“I know that you do not smile nearly enough. I know that you were generous to allow me into your home when I had nothing to offer you in return. And I know that I hurt you by calling you a necessary burden.” His fingers released her ear, traveled to the base of her neck and lightly massaged. “For that, I am truly sorry.”
Katie stilled, absorbing the warmth of his hands and the glow of his apology. But surely she had misheard him. Surely this man, this warrior who took great pleasure in ordering her around, had not just apologized.
“Jorlan—”
“Nay. Say no more. I once thought taking only your body while remaining distanced was best. Not so now.”
And yet, she thought suddenly, he seemed more distanced from her than ever before. There was a flat tinge to his eyes that clashed with his honeyed tone. For the life of her, she couldn’t make herself care that this might be a ploy.
“You intrigue me,” he continued, “and I find myself constantly thinking about your thoughts and actions. Were I home, I would still wonder, and I would regret not knowing. We have this day, and only Elliea knows how many others, to learn of each other. If you wish.”
If she wished, Katie silently repeated. What did she truly want from this man who had no plans to stay? Just how much of herself was she willing to risk? The answer had seemed so clear only this morning.
“No alliance is one hundred percent secured,” he said. “In this, at least, we know the final outcome.”
He was right, of course, but that didn’t make her decision any easier. “Saying goodbye will be harder if we’ve initiated any type of emotional relationship.”
“Only if we make it so.”
So where did that leave her? She truly had tried to ignore her attraction to him, but it hadn’t gone away. It had only grown stronger. So strong, in fact, she had only to picture his face in her mind and bam! She desired him. Katie closed her eyes. Opened them. Gazed up at him. “Just give me a little more time, okay? That’s all I’m asking.”
He lightly pressed his lips to her collarbone. Flames uncoiled in her belly, and she almost blurted her capitulation then and there. But Jorlan pulled back, and said softly, “I remind you that time is our enemy, katya. Do not forget that fact.”
“How can I?” she answered, her tone just as soft.
A long, protracted moment passed. She stayed exactly as she was, afraid to sever—or perhaps afraid not to sever—the tentative bond growing between them. Then, suddenly, Jorlan stepped back and clasped his hands together, brisk and formal, as if they’d never shared such an intimate moment. “What labor would you have me do? I am eager to begin.”
The heavy sexual tension eased with the small distance between them, making her feel as if she had been released from some sort of captivity. “I need you to move the large rocks that line the edges of the driveway to the back fence. It’s a tedious and back-breaking chore, and I hate to ask you to do it, I really do, but you’re free labor, and I…” She shrugged.
The blue of his eyes twinkled. “Have I not told you before that I welcome the chance to exercise?” He turned and tossed his next words over his shoulder as he strode to the door. “Worry not, for I fully intend to lose myself in whatever physical task you place before me.”
With the sexual innuendo lingering in the air, Katie found herself alone.
Alone.
Time to think about the kiss, her mind shouted.
“No. I’m not ready,” she grumbled.
Kiss, kiss, kiss.
Realizing she could delay the inevitable no longer, Katie sank onto the scarred hardwood floor, rested her chin upon her upraised knees and remembered. When she’d first felt Jorlan’s arms anchor around her waist, smelled his hot, masculine scent, she hadn’t wanted to run. She’d wanted to feel and touch him, to allow him to feel and touch her in return.
And oh, how he had touched her. He’d stroked his tongue into her mouth, sending scalding heat all the way through her. The world around her had faded to black, and she’d known only Jorlan. Desire had coiled deep in her belly, tightened her nipples, and pooled between her legs. She’d been completely lost. Lost, as if she no longer existed as a separate being. She’d reveled in every moment and hungered for more—more of the glorious sensations. The consuming ache. The sheer need. Her entire body had come alive, each nerve ending on alert and ready for completion.
She’d been kissed before, but this had been different somehow, more than a simple meeting of lips. Thinking back, she realized every other kiss she’d ever experienced had left her cold and hollow, and she had always craved escape. With Jorlan, she had craved forever.
For the first time ever, the chemistry had been exactly right.
I’m going to sleep with him, she admitted then. She could no longer deny the inevitable. Like Jorlan, she would always wonder what could have been if she didn’t take what she wanted now, while she had the chance. Besides, she’d played things safe with Jorlan so far and look where that had gotten her. Frustrated and unsure. Confused. Why not dive headlong into whatever pleasures awaited her in his arms? Damn the consequences?
Feeling more lighthearted than she had in days, weeks, even years, Katie gathered her heat gun and putty knife and jumped into her work. Two hours later, she was humming under her breath and tearing up linoleum in the upstairs bathroom when Jorlan reappeared.
“I have finished my task,” he said, his pride in his accomplishment evident.
She faced him. He had removed his shirt, and she saw that sweat beaded his forehead and chest. Several scratches from the sharp-edged rock marred his abdomen. Dirt streaked his brow. He looked like a primitive god, strong and confident and oh, so delicious. Knowing she was soon going to have all that strength above her and inside of her made her mouth water.
“What would you have me do next?” he asked.
“Why don’t we talk?” she suggested.
His chin tilted to the side, and he watched her for one protracted moment. Satisfaction flittered through the depths of his eyes. He nodded. “We will talk.”
Suddenly nervous—she didn’t know why—she set her tools aside and pulled her knees up to her chest. “Have a seat. Please.”
He eased down in front of her until they were eye to eye. Getting comfortable, he removed the weapons strapped to his body and set them at his side.
“I’d—I’d like us to get to know each other,” she confessed.
Whatever reaction she’d expected, he didn’t give it to her. He nodded calmly, assuredly, as if he’d known all along she would capitulate. “Why do you not begin?” he said. “Tell me about—”
“No!” Katie hadn’t meant to shout the word, but she’d suddenly been overcome with a single fear. What if she told Jorlan about herself, and he didn’t like what he learned? She wasn’t like most other women; she was lacking in so many of the feminine graces. “I’d rather hear about you. Tell me about your family, about your past. If you want to, I mean.”
“I will tell you anything you wish to know, katya.” He stared at the wall just above her left shoulder, perhaps seeing through it, through the passage of time and galaxies to his “other” life. “Where should I begin?”
“At the beginning, of course.”
“I thought as much.” He sighed. His muscles smoothed beneath his skin, and he settled his back against the wall. “My father, Great-Lord Gui-en Sarr, a king, you would say, died a few spans before my confinement. He—”
“Your father was a king?” she demanded, incredulous. No wonder Jorlan expected his commands to be instantly obeyed. He was freaking royalty.
“Aye, but the throne will never be mine.”
“Why not?”
“I was not chosen.”
Her brow puckered with confusion.
“An Imperian great-lord is chosen by the Kyi-en-Tra Crystal,” he explained. “Upon the death of the current lord, men journey from all over the world to touch the ancient stone, for whoever makes the crystal burn bright with crimso
n is known as the one true king until his death.”
She could just imagine the impatient hopefuls standing in line, awaiting their turn to touch the stone. “So you didn’t give the crystal color?”
He chuckled. “Do not look so sad for me, katya. My father’s brother, Challann, took the throne. He was a good and just man. The people adored him, as did I.”
“You would have made a spectacular king or lord or whatever.”
A negligent shrug lifted his shoulders. “The people would not have agreed. To them, my sorcerer’s bloodline tainted my royalty.”
“That’s discrimination.”
“But the truth all the same.”
Looking away from him, she tinkered with the scraps of linoleum scattered around her. “If you’re thought tainted, why do you want to go back so badly?”
“’Tis my home,” he said simply. Then shrugged again. “In Imperia, I may not be a great-lord, but I am a man of consequence, a warrior of great ability and power. Here I am only a man who must rely on a woman to see to my needs.”
