Tarrys pulled back, her expression at once triumphant and uncertain. “Let’s see if I really produced anything useful before we celebrate.” She turned and he followed her toward the darkness beyond and the sound of trilling birds.
The unmistakable scent of water reached his nose, twisting his thirst into painful knots. As they rounded the corner, Tarrys hit the wall with her palm and light erupted on a sight that brought her up short and nearly knocked him back on his heels.
Before them lay an oasis—a crystal rainbow of a room with a soaring ceiling, a tree that stood more than twenty feet tall and hung heavy with fruit, and a wide pool of clear water surrounded by thick gold-and-orange grass dotted with tiny pink flowers.
A miracle.
Charlie stepped forward, straightening with a sigh, able to stand upright for the first time since entering the mine. He turned and grabbed Tarrys, lifting her and swinging her high as relief and gratitude burst from his pores like bubbles of champagne.
Tarrys’s eyes glittered with moisture, her laughter ringing as sweetly as bells, echoing off the high crystal like chimes on Easter morning. Charlie caught her against him and kissed her, claiming her smile, pressing his mouth to hers for one precious moment before releasing her.
As much as he needed her, he needed the water more. The last thing he wanted was for this oasis to turn into a mirage before he ever got a sip.
“Drink,” she urged, as if sharing his thought.
He lunged for the pool and sank to his knees beside its banks, scooping handful after handful of the cool water into his mouth. His eyes glazed over as the precious wetness coated his tongue then slid coolly down his throat. Never had anything tasted so good.
When he didn’t think his stomach could hold another drop, he dunked his face, scrubbing the sweat and travel grit off his skin. But when he looked up again, the sight that met his eyes had the breath catching in his throat.
Tarrys had stripped off her slave’s gown and was wading into the water, perfectly, gloriously nude. The blue-green light from the crystal below her feet illuminated that perfect body for him all over again.
His pulse skipped and began to race. His blood heated and pooled between his legs. “Where are the Esri? Are they moving yet?”
Her gaze lifted and met his, something hot leaping between them. “No. We’re alone.”
His heart thudded as he reached for the clasp of his cloak.
Chapter 14
As Tarrys met Charlie’s heated gaze, she felt the desire arc between them, felt it in the tightening of her breasts and the flushing of her skin. She watched as Charlie removed his cloak, pounding excitement warring with fluttering uncertainty inside her. She hadn’t meant to offer herself to him, had really only meant to take a much-needed bath until their gazes met, igniting a need that would not be ignored.
She wanted this, longing to share everything she was, everything she had, with this man—her newfound power, her joy, her love.
Charlie stripped off the silver tunic and unfastened the laden gear vest he wore beneath.
The thought of mating with him made her pulse leap until it was pounding in her throat. Why? Mating had never been anything but the relief of a violent need, a need forced on her by another. Yet this felt different, a wanting as much of the heart as of the body. Strong and seductive, this longing called to her, cajoling instead of demanding. And her body answered, craving his touch, his kiss, and anything else he wanted to give her.
The thought of just exactly what he wanted to give her made her body weep in dark, secret places. As Charlie removed his military vest and laid it on the grass, she sank down until the water caressed her shoulders, cooling her heated skin. She watched him, unable to tear her gaze away, as he stripped off his T-shirt. Her breath caught at the sheer beauty of his masculine body. Esri were slender with little musculature. And the few humans she’d seen without shirts last summer in D.C. had been soft with fat or skinny as Esri.
Charlie Rand was neither. His shoulders were broad, his arms and chest thickly muscled, his waist trim and hard. Wearing only his borrowed silken Esri pants and boots, he pulled his water flasks out of his vest, filled them, then drank them down one after the other.
As he filled them again, he glanced at her with a grin and a shrug. “In case this miracle doesn’t last.”
Tarrys smiled, his grin loosening the last of her reserve. Love welled up inside her, thick and strong, misting her eyes.
