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Tell me how you’re feeling.
Lay your head upon my lap so I can sift my fingers through your hair. It has grown so long. I want to feel your beard tickle my skin. And see your long lashes cast shadows upon your cheeks.
I want to rub your temples and massage your scalp, to ease those lines of worry between your brows.
Don’t frown so. Share your thoughts with me. I will help you carry these burdens.
I have missed you so.
She said none of these things, of course. Their greetings for each other were either formal or a mere nod of acknowledgement.
Now, he always returned after her nightly bath, long after her handmaidens had left. It seemed he took his own ablutions elsewhere as well, for he often arrived with his hair damp and curling at his nape.
Where did he go? Who was he with?
Did another woman have the privilege of watching him wash his bared body in the torchlight? Moonlight? Or daylight in a river or lake?
She had seen him in all of these lights. He looked like a bronzed god in the daytime. A dangerous predator at night. Sleek and powerful, wild and beautiful.
Before, she’d watch him efficiently clean the sweat and dirt from his smooth, taut skin, his hands running carelessly over dips and valleys, planes and gutters. Countless times, she wanted to help him with his big, broad back, his rock-hard buttocks and trunk-like thighs.
Even when she hadn’t known what desire was, she reveled in his maleness, his untamed, larger-than-life power and grace.
It was why,After,she no longer watched him bathe. It was too much temptation.
He never hid himself from her. He was so at ease in his own skin. When she couldn’t control herself, she peeked, her eyes roving ravenously over every inch of tawny skin.
Always straying to the areas where his hair gathered thicker, and mysterious shadows taunted her. Where his arms met his shoulders and a line of fine dark hair bisected his middle, fanning thicker around his groin.
Where his manhood hung thick and long from a curling thatch, and full sacs swung unabashedly behind it.
After, he’d been a feast for her eyes until she realized that she was torturing herself by watching him.
What woman dying of starvation teased herself with a banquet worthy of gods of which she could never partake? Over and over and over again?
It was just that once, he told her. He’d been very clear. Just for one night in order to protect her.
Aside from that unique, never-to-be-repeated occurrence, he’d never shown interest in her in such a way. He’d never given indication that he’d welcome her attentions if she pursued him.
In fact, hetoldher that he would not. She did not dare cross the boundary he set. Not after everything he’d suffered at her hands, however unknowingly she hurt him.
In recent months, there were seldom any words between them as they settled for the night. They only spoke if needs must, sharing information that concerned one or the other.
A particular royal Heba wanted his help investigating, for example. A potential uprising to be put down before it began.
Or, in his case, sharing pertinent facts he gathered from his reconnaissance, like supporters she should cultivate further or usurpers she should watch out for. If there were roads to be mended or bridges to be built. Or if he noticed anything concerning within the populace.
He spent more and more time with the military commanders, she knew. He had quickly won their respect and built a trust-based comradery. On her behalf, he garnered and secured their support. Informally, they came to him with information and requests.
If he wanted the role, she could easily make him Commander of her armies. None of the warriors would protest. They all looked up to him. Even the much older, more seasoned generals.
But he never voiced such a desire, and she never brought it up.
For, if he were to lead her armies, he would often be away from her, patrolling the borderlands, making expeditions to faraway places. She might have forced herself to get used to his absence from her side, but she could not imagine him so far away.
Not yet.
There were times she almost lost her resolve and dignity and opened her mouth to ask him for what she really wanted:
