Page 21 of The Healer and the Warlord

When he spoke again, his breath tickled the sensitive inside of my wrist. “Your gentle bloom is more powerful than my raging storm.”

“Your storm is beautiful too. And a flower can’t blossom without a little rain.”

Kelvar ducked his head and pressed his forehead to mine, and I knew it was true. I had been drawn to the wild lightning within him the moment I had woken held to his chest. Even as we lay there, sharing breath as our hearts slowed in unison, I worried that I would have to live without it.

The thoughts that had been driven from my mind by Kelvar’s proximity—why it was such a catastrophically bad idea to give into the heat between us—finally made themselves known again. Clan Katal’s encampment and its waiting Lord lingered over the horizon. There, Kelvar would either have to give me over to his Lord as he was commanded or risk all he had by defying him.

Chapter eleven

Kelvar

Alyx slept in my arms through the night for the second time since I had stolen her away, and I prayed to the sands that it would not be the last. At first, I had hoped for this journey with her to be over quickly, but now I wished it to never end. That way, I could keep pretending that there were no reasons for us to keep our distance.

As the sun crested the horizon, I reveled in the stillness of the moments before the desert fully awakened. The often violent and harsh landscape was painted soft and beautiful by the gentle light—everything bleached a silvery gray that seemed to perfectly reflect Alyx’s ethereal beauty.

I molded her back even more tightly to my front with the arm flung around her waist and breathed in the flowery scent of her hair. She was so achingly soft in my arms, and even as I reveled in the sleepy peacefulness, I couldn’t help the feral hunger it lit for her in my belly.

It was the same desire that had reared its head when Alyx had admitted to me yesterday that she was untouched. It lit a dark possessiveness in me that I was not proud of. I wanted to bind her to me and make her mine forever, even though her beauty and her power were more than anything I had ever even let myself dream of.

Just as I could tell Alyx would no longer be able to go back to her sheltered life in her clan, I knew I would never be able to go back to the simple, destructive existence I had convinced myself was enough.

She stirred in my arms, and I used one hand to gather her hair and push it to one side so I could kiss the curve of her long, elegant neck. She made a sleepy noise of approval, and I couldn’t help the way my cock twitched in my pants.

As she wiggled to get closer to me, it ground the curve of her ass against my hardening length, and I nearly swallowed my tongue. Now that I had let my desire off its leash once—let myself have a taste of the perfection that was intimacy with Alyx—I seemed unable to rein it in again.

I thrust against her as the hand over her waist now pressed flat against her belly. Her tunic had rucked up as she slept, and I traced the bare skin around her navel.

“Kelvar,” she murmured, letting me know she was awake and aware, even as her voice was still thick with sleep.

I shushed gently, kissing behind her jaw. “Let me take care of you,” I said.

She nodded in assent, before letting her head loll back against my shoulder. Her eyes were only half open as she gazed up at me, but her slack face twitched with anticipation as I dipped my fingers below the waistband of her pants. I did not rush their journey to her sex, letting them explore her folds gently and thoroughly, so her breath came in sharp pants by the time I circled her entrance.

Slowly, I slid one finger inside, already finding her wet and ready for my attention. The way she gripped that single digit, though, made my eyes roll back in my head at the memory of how her slick heat had felt around me.

It was good enough to drive me mad.

Carefully, I thrust my finger inside her, earning a high whimper as my palm ground against her most sensitive point. She squirmed, as if seeking out more contact. I obliged, bringing my other hand up to cup one of her breasts. I massaged it before rolling her nipple between my fingers through her clothing.

She twitched in pleasure, and I reveled in how sensitive and responsive she was.

I continued my attentions for long moments, rubbing her heated flesh as I stretched her open with another finger. I drank in the hitches of her breath and the flush that traveled down her cheeks to her neck as if she were an oasis and I were dying of thirst.

Finally, her moans and whimpers shaped into words once more. “I want you inside me again,” she insisted.

“I am inside you, Flower,” I pointed out, thrusting my fingers for emphasis.

She squirmed in my hold and huffed indignantly. “Kelvar.”

There was nothing I wouldn’t give her when she asked so prettily. I removed my hand from her breast and used it to shove my pants down my hips until my already throbbing cock sprang free. She helped me, shimmying her own pants down her legs. They went easily, several sizes too big as they were.

Even as I ached to replace my fingers with my throbbing length, it took great effort to pull them free of her exquisite heat. I could touch her forever.

I managed it though, instead using that hand to part her thighs, holding her top leg up to give me access to her center. With a few circles of my hips, I slicked up my length in the nectar already coating her inner thighs.

She sighed in pleasure, and I let my free hand come to her neck, arching her back so I could kiss her as I slid inside. Alyx whimpered into my mouth, and the sound set my skin aflame. I had meant to be gentle as I worked inside her waiting heat, but my hips snapped forward involuntarily, stretching her around my length. I nipped her lower lip and murmured an apology.

“I’ll be gentle,” I promised.