He returned the full water flasks to his vest, then met her gaze and held it as he pulled off his boots, then slowly removed his pants. The evidence of his arousal sent a shudder of pleasure arcing through her at the heady realization that although she might be a slave to her desire for him, he was equally a slave to his desire for her. The thought made her smile with a feeling of rightness and strength, with a power that had nothing to do with the energy that allowed her to free herself from the Esri’s control. And everything to do with love.
Charlie entered the pond, walking slowly toward her, making her pulse accelerate at an alarming rate. Her breathing turned labored, her throat constricted by aching anticipation as she waited for him to reach her and take her into his arms.
But instead of swooping in to claim her as she expected him to, he stopped a few feet in front of her, his gaze questioning. Searching.
He was asking for permission to touch her, she realized. Asking.
Love for him overwhelmed her. Tears sprang up in her eyes and she closed the distance between them, the cool water sloshing against her heated thighs as she moved. Charlie watched her, his eyes hot as fire and soft with tenderness as she laid her palm on his chest. Excitement ripped through her, but still he didn’t take what she offered.
Instead, he cupped her face in his broad hands. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
“Good.” He grinned, making her laugh, then cut off her laughter as he pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth in a kiss as hard as it was tender, as fierce as it was gentle.
The feel of his tongue sliding into her mouth, his muscled chest against the tips of her breasts, his hard erection high on her abdomen, sent her senses spinning. This passion was like nothing in her experience. Exquisitely pleasurable. Gloriously perfect.
Charlie gripped her waist and lifted her until they were eye to eye. Without hesitation, she spread her thighs, hooking her legs around his waist until his erection pressed against her sensitive flesh.
Excitement arced, and a need so fierce she could hardly stand it. Her hands dug into his hair as his mouth slanted over hers, inhaling her as she inhaled him. Closer. She needed him closer.
Holding her in his arms, Charlie walked to the center of the pond until the water lapped at their waists. Then he sank until the water reached her shoulders and she was straddling his lap.
Pulling away, he looked at her, really looked at her. His gaze delved into her with an intensity that made her heart pound.
“You are so beautiful,” he murmured, his eyes gleaming.
Sweet Esria, but she loved him.
He leaned toward her and kissed her again, as if he couldn’t get enough of her, his tongue diving in to meld with her own. As he kissed her, his hands gripped her waist and he lifted her and lowered her in the water, rubbing her against the length of his arousal, driving her to a frenzy of wanting. She circled his neck, pressing her breasts against his chest, rocking her hips. The water splashed between them.
“Do you want me?” Charlie said against her mouth.
“Yes.”
“Hold your breath.” He fell back, pulling her with him underwater. As his tongue dove into her mouth, he lifted her hips and pushed himself deep inside her, filling her in ways no man ever had. Filling her body, her heart, her soul.
She knew nothing in her life had ever been so right. And feared it would never be again.
Chapter 15
Charlie reared up out of the water, pulling Tarrys with hi
m, lifting her hips, then pulling them down again, driving himself deeper inside her with every plunge. Her head was thrown back, her face a mask of intense pleasure, mirroring the incredible sensations spearing him. The feel of her was like nothing he’d ever known. Every stroke, every thrust rushed through him on a wave of pleasure almost as intense as a full-blown orgasm.
Tenderness built like a pressure in his chest. The sweet grip of her hands at the back of his neck, the brush of her soft breasts against his chest. He wanted to come inside her over and over again and never let her go. The slender expanse of her neck beckoned and he had to taste it. With a sudden certainty, he knew he’d die if he didn’t have his mouth on her somewhere.
He kissed her throat, then the underside of her chin, then her cheek, drawing her heavy-lidded gaze to his. Sweet heaven, she was an angel. His mouth captured hers as he continued to drive into her, swallowing the small moans and gasps that rose on soft bursts from her throat. Colors exploded behind his eyelids, brighter and brighter with every thrust until they were more brilliant than a rainbow, more beautiful than a thousand crystal mines in full glow.
