Page 13 of Heart of the Desert

The voices in my mind drowned out all semblance of reason, though, demanding more and demanding it now, even though her touch normally quieted them. I used my hands under her thighs to lift her up, and she wrapped her legs around me.

I didn’t bother carrying her to the edge of the pool to set her down. Not when my already hard cock brushed against her soft sex and pure animal instinct overtook me. I pushed inside her, and she gasped sharply at the sudden intrusion.

“I’m sorry,” I grunted into her neck, even as my fingers tightened on her thighs, digging into her muscles as they trembled. The tether between us was blown wide open, and I could feel the pleasure dancing on the edge of too much that had overtaken her body.

“It’s all right,” she said, her voice raspy. “I want it. I want all of you.”

She tried to roll her hips in emphasis, but had very little leverage, suspended in the air as she was. It didn’t matter, though, as I was already thrusting into her.

I took her hard and fast, lifting her up and dropping her onto my length with single-minded intensity. It was raw and savage. In barely any time at all, Keera was crying out, and I was biting down on the juncture between her neck and shoulder hard enough to taste blood. It was with copper on my tongue that I emptied myself inside her as Keera shook through her own violent release.

I blinked back to myself, the reality of the moment crashing in on me all at once. My mind, loud and chaotic since the battle, finally quieted enough to hear my own thoughts. I pulled back from Keera’s neck after pressing a kiss of apology to the bloody mark I left there. Gently setting her on her feet, I still held on to her as her knees trembled and I looked her over. Sand and grit still clung to her messy hair, and her eyes and cheeks were red from chafing wind.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured again, “I just… I needed you. The desert is so loud and you…”

Keera chuckled, although the sound was hoarse, and laid her hand over my heart. It pounded beneath her fingertips but started to slow under her touch.

“You’ve calmed my storm with your touch more than once.”

“Just a simple touch wasn’t enough today,” I said guiltily.

“I don’t mind giving you as much of me as you need.” She pressed a kiss to my sternum, right above her fingertips.

I swallowed. Hopefully there would always be an amount of her that could bring me back to my sanity, even as my need for her seemed to be beyond reason.

“Let me help you with your shoulder,” I said, nudging her so she turned around and showed me her wound.

She did as I asked, and with my mind newly settled, I was able to focus on cleaning and bandaging her wounds and helping her wash and rebraid her hair. By the time that Dhara returned with two rock squirrels in her grip, we were clean and dressed and I had built a pile of kindling that would serve for our cooking fire for the evening. If Dhara sensed what had happened in her absence, she said nothing. Although, there was no way she could have missed the red indentations from my teeth on Keera’s neck.

I opened my eyes to stare into the embers of the dying fire. The odd lightness of my limbs and haziness of my surroundings seemed like a dream. I immediately looked around for Keera, wondering if our sleeping consciousnesses were linked again, despite our close proximity in the physical world. My gaze caught on her sleeping face, which was notably slack with unconsciousness and lacking any of the various expressions she wore openly on her face in wakefulness.

I frowned. She wouldn’t be asleep in a dream.

A rustle sounded behind me, and I turned, half expecting to find Lord Dhara moving around the camp or Alza having wandered closer in want of company. The taste of copper on my tongue and a strange tingling in my throat, though, set the hairs on the back of my neck on end.

I met an unexpected pair of dark eyes and froze.

Kelvar.

I blinked rapidly and scrubbed at my eyes, but he did not disappear. Instead, he sat cross-legged just beside my sleeping mat with his elbows braced on his knees. It wasn’t a threatening posture, but my hackles rose anyway. I sat up quickly, reaching toward the saber that lay next to me as I slept.

“What do you want?” I hissed.

To help.

I winced. Kelvar’s mouth did not move, but his voice was deafening, coming from both outside and inside my own mind. Almost as if every fiber of my being shouted the words at once. It was still difficult to understand, but I could pick out meaning in the overlapping shouts in a way that I hadn’t been able to since his last appearance.

“Driving me mad is not helping,” I whispered. I wasn’t totally sure if this was a dream or not, but I didn’t want to awaken my traveling companions. My stomach clenched at the idea of them finding me speaking to thin air.

You’re no madder than I am.

I opened my mouth to argue that this was not reassuring, as his own insanity was legendary—as pointless as it might be to argue with a figment of my own imagination. Before I could speak, Kelvar’s eyes dropped to the bedroll next to me, landing on Keera.

My throat tightened as the sheets rustled. Keera shifted in her sleep and made a quiet noise, almost like a whimper, as if a bad dream had taken over her mind. The sound might as well have been a scream for the way it cut into my soul. My madness didn’t only affect me.

I reached out as if to comfort her, but my hand hovered mere inches over the join between her neck and shoulder where her skin was decorated with bloody teeth marks. I had hurt her, albeit minorly, in my frenzy. But I hadn’t missed the way she could barely focus on her own magic during the sandstorm over the cacophony that spilled from my end of the bond, or the way her touch had been slower to calm me after our fight with Calix’s men.

“Stop hurting her,” I hissed through my teeth at Kelvar, my fingers still lingering just inches from Keera. My muscles shook with the effort of holding myself back, and my chest ached with my need for her closeness.