old, small scars on his skin. Maybe he was more of a warrior than she’d thought.
“Kett,” he said cheerfully.
Of course, a warrior would have better survival instincts.
“How did you get here?”
He looked nonplussed. “Er, I walked.”
“I mean, before me.”
“I walked faster?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. Of course, she’d been limping around getting lost. Without being able to turn into something with superior tracking abilities, she felt half-blind.
“Kett, Kett, Kett,” he said, swinging to his feet as she shrugged off her kimono. “I know you’re crazy for my body but I didn’t expect you to start taking your clothes off so soon. However, I can’t possibly deny you,” he said, and started unfastening his trousers.
“I’m going to bed,” she snapped.
“Great. Bed is excellent. One of my favorite places to have sex.”
“Not for sex,” she said, because despite his big hard chest and delicious forearms, she was still a little mad at him. “To sleep.”
“Oh.” He looked disappointed, standing there with his clothes half-off. “You’ve been sleeping all day.”
“So?”
“Er. Are you really still tired?”
“Yes,” she said. And because that really wasn’t true and he could tell, added, “And my leg really hurts.”
“Oh,” he said again, looking really disappointed this time. “Really hurts?”
Another exaggeration. But it wasn’t pain-free.
“I could always rub it better,” he offered, brightening. “With some liniment.”
“No. It’s fine.” She shucked the shift she’d been wearing under the kimono and crawled into bed. Bael stood right next to her, all big and muscular and irritating and wrong.
“Or kiss it better?”
“It probably still tastes of liniment,” she said, pulling the covers up to her chin and closing her eyes so she didn’t have to look at his hot body anymore.
“Well, then, I’ll kiss somewhere else better. Take your mind off it.”
Kett swallowed. Beneath the sheets, her nipples puckered. Picking up where they’d left off did sound tempting.
“Because, you know, it doesn’t have to be sweaty, athletic sex.”
And why was she really mad at him, anyway? She was just overreacting. Frustrated.
“It could be gentle, tender sex. Probably still sweaty though. But we could always take a bath together afterward.”
Hadn’t she vowed to try to be more rational? Being mad at Bael for no reason clearly wasn’t rational.
“But if it really hurts,” Bael said, sounding regretful, “then I guess-”
“It’s not that bad,” Kett heard herself saying.
“It isn’t?”
“Uh.” She opened her eyes. He’d turned down the lamp and the room was sultry and dark. The scent of jasmine washed over her again from the blossoms outside. Bael stood by the bed, all big and hard and naked.
“You could try kissing it better,” she whispered, and he grinned and leapt into bed beside her. The mattress bounced and he laughed, and Kett forgot that she was mad and frustrated and laughed with him.
“You’re pretty gorgeous when you laugh,” he told her, wriggling under the covers and pinning her beneath him.
“That’s such a line.”
“No, it’s true,” Bael protested, nuzzling her neck and kissing her jaw. “You’re pretty gorgeous most of the time, actually.”
“Most. Boy, you really know how to compliment a girl,” Kett said. She knew he was flattering her and she didn’t care, because his big, hard body felt really good pressed against her. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, felt the muscles tensing in his back. Yeah, really very good.
“Well, the rest of the time you’re absolutely gorgeous,” Bael said, his stubble scraping against her collarbone.
“You don’t half talk rubbish,” Kett said, and he looked up, surprised.
“No, I mean it!”
“You don’t have to flatter me.”
“It’s not flattery.” He kissed her lightly on the lips. “I like everything about you.”
“Now I know you’re lying.” Time to put his mouth to better uses. “Didn’t you say something about kissing me better?”
Bael didn’t argue with that. He dropped his head and obediently nuzzled her breast, licking the underside of it but not touching her nipple, and she closed her eyes. When he wasn’t talking bollocks, he had a great mouth.
His hand was lightly stroking her leg, lifting it gently to rest against his hip as he kissed the curve of her breast. Kett wanted to tell him to hurry up and get to the good stuff, but then it occurred to her that what he was doing was pretty good. Clearly it had been too long since she’d had sex with anyone who had the faintest clue what they were doing.
His fingers were tracing featherlight patterns on her scarred leg. Some of it she couldn’t feel-the skin was numb in places-but some of it she could, and it felt damn good. When he ran his tongue over her nipple she jolted off the bed a little, and forgot completely about any pain in her leg at all.
Bael laughed softly against her breast and swirled his tongue around her nipple.
He shifted between her legs, and those wonderful bumpy muscles on his stomach pressed against her crotch. She was still wearing underwear-a rather skimpy number Chance had rustled up for her, far more impractical and revealing than anything she’d have chosen for herself.
Bael seemed impressed with it, however. He was sucking one nipple now, his hand stroking the other, caressing with soft, teasing motions. She found herself wriggling closer to him, enjoying the press of his hard muscles against the hot, needy flesh between her legs.
Actually, damn Chance for finding her underwear! She wanted to be naked. Wanted to rub herself all over Bael’s lovely body, feel his hot skin against her wet pussy lips. The hot skin of his stomach, his fingers, his cock.
She thought about how his cock had felt sliding inside her last night and a wave of heat swamped her.
“Bael,” she said, and it came out as a husky gasp.
“Mmm.” His voice vibrated through her.
“I want you inside me.”
His fingers tightened momentarily on her breast. “‘I want’ doesn’t get,” he said, and ran his tongue in a lazy circle around her nipple. “I promised I’d kiss you better and I mean to stick to that promise.”
“Kiss me better later,” she said desperately.
“No no.” He gave her nipple a little flick with his tongue. “I’m not done yet.” His hand strayed from her thigh down to the strip of fabric over her hip. Well, that was more promising. Kett tried desperately hard not to wriggle and writhe against him, and failed utterly.
Bael gave a soft laugh and kissed her stomach. He found the little round scar by her bellybutton and licked it, and she wrapped her legs around his back, squeezing him tightly enough to get his attention.
“You’re killing me,” she said.
“Can’t have that,” Bael said, and scooted down a little farther to nuzzle the inside of her thigh. He licked, nibbled and made a thoughtful noise. “You know, this does taste somewhat like liniment.”
“You eat liniment a lot?”
“Mmm, no. But it doesn’t taste like the rest of you. Not salty,” he licked higher, where she knew no liniment had gone, “or sweet,” he blew on her wet skin and she shivered, “or delicious in any way. However,” he said, apropos of nothing, and sat up.