And still he drove into her.
Her moans rose to shouts of desperate need as she clung to him, her fingers digging into his hair. Each plunge into her depths thrust him higher and higher until he wondered if the building explosion would be enough to send the mines crumbling around them. He didn’t care. Need raged until he was so far past anything in his experience he no longer knew what to expect.
Tarrys’s cries buffeted him like driving winds, tearing him loose from his moorings. Her heart pounded in sync with his as if they’d merged into one tempest. One being. It was a good thing their pursuers were more than a mile back.
Her cries rose, quicker, faster, and he knew she was near the peak. As the triumphant cry of her release echoed off the crystal, her deep inner contractions pulled him toward his own, urging him to set himself free, to give himself up to the chaos of the storm.
No.
Deep inside, something rebelled, fighting for control. Fighting off the chaos.
As his own climax crashed upon him, Charlie opened his eyes, jerking back to himself as he fixed on the pleasure of the release pounding through his body, rejecting the pull of the tempest. When his passion was spent, he held Tarrys against him, their hearts thundering out of sync.
Holding her, he felt oddly alone. As if she’d ridden the storm and left him behind. As if, at that critical moment, they’d become two instead of one.
Two was good. Jesus, he didn’t want to be one. Not with anyone.
But he didn’t let her go. Instead, he stroked her wet back, the water lapping gently around them, as the aftershocks of the most cataclysmic sexual encounter of his life rolled through his body.
It was just sex, he tried to tell himself. But he knew better. He’d had more partners than he cared to remember, yet never had he experienced anything even remotely like this. The other encounters might as well have never happened.
Tarrys’s hands slid into his hair. She lifted her head and met his gaze, those eyes pulling him down into their warm violet depths. Slowly, she leaned forward and kissed him tenderly on the cheek.
“I love you, Charlie Rand.”
Her words went through him like a shot, ripping away the last of the lingering pleasure riding his body. Love. If there was one thing that could ruin a private moment for him, it was talk of love—the nail in the coffin of any relationship. The moment his partner-of-the-moment started making noises about feelings or futures, he was gone. Except, dammit, where in the hell was he going to go?
He released her, pulling out of her slowly, his body resisting the separation even as his mind rejected the fierce need to hold her. Setting Tarrys on her feet in the water beside him, he stood.
“We need to get going.” His tone was sharp, his words gruff, but he didn’t care. Her words had thrown him off balance.
As he strode across the crystal to retrieve his clothes, the lights gleamed beneath his feet. With swift, frustrated movements, he jerked his pants up his wet legs then returned to the pool to rinse out his sweaty T-shirt.
Tarrys was kneeling before the far wall, her palms pressed against twin circles of glowing yellow.
“Oh Esria, please provide the carnasserie bush we need to cure Charlie’s poison. I beg you, provide.” Water droplets ran from her wet hair down her straight, slender back, glistening in the crystal’s glow.
Something warm and painful stabbed him in the chest as he watched her kneeling in supplication, praying to this world he didn’t understand, for him.
She glanced over her shoulder, looking around, then stood on a sigh. “I didn’t really think it would work.” Picking up her gown, she walked to the pool. “The land provides sustenance. Food, water. Nothing so specific as a carnasserie bush, but it was worth a try.”
Tarrys dunked her gown in the water, rinsing it out on the far side of the pool from where he did the same with his shirt. He struggled to keep his gaze on his task and off her seductively bare curves even as he tried to forget the L-word she’d uttered.
“How are you feeling?” Her eyes, when she glanced at him were warm with concern, but revealed nothing of the emotion she claimed to feel. Maybe she thought I love you was the proper way to end lovemaking for a human. The thought almost eased his mind.
“I’m fine.” He frowned, thinking about it. “I actually feel better than I have for days.”
She smiled gently. “I’m glad. I wonder if my newfound power is helping you, too.”
