Secrets Vol 1

by Hamre-Gaines-Landon-LeGendre

  She was going to have him. Now. Here among the fems, ww

  The Spinner 's Dream 95

  leaves clinging to her hair and the breeze playing over their bodies. She was going to open the front of his breeches and take out his sex and stroke it until he growled and roared and yanked up her skirts so that he could take her like the animal she was.

  Animal. A blind, groping, hungry animal. And she didn't care. She had to have him now, and she didn't care.

  Overhead a loud, shrieking cackle sounded. He pulled back from her and lifted his head, scanning the branches. She rested her fists against his chest for support and felt his breast rising and falling in a struggle for air.

  An answering call came, every bit as ear-splitting as the first, and Kareth finally recognized it.

  "What is that?" he demanded.

  "Curo-curas," she answered.

  "What?"

  "Birds." She took an unsteady breath. "One seldom hears their call so close."

  With a fluttering of wings, the curo-curas flew into view. The large cock settled on a branch twenty feet above them and smoothed an errant scarlet feather with his curved beak. His smaller, less colorful hen swooped down next to him and studied her mate with an adoring eye.

  "Birds?" Thiele ran his fingers through his hair. "I was distracted from you by a pair of birds?"

  "Very loud birds," she answered. And very welcome ones. One more minute and...Dendra, that didn't bear thinking about. "I've seen these two often. They're almost pets."

  "Then they won't mind if we resume." He reached for her.

  She caught his hands and pushed them away. "But I'll mind."

  "Kareth," he chided. There's something between us, I'll admit."

  "Something?" he repeated. "Something?" There's a madness between us."

  Why must y0U ca\jt madness? It's normal for a man and woman t0 make love to each other."

  96 Alice Gaines

  Not for me. She leaned against the tree and closed her eyes, digging her fingertips into the cracks in the bark. The touching, the kisses, the sighs had never been normal for her. Her drive was too strong. It robbed her of all reason, made her want people she couldn't have. It made her do things she shouldn't do.

  His fingers brushed her shoulder. She jumped and pushed them away. "I can't," she cried. "I can't make love to you. I can't."

  "Very well." He sighed. "I won't make love to you. But I will stay until we've found a way to rid me of this collar, and I will give you comfort while I'm here."

  She turned and stared at him. The indecent smile had returned to his face. With the sunlight forming a golden halo around his head and sandy brows lifted in amusement, he looked for all the world like a naughty little boy. But the heat in his eyes belied any resemblance to innocence. Comfort her, would he? How would he do that without raising the fire again in her blood? He couldn't, of course, which he knew very well.

  Somehow she'd have to convince him to leave. And until he did, she'd have to keep him at arm*s length. But how? Dendra, how?

  The moon was high in the sky by the time Kareth led Thiele to the pool to bathe. She held a lantern in front of her, although she'd already memorized the path. If Thiele tripped and fell, he might re-injure his shoulder, which would delay his leaving. She hadn't yet arrived at how she would convince him to leave when he was healed. He truly seemed to believe the story about the -magic barrier at the border. But convince him she would, and then she'd be rid of him.

  He crashed behind her now, just as he had when running through the woods the day before with the catchers after him. Everything about the man was an intrusion, from his power and his size to his ^ scent and his wicked smile. She would have given him the lantern and sent him out alone, but he might have ended up lost, blundering through the forest bringing grief to ferns and wildlife alike.

  The Spinner 's Dream 97

  No matter. She'd sit by while he bathed, looking safely off into the darkness until he finished. Then she'd take him back to the cottage. She'd have her bath after he had fallen asleep.

  They turned a corner in the path, and a small shape scurried past her and disappeared into the undergrowth. Behind her Thiele gasped and stopped in his tracks. "What was that?"

  She laughed softly. "No need for secrecy. There's no one here."

  "Then what was that?"

  "Only an animal."

  "But what type?"

  She turned back to face him. He glanced around, his eyes darting from one shadow to the next. For such a big man, he frightened at very small things. "A woodlar, perhaps, or a scimp. Little creatures. They won't hurt you."

  "Little, eh?" he answered. "The vermin that lived in the grand house walls were little enough, and pest-ridden."

  "There's no pest here. The forest is a healing place."

  He looked down at her, skepticism clear in his gaze.

  She reached out and took his hand. "Come."

  She turned and led him down the path again, the lantern held before them. "Why did we wait until dark to bathe?" he asked.

  Why, indeed? Because she couldn't bear to look at him naked, and yet she wanted to be nearby. Wanted to hear his body enter the water. Wanted to smell him when he'd finished rinsing the saarflowers from his hair.

