"Why did he want to meet me?" I asked as I grabbed the soap.
"He thinks you are the O'Baarni. He referred to you several times by that name. We didn't correct him. Are you sure you are not the O'Baarni?" she had begun to bounce her crossed leg, and her heart rate was picking up slightly. I didn't answer for a while.
"Kaiyer?" she asked after a dozen seconds. She turned to look over her shoulder at me out of the corner of her eye. When she saw me watching her back she quickly turned around.
"No. I am not the O'Baarni. In my memories no one ever called me by that name. I was in his army. A general. I've told you this already."
"I know. I know. He just insisted that you were the O'Baarni. Also . . ." She looked over her shoulder again.
"You can turn around to speak with me. I'm in the bathtub. Haven't you ever seen a man naked?" I asked teasingly.
"Maybe," Nadea sighed in defeat. "I really shouldn't be here," she said as she spun her chair around to face me. Her arms and legs were still crossed and she avoided eye contact with me, looking everywhere but the tub.
"I agree. You should be in the bathtub here with me. It is very pleasant." I swirled my hand in the hot water, watching the surface grow oily as the grime of the day came off of my skin.
"I'm not getting in that bath with you," she said confidently.
"Suit yourself. It feels great." I leaned back into the water with a smile and sighed. I remembered I was supposed to be cleaning myself so I took the bar of soap and lathered it in my hands and over my chest. The army used to bathe in rivers naked in front of one another. Nadea's culture seemed very uptight about hygiene.
I reclined more in the tub and closed my eyes again, thinking about the beautiful woman sitting a few feet from me. I was persuasive. She was uncomfortable being around me, but was in the room with me now. Within a few minutes she would be in this tub with me, then she would be in the bed with me, and then she would be eating breakfast with me tomorrow morning. I shuddered as I imagined devouring her pert breasts with my mouth and running my hands over the smooth skin of her body. It would be a perfect way to end a productive day of exercising. "Please continue,” I said to her with a hungry smile.
"When you speak about your past, when you told us today about what happened with the humans, you spoke of the army as if it were yours. ‘My troops,’ and so on. And you mentioned them looking to you for advice. You made important decisions. If you were not the leader, you must have at least been very high-ranking and powerful. Do you remember meeting the O’Baarni?”
“I will have to wait until I remember more before I can answer that.” She huffed a little, not happy with the answer. I understood her frustration, but I didn’t know how to bring my memories back, they seemed to be triggered at random during the day or when I slept. I was confident that in time I would recall more, and while I wanted to be able to help them, to know more about myself, another part of me did not wish to remember everything. While it was maddening living between my past and my present, unsure who I was or what I had been, I feared there were memories I had submerged in my subconscious for a reason.
“The king and the duke thought it would be a bad idea to have you meet him, considering what happened to the last Ancients you met." She was looking at me now, at my face alone. Hers was serious, her eyes firm and hard, warning me not to persist in my attempts at seduction. The soft light of the candles in the room made her skin glow with a coppery sheen. Her heart was still beating faster than normal.
"They were probably right," I nodded in agreement.
I washed my face and my hair with the soap and then worked on my feet. She was trying not to watch but I saw her eyes drift toward me. I didn't understand why she was having such a problem being in the same room as me.
"Nadea?" I asked softly.
"What?" she snapped back.
"What else did the envoy say?" she was hiding something.
"He talked to the king about negotiating a truce." She looked at me and quickly looked away. Her heart fluttered again. She was stalling. For some reason she didn't want to talk to me about the envoy. Yet here she was, alone in my room with me.
"If you aren't going to talk to me about the envoy I can think of other things we can be doing to occupy ourselves," I said with an eyebrow raised. She looked at me and flushed.
"I bet you can. I should really be going." She looked into the other room and continued to bounce her crossed leg and booted foot. But she didn’t get up from her chair. She was definitely going to be making love to me tonight. I was surprised at how little I seemed to care about the Ancient envoy.
"Take off those clothes and get in here with me. I need someone to wash my back," I said as I pointed behind me.
"No! I already told you that I am not getting in there with you. Are you daft?" She frowned at me disapprovingly but she wasn't looking away anymore.
"I think you are daft for not coming in here with me. You want to." I spun one of the handles on the side of the bath and more hot water began to trickle into the tub.
"Oh? What makes you think so?" She raised her eyebrow. She had uncrossed her arms and was stroking her ponytail absently. The foot of her crossed leg did slow circles.
"Because you keep stalling instead of speaking about this envoy. You could have just said what you were going to say about him and then departed." She knitted her brows and scowled at me. It made her look even more beautiful as I imagined the look she would have on her face tonight when I first entered her.
"I am getting to it!" She crossed her arms again and tossed her thick dark mane back behind her. "Are you always so presumptuous? It makes it very difficult to be around you."
"I don't understand what that word means. Does it mean that you should come into the bathtub with me? Because it should," I said to her with a smile. She looked so flabbergasted that I almost laughed.
"No! It means that you have no regard for appropriate behavior and you lack any sort of modesty!"
