by Isabel Wroth
Dhega helped her over to the edge of the pool, to the submerged bench that was wonderfully warm beneath her bare butt. He urged her to eat her fill, nudging the choicest pieces of juicy fruit and tender vegetables cooked in the most delicious spices toward her.
The silence was comfortable, but the way Dhega lounged and followed her every move, from the items she chose off the tray, to the way she put it to her lips and ate, was electrifying.
She found herself lingering as she licked her fingers, her lips, chewing slower just to watch his lashes lower to sensual slits, his nostrils flaring with hunger that had nothing to do with food.
"When we're alone, I want to see you," he commanded softly.
Jalia tilted her head to convey her confusion, watching as he reached out and coiled a lock of blue hair around his finger.
"You can hide your true face from everyone if you choose, but not from me."
Jalia bit into her lip as actual shyness swept over her. She felt the gentle tingling sensation that came with her Luna doing its work, the cobalt skein of her hair turning an ordinary dark brown.
The way Dhega looked at her made her feel anything but ordinary. His deep rumble raised goosebumps on her flesh,
"Beautiful."
Jalia followed the gentle pull he gave her hair, the water caressing her every bit as sensually as he did. Up into his lap she went, straddling his thighs, her palms finding a home at his shoulders.
She loved the connection that continued to grow between them. How easy it was for her to relax with him. She could feel the hard press of his cock against the cushion of her belly, but he didn't make a move to do anything about his need.
Dhega just held her, his palms stroking up and down her back, squeezing the cheeks of her butt with a deep sound of oh so male appreciation that had her laughing.
"May I ask you something?" she broached, wanting to get her questions out of the way before she lost herself to the sensual spell of his touch.
"Anything."
"Why does Antehe believe you turned her sons against her?"
The heat vanished from Dhega's dark eyes with a grimace of distaste, but he didn't push her away.
He turned to put his back against the ledge and kept her astride him, staring sightlessly at her throat.
"You sound as though you don't believe her."
"I believe she thinks you're responsible, but unless she was a horrible mother...sons don't just turn away. There was a reason, and I bet it had very little to do with you."
Dhega's lips twitched, a little life coming back to his expression.
"It had everything to do with me, but not in the way Antehe no doubt made it sound."
Jalia waited patiently for him to continue, sinking her hands deeper into his pelt of hair, finding the tight muscles of his neck to pull and knead. He made a low murmur of enjoyment, his lashes falling to half-mast.
"She and Persis raised their sons to be good men. To value justice and to honor our traditions.
“I do not doubt if either of them had wished to run the Nine and survived the Red, Minos would have significantly benefited under their rule.
“For reasons they will not discuss, they have chosen not to run the labyrinths at all.
"They were there when Persis denied me my right to Antaeus, brushing aside my survival of the Nine like it was of no consequence.
“Nivir was the first to speak out, to remind his father the purpose of the labyrinths was to give any the right to rise. Persis silenced him, and Zavir when he tried also.
"They are only a few years younger than I am, but before the entire assembly Antehe told them to go to their rooms like babes, and not to argue with their father.
“In the next breath, I challenged Persis, and both Nivir and Zavir left their parent's side to stand with me.
“Their support came at a great cost to them, and it took many years for me to trust them as I do now, but they earned it. I confess they are the closest thing I have to friends."
He let that statement hang there, frowning as though confessing it to himself for the very first time as well. Some of the darkness eased from his gaze as he looked up from her throat to study her reaction.
"I didn't forbid them to see Antehe. They made that decision for themselves. What did she say to you?"
Jalia glossed over the nastier bits, opting to keep it simple.
"She told me she saw the way I looked at you and wanted to know if I was aware of your reputation as a fearsome brute."
Her lover grunted, his fingers clenching on her rear with enough pressure to pull the two halves apart, sending a shocking burst of pleasure through her as the hot water licked between her cheeks and beyond.
"I am a brute."
"Not with me."
"No," he agreed solemnly. "Not with you. Have you eaten your fill?"
"Mm-hm,"
"Good,"
"Dhega!" her little shriek of surprise echoed in the marble chamber.
He'd stood up with one powerful push of his legs, carrying her right up and out of the bath, uncaring that he left a flood of water behind them.
He didn't put her down until she stood beside the ridiculously large bed and sat with her between his spread knees.
It would have been strangely erotic, the way he ran his hands over every inch of her, but the frown on his face made it more of an examination.
Once done with her front, he whipped her around to give her back the same thorough assessment. It took her a moment of confusion to realize what he was doing, and when she did, she utterly melted inside.
"Dhega, this is rather brutish behavior."
He brushed her wet hair over her shoulder, chills racing over her despite the warm wind as the water trickled down her belly.
Jalia stood still and let him look, her lashes fluttering, a delicious shiver caused her to gasp when he pressed a kiss to the center of her back.
He trailed kisses all the way up until he reached her throat, scraping his teeth across her sluggish pulse, biting down gently when she moaned in excitement.
"Perhaps I am a brute with you. I want you, Jalia," he rasped in her ear, "I've wanted you from the moment I saw you."
