by Aimee Moore
When we'd all eaten our fill, we stood and stretched. Only my backside was a little damp still from my bath, otherwise I was warm and dry, albeit a tiny bit sore from my battlefield explosion.
“Allow me,” Mindrik said. With a few waves of his hand, water grew out of the air and converged on the fire, putting it out with a loud hiss and a large cloud of steam.
“It must be draining to make so much water,” I said.
“Seraphine, you have much to learn. I don't make water any more than light benders make colors. There is always water in the air to some degree, and I find it. It's as simple as that.”
The sun was retiring over the hills now, orange light piercing the smoke through the skeletal trunks of the pines. I chewed on what a “light bender” might be as we crunched and swished over the pine needles to the spot Dal had found for sleeping. It was a large overhang rock, set near the shore of the lake, making a small cave. We had to wade through the water to get under the rock, but once we were under it, there was adequate shelter for the three of us in the dry dirt.
Mindrik bundled himself in his fancy robes, like always, and prepared for sleep. I glanced at Dal, who was not making eye contact as he found a place to sleep. Without me. I began to settle in the cool dirt, wondering how long until my body would be wracked by tremors of cold.
Sleep eluded me as I thought of the wounded look on Dal's face at my mention of his son. I tossed around in search of comfort, but found only shivers and guilt in the night. The moon had waned to almost a sliver now, and there was little light to see by inside the cave.
Strange things moved through the darkness atop our rock, none too stealthy in the pine needles. More than once, a quiet growl met my ears, and chills that had nothing to do with the cold shot into my belly. My teeth began to clatter in time as the cold set upon me like Mindrik's water had set upon the fire earlier.
My heart began to pound when I heard Dal shift in the darkness. He came closer. His heat was at my back. My tremors intensified at his heat while hard goosebumps pricked my taut flesh with their intensity.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
Chapter 9
Stars in the Moonlight
My teeth chattered as Dal's body heat sent a shock through me.
“You are loud when cold,” he whispered in my ear.
I smiled. Dal's chest expanded and deflated against my back with his easy breathing. His thick arm lay over me like always.
“I'm sorry about what I said earlier. About your son,” I whispered. “I didn't mean to be cruel.”
There was silence for a time before Dal's deep voice brushed over my ear. “You are not at fault. Now sleep.”
For a moment, it almost seemed as if Dal's massive arm gave me a light squeeze.
“Dal?”
“Hmm.”
“Where do your dreams reside?”
“You wish to know if my dreams sail on an ocean of mystery, like yours.”
I turned in Dal's arms to lay on my back, and his arm lay over my belly and curled up my side. Our faces were inches apart, his male scent surrounding me, his warm breath fanning my neck. I gave a small nod.
Dal was quiet for a moment before whispering to me. “I have seen many worlds, Sera. Some lush and green, some barren and brown, and some, dark and wet. Of all the places I've been, my dreams reside not in a place of mystery, for wanderlust is not in my blood. My dreams reside in a simple place, far removed from troubles. Probably back home.” Dal gestured skyward with his chin.
I gave a quiet laugh.
“That amuses you.”
“Well, yes. A warrior who wishes not to be a warrior. A chieftain, no less.”
Dal gave a short noise of understanding in his throat. “I did not wish to be chief of my clan. I was chosen at the death of another. For the honor of my family, and the good of the people I was to lead, I accepted. Their deaths are on my conscience now. I should have disgraced my family and refused.”
“Did they thrive under your leadership?” I asked in a quiet voice.
“Yes.”
“Better that they died under your rule than the rule of someone like Patroma. If it's the Kraw way, then they were going to die at some point when coming here.”
“You are unusual, Sera,” Dal whispered.
“What do you mean?” I could almost make out the outline of his lips in the darkness.
“Your walls are coming down.”
There was quiet between us as a strange warmth crept into my blood. I remembered that moment by the fire earlier when Dal had commented on Mindrik thinking me beautiful.