He followed her train of thought. “You think you might have healed me?” With the sex? Marvin Gaye’s voice floated through his mind. Sexual healing.
Tarrys shrugged. “I don’t know. It might not last.” She pulled her gown from the water and wrung it out, twisting the fabric into a pretzel.
Her gaze snapped to his, suddenly, and she leaped to her feet in a single graceful move. “The Esri are moving again. I can feel them.”
“We’d better get going, then.”
They dressed quickly, Charlie donning his gear, Esri tunic and cloak, as before.
“Are we going through the mountain?” Tarrys asked as her wet gown settled around her ankles.
He pulled on his tunic. “The only alternative is to go back the way we came. To fight the Esri.”
“Yes.”
He sighed, itching for that fight and knowing it could only end badly. Now that Tarrys was able to call food and water, and couldn’t be controlled, there was no choice. Even if the poison eventually got him, she’d be able to get away.
“We’ll go through the mountain.”
Tarrys nodded. “I agree.”
As they ducked back into the dark tunnel, Charlie hoped they weren’t making a grave mistake.
Tarrys glanced back to where Charlie followed in the narrowing tunnel. The low ceiling forced him to bend even lower than before, but he saw her turn and looked up, meeting her gaze with warm, if somewhat guarded, eyes. Love for him welled up inside her, overwhelming and confusing.
So much had happened in the last hours. Too much to wrap her mind around. Not only had she managed to break free of an Esri’s control for the first time in her life, but she’d also inexplicably acquired power she’d never had.
Yet the thing that sang clearest in her heart was that Charlie had made love to her and that mating had been like nothing she’d ever experienced. With him, she’d found a closeness she’d never imagined possible. A beautiful sharing of passion and pleasure, of bodies and emotions.
She felt as if she’d seen into his heart. His soul.
But he didn’t seem to feel the same.
As the climax had come over her, she’d felt him pulling back. Not physically, but emotionally. As if he hadn’t meant to get that close. Hadn’t wanted to.
Perhaps this was typical with humans. Sharing their bodies with another was not something they did easily or simply. She knew that. Perhaps this awkwardness after
was usual. Or perhaps she’d somehow displeased him, though she couldn’t imagine how that could be. He’d reached his pleasure, she was certain of that. And he was feeling better. They’d been traveling for hours since they made love and he had yet to show any sign of weakening. He didn’t even seem to be overly thirsty.
A bright and newfound optimism lived inside her, now. A hope that with her sudden power she might actually be able to get Charlie through Esria safely.
That’s all she wanted, all she’d ever wanted. Marceils knew better than to dream.
“Where are the Esri?” Charlie asked, not bothering to crane his neck to try to meet her gaze. She couldn’t imagine how uncomfortable he must be, forced to travel so many miles in such a position.
“A little more than half a mile back,” Tarrys told him. “They’re moving faster than we are, now.”
“Crap. Then I’d better step it up. Let me lead for a while since I’m the one slowing us down.”
Charlie gripped her shoulders and edged past her, careful not to touch her any more than he had to. As if touching her was no longer pleasant. Tarrys tried not to care.
Moments later, as they came around the next curve, Charlie stopped so suddenly she ran into him.
“Dammit to hell,” he muttered.
“What’s the matter?” Tarrys held on to his hips and peered around him.
The sight that met her gaze sent her heart plummeting. A dead end. And they hadn’t passed another fork in the road for miles.
The Esri were behind them. There was no escape.
Charlie turned to face her, then sank to his knees and arched his back, his expression grim as he met her gaze.
Tarrys raked her hair back from her face. “What are we going to do?”
His mouth compressed. “There’s only one thing we can do, now. Prepare to fight.”
Chapter 16
Charlie knelt on the crystal floor as he faced the dark tunnel from which they’d just come. There was no sign of light—no sign of the Esri. Yet. But they were coming. And there was no escape.
A Warrior's Desire (Harlequin Nocturne) Page 11