Dhega gave her no time at all to respond, one big hand cupping her jaw to turn her face up toward his, kissing her with a ferocity that took her breath away.
He held her still with his other hand splayed over her belly, preventing her from turning around, making deep, hungry sounds as they devoured one another.
Jalia tilted her hips back, rubbing herself against his hard, pulsating cock, smiling to herself when he groaned. His hands firmed on her body, both moving to cup her breasts, capturing her nipples between his fingertips, tugging and rolling with the perfect amount of pressure to ensure she made some desperate noises of her own.
Jalia captured his wrist in her hand and pushed, guiding his fingers between her thighs to show him what she wanted.
She reveled in the way he hissed, how his tongue surged forward to mimic the movements of his fingertips. After all of a few minutes, Jalia stopped trying to guide him and let him have his way, shuddering violently when he nipped at her lips and firmly cupped her entire pussy in the palm of his hand.
The possessive growl he fed her was nothing less than a wordless declaration.
This is mine.
She had no objections, especially as the blood began to rush from her extremities to pool there between her thighs.
The pressure built, his demanding touch became a slick seduction, drawing her closer and closer to the release she suddenly needed more than she needed air.
Her heart stuttered moments before her orgasm hit, feeling as though power had been shut down to all her vital systems. A momentary blackout as pressure and pleasure grew and grew, the plunge of his thick fingers inside her and the deliberate rub of his thumb across her clit the violent charge her body needed to revive itself.
The detonation was deep, exploding outward in a rush that made her limbs sl
acken in one second and seize so hard the next it almost hurt.
Feeling boneless, dizzy, she sagged against Dhega, glad he still had the strength to hold her, otherwise she'd have fallen to her knees.
Jalia wasn't sure, but she thought she felt him trembling around her as he urged her forward, helping her stretch out on the bed. His kisses gentled for a moment, his voice thick with satisfaction, but tight with a need of his own.
"I've dreamed of you like this, quivering and weak beneath me," his whisper in her ear sent another shockwave of bliss through her, curling her toes at the way he drug both hands down her back, his teeth nipping at the soft skin over her hip making her eyes roll back.
"On your knees, wet with desire, hungry to be bred," her cry of shock was muffled in the blankets, his gentle hands turning harsh as he cupped her hips and jerked her to her knees, spreading them wide.
She had no warning other than the clench of his fingers on her thighs. A ragged scream tore its way up her throat as he buried his full length inside her in one brutal shove that left stars flashing across her sight.
Her pussy clenched down on the invader, shudders tearing through her, her nerve endings still so sensitive from her release now began to hum and sing with the promise of more.
The sound she made was somewhere between a sigh and a moan as he withdrew, inch by hard inch, hissing as though he was savoring every second, driving the breath from her with his heavy return.
He maintained that rhythm, easing almost gently from inside her, brutally driving forward hard enough their skin met with erotic slaps.
Her nails dug into the slick sheets beneath her. Her breaths became gasping cries, pleasure became the edge of rapture, building, growing hotter, leaving her desperate for the next strike.
Jalia heard him give a dark growl of amusement when she began to beg, holding her pleasure hostage, refusing to let her have it even as she reached for the ecstatic oblivion she knew would overtake her.
He planted one hand beside her ear, his arm scooped beneath her, between her breasts, reaching up to clasp her shoulder, and gods, finally, he took her faster. Harder. Locked her in place with nowhere to go, giving her no choice other than to accept his carnal savagery.
*****
"How long can you stay?"
Hours later, Jalia looked up from where she lay snuggled against his chest. Her lips swollen from his kisses, slumberous satisfaction glimmering in her eyes, her dark hair a tousled mess that spilled over his arm.
Dhega held her soft hand over his heart, his other arm wrapped around her to keep her pressed to his side, ensuring she remained half sprawled over him.
"I have no intention of leaving."
She gave a soft, thoughtful, 'huh' and pushed up on her elbow, her breasts lifting as she reached up to push her tangled curls from her brow.
She slung her leg over his hips to settle herself on top of him with her arms braced on his chest, her chin in her hand, tilting her head as she studied his face, reaching up to trace the red rings around the base of his horn.
"I thought you said it was too dangerous."
"It is, but every one of my councilors and princes present in the temple saw my reaction to your seizure."
Her gaze softened, a light in her eyes he could only dare hope was adoration. "Tom said you were worried."
"Worried?" he scoffed incredulously, filling his palms with the glorious mounds of her ass, watching her pupils widen with desire. Worried? Ha!
He'd been beside himself with rage, having paced for two days as he watched her, frozen in place as she stared into the pool, lost to its hypnotic powers.
The moment Jalia had once again become aware of her physical self, Dhega had felt it. A fission of sensation, a tickle across his nape that had caused him to leap up from where he'd finally sat, meeting Jalia's gaze in the pool, struck deeply by the fear and uncertainty he saw in her too wide eyes.
The silent way she had looked to him, trusting he would do something to help her? Worried was so tame a word to describe what he'd felt, it was laughable.