“Do you think I'm beautiful, Dal?” I was afraid to breathe after the words escaped my lips, and the wordless darkness seemed to span for an eternity. I regretted the question as much as I wanted to know the answer, and warmth crept into my cheeks as I realized what a silly question it was.
“Painfully so,” Dal's whisper tumbled to me at last.
My heart thrummed with pleasure at the unexpected honesty in Dal's words. “Even though I am just a worm?”
“You have never been a worm, Sera.”
A sudden braveness overtook me, and I crossed a line I had been afraid to cross before now, driven by the gentle throbbing of my blood, the catch in my chest, the quivering excitement in my bones. Something under my skin told me what to do, and I let curiosity provoke me. I raised my hand and traced my index finger over Dal's soft lips. My breath caught the contact, at this large and wild male letting me touch him as I pleased. I pulled my hand back when Dal's warm breath brushed over it.
“Do not fear me,” Dal whispered between us.
I shifted to my side to face Dal, and his arm pulled me into him, pressing my small body into his bulk. I put both hands on his face, dizzy with what I was about to do, and leaned in to brush a feather soft kiss on Dal's lips. He was still as I pulled away, and fear and embarrassment tugged at me as I wondered if he didn’t like a human's affections.
My worries were squelched as Dal's massive hand came to the nape of my neck and pulled me closer, and all at once fear lanced through me as the reality of this hulking beast of a warrior handling me in an intimate way slammed into me. My breath caught, and Dal stilled, letting a long breath out of his nose as he released me and gave me space.
“Kiss me again, Seraphine,” Dal whispered against me.
Desire warred with fear as logic got caught in the middle. Dal had never done anything dishonorable to me. Even now, when he could take me as he pleased and no one for miles would hear me scream, he was rigid with control. Everything about him was familiar to me. His smell, the rhythm of his breathing, the deep timbre of his voice. I wanted to kiss him again, as I'd never kissed anyone before, and I wanted to see what became of this strange and exhilarating warmth thrumming through my blood.
I placed my hands on Dal's chest and pressed my lips to his, a sweet longing rising up within me as Dal kissed me back. He was gentle, my guardian; and soft, but firm. And then something new happened, something I had not anticipated. Dal's tongue tasted my lip, and I pulled back, remembering what the Kraw female had done to him.
“Trust,” Dal murmured at me.
I closed my eyes and offered myself again, and this time Dal's tongue brushed mine in a soft and thrilling intrusion. My body lit up like fireflies on a hot night, dancing with the primal urge for something more. This was exquisite, and I reveled in this new and thrilling kiss as he tasted me. Dal let off a soft groan as he shifted, edging a knee between my legs, settling his weight between my thighs and on top of me.
I remembered the Kraw that had pressed his hard length against me and tensed, and Dal took my tender lip in his teeth and gave a gentle suck, sending shocks of confusing pleasure through me.
He whispered into my ear. “I will stop if you ask.”
I looked over at Mindrik, who in the dim light reflecting off the lake, appeared to have his back toward us, just as he had when we settled for sleep. I lifted my lashes up to Dal, wishing for more light so tha
t I could see the soft brush of green over the planes of gray in his eyes. I wanted to see the warmth in this warrior's eyes as surely as I felt it in his touch. I reached up to play with the strong, silken strands of his hair, falling about his face.
If someone had told me months ago on the day I had been captured that I would give myself to a Kraw warrior, I would have recoiled at the nightmare. But this was no nightmare. The tenderness and trust here spanned the crumbling mountains and the icy plains of my world. I could die tomorrow. I wanted to live now.
“Kiss me, Dal.”
When his lips met mine again, there was a new sensation within the heady rush of pleasure. The rush of leaping into the unknown. There's no going back.
His tongue brushed mine with a tenderness I didn't think Kraw men could possess, and it took my breath away to be treated so fragile and important by this man. Dal's lips began to trail down my jaw and neck, leaving searing bites or sucks now and then that throbbed with pleasure. I plunged my hands into his hair and urged him to do as he wished. And when the brush of cold air met my belly, I didn't care that Dal was removing my shirt with firm, rough hands. I didn't care that I was baring it all to someone, because it was Dal, and he had seen it all before. And he would only want to see it again if he liked it.
