Page 81 of Blood of the Sands

I scrabbled backward on the ground, ripping my attention away from Keera to where the fire had been. The fuel we had collected was no more than a pile of fine ash dusting over the pit of sand we had dug. However, fire still crackled merrily where my tent had once stood.

“Sorry,” Keera said quietly.

I grimaced. “I prefer sleeping under the open sky anyway.”

We didn’t practice anymore that night, the furrow of concern between Keera’s brows telling me it would likely be counterproductive to push her any further. When it was time to sleep, I unrolled my sleeping mat as far from Keera’s as I could without looking suspicious, and I kept my mask on. Still, the metal could not protect me from the memory of how her body had felt beneath mine. Where normally I shied away from the touch of others, I hadn’t hated the warmth of Keera’s skin a few layers of fabric away from mine. I might have slept better if I had.

Alza sensed my restlessness as we headed out the next morning, flicking her ears back as if in question. I patted her neck in reassurance. Lord Alasdar had helped me build my control, and I would just have to reinforce it. Despite my initial tension though, I found myself relaxing as the day wore into late afternoon, Keera an easy riding companion.

A freshness on the breeze told me we approached an oasis. Alza’s ears perked up at the promise of fresh water, as she too lifted her face. It was perhaps earlier than I would have liked to make camp, but I wouldn’t pass up the chance to camp near water.

Keera sensed it too. Without warning, she kicked Daiti into a run, dashing toward the patch of brush that was our destination. Before I could settle her, Alza took off after her, taking their sudden acceleration as the sign of a chase.

By the time we arrived at the edge of a small, clear body of water, our mounts panted happily, and a smile split Keera’s serious face. If I had been tempted to make her frown earlier, it was nothing compared to the overwhelming urge I had to see her smile more. With her curls escaping their braid and the slight redness of a sunburn across her cheekbones and nose, she was the picture of freedom.

I busied myself dismounting and relieving Alza of her burdens. It was unlike me to be distracted by such things. Spending this much time alone with a woman was affecting me, that was all.

My brain unhelpfully supplied me with the information that I spent plenty of time around Izumi with no such distractions, but I pushed that thought away.

Placing my belongings on a flat rock, I looked up just in time for Keera to begin unwinding the sash that held her vest closed over her tunic. It fell open, and she hastily shucked her layers, toeing off her boots before her fingers moved to the laces of her flowing pants.

“What are you doing?” I asked, heart leaping into my throat.

“Bathing,” she responded simply, as if it were perfectly normal to disrobe without preamble in front of somebody who, until very recently, and probably still, was an adversary.

I should have looked away as she pushed her pants down her legs, exposing more tanned skin to the sunlight, turning golden in the late afternoon hour. Her tunic came off next, leaving her in nothing but her skin. I swallowed and tore my eyes away, looking down at my own heavy boots and riding pants. Not an inch of my flesh was exposed.

Splashing reached my ears, and I looked up as Keera plunged beneath the water.

“I missed bathing outside,” she admitted, surfacing and dashing the water from her eyes.

I instructed my body to begin setting up camp, but my limbs didn’t cooperate, freezing me on the spot like a boulder.

“The waterfalls in the houses of Kelvadan are certainly fun, but nothing beats the open sky.” Keera leaned back and spread her arms out to float on the glassy surface of the oasis. From this angle, I could just see the outline of the points of her breasts. My limbs only unfroze themselves when I felt an uncomfortable tightness in the front of my pants, allowing me to whirl around and hide my reaction from Keera.

How odd it was that the woman who had grown up shunned from her own tribe eagerly bared herself to the world, free of all sense of embarrassment. I had grown up a prince of my people—had been told every day of the great legacy I was to fulfill—and I hid myself away from the world, too ashamed to let people look into my face unguarded.

“I’m going to scout around for predators,” I said before stalking off. A few hundred yards away stood a pile of boulders. I walked to them without looking back, shoulders hunched.

Once I reached them, I slumped down behind their cover, sitting so I would be out of sight of where Keera swam. I breathed in deeply through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to calm the rushing in my head. It felt like my magic but not—something headier but just as dangerous.

For years now, I had styled myself as a weapon, more monster than man. It served my purpose to be seen as what instead of who I was. Keera had just reminded me in the most visceral of ways though, that I was indeed a man under all the armor.

I hadn’t been able to deny that I found Keera a striking woman since I galloped alongside her in the races at the Trials. Now though, that observation had given way to full-fledged desire, coursing through my body and settling deep in my core.

But lust was just another emotion, one that I would conquer like I did every feeling that was too much, too close, threatening the tight grip of my control. I would master this just like I mastered my magic.

That’s what I told myself as I undid my belt and lifted my cock out of my pants. I hissed at the leather of my glove as I took myself in hand, repeating in my head that I just needed to master my body. If my mind conjured images of Keera gasping beneath me as I stroked myself fast and hard, then that was between the desert and me.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Keera

Isquinted at the boulder Erix had disappeared behind, but he did not reemerge. For some reason, his sudden disappearance grated at me, although I should be grateful for the moment alone to gather my thoughts. It seemed like a retreat, but from what, I could not say.

He didn’t return until I was out of the water and dressed in the second set of clothes Neven had packed for me. The ones I had worn during the days of riding dried on a flat rock after I washed them.

Erix didn’t say a word when he returned, only turning to his bundle, and beginning to set up camp. I chewed my lip, halfway wondering why he didn’t bathe while mentally shrugging. He must want to wash his clothes and cool off in the crystalline water, but apparently his insistence on being covered head to toe extended to when it was just the two of us.