Page 105 of Blood of the Sands

When I added my fingers, sliding them slowly inside her, her litany of moans and whimpers raised in pitch. The fingers against my scalp changed from scratching lightly to pulling. Her legs trembled near my ears, and I knew she was close to the peak of her pleasure. I redoubled my efforts, pumping my fingers inside her in time with relentless swirl of my tongue over her most sensitive spot. I craved her release, needed to feel the way I made her come apart.

With the most beautiful cry I had ever heard, she shattered, pulsing around my fingers, coating my tongue in her release. That, combined with the way the flow of her magic shuddered through me, was enough to make me groan, the echoes of her pleasure ripping through us both. I kept licking her through it, so entranced I kept going just to feel it again.

Keera tried to pull me up her body, but I shook my head. “One more.” My voice broke as I said it. I had intended to conquer her, but now I was the one begging.

She generously obliged, loosening her grip on my hair so I could lower myself to her center once more. By the time she shook through another release, I was drunk, ready to keep drawing pleasure from her with my lips and tongue until I couldn’t breathe.

Keera had other ideas though, pulling me up onto the rock beside her and pushing me onto my back. My mind, already sluggish, skidded to a halt as she crawled on top of me, rubbing herself up and down my neglected cock. I pulsed against her as she coated me in her wetness, grabbing at her hips. My fingers dug in so hard I feared they would bruise her, but Keera didn’t seem to care, just lifting to notch my tip into her entrance.

As she lowered herself down with aching slowness, I hoped my fingertips would leave bruises, so I could look at them and know this was real, not just an illusion sent from the desert to tip me over into madness. After all, as Keera began to roll her hips, I felt like a man possessed. I pushed up against her, and together we found a pace that threatened to shred what remained of my sanity.

“This”—I rubbed my fingers around where I entered her, sliding easily through the obscene wetness there—“is going to drive me mad.”

At that she tightened around me more than I thought possible, and I nearly swallowed my tongue. Still, I managed to lean forward and growl in her ear. “And I never want to be sane again.”

Keera threw her head back as she rode me, and I remained mesmerized by every move that she made, every shudder and twitch that came over her beautiful body.

“Look at you,” I murmured, my voice a broken rasp that I barely recognized as I traced my hands up her sides. At that Keera looked down at me, a smile forming on her face even as she looked dazed with pleasure.

“Look at you.” She pinned me there with her gaze as she rolled her hips with increasing speed, and I was helpless as my release barreled down on me. How could I not be struck dumb by the way she looked at me—like I was something miraculous when that was clearly her?

We came together, her name tearing from me in a roar. Our releases rippled through the magic between us, so intense that I was sure the entire desert could sense the shuddering that never seemed to end. I hoped they did.

When I finally drifted back to my body, Keera smiled down at me, more brilliant than the setting sun behind her. I reached out to push back the dark hair that clung to her sweaty temples. She leaned into the touch, a slight laugh racking her body, the movement making me gasp with aftershocks of pleasure.

“What?” I asked.

“I think we might need another bath.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Keera

Islept better than I might have that night, worn out and sated by Erix’s and my explorations. Still, falling asleep to the familiar silhouettes of date palms and rock formations that had been my only company for so long made me jumpy. I woke up many times in the night, squeezing Erix’s hand where it interlaced with my own to make sure he was real, afraid I would wake up to find everything to be a dehydration-induced hallucination. I didn’t think I could survive being alone again—not now that I had been with Erix, bonded in a way that did more to soothe the ache of loneliness than being surrounded by a city full of people.

When we rode away in the morning, I was glad to put the oasis to Daiti’s tail. As we set out, I turned to take one last look at the sight that had been my entire world for too long. The borders of my existence only continued to grow, but the girl that had been trapped here, abandoned by her own parents, lived inside me. She still itched to scream and rage at the injustice of it all, even as she was afraid of the power that had twisted inside her, lashing out before going silent for too long.

Erix paused beside me. “You never have to go back.”

I shook my head. It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough to undo what had happened to me.

“Step back,” he instructed. I looked at him curiously, but did as he asked, urging Daiti away from where he sat on Alza.

Erix reached out toward the oasis and closed his eyes. A tug at my gut made me jolt, Daiti shifting beneath me as the power of the desert coalesced around Erix. A roaring filled my ears, coming from everywhere as well as inside my own head.

The ground trembled and shifted beneath my feet, and a cloud of dust, like a small sandstorm, swept through the oasis before us, blocking it from view. Then, as suddenly as it came, the roaring stopped and the magic trickled away from Erix, like sand running between my fingers.

Swirls and eddies of dust began to settle, revealing nothing but smooth sand. The palms and the pool of water had been washed away, and even the rocks I’d pitched my lean-to against had been erased by Erix’s power, as if they had never been there at all. Erix had reshaped the desert for me.

I nodded, not knowing how to show my thanks, but sure Erix could feel my gratitude nonetheless. In reality, I knew destroying the place that had been my prison for so long changed nothing, but a knot inside me loosened knowing it was gone just the same.

I kneed Daiti around and left it all behind me, Erix riding at my side.

Picking up the lava wyrm’s trail again was easy, the black patches of hardened lava marring the ground like scars. The massive beast had a head start on us, and seemed to move quickly as we followed its path for the greater part of a week, even though we rode hard every day.

Every morning, Erix and I started the day practicing our forms side by side, the connection between us growing even stronger as our magic flowed together. Each night, the bond between us was blown wide as we lay in each other’s arms. Even as we went to face down the most dangerous creature to have been seen in centuries, the mood between us was as light as it had ever been those first few nights.

I couldn’t get enough of Erix, exploring every inch of him with my fingers and mouth every chance I got. Erix, while still looking dumbstruck every time I reached out to touch him, seemed to melt into the attention the more I gave it to him. It emboldened me, as if I could rub his salt and sandalwood scent into my skin.