“I think he fears you’ll let him go farther than he should.”
“Of all the stupid manish things to think.” Asharru shoved Bashaa out of her way and retraced her steps. Both males seemed to forget she was training to be the next High Priestess. She might be gryphon and limited in what she would allow, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to give her Blade what Ishtar had suggested.
And the gods had come out and said that she and Tirigan would one day become mates once he got over his past enough to trust her. She was even more confident now that her gryphon was just waiting to give him time to adjust to his new life.
If anyone was going to give Tirigan what he needed, it was going to be his future mate.
Asharru’s gryphon started to purr in her mind.
“We are in complete agreement,” she told the gryphon.
Her long strides carried her quickly back toward Tirigan, but her gryphon still prowled and paced inside the confines of her mind.
Easy, she whispered. I need to be a woman to help our Blade through the worst of this, you can cuddle with him after.
The big cat paused and then purred her agreement a second time.
It didn’t take long to return to the underground cavern with it’s small, steaming pool. Tirigan was where she’d left him on the bench and as expected, he wasn’t alone. Laliya was there with him, kissing him, stroking her hands along his body in a way that spoke of their familiarity.
It hurt more than she thought it would, seeing him with another.
The pain intensified when she saw Tirigan was returning the ardent embrace eagerly. Asharru’s earlier happiness vanished. Pain took its place. Tirigan hadn’t wanted her to stay, but Laliya was acceptable. Better than acceptable, apparently. Straightening her spine, Asharru turned and retreated to the entrance where Kuri stood with Bashaa.
There was pity in the guardswoman’s eyes, but she didn’t say anything.
“Laliya, stop,” Tirigan’s voice echoed with authority.
Asharru turned to seek out Tirigan. He was still by the bench but was standing now, holding out a hand to forestall Laliya from coming closer but he was looking toward the entrance.
“Asharru?” Tirigan uttered softly, his surprise evident in his tone as he turned toward her.
When he met her gaze, he made several involuntary steps forward, before he checked himself and backed toward the bench. Though to judge by the sweat slicking his body and the shaking of his legs, he likely didn’t have the strength to go far anyway.
“Asharru, you shouldn’t have come back.”
“I know you didn’t want me here, but when I realized Laliya hadn’t come with us, that she was here with you…”
Tirigan sat heavily on the bench, his hands gripping it hard enough to turn his knuckles white. “I didn’t ask for Laliya. She came and offered to help, but I don’t want that.”
While still straightening her dress, Laliya walked toward Asharru. “He’s loyal to you. Has been since the moment he saw you. Even as he kissed me, it was your name he whispered. I knew he’d be loyal to you, but do you know why I still came?”
Asharru didn’t trust herself to answer so remained silent.
Laliya sighed. “For one, he is my friend and you were just going to leave him after even the gods said you should aid him. Second, I hoped if I came back it might be enough to get that gryphon of yours to force you back here as well.”
“Tirigan doesn’t want me here.” Asharru sounded less certain even to her own ears.
She had made the right decision by leaving, hadn’t she?
“Of course, he wants you. You’re his monarch. But he doesn’t want to hurt you.”
Bashaa had said much the same.
“Stay with him. If you’re half as intelligent as I think you are, you’ll think of a way to help him without infringing upon his free will or your promises to him.”
Tirigan abandoned the bench to go stand with his back to them, hands braced against the cavern wall, his body taut with tension.
“Please just go, all of you,” he growled out.
Laliya nodded at Asharru then started away. She ordered the rest of the guards to wait in the stairway. Even Hunzuu left.
At last, the cavern was silent again.
“Tirigan, the others are gone.”
“You’re still here.”
“I’m not leaving you. I’ll never abandon you again.” She walked up behind him and rested her hands on his back. “Nor will I take your freedom or steal your will.”
“Goddess, Asharru. You shouldn’t be here. I’m barely holding on as it is. With you here, it’s twice as hard to think, to remember why you being here is a bad thing.”
“It doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”
“Of course, it does.”
“You think you’ll hurt me?” she asked softly.
“Yes,” came his broken reply.
“As a gryphon, I’m much stronger than a human, for all I look like one.”
Tirigan was suddenly facing her, his hands closed upon her shoulders, dragging her closer, pressing them together. His lips brushed her ear as he spoke. “I’ve always been stronger than a normal man. And now I’m stronger than I was an hour ago. Do you understand? I could overpower you with ease.”
“My gryphon begs to differ.”
“Shall we find out?” Tirigan asked, something dark and seductive in his tone.
His one hand cupped the back of her head while his other slid down to the small of her back, forcing her closer, grinding her hips into his firm length. The blanket around his waist did little to hide his arousal.
Tirigan’s lips claimed hers, the kiss raw, brutal. He nipped at her lips while his tongue flicked against the seam of her mouth, seeking entrance.
She stepped closer, her hand dropping to grip his backside. Pressing their bodies together, she simultaneously granted him entrance to her mouth, returning his kiss. Their tongues thrust against each other, lips caressing until they were both out of breath and she broke away to trail kisses down his neck. He groaned his encouragement.