Then I did laugh lightly, which made her angrier.
"I don't understand what I am doing wrong. You seem to believe that it is inappropriate for me to want us to be lovers."
"It isn't just that. You want to fuck anything that has breasts." She looked away with her nose upturned a bit.
"If this really was a problem would you still be in this room with me?”
"The problem is that I don't want to be a notch on your bedpost. I'm not your whore, whose sole purpose is to please you until you find another bitch that you want more. I will make love when I choose, to someone I love, not some horny bastard who feels entitled to using women for his own pleasure." She was glaring at me now. Her brown eyes flashed dangerously in the candle light. The water was almost to the top of the tub, I pulled the stopper on the drain so some of the soapy lake in which I was immersed could escape.
"I know I have upset you and I don't mean to do so. I really don't understand. Please be patient with me. What is a notch on a bedpost? What is a whore?"
"You don't know what a whore is?" I shook my head. "Paug probably didn't translate the word for you. It is someone who takes money in exchange for sex." I frowned. "Notch on a bed post means I don't want to be one of your many sexual conquests."
"I don't have a word in my language for whore," I said plainly. "We were slaves, often women would be taken by their male Elven masters because it pleased them to torture and rape. I think that was what happened with my mother. My father never spoke of how she died. He had only said that she was beautiful, and that he wished she was alive to see my brother and I grow up."
"I'm sorry," Nadea said with sympathy. "What about when you were in the O'Baarni's army? They normally have women that the soldiers can use."
"No. Half of the troops were women. If two people wanted to be together they could find comfort in each other. There was no shame in it, just as people were not ashamed of their need to eat or sleep. We never knew when we were going to live or die, so release and pleasure were high on
our list of priorities. After we trained and took care of our duties of course." I recalled Shlara.
"Did people ever become married? Were you? Sorry, I don't mean to pry. It is very interesting." Her eyes met mine.
"No. No one married. We didn't have a word for it. People would have multiple lovers. Even ones of the same sex if they felt like it. How could you commit to someone when you or they might be killed in battle the next day?" Her face looked horrified.
"What about children?"
"Some women bore children. Sometimes their lovers would help raise them. Sometimes they wouldn't. It was decided between the parents. Other women chose to use herbs to prevent pregnancy. A few warriors only chose lovers of their own sex, maybe so they wouldn't have to worry about it. We had systems in place so that the young would be assimilated into the army. They would be trained, taught, and put into the war machine where they would have the best purpose."
"That's awful! Children in the O'Baarni's army? This man sounds like a monster." Nadea's voice cracked.
"What else could they do? We were all born as either slaves in bondage or slaves fighting for our freedom. There was nowhere else for the children to go, no other way to live. You have this whole world here outside the pending war. You send soldiers to fight while your people wait and live their lives. There was no other world for us. There was only the war. There was no home to return to or defend. We were building a new world for ourselves, and the children had no choice but to join the fight, it was for them, for their future, so they would be free from slavery. The O'Baarni didn't do this to our children. The Elvens did." I slid back into the tub and closed my eyes.
She was quiet for a few minutes.
"Did you . . . have many lovers?" she asked. Her heart thumped in her chest and indicated to me how important the question was.
"I don't remember any besides one. My position made it difficult to take lovers."
"Your position as a general?" I nodded without opening my eyes. A few more minutes passed. My muscles were completely relaxed now. "Your . . . lover. Was she beautiful? What did she do in the O'Baarni's army?" I opened my eyes and met Nadea's. She was biting her lower lip. I remembered Iolarathe's deadly smile, the sounds of her moans when I was inside of her, the sharp, surprising but pleasurable sensation of her claw-like nails ripping the skin from my back.
"Yes she was beautiful, almost as beautiful as you. It was a long time ago, and it does not matter." She nodded and I could hear her breathe out carefully. It was the answer that she wanted and it was true. No one was more beautiful to me than her, especially not a faded memory. "The point is that I think of sex a little differently than you. I don't mean to upset you. I don't have any need to conquer or possess you. I just want to please you and be pleased by you. If you don't want to, I understand, but you are in the room right now and you aren't talking about the envoy.” My eyes met hers again and I could see her look down into the tub and back up to my eyes, then my lips. Her hands began to stroke her hair and her crossed foot started to do quick, small circles.
Our eyes stayed locked for what seemed like a few minutes. Her heart began to beat faster and I watched her chest rise and fall with quickened breath. Finally, she spoke softly.
"The envoy said that if we surrender you, or if you surrendered to them, they would form a truce with Nia and our allies. They have sent envoys to all the other countries to tell them about the proposed offer. The king is getting tremendous pressure to hand you over to these Ancients. It's completely ridiculous." She sighed.
I sat back into the tub again and considered.
"It is a good move for the Ancients to make. Maybe they have convinced the other leaders that they will truly be left alone if I am surrendered. The Ancients will kill me and they will be free to destroy the rest of you."