Yes, she could see how that would eat away at his pride.
Stretching out her long legs, Katie leaned back against the wall. Cool tile seeped through the thin material of her shirt. She felt as though there was something she was forgetting, something she wanted to tell him. When she realized what it was, her eyes widened, and she silently cursed herself for getting so caught up in his story of kings and princes that she hadn’t said these words sooner. “I’m so sorry about your father’s death.”
He nodded to acknowledge her empathy.
“How did he die?” she asked gently.
Jorlan propped his elbow on his bent knee and hesitated only a moment before answering. “He was murdered. I commissioned several sorcerers to aid me in my search for the culprit, yet no one was able to divine the truth.”
“Were there any suspects?”
“Many believed my half brother responsible, but Percen did not have the strength to rise from bed that eve, much less thrust a talon into a man’s chest.”
“How do you know?” She tried to keep her tone light and easy, not wanting him to see how sad she was for him, how she longed to wrap her arms around his neck and take all of his past pain away. “Your brother could have been faking his injury to give himself an alibi.”
“’Tis not a possibility. He was recovering from a talon wound. A wound I inflicted.”
His words elicited images of blood and war, a side of Jorlan she knew existed but didn’t want to contemplate. She preferred instead to think of him as the charming, sexy man before her. A man who was a prince and should have been king. “If you had decided to challenge your uncle for the crown, could you have done it?”
“Why?” His gaze grew cold, like pools of ice in the winter. “Do you have hopes that I will take you back with me and make you my queen?”
“No,” she assured him, a little offended that he thought so little of her. “I’m curious, is all. Your mother was—is—a sorceress, yet her bloodline didn’t prevent her from becoming queen.”
The coldness remained in his eyes, but it was no longer directed at Katie. He seemed lost in his memories. “My mother was never truly accepted. Her sovereignty and the authority it brings were ignored.”
“That’s awful.”
“A marriage between a sorcerer and mortal has always been forbidden.” He pushed out a breath and jerked a hand down his face. “Both my mother and my father knew this and accepted the consequences.”
“Why is such a union forbidden?”
“Because mortal and immortal have different life spans. While a sorcerer can live forever, a mortal cannot. My mother watched my father grow old, while she remained young. Every day she became increasingly aware that my father was dying, that there was nothing she could do to save him. And then, suddenly, he truly was dead.”
Compassion shimmered in Katie’s gaze, and it affected Jorlan more than it should have, warming him all over. He had stepped inside this chamber thinking he was guarded against her allure. Yet as he spoke, sharing a part of his life he’d never shared with another, he was somehow making the connection between them grow stronger.
“Did your mother take another husband?” she asked, her tone as gentle as a fifth season breeze.
“Nay. She loved my father with all of her heart, and claims the heart can only love so greatly but one time. Besides, she abandoned her people to be with him; she even abandoned her first son, my half brother. No man of the Druinn would have her, and I doubt another mortal man would have her, either.”
“Even though she is a former queen and high priestess?”
“Even then. The Druinn are loyal to Percen now, and would not wish to anger him.” Percen…His image flashed in Jorlan’s mind. As a child, Jorlan had prayed for a chance to meet his brother. He’d wanted someone to play with, someone to teach him the ways of magic. Yet his mother had always refused to introduce them, saying Percen belonged with his own people and needed no reminder of his mortal ties.
On the eve of his eighth span, Jorlan finally decided to visit his brother on his own. While his parents were too consumed with celebration details to notice his absence, he had sneaked away from the palace. For three hours he traveled, imagining the blessed meeting with every step. Percen’s face would light with happiness, and he would take Jorlan in his arms and swing him around with joyful abandon.
His imaginings died a quick death when he entered the white sands of Druinn.
