She took a deep breath and let it out shakily. “I just fell,” she said. “It’s not very strong. I mean, usually it’s fine, but I haven’t been taking medication or anything, and it’s just seized up. Give me a minute.”
“What medication? Maybe your friend Miho has something that will help.”
“Maybe,” said Kett, thinking it was unlikely anyone at all would have the stuff she took. “Could you go see if there’s any liniment on that tray?” Bael hesitated, so she added, “Just bring the tray.”
He bit his lip, looking uneasy, then nodded and rose gracefully to his feet. Kett, cursing the day she ever decided to fight a hungry sabertooth tiger instead of either shooting it or running the fuck away, tried to follow suit and ended up back on her backside on the floor.
Bael put the tray down on the bed then his hands on his hips and looked at her. There was a bandage wrapped around his arm where the kelf’s arrow had hit, the fabric very white against his skin.
“If you want help, you just have to say so.”
“I’m fine.” Stubbornly, she tried again, but her leg pulsed with pain and refused to cooperate.
“I mean, I have a great view here. I’m perfectly happy to see you stay right where you are.”
“Pervert.”
He grinned.
“Could you pass me the liniment, please?”
“What, down there on the floor? Come on, you’ll freeze.”
“I’m
“You blatantly are not.”
Kett glared at him. He grinned back. Eventually she sighed, gritted her teeth and said, “Oh, all right. Could you please help me up?”
“I’m sorry?” Bael cupped his ear exaggeratedly. “What was that?”
“Fuck off.”
“Thought so.” He scooped her up and dumped her on the bed so fast her leg hardly had time to protest. “You want a hand rubbing that stuff in?”
“No.”
“Tough. Payment for helping you out-I get to feel you up.”
“Perv-”
“You said that already.” He picked up a couple of jars, opened them and sniffed the contents. “Eurgh.”
“It’s not meant to smell nice.” She pointed out the right jar and Bael made another face.
“What’s it meant to do?”
She sighed. Evidently there was no way of getting out of this without Bael being involved in every detail. “Loosen up the muscles.”
“Right. Why are they tight?”
“Because a tiger bit through them.”
He started examining her leg. “Actually through them?”
“Hamstrung me.”
He visibly flinched. “Youch. You must have had a hell of a surgeon.”
Kett thought about Striker and nearly laughed. “Yeah, sure,” she said.
Bael scooped out some of the smelly liniment and spread it over her leg. The scar ran mostly down the side of her thigh, but both ends of it curled round to the back where the tiger’s massive canines had ripped right through.
“Come on, roll over,” he said, nudging her hip. “Give me access.”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“No need to sound so accusing.” He smoothed a warm hand over the back of her leg as she moved. “I’m doing this purely for your benefit, out of the goodness of my heart, the milk of human kindness that runs-”
“So it’s not payment for helping me?”
He grinned at her. “Call it more of a reward.”
She was silent for a moment as he stroked the warming ointment into her skin. He had good hands, strong and gentle hands, and a careful touch. He never pressed too hard or skimmed too lightly.
After a minute or two she asked, “Is that why you’re massaging bits of me that don’t need a massage?”
His fingers caressed her buttocks. “I’d say they’re crying out for it.”
She smiled despite herself. “Tell me you never trained to be a doctor.”
“Well, I do have an excellent bedside manner.”
His fingers stroked the sensitive skin inside her thighs, which Kett was pretty sure didn’t need any massaging at all, and she let out her breath. Okay, maybe she was enjoying it a bit. It had been a long time since anyone else had stroked her legs, that was for sure. In fact, there hadn’t been anyone since before the tiger had taken a chunk out of her. Three years! No wonder she’d jumped him last night. No wonder his magic hands were making her muscles turn to liquid and her heart flutter in her chest. It had been awhile and she was horny and he was hot as all hell.
Kett looked back over her shoulder at him. He was clean, but he still looked scruffy as hell. A day or two of stubble and hair that went all over the place, eyes bracketed by lines that said he laughed a lot. A good mouth. A
“You okay?” Bael asked, his voice low and husky. “Did I hurt you?”
“No,” Kett breathed, and his eyes met hers. A slow smile came over that great mouth of his.
“Maybe,” his thumb drew circles on the back of her thigh, “I should kiss it all better.”
“Not unless you like the taste of liniment,” Kett said, but otherwise the thought had great appeal.
“That’s a good point. Perhaps if I kiss other places instead it might take your mind off it?”
A roll of heat surged over her and she nodded, unable to speak. Bael grinned, dropped his head and licked her hip, and she let out a hard breath.
Then the door burst open. Kett’s head came up so fast her neck made a snapping sound, and her cousin was standing in the doorway, hand to her mouth.
“Oh, sorry,” she exclaimed, but she didn’t sound it.
Once again, Kett couldn’t quite manage to speak. She could feel the heat of Bael’s breath on her hip and thought about his tongue licking her somewhere else and nearly sobbed because she wanted it so much.
She swallowed and found her voice. “Chance,” she managed. “Don’t you knock?”
Chance grinned. “It’s more fun this way.”
“Oh, you are so your father’s daughter.”
Chance rolled her eyes, and Kett wondered if her cousin had undergone a lobotomy. Being reminded she was the daughter of the Realms’ most evil man wasn’t usually something Chance enjoyed.
Kett frequently thanked whichever gods might be listening that she wasn’t related to him by blood.
Then the doorway was filled from top to bottom, side to side, with the imposing frame of Chance’s-boyfriend? Lover? Fuck-buddy? Kett decided lobotomy was definitely the answer. It seemed to have the same sort of effect as falling in love.
And what a man she’d chosen to fall in love with. Kett wasn’t given to fits of jealousy, but surely it wasn’t fair that Chance had found a man who was not only potently delicious, handsome, strong and kind, but also bona fide royalty, the king of his people. The Nasc, who were born with an animal twin with whom to share their soul, worshipped their ruler.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me?” Chance asked as Bael moved away from Kett’s hip. He was staring at Chance, but that was only to be expected. Her cousin was the most beautiful woman Kett had ever seen, all ash- blond hair and cheekbones, her perfect figure caressed by a green silk kimono. It should have looked stupid on someone with her coloring, but Kett had never known Chance to look stupid in her whole life.
She sighed. “Yeah,” she grumbled, pulling the sheet over herself. “This is Bael. Bael, this is my cousin Chance, and Dark, her…er-”
“Majesty,” Bael said, bowing his head, and for the third time in as many minutes, Kett was lost for words.
Chance giggled. “You got yourself a Nasc lover,” she said, and Kett stared at Bael. Nasc? Well, why not? This was shaping up to be one of the weirdest days in her considerably weird life.
“Right,” she said. “Uh, Chance, what are you doing here?”