"I know. I know. I have been explaining that to the king. He agrees with me as well. Hell, even Maerc thinks it is a fictitious proposal and is putting more worth into you now. There are envoys from all of our allies demanding you to be turned over though." She lifted up the hem of her left pant leg and exposed her boot. It climbed high up her calf. With a practiced move she undid the knot at the top and began to loosen the leather laces.
"The truce isn't going to do anything. A piece of fucking paper won't stop their arrows or their magic," she said angrily as she grabbed the heel of the boot and slid it off of her foot. There was a thin silk sock that remained on her foot, but that too shortly joined the boot on the stone tile next to her chair. Then she reached for the knot on her other boot. Her eyes avoided mine as she went at her task.
"What do you think will happen?" I said as I watched her take off her boots with fascination. My skin tingled with anticipation. The water was probably too hot for her so I turned the small wheel that added more cold water to the mixture.
"I honestly don't know. The king will stand firm, but Nanos argues with him daily and has other noble supporters." Her other boot and sock joined their mates on the floor. Her bare feet had high, beautiful arches and I wanted to rub them. She carefully stood up out of her chair and faced down to me. Her heart was beating fast and her cheeks were as red as I had ever seen them. Her firm and perfectly round breasts pushed up against the smooth fabric of her blouse and I could see her erect nipples push out into the material.
"Turn around," she said as she waved her pointer finger in a circle motion toward me.
"Why?" I raised my eyebrow
"I am going to take off my clothes."
"And?"
"I don't want you to see me," she sighed in frustration.
"I am going to see you naked in the bath when you get in here with me. Then I am going to see you naked in my bed when we make love for the rest of the night." She gasped and I couldn't stop from grinning. She had a very odd sense of modesty, but now there was no question for her as to what would be happening if she got into the water with me.
"I can't believe I am doing this." She bit her lip and looked down at me. Her eyes were on fire with lust as she slowly began to unbutton the front of the shirt. She removed her top, exposing the breasts I had been fantasizing about since our first campfire conversation. Her stomach and chest were the same light tan as her face. Her breasts almost didn't need the support of her blouse; they stood firm and high on her chest. Below them were vertical rows of perfect abdominal muscles that I was going to be running my tongue down and exploring within the half hour.
She undid her belt and pulled down her leather pants with a slow wiggle. Her eyes still locked with mine, judging my reaction to her naked body. Like her upper body, her legs were composed of long, toned muscles that were only acquired through disciplined exercise. I had seen Shlara naked several times and the similarities between her and Nadea's body compelled my erection to become even harder. She had a small strip of dark hair above her entrance that she tried to cover up with her hand. She seemed to realize that it was a futile attempt and she moved her hand away so that I could see.
Her heart was beating even faster now, her breathing was almost labored. I drank in the sight of her lithe form and then looked into her face. She was still biting her lower lip and her eyes were excited.
"Oh Nadea," I purred from my spot in the warm water. "How can I have any worries with your perfect body in front of me? Come in here so I can taste you." She let out another gasp of pleasure and took the two steps required to reach the side of the bathtub.
Her left leg lifted up to get over the edge of the tub and I got a perfect look at the moist pink entrance that led into her body, then her pointed toe broke the top of the water.
"Oh shit! It's hot!" she said, startled.
"Go slow," I reassured her as she put the rest of her foot and then leg in with a hiss. My right hand came up and stroked the flank of her thigh. She gasped again as my fingers danced across the smooth skin.
"It's really fucking hot. Damn. How do you stand it?" Instead of answering I pressed my lips and tongue against the skin of her upper leg, j
ust slightly under her hip bone. For a few seconds she seemed at a loss for what she should be doing other than moaning. Finally, her left hand went to the back of my head and her fingers rubbed against my scalp through my hair as my tongue licked in slow circles across her sensitive skin.
"That feels really good Kaiyer," she whispered between labored breaths.
"I haven't even started yet." I gave her a small chuckle and was rewarded by another soft moan of anticipation from her throat. "Let me turn on more cold water," I said as I reached over with the hand that had been stroking her leg. I spun the cold wheel more and tightened up the hot wheel.
With a hiss of displeasure, she submerged her right leg up to her mid-thigh in the hot water but didn't sit down into it. I slid forward and wrapped my hands around the back of her legs and grabbed firmly onto them. Then I continued to run my mouth over the smooth, taut skin of her thighs for a few minutes.
"Hum mm. Okay. This was a good idea," she muttered under her breath. I chuckled again in between licking and kissing her legs. She was holding them tightly together so I didn't have access to the lips around her entrance, but it would only be a matter of time before I would get there. I would savor the road to my final destination.
My hands moved up to the back of her legs and cupped her muscular buttocks. My lips climbed higher on her hips as I began to rub the muscles gently. She let out another long sigh.
"Kaiyer," she whispered while she ran both of her hands through my hair. "Let me get in the rest of the way."
I moved back to my end of the tub and watched her slowly lower her slender form in the pool. The water came up to her breasts and they seemed to try and float on the surface. Her arms hung along the edges of the rim on the tub as she leaned back against the far wall. Her legs stretched out almost the length of the space and lay on top of mine.
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