Dal lifted my head with controlled strength, pushing the sack shirt over me and discarding it. My skin warmed as I knew he was looking over me.
“There was never enough mud,” Dal murmured into the space between us.
I gave a soft laugh, and then his mouth was on my skin again. My eyes fluttered closed as the trail of hot nibbles and bites left cool goosebumps in their wake. Part of me feared that at any moment he would do something that perhaps my species wasn't built to endure, and then part of me was hot and throbbing with anticipation for things I had no name for.
I trusted him. When the heat of his mouth found my breast, jolts of pleasure shot through me, making me gasp. Dal's tongue was a weapon of its own, and the gentle throbbing pleasure he brought to each nipple was an untold torture.
A pressure was building within me, a throbbing need for something more. I had no idea of what that something was, and it scared and excited me. I wanted it now, but Dal was in no hurry, trailing more gentle bites and sucks up my body and finding my mouth again. This time I was not such a passive player when our lips met, I was demanding, breathing heavy into Dal's mouth as my tongue pushed at his. A soft growl came from his throat in response.
Dal's hot hand was on my stomach then, spanning my entire middle, moving down to my skirt. Somewhere far away in my mind, maybe on one of the crumbling rocks falling into the skies, a little voice was telling me that this was a very big deal.
It fell away when Dal's rough hand found my hot heat and new waves of pleasure took over my thoughts. Dal's kiss was insisting, torturing, tasting, drinking in every soft moan and every gasp I gave. Something within me was climbing a mountain of its own, and it was such a euphoric rush of pleasure that I lost all sense of time and reality as Dal brought me there.
Dal left me then, and I let off a small moan of loss. A brush of fabric sounded through the still space, and a moment later Dal's hot hands found my legs, pushing my skirt up, pausing to assault my sensitive skin with hot bites that sent searing warmth up my legs. By the time he was laying between my thighs, I was lost again in his kiss, taking delight in the hot, velvety heat rubbing at my entrance as Dal nibbled at my lower lip. This should have been frightening, but it wasn't. It was thrilling.
When Dal stopped, I took a shuddering breath, trying to see into the eyes of the man I trusted completely.
“There will be pain,” Dal whispered.
I furrowed my brow up at the shape of Dal's face in the darkness. “You wouldn't hurt me.” I whispered.
A tense sigh brushed my cheek. “It cannot be avoided the first time, Seraphine.”
What kind of pain? Was this one of those cross-species things that I was afraid of? How long would it last? I knew one thing for certain: I trusted Dal with my life. I took a deep breath and nodded.
Dal lowered his mouth to mine again, this time assaulting me with a kiss that was hot and demanding. I matched him, becoming lost in the senses he rained upon me until that curious, hot heat was at my entrance again. This time it did not stop as it stretched within me, and when the stinging pain began, I gasped. Dal gave one swift thrust and I bit down on Dal's lip as the pain shot through me. He growled low in his throat, and whether it was from pain or pleasure, I couldn't fathom, but my own pain was searing.
“I am sorry,” Dal whispered.
Already, the pain was ebbing away, albeit slowly. “Don't stop,” I whispered back, wanting to forge ahead with this new experience.
And he didn't. New sensations filled me as Dal moved, and the foreign strokes of the length within me became strokes of pleasure. But I wasn't alone in this incredible onslaught of sensations, Dal's breathing had changed with mine as he moved, his kiss became hotter, wetter, his tongue plunging deeper, and I knew without being told that he was experiencing the same spiraling tension that I was.
With a shuddering breath Dal pulled my leg up against him and sank deeper into me, and I gasped at the sensation that was somewhere between pain and exquisite ecstasy. The pressure mounted, and I had no idea what would happen when it finally released, but I abandoned myself to it, letting Dal see this unknown part of me. Dal seemed to know exactly what would get me to the peak of pleasure, as he changed his rhythm just when I thought I'd die from climbing this mountain and never reaching the top.
