good.
The kelf looked up at him, its pointed face impassive.
Kett poked at the arrow, ignoring his flinches.
“Flesh wound,” she said. “You’ll live.”
He glowered at her then at the kelf, who stared impassively back. Bloody
They bowed and scraped to every human in the five Realms, but became deaf the minute he uttered a polite request.
Well, a request, at any rate. Bael wasn’t good at being polite.
“Oh, piss off,” he snarled halfheartedly, and turned his attention to the arrow in his arm. It hurt like buggery but it didn’t seem to have hit anything major. “Stupid fucking kelfs,” he growled, working the arrow back and forth and eventually gritting his teeth and yanking it out.
He made a pointed yelp of pain. Kett and Miho, who’d been quietly conversing, both glanced over. Bael pressed down on the bleeding injury, giving them a wounded look.
“Shouldn’t’ve gone after it, should you,” Kett said, as a munta was led out from the trees. Four-legged and a little like a camel without the hump, the creature was covered in shaggy dark green fur and looked at him with huge eyes as the kelfs started unloading game carcasses from its back.
“Oh sure,” Bael said. “This is what I get for being chivalrous?”
“It wasn’t really going to shoot me,” Kett said patiently.
“Yeah? They’re not as nice as people think,” Bael said, lifting his fingers from the wound on his arm and showing her the blood.
Kett just rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she said, mounting the creature and holding out her hand. She had moved slightly awkwardly, limping a little, and indeed Bael could see an ugly puckered scar on her right thigh.
But Kett never said a word or asked for help. After a moment, Bael swung up behind her. She didn’t seem remotely perturbed to be sitting there completely naked, all the girlie bits he’d been so enjoying last night on view for anyone to see.
Her back was warm against his chest, her neat little butt smooth and round where it nestled against his groin. His groin, which was definitely enjoying the close contact. Maybe the day was looking up.
“I’m afraid I only have one cloak,” Miho said, as a kelf handed it up-passing it to Kett, he noticed.
“Well, that means we’ll just have to share,” Bael said, wrapping it around them both, grinning as Kett leaned right back against him. “Hard life, ain’t it?”
“Certainly seems to be for you,” she said, shifting against his growing erection.
By the time they made it to Miho’s elegant house with its flamboyantly curved roof, Kett was in agony. Sleeping outside in the cold hadn’t done her leg any good at all, and jolting it into sudden exercise this morning had been the kiss of death. Every movement of the munta as it trotted along happily after Miho’s horse jolted fresh pain through her leg until she could hardly breathe.
Bael, of course, had no idea she was in pain. He seemed to be enjoying the bumpy ride, rubbing his big cock against her with every sway of the munta. Kett wasn’t turned on. She might have been, had her leg not been causing her such agony, but pain had never been arousing for her. This sort of pain was threatening to kill her.
But she didn’t let on. She never let on.
Miho slid elegantly from her horse in the pristine stable yard. “The kelfs went on ahead and prepared a room for you,” she said. “There is food and a hot bath.” She frowned and shouted something in Xinjiangese to a kelf, who nodded and scurried away. “And medical supplies. Come. It is cold out here.” She glided away toward the door of the house.
Kett couldn’t move. Bael didn’t seem inclined to. She supposed that was because he was sporting a massive hard-on that he didn’t particularly want to display.
“You get down first,” she managed through gritted teeth. “Keep the cloak.”
He hesitated. “You sure?”
She nodded, tears in her eyes as his movements jolted her leg just the tiniest bit. How the hell she was ever going to make it inside, she had no idea. She didn’t even know how she was going to get off the munta.
“You coming?” Bael asked, looking up, and she managed a nod but didn’t move. He frowned, then his eyes slid down to her bare thigh where the mangled, twisted scar glowed, pink and vicious. Kett ignored him and, with a monumental effort of will, swung her left leg across the munta’s back. If she could slide her weight onto her left side, she might just-
She squawked in sudden pain and surprise as Bael scooped one arm under her knees and wrapped the other around her shoulders, cradling her against him. A trickle of fresh blood slid down his arm, but the arrow wound didn’t seem to be causing him any extra distress as he supported her full weight.
Breathless and astonished, she stared up at him. He grinned back.
“I know you have your pride, my sweet, but I have mine too, and I just can’t allow you to walk barefoot a moment longer.”
Kett opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
“No no, don’t protest,” Bael said, adjusting her weight in his arms as he carried her across the courtyard, following an obviously amused Miho. “Nothing’s too good for my angel.”
Kett finally recovered her voice as they entered the warmth of the house. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Saving my lady the exhaustion of walking a step farther,” Bael said grandly. Then added in a whisper, “And the embarrassment of admitting she can’t walk at all.”
“I can-”
“Sweetheart, you couldn’t even dismount.”
Miho led them down vast hallways before opening a door and ushering them inside a room with a large bed and lacquered furniture. The low window looked out over an exquisitely designed garden. There was a large table covered with food and steam flowing from a second door. To Kett, it looked a lot like heaven.
“There are clothes in the closet,” Miho said, “and the bath is hot. If you need anything, call for the kelfs.” She indicated a bell pull. “And try not to pick a fight with any of them.” She gave them a bow then left, closing the door.
“Will you put me down now?” Kett asked.
“And watch you lying there all naked and helpless? Actually…” Bael seemed to be considering this.
“Knock it off.”
He grinned and strode through to the bathroom, dumping her in a huge sunken bath filled with scalding water that steamed fragrantly and shocked her into silence.
Feeling a little like a lobster plunged into the pot, she could only stare up at Bael, but he was already leaving the room. Feeling returned gradually, her skin throbbing in the mad heat, her muscles forced to relax. Her leg seemed to have given up the fight, faced with such indomitable heat, and she managed to move it an inch or two.
Bael came back in with several plates of food, plonked them by her elbow then went back out again. Still speechless, Kett stared at the piles of sandwiches, noodles, vegetables, kebabs-and then Bael came back in again. He put down more food, a couple pitchers and a tray of medical supplies, then dropped the cloak and stepped into the bath.
Then he leaped like a cat on drugs and yelped, “Fucking hell, that’s hot!”
“Yes, isn’t it?” Kett asked, recovering her voice. She picked up a pitcher, sniffed at it and ascertained that it was beer. Which she proceeded to drink.
“Bleeding hell,” Bael swore, bravely going back in. He gingerly dunked his arm under the water, flinching as heat seared the arrow wound.