“While you might have a harsh side to your nature, you won’t harm me,” she said and then pressed another kiss to his lips, this one light and playful. “A Blade can never harm their monarch.”
Tirigan rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. “You’re putting too much trust in me. If you stay, I’ll do something we’ll both regret.”
Asharru slapped his rump and laughed. “And you’re underestimating my gryphon’s willingness to flip you on your belly and sit on your ass until your reason returns with the dawn!”
Tirigan’s eyes narrowed with calculation.
“Hah! Go ahead and test her, see what happens.”
Reason returned to his eyes and he cleared his throat. “I…I will take you on your word. Not sure if my dignity would survive having a gryphon sit on me all night.”
“Good,” Asharru said and she reached out to stroke hair from his face. “I think there is a compromise between you trying to take what I am not ready to give you and my gryphon pinning you down against cold stone until dawn.”
“I’m listening.” Though his eyes had dropped to peer down her cleavage.
“Up here.” She grabbed his chin and forced his eyes back to hers. “You can be distracted later. We need to talk. I’m going to ask you questions, and you’re going to give me honest answers and then we will go from there.”
His mouth opened but just then another wave of pain rolled across his features and he grunted.
“This way,” she said, gently urging him toward the nearest wall of the cavern. When they reached it, she grabbed his shoulders and turned him to face the wall. “Grip the stone. Don’t let go.”
“What are you up to?” his question came out a little surlier than usual.
“Hunting for the truth.” Asharru slid up behind him and placed her hands on his hips and pressed against him. “I can give you what you need without bringing r
isk to myself.”
Tirigan shuddered as another wave of pain rolled down his body. When it was over, he leaned back into her like his knees were about to give out. She wrapped an arm around his waist to help hold him up.
He sighed and pressed his head back against her shoulder. “I still think this is a terrible idea, but I like how you feel pressed against me.”
“See? That was truth. I want more of that. If you want to feel more, all you have to do is keep your hands pressed to that wall and answer my questions.” She pressed closer, swaying gently. Once she knew he would stay, she pressed an open-mouthed kiss against his spine, gently licking at the mark running down his back.
Tirigan’s entire body jerked, and he grunted out a guttural sound of pleasure.
“Tell me if you want me to stop.”
He gripped the stone wall harder.
“You must answer me. That was the deal.” She pressed another kiss to his spine, nibbling along his mark.
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?” Asharru’s hands had shifted enough to allow her thumbs to massage circles along the small of his back. He arched and hissed. “Since you still haven’t answered me, I can only assume you don’t want this and I will stop.”
“Goddess no.”
“Good. Did you know the Blooding Ceremony has healed all your scars?”
Tirigan’s answering grunt was a clear ‘I don’t care.’
Asharru laughed at his tone. “Fine. What do you want me to do next?”
“Everything.”
Asharru sighed. “I don’t want to compromise your will. The deal is as long as you keep your hands braced against that wall, you get to direct me on how I touch you.”
This time Tirigan laughed. “Oh, Crown Princess Asharru, that still leaves you so very vulnerable.”
“You sound like you delight in that fact.” She rubbed her hands up and down his sides as if she was rubbing warmth back into him.
“Yes,” he agreed. “I admit it.”
Leaning forward, she crushed her breasts to his back and reached around his front to toy with his nipples. “And this? Do you want me to continue doing this?”
He nodded, his head arched back, eyes still closed.
She pulled back slightly. “Tirigan, I will only do what you instruct me to do. Do you understand?”
“Yes, my…Asharru.”
“We will learn what you need in order to overcome the pain assaulting your body and no farther. Does that sound acceptable?”
“Yes.”
They continued like that at length, Asharru asking what Tirigan wanted and he would tell her. But even as she helped redirect his focus to something other than the pain of magic changing and adapting his body, sometimes the pain was greater than the pleasure and all Asharru could do was hold him while his muscles locked in agony.
All through the long night, her gryphon alternately purred or paced deep in her mind, not liking that her favorite human was in pain.
Chapter 34
Tirigan awoke feeling overheated and dehydrated. A moment later the reason for feeling overheated became obvious. Asharru had shifted to her gryphon form at some point in the night and was sleeping curled around him.
Carefully, so as not to wake her, he combed his fingers through the soft, glossy fur, marveling that a creature so wild and fierce in appearance could be so lovely and gentle. While he was coming to love Asharru, it was her Gryphon who’d first tracked him down.
“Thank you for saving me,” he whispered, a touch hoarsely.
As for the dehydration, the events of the night before came back to him in one long shame-filled rush.
Goddess, the things he’d asked Asharru to do. And worse, before that, he’d nearly unleashed the monster inside him, showing her a hint of his ugly soul.
But she hadn’t been cowed by that side of him or run away in fear, had she?
No, she’d threatened to call on her gryphon to sit on him if he didn’t behave. He smiled at the memory.
