Blood Warrior

He shoved it into the ground next to its duplicate.

“One day,” she whispered. “I don’t think so.”

Without warning, he closed firm hands around her shoulders and pulled her stiff body toward his, alongside his, touching his. “You didn’t think you’d be taking a mid-morning nap with a Pendray exile in a cornfield either.” His voice was playful, as were his ocean eyes. “With all those minds at your disposal, I’d have thought you would have a better imagination.”

Tallis arranged their bodies so that one shoulder each dug into the thick, tall, sun-warmed bale. They faced each other, lying on their sides. Wrapped together. Legs extended. Hips paired, touching. No part of her could deny notice of any part of him. His torso, clad in only a lightweight cotton shirt, was hers to enjoy.

Kavya didn’t want to hear him talk anymore. She didn’t want to bicker or even joke. That allure of the physical was too powerful. So she kissed him. It was the first time she’d initiated a kiss, but she was too pent up to take it any further than a brush of sensitive skin.

Tallis picked up where she left off. He wasn’t stopping.

And she didn’t want him to.

She shivered and wrapped her arm around his firm abdomen. He was made of hard planes, like a man pieced together from scrap metal, yet with the grace of a finely honed blade. He was the living embodiment of his weapons—hard, graceful, vicious, beautiful.

Tallis shifted until he pressed her back against their makeshift bed. She soaked up the sight of him as he loomed so powerfully above her, blocking out the sun, replacing it with the need for him. Just him. He exuded the gorgeous, intimidating strength of monsoon clouds ready to part with curtains of rain. His eyes were narrowed, intense, greedy, but his lips appeared vulnerable. They were reddened and slightly swollen from their kisses.

I did that.

Tallis smiled.

Whether he heard her thought or not didn’t matter. Not when he pushed his palm up between her legs. “I’m going to give you something, Kavya.”

She swallowed tightly, then cried out when his fingers brushed the sensitive skin between her legs. Panic caught in her throat when she managed to reply. “What?”

“The gift of my restraint, and your first taste of pleasure.” He smiled again, this time with salacious humor. “Actually, I’m the one who gets to taste.”

“Tallis?”

He stilled and took a deep breath. “Tell me to stop. If you want me to.”

“Are you going to have sex with me?”

“No,” he said, his expression surprisingly neutral. “If the time’s ever right for sex, you won’t have to ask for clarification. You’ll make it happen. I know you that well, at least.” He bowed his head against her stomach. His hair caught the sunlight. The silver tips were filaments of precious metals, glinting like tiny, tiny mirrors. “But for now, I want to kiss you. Everywhere. Will you let me?”

Kavya’s head spun with a flickering slideshow of images. Where could he kiss? He cupped her mound and began to explore with his fingertips. She yanked her head from the ground. They locked gazes.

“Yes,” he said. “There.”

She gulped a breath. “Do it.”

“So bossy . . .”

He pulled her inner thighs wide. With a surprised gasp, Kavya adjusted her position on the bed he’d made —and she dug her heels into the soft earth. His shoulders became her handhold. Tallis slipped between the silk layers of her sari, then used roughened thumbs to part her folds. He dipped closer. He licked. He sucked.

Kavya paired a hoarse cry with a slap against his upper back. Her palm landed with a hard thumping sound. Beneath her palm, Tallis shuddered—long and uncontrollably.

“That’s it,” he said against her inner thigh. “Give me your aggression. I can’t take it out on you, but you can give it to me. Don’t close your eyes or bite your lip. Don’t keep quiet, Kavya. Take your frustrations out on me. I want all of it.”

Every nip of lips and teeth against her sensitive nerves wound her body tighter and tighter. Once she had been all supple ease and grace. Now she was a series of reactions to what he wanted. His pace. His direction. She gave him everything.

“Breathe. Breathe, Kavya. Watch me as I take you.”

Fighting the sensual lassitude that made her head heavy, she did as he ordered. His face was centered between her legs, with his mouth nestled against her private core. She caught sight of his tongue when he licked upward. Then flashes of teeth when he smiled, or the grim set of his lips when another shudder overwhelmed his broad shoulders.

Now she knew truly what he’d meant. He was enjoying this just as much. What must the effort be costing him, to keep from giving in to the animal desire to lever over her body and take?

Oh, that thought. She rode that thought until its rhythm matched the flick of Tallis’s tongue, until it crested and broke. A gasping cry ripped from her throat. Tallis gripped her backside when she thrust up, seeking more— and he gave her more. The pressure of his lips and mouth intensified her climax, while that maddening tongue prolonged it. Every time she thought she couldn’t ensure another moment of such intense ecstasy, she was convinced that she could. He convinced her.

Only when her thighs wouldn’t stop shaking and her throat ached from sharp, endless gasps did Tallis ease her from that wave of climaxes. He slowed his kisses. He caressed and soothed. Kavya couldn’t have moved for all the world, but he arranged the draping silk of her sari back around her legs and pushed up to his knees. After lying down, he urged her to tuck her head in the hollow between his chest and shoulder.

Long, languid moments passed as their breathing approximated a normal pace. Tallis idly petted whatever skin he could find, although his energy, too, seemed to be waning.

“I meant that as a joke, by the way,” he said, still hoarse. “You have plenty of imagination. But who could’ve foreseen this? Where we are?”

The last vestiges of pleasure worked down her spine. He pulled her closer. “Not me. Not ever.”

“I choose to take that as a statement of wonder and awe.”

“Exasperation and confusion.” She kissed his neck. “And yes, wonder and awe.”

“That works.” He smiled, then tucked loose tangles behind her ears. His touch—how could a Pendray berserker be so gentle?

She smiled tiredly, with the effort costing her what felt like the last stores of energy. “But . . .” Trembling with curiosity as more and more possibilities came into focus, she tightened her fingers against his outer thigh. “What about you?”

“Later, after we find a hotel. I’m very discerning.” He glanced up toward where green leaves created an awning against the blue of a clear sky. “Truly discerning.”

She leaned forward and kissed each eyelid. “Are you sure? After what you gave me . . .”

“I’ll hold you to it,” he said, eyes gentle. “Sleep now. We’ll reset this whole mess. When we wake up, we can revisit the tantalizing possibility of you choosing a topic of conversation.”

Kavya’s heart shoved into her throat. “I want to trust. I want to be prepared the next time my brother comes for me. But I don’t know if I’m capable of any of that. Not yet. Not even after what you’ve shown me.”

“What’s changed when it comes to your ability to fight? You came up from the streets.”

“Maybe it’s a matter of faith. I think back on the young woman I was, cobbling a life together out of mud and trash.”

“Not a bad thing. Admirable, actually.”

“I got caught up in the myth of my own resilience. Not everyone comes out unscathed.”

He tapped her temple. “You call yourself unscathed? Woman, you’re a head case, and I mean that with a surprising amount of affection. Remember, that’s coming from a guy who’s been talking to dreams for twenty years.”

“That is pretty messed up.”

“I don’t think unscathed is a word for people like us.”

“This won’t last, will it?”