And then I was there, free falling into an explosion of pleasure that I didn't think was possible. It consumed me like flame, and soft little moans escaped into Dal's mouth as my body shuddered again and again. Wave after wave of pulsing pleasure took me for what seemed like forever, and as it finally died down, Dal gave one last thrust and surrendered himself to his own climax. And in that moment, he had never been so beautiful to me.
Hot and spent, both of us lay there for a time, letting our breathing calm. My warrior was gentle with me, until the very end. When he left me, the soreness that ripped through me was enough to make me groan. Dal helped me right my skirt and pull my sack shirt back on in the darkness before laying behind me, holding me closer than he had before.
I stole a glance at Mindrik, who still had not moved, and silently thanked his university lifestyle for making him the world's heaviest sleeper. A wholesome sensation of oneness with the man behind me took over, and I had never felt more safe, relaxed, and at peace than I did in this moment. Despite the throbbing pain between my legs, and despite being in a cold cave in the wilderness.
“How long will I hurt?” I whispered to him.
Dal gave a soft noise of thought. “I cannot say for humans. Kraw recover quickly. I am sorry.”
“It was worth it,” I whispered. A gentle bite pulled at my neck, and I shivered.
“You learn fast,” he whispered. “There are many more ways to make it worth it.”
Already, a delicious heat curled within me at the thought. I lay in Dal's warm arms, thoughts racing through my mind. There was little regret, much to my surprise. I'd just made love with a Kraw. The enemy of my species. And here I was lying in his arms, hoping for more.
The lamb laying with the lion.
For some reason, what Dal and I shared seemed outside the sphere of my world's troubles. Untouchable. Or maybe that was just the lightness of my body floating away to sleep, whether I wanted it to or not. Questions fled me. Thought fluttered away. I let off a heavy sigh.
“Goodnight, Dal.” I whispered.
A soft rumble of a laugh met my ear. “Good night, Seraphine.”
✽✽✽
A bright light pierced my soft dream, bringing me away from the joyous laughter of those who now existed only in my mind. I slit my eyes open and dragged my hand in front of my face. The light from the morning sun was reflecting off the lake, shining into the cave as if glancing off a
mirror. I shifted, getting my bearings, and realized that the coldness at my back was only because of Dal's absence.
I sat up and stretched, wincing at the piercing soreness between my legs. Glancing at Mindrik, who was still asleep, I stood with ginger care and waded out into the morning light. Peering around the corner of the rock that had housed us, I spied Dal bathing in the lake.
The sight made my knees go weak. I'd seen his bare chest before, that was just part of being around Dal. But the rest of him? I flushed with embarrassment, yet I couldn't look away. Every part of Dal was firm and smooth. The tattoos went all the way down his buttocks, continuing down his legs. The ones in the front, when he turned my direction, skirted his manhood, but continued on as well.
Not that my gaze followed past the glaringly indecent part. It was the first time I had seen a fully naked man before, and I curled my toes in the lake muck as warmth flooded me. I raised my eyes to see Dal watching me. Humans expected manners, coyness, privacy. But Dal wasn't human, and there was no trace of embarrassment or irritation on his face.
Taking careful, quiet steps in the water, Dal approached me. Without a word, he took my hand, and led me into the water, away from the cave. I followed, amazed at the heat our touch produced, astounded at how much I wanted a repeat of last night, and irritated at the thousands of questions running through my mind.
When the water was waist deep, Dal turned to me, and I finally got to see the warm spring in his hazel eyes.
“The cool water should help the pain,” he said, lifting my shirt.
“It's not so bad anymore,” I lied.
Dal smiled at me, lifting my chin and turning my face this way and that as his eyes traveled over me. “I have bruised you.”
I furrowed my brow, lifting a hand to my face. “I don't feel any different.”
Dal's large hand came to my neck. “Here.” Then it traveled downward. “And here.”
“I bruised you, too. Look, I bit your lip too hard.” I stepped closer to trace a thumb over the swollen lip.