Then she’d found a way to help him redirect what had started as the greatest pain he’d ever experienced and turned it into the greatest pleasure. All while carefully questioning him and studying his responses without breaking her promise to never make him do something he did not want.
Goddess, he didn’t deserve a woman like Asharru.
He only hoped he could repay her by finding and killing her brother’s murderers.
While he was still feeling guilty about the night before, Asharru woke and lifted her wing away. A moment later the now familiar heat and light surrounded her as she shapeshifted.
When the spots had cleared from his vision, Asharru was still laying next to him, only in human form this time.
“Good morning, my Blade.” She brushed aside a few strands of hair that had fallen over his brow.
“Goddess, Asharru, I’m sorry about last night.”
She arched a brow. “I’m not.”
His eyes widened.
“We received gifts from the gods, made many important discoveries about ourselves, and turned a corner in our relationship. That’s nothing to regret or be ashamed of.”
“But I was…” He glanced down at his hands “My darker desires awoke. I’m sorry you had to witness such a thing.”
“Wasn’t that scary.” She braced an arm against the bed and propped herself up so she could study him. “Meeting our makers was far more nerve-wracking.”
He blinked up at the bed’s canopy to avoid meeting her eyes. “There is that.”
She rolled closer until she was draped over him and he was suddenly reminded Asharru had been in gryphon form moments ago and was now completely naked after shifting back. Her plump breasts pressed against him. As he opened his mouth to suggest he go get ready for his morning’s weapons training, she stretched up and kissed him.
Instinctively, his arms went around her, stroking along her back as he returned her kiss. When they broke apart to breathe, he studied her face.
“Asharru, does this mean your gryphon has—”
“Decided I can finally mate with you?” Asharru sighed. “Alas, no. She’s still waiting for you to want that I think. The kiss was just to tell you I’m willing to help you in other areas if you wish.”
Asharru was selflessly offering her skills. After last night it was on the tip of his tongue to eagerly agree, but by the light of day, he knew he couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair to her if she couldn’t receive. Last night was an unexpected…emergency.
He looked beyond the bed to the surrounding chambers. They were in her quarters. “How did I get here? I don’t remember anything after I passed out last night.”
“I carried you.”
His eyes widened.
“Well, actually, my gryphon managed to drag you onto her back and carried you here.”
He glanced down at himself. “Naked?”
Asharru snorted. “Wouldn’t that have given the gossips something to waggle their tongues about? I dressed you and then heaved your heavy ass onto my back and carried you here.”
“If you dressed me, why am I naked again?”
Asharru blushed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t…er…notice that discrepancy.”
Tirigan felt himself grin. Had Asharru wanted the extra intimacy even if her gryphon didn’t?
“My gryphon sees clothing as a needless obstacle.”
Her gryphon? That…wasn’t quite what he was hoping to hear.
Grimacing, he remembered something else. “Laliya?”
“We had a chat.” Asharru’s expression darkened. “I didn’t kill her.”
“Thank you.” He studied her face, seeking to see into her mind, but couldn’t for once. “I didn’t ask her to stay.”
“I know. She admitted that.”
He nodded.
“She also explained why she acted the way she did. I can’t say I would have done anything differently, myself. We’ve since come to an understanding and I admitted I’d acted like an ass.�
�
Tirigan’s eyes narrowed.
“I had been planning to leave you to struggle through the pain alone. I shouldn’t have done that. No other monarch would have left their Blade to face that alone.”
He frowned. “You weren’t abandoning me. You were doing as I asked.”
“Because you were trying to protect me, again.”
That was true. He had. “How about we make a deal?”
“I’m listening.”
“We’ll tell each other the truth from now on.”
“You have a deal.” Asharru smiled at him and then she looked around her chambers and sighed. “I need to get up and start the day.”
Tirigan laughed at her sad expression, but he couldn’t deny wanting to stay and lounge in bed, especially with a naked Asharru tucked against him. But he didn’t voice his wishes out loud and she rolled away from him. Soon she was dressed in a robe and walking out of the room.
“Goddess,” he cursed as he lifted his head and peered under the sheets with a glower, “you should be worn out from last night.”
Flopping back on his pillow, he sighed and stared up at the canopy ceiling, willing his aroused body to behave.
Chapter 35
In the days after the second Blooding Ceremony, Asharru and Tirigan grew more relaxed around each other. As well, the court seemed to have accepted the fact that she’d picked two males for a Trial Year, one of them a full blood human.
Even Nutesh, who was attempting to court her, though it would be useless now that she’d had a taste of the passion Tirigan could bring to their relationship, was growing on her. Nutesh might not be mate material, but she found him a better conversationalist then she remembered. Or perhaps she hadn’t really paid him much mind before.
Whatever the case, he was intelligent and had many interesting ideas on how to make the day-to-day running of New Sumer more efficient. He was also keen to see some of her brother’s plans put it into practice. Such as abolishing slavery.
One thing he’d said still resonated with her.
All souls were created equal. Why should one be able to own another?
It was a valid point and endeared Nutesh to her a bit more.
Blade's Destiny (Ishtar's Legacy Book 3) Page 20
