremble in earnest.

“What’s wrong?” Keera asked, close enough that her breath tickled the back of my neck.

“I’m afraid.” I squeezed my eyes shut against the admission.

“Of me?” The warmth of her skin began to pull away. but I shook my head quickly. My hand shot up to trap hers where it rested on my shoulder.

“Kelvar nearly tore this desert apart out of love for his wife. But I—” My breath escaped me in a shudder. “The world will not survive the way I feel about you.”

Keera’s forehead landed between my shoulder blades and suddenly I needed to be touching more of her. It was agony not to.

I spun around, plunging my hand into her hair to tilt her head back for a kiss. With a splash, the lump of soap fell forgotten into the water at her side. Her mouth opened to me easily, even as her tongue challenged mine. In this fight, as in all others, she was bold and intoxicating. The need to win this battle hit me nearly as intensely as the desire pooling at the base of my spine, and the pressure building in my cock.

I wanted to best her. And I wanted to surrender.

Without breaking the kiss, I walked her backward toward the far edge of the water, bordered by a series of flat rocks. The back of her knees hit the ledge, forcing her to sit as I followed her down, falling to my knees in the water with a splash.

She gasped in surprise as I sat back on my heels, grabbing her thighs and pulling her to the very edge. I looked up at her from between her legs, my fingers trailing up her inner thighs. The muscles jumped under my touch.

“Yes?” I asked, pressing a kiss to the inside of her knee.

She nodded. “It’s always yes with you.”

I dragged my mouth up her leg, mouthing and nipping as I went. As I moved toward her center, I pulled her legs over my shoulders. Opened up to me like this, her musky, intoxicating scent overwhelmed me, and I could wait no longer.

At the first drag of my tongue up her center, my eyes rolled back in my head both at the taste and the breathy whine it pulled from Keera. I worked her slowly at first, remembering how she liked to be touched, working her up until her hands wound their way into my hair.