Percen recognized him instantly. Instead of happiness, a dark cloud of hatred had descended upon his brother. Percen had pushed him, ridiculed him, spat on him, all the while destroying his boyhood dreams. Jorlan had never gone back, nor had he told his mother what had happened. He’d merely grieved in silence for the brother he would never know.
“I almost feel sorry for your brother,” Katie said, her voice whisking away his bleak thoughts. “I mean, I ache for his loss. Losing a mother is difficult. Mine died of heart failure when I was nine years old, and I still miss her.” Featherlight, her exhale swayed on the midday air. “I always knew she loved me. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d thought she hated me.”
That Katie could hurt for someone she’d never met—no matter that the person was his greatest enemy—touched Jorlan to the very core of his being. Not many people could be so understanding, so filled with empathy. Katie might strive for a hard, warriorlike demeanor, but she possessed the soft, caring heart of a woman.
Curse it. He didn’t want to, but he liked this side of her.
Her lips began moving again, but he didn’t catch the words. He was staring at her, Jorlan realized. Staring at her lush pink lips while the world around him ceased to exist. Unable to stop the images, his mind entertained pictures of those lips closing over his shaft, her pale hair spilling over his legs. Need uncurled inside of him like a lion awakening from an afternoon rest. His muscles clenched. If he did not distract himself, he would be ripping off her clothes, curse their talk and curse her resistance.
“Tell me about your life,” he barked.
A look of panic darted across her expression, but was quickly replaced by determination. Silently, she watched him. He wondered what she was thinking. Heat soon grew in her gaze, hot and consuming, slowly cresting to the rest of her features.
She smiled seductively.
On her hands and knees she crawled to him, not stopping until her nose brushed his. “I was born November sixteenth. Blue is quickly becoming my favorite color, and when I die, I want it to be from pleasure.” Then she planted her lips over his, took his tongue inside her mouth and sucked.
His body sprang to life immediately, and he groaned against her lips. Their tongues battled for control, thrusting, darting away, thrusting again. He wanted to howl when she eased back. She traced the seam of his mouth with her tongue, and he wrapped his arms around her waist, lest she decide to end the embrace altogether.
“Did you like that?” she asked in
stead.
“Aye.”
“Want me to do it again?” In that instant, Katie wanted so badly to be naked, wanted Jorlan to be naked, as well. Without conscious thought—Lord, she couldn’t think, only feel—she leaned into him, pressing herself more fully against him. Her nipples hardened, her lips tingled and her body came alive.
“Nay,” he breathed.
“Nay?” She froze. She craved him with every ounce of her being and he didn’t want her to do it again!
“This time,” he said, “I want to do it to you.”
As she sagged with relief, the pink tip of his tongue circled her lips, tasted every corner, nibbled every indentation. She twined her fingers in his hair, losing her breath completely when he shifted to lick her ear. “I want more.” I need more.
“Then more you shall have.”
“But just one more kiss,” she whispered, recalling where they were. “One kiss and then we’ll stop. If you still want me, we can start again later.”
“I want you now, and I will want you later. So I will give you the one kiss you are asking for,” he said, “but it will be a kiss that lasts all through the eve and requires our naked bodies to be entwined.”
Before she could reply, his mouth reclaimed possession of hers. She opened for him, opened and cried out in pleasure at the same time. With each flick of his tongue, desire slammed into her forcefully, coaxing tremors from her. Hot and eager, mercilessly, he moved his mouth over hers. He slanted across her lips with a savage hunger that caused stars to twinkle behind her eyelids.
Their first kiss had been fiery and wonderful, but this was the essence of dreams. Soul-searing, erotic dreams. It made up for every second date she’d ever missed, every evening of bad company she’d ever endured, and every night she’d spent alone, wishing for someone to love.
Lost in his scent, his body, his maleness, she gave herself completely into the kiss, holding nothing back. Giving him every ounce of herself. Had other women ever experienced such bliss? A bliss that eclipsed reason and time? Movies and books lauded such passion, of course, but had anyone ever really tasted it as she was now?
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