The healers had passed their smoking pots of herbs beneath her nose to relax her, but Tom had waved them aside the moment Jalia passed out and pressed a silver tube to her throat.
Moments later Jalia had seized, her back arching, twisting, convulsing on the floor as her eyes rolled back. For the second time, he had been forced to stand helplessly, waiting for someone to tell him whether she would survive.
"I lost control of myself. Threatened your assassin with a bloody death. Threatened the healers with worse. If anyone was confused as to my feelings toward you, they are not now."
A different sort of pleasure brightened Jalia's eyes. Her blunt teeth raked over the full curve of her bottom lip.
"You have feelings toward me?"
It was the gentle shyness in her tone, the hope he saw in her gaze that urged him to answer truthfully, and not simply say yes. "You captured my interest from the very first,” he confessed softly,
“I was curious how someone with no outwardly apparent strength could hope to compete in the brutal contest left to us by our creators, but very quickly
“I came to realize your intelligence more than made up for any perceived lack of physical strength.
"You inspired lust with your playful challenges, amusement in the way you teased the others to keep them focused on underestimating you.
“I am no stranger to females and have met several of alien cultures in the recent months, yet none of them inspired anything other than passing curiosity. When you fell prey to the Labyrinth of Thorns—"
"I didn't 'fall prey,' Cocknballs pushed me and left me for dead." she interrupted with a heated glare.
Dhega couldn't withhold his chuckle, rolling with her, so she was once again beneath him.
"So she did. Your injury and near brush with death forced me to admit there was something about you I had no desire to do without.
“My gut churns each time you so bravely face the terrors of my world. I feel pride when you emerge, relief, happiness. I wouldn't know what to call the combination, but it fills me here," he brushed his lips across her brow, feeling how her breath hitched in response.
"And here," he murmured against the tender flesh between her breasts.
Her fingers burrowed into his pelt, sending delicious shivers down his spine as she held on for dear life,
"That all sounds suspiciously like what humans call, love."
"Love," he repeated, careful of his horns as he turned his cheek to her chest, "I don't know love, but the word feels true."
"Yes, it does," she agreed softly, sliding her arms around his head, holding him close while he allowed himself to be lulled by the sound of her heart beating strong and steady beneath his ear.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"And so, your journey ends here, at Iros."
A chill went through Jalia at Prince Tyro's ominous rumble. He was a scary farking bull, lean as a whip, his horns curved around his face, the points resting just above the corners of his lips.
His eyes were a piercing yellow, hard, intense to look at for too long.
His skin and hair were black as night, with only a splash of white that extended from his eyebrows to his mouth in a perfect V.
As though someone had painted that patch of pale flesh to make him seem as frightening as possible.
He spoke with little to no inflection, the monotonous tone lent to his slightly terrifying aura and made it difficult to stand in his presence and not shiver.
Kalphius had joked with her in the transport, telling her everyone called Tyro the Prince of Darkness, but never to his face. Jalia could understand why.
Iros was not far from Dymigona, but the landscape was so vastly different as to make it seem like they'd traveled a continent away.
Dymigona was glittering deserts and searing sunlight, Iros was a wasteland of rocks and scrub brush, gray and drab, perpetually shadowed by the clouds that formed in the region and filtered
the sunlight, making it appear like the place was always on the verge of a storm.
The palace sat perched high above them on a spear of rock, gleaming like the remnants of a shattered moon.
Entayta's high pitched giggle made the fine hairs on Jalia's nape stand on end. The Nirian elite had left Dymigona a changed woman.
There was a light of madness in her eyes that hadn't been there before, a manic energy buzzing around her which seemed to unnerve everyone around her. Especially her attendants.
Entayta constantly pulled at the tips of her fingers, her head ticked and twitched to the left as she shot furtive looks at her people, tiny yips and hiccups leaving her cracked, dry lips every few seconds.
Whatever had happened to her in the Maze of Two Souls had seriously damaged the lady's calm and continued to freak Jalia out.
No one else seemed particularly disturbed by Entayta's unexpected neurotic behavior, or if they were, they didn't show it outwardly.
Dhega wasn't even the slightest bit concerned, yet he hadn't allowed Jalia to stray very far from his side since leaving the desert yesterday.
Dhega set his fingertips to her waist, silently urging her forward when Tyro turned to lead the way up the narrow, winding path cut between solid rock.
Once inside, he escorted her to the quarters Tyro had selected for her, glancing around inside the beautifully tiled room as though deciding if it was worthy of her before he left her alone with Tom and Croft.
But not without a parting gift.
Dhega lifted his hand, and Nivir appeared carrying a long, slender wooden box with the most beautifully carved lid. Nivir held it out to her with a warm smile, Dhega urging her to open it when she hesitated.
The hinges made not a sound when she lifted the latch, and she nearly fell back a step in shock to see what lay draped across the rich green fabric.
It wasn't merely a necklace, but a cape of golden chains and delicate round gems filled with rainbows no shadow could banish.
It was wide enough to fall across her shoulders, the shape of it meant to cover and cup her breasts like jeweled armor.
"Wear it tonight," Dhega ordered, leaving her standing there with her mouth half open