“Did, uh… you, um… grow up under your parents’ care before training?”
It was the first personal question I’d ever asked him.
And he didn’t hesitate in answering. “I did, my tigress. My father was Dax and my mother was Korwahk, a great beauty. There was tenderness in his cham even though my mother could only give him one son, a difficult delivery rendering it impossible to provide him more. He was happy with the warrior she bestowed on him and he was happy with her.” His hand in my hair fisted when his voice dropped as he shared, “And I watched my father die during a challenge. I was warrior then and attended. As Dahksahna and as was her duty, my mother attended as well. His end marked her, as it did me, and she cared deeply for him. She would have lived a pleasant life as a deposed Dahksahna, the Korwahk people and
myself providing for her but she chose not to live on without him.
She took her own life the day after his body burned on the pyre.”
Oh my God. That was awful.
I felt myself melt into him as my hand lifted to cup his jaw and I whispered, “Lahn.”
His eyes held mine. “I regret she did not live to see her son best the Dax who bested her king. He was a man it was difficult to respect and not simply because he took my father’s head. It was a triumph in more ways than avenging my father to take his.”
“Honey,” I breathed and his hand moved to the side of my neck, his thumb beginning to stroke my jaw as I watched his eyes grow warm.
“Would that you were in my bed those years ago, Circe,” he whispered, staring deep into my eyes, “sharing with me like you are now your golden spirit to balm my own.” I held my breath as the silk of his words glided through me then he grinned. “And also here to celebrate my triumph when I took my vengeance.”
God, he was such a man.
I couldn’t help it, I grinned back at him.
“I take it that would have been…” I paused, searching for the word in Korwahk and hoping I found it, “energetic. ”
His thumb stopped stroking and his fingers sifted up into my hair, putting pressure on so my lips touched his.
There, he whispered in English, “Oh yes.”
I found the right word or a right word.
I smiled against his mouth.
His eyes heated and he growled against mine.
Then his head slanted, his fingers pressed further, he ground my lips against his, they opened and his tongue instantly invaded. I made a noise in my throat and he rolled me to my back.
Then he demonstrated how energetic he would have felt after he seized the Dax. It was years later but clearly the glory hadn’t faded
and I knew this mainly because, even after an already hot and heavy session, it… was… phenomenal.
So much so, my loud moans, whimpers and cries were noted by passersby, those inhabiting close chams and spies paying attention as were his groans, grunts and his final shout of climax.
And after he was through with me, thoroughly through with me, I fell into an exhausted sleep not thinking about holding magic. Not thinking of calling to the heavens to make them weep, to sending a rainbow arcing through the sky. Not thinking that I might have the magic in me to send myself home. And not thinking about Zahnin and his wife, hoping all would soon be well in their cham.
No, I didn’t think any of that.
Instead, in the seconds before my husband’s warm, hard, big body settled next to and partly over mine, his arm wrapped around, our legs tangled, I didn’t think about anything.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Contest
Seven days later…
I dipped my fingers into the pot of black paint and saw they were trembling.
I had to get a hold of myself.
But soon, very soon, in fact, I was all dressed and ready to go in my golden finery and as soon as I painted my husband, we would be out of our cham and on our way to Lahn facing Dortak in the challenge.
I knew one thing, Lahn would beat him.
I knew something else, as much as I hated Dortak and as little as it said about me, I cared nothing about the fact his life would soon end but I still didn’t look forward to watching my husband cut his head off.
And I knew one last thing, Dortak would not hesitate to cheat and I didn’t want Lahn to get hurt when he did.
And I so didn’t want that that I knew I didn’t want it not because I simply didn’t want another man, an abuser and a cheater, to harm a man who would fight with honor. And I knew I didn’t want it not because Lahn had kept me fed and sheltered and showered in jewels and kickass clothes.
I didn’t want it because I cared about my husband and this feeling ran deep.
And because of this I was terrified out of my mind.
* * * * *
The last seven days had been good, very good,
too
