Page 19 of The Healer and the Warlord

His hands moved to the hem of my overlarge tunic, sliding under it to press his palms flat to my stomach. My belly fluttered with anticipation.

“Please,” he asked, the word a request and a question all in one.

I swallowed thickly before nodding. As he slipped the fabric over my head and tossed it to the ground beside us, thoughts clambered in the back of my mind, trying to remind me why I shouldn’t—couldn’t—do this. How it could only end in heartbreak—our rival clans pulling us in opposite directions.

But I couldn’t make out those voices over the buzz of anticipation and the satisfied purr of my power as Kelvar’s gaze roved over my newly bared skin. Even more of his hair had escaped the knot he wore it in, and his lips were already shining and swollen. The armor of the self-assured Warlord was all but cast aside as something equal parts soft and feral filled his eyes.

He only drank me in for a moment before leaning forward and pressing an open-mouthed kiss to my sternum. As his lips traveled sideways, his breath tickling my breast, my hands flew to his hair, pulling it the rest of the way free of its knot. When he took my nipple into his mouth, the gentle tangle of my fingers with his silken strands turned into a hard tug.

He toyed at my breast with his tongue and teeth, and I clapped a hand over my mouth to contain the high-pitched whine that threatened to escape my lips. Kelvar released my breast and shook his head, nuzzling into my skin.

“No one is around for miles, Alyx. Don’t deprive me of the noises I work so hard to pull from those pretty lips,” he chided.

A huff that might have been a laugh had I had more breath in my chest escaped me. “I didn’t think you were working that hard,” I gasped, my voice tremulous. Indeed, it seemed that even the slightest touch from him left me ready to fly out of my skin.

“Then I will have to redouble my efforts,” he murmured before covering my other breast with his mouth. This time, I did keen as he pressed his flattened tongue to my nipple before worrying it with his teeth.

He grunted in satisfaction, and I arched into his touch, twisting his hair between my fingers. As his mouth explored my chest, his hands drifted down to the sash at my waist, fingers picking at the knot.

My heart jumped to my throat. I had never bared this much of myself to a man. There should be a million reasons why giving myself like this to another clan’s Warlord would lead to ruin. I could think of none—only the incessant need curling low in my belly.

I wanted this, and I wanted it with Kelvar.

After all, out here in the open sands with him, I had gained my first taste of freedom. It left me hungry for more, and even hungrier for him.

I helped him slide down my pants, an awkward affair with me still straddling his lap. He smiled, equal parts wicked and sweet as he laid me back on the ground instead, sliding the cloth down my legs. I kicked the garment off, letting it fall in a forgotten pile with my tunic.

Kelvar kneeled between my thighs for a moment, mouth hanging open as he stared at me. The bright sun lit my skin, leaving nothing to the imagination, every divot and valley of my body on display. I might have expected to be shy, bare like this in the unforgiving light of day. The fire in Kelvar’s dark eyes burned away any sense of embarrassment I might have had, leaving only simmering need in its wake. I let my own gaze trail over his body—still fully clothed—until it snagged on the visible bulge in the front of his pants. My mouth went dry.

Then Kelvar reached out a hand, trailing the back of his knuckles down the planes of my stomach and between my hipbones to the damp curls at my center. As he trailed lower and parted my folds, I choked, eyes rolling back in my head.

“My Flower’s perfect flower, soaked for me.”

He lowered himself down, pressing a kiss to my stomach before his lips trailed lower. As they reached the apex of my thighs and his breath tickled my sex, a strangled gasp tore out of me.

“Kelvar.”

He raised his eyes to my face expectantly.

I swallowed thickly. “I’ve never done this,” I admitted. I thought I saw a glimmer of fire in his eyes, but it might have just been the sun. He turned and pressed a kiss to my inner thigh, achingly sweet.

“I’ll be gentle,” he promised, before adding with a crooked grin, “The first time.”

My breath caught in my chest. “And the next time?” I asked, barely hoping that such a thing might be possible—that lying with the Warlord trying to hold me for ransom could be more than one wild, reckless taste of freedom.

“Next time, I’ll claim you so thoroughly that you’ll never want to belong to anybody but me.”

I barely had time to register the rush of molten desire his words caused in my veins before his mouth covered my sex. My back arched off the ground as I moaned, but he laid one arm across my hips, keeping me still.

He was good to his word, tongue gently parting my center before moving up to toy with my most sensitive point. I almost wished his touches weren’t so tender as my body cried out for more.

I was helpless to do anything but gasp and whimper as he worked my pleasure higher with soft caresses. He groaned against my core, as if he were the one being driven to the brink of madness.

Lightning danced behind my eyes as I squeezed them shut against the onslaught of sensation. Instinctually, my magic began to reach out for Kelvar’s and found it easily, overwhelming and inescapable in the way its wildness called out to me. I teetered on the edge of a pit of white-hot pleasure, but the moment my own power touched the crackling lightning that danced just beneath Kelvar’s skin, I shattered.

A scream escaped me, drowned out by the rumble of thunder in my mind. My thighs trembled beside Kelvar’s ears, but he did not relent, the hand between my hip bones pressing me into the ground until all I could do was let out small whines that sounded like begging.

Finally, Kelvar pulled back with one more soft kiss to my inner thigh. I raised my head, barely able to focus my hazy vision on Kelvar. His expression was dazed, as if he were the one who had just broken apart into a million pieces.