  "We spent most of the day gathering wood so the fire would be big enough for you," she answered. "Then I was hungry and wanted supper after all that work."

  "Gave you an appetite, did it?"

  She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and found that smile again. The one he'd teased her with all afternoon. "I was hungty for my supper and that only."

  Now it was his turn to laugh softly. "Of course." We'rehere now, and you'll thank me when you've done." For plunging me into frig

  1id water?" he grumbled. "I don't think so."

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  "Did I say the water would be cold?"

  "What else could it be?"

  She lifted the lantern high, showing him the pool and the clouds of steam rising from it.

  "Mercy, woman," he gasped. "How did you do this?"

  "I didn't. It's only an underground hot spring."

  "It looks like a saint's afterlife." He charged toward the pool, stripping off his shirt, dropping it beside the path as he went. She set the lantern down and turned to look into the forest. Behind her more clothing dropped into the undergrowth. Then water splashed, and he let out a loud "Ahhhh."

  She put her fingers over her mouth and giggled. More splashing sounded and more animal noises of contentment. "Ah, little one. Of all the kindnesses you've done me, this must be the greatest."

  "I'm glad you like it."

  "The water's perfect, as though you heated it for me. Are you sure it isn't magic?"

  "Absolutely certain."

  "Thank you, anyway." Splash, splash, splash. "Thank you a hundred times."

  "You're very welcome. Now I'll pick you some saarflowers for you to wash with." She walked to a spot a few yards away where a saarbush grew, draped in rays of moonlight that had managed to slip between two emperor trees. She picked a few branches and walked back with them to the pool. Keeping her eyes averted from Thiele, she reached down to hand him the herbs.

  "What's this?" he asked, taking them.

  "Saarflowers. Moisten'them and rub them into a lather to wash

  your hair." w<»

  "I know this scent. The potion I used on my lady's hair smelled like this."

  "The essence is made into a soap."

  "Yes." He splashed some more and crushed the flowers between his palms, releasing the fragrance of saar into the night. "Aren't you coming in?" he asked after a moment.

  "I'11 bathe later."

  "please, Kareth, there's plenty of room."

  "I don't think..."

  "Let me wash your hair, as I did for Eria," he said. "You have very beautiful hair."

  She tugged at her braid, and the gentle pulling let her imagine how it would feel to have his fingers in her hair, pr
essing against her scalp. It would feel wonderful to have him wash her hair, to sit in that deliciously hot water with Thiele and let him minister to her.

  "Please," he entreated. "Let me do that for you."

  "All right." She unlaced the bodice of her gown and lifted it over her head. Her shift went next, dropping beside the gown. She stood for a moment, naked except for her crystal amulet, and the cool night air washed over her, warring with the steam from the pool to raise little bumps on her flesh. She looked directly at Thiele. He smiled an innocent invitation and extended his hand. She took it and lowered herself into the pool, finding her favorite rock and sitting on it.

  "That's better," he declared. He rubbed some flowers between his palms, making a thick lather. "Eria loved for me to wash her hair."

  She unplaited her braid and turned her head, offering her hair to him. He massaged the herbs into it in a hot, soapy balm.

  "She had nice hair," he continued. "Bright red and curly. But yours is much softer."

  "How did she..." She hesitated, searching for the right word. Find you? Get you? Buy you? "How did you come into your lady's service?"

  "I was fourteen and working in her father's granary. She saw me and felt stirrings." His fingers made lazy circles over her scalp, sooth-mg and invigorating all at once. "Eria called me a pretty child, even though she was only sixteen herself. She asked her father, and he gave me to her. He gave her everything she wanted."

  "How terrible," Kareth said. "To be chosen like a prize animal." Not at all. She took me into the house, found a position for my

  rther so that she could be warm in her last years, at least. Rinse."

  Kareth dipped her head back, bringing the hot water up over her

  rs- He stroked her hair, pulling it back and spreading it out be-

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  tween his fingers. Then he guided her back to a sitting position and lathered his hands again.

  "Eria was a stunning young woman—all elegance and bright colors." His fingers slipped into her hair for a second time. "Copper hair, sapphire eyes, alabaster skin. After I first saw her in the granary, I couldn't take my eyes off her. The first sight of her naked, waiting for me in her bed almost unmanned me."

  "Did you love her?" Kareth whispered.

  He sighed. "At first I did. We had a game of our own—if I were in love with you, we called it. We made up stories of how we'd run away and live together, just the two of us. I half believed them...then."

  "What happened?"

  His fingers stopped their motion through her hair. "One night she sent me to pleasure a friend of hers who was visiting. I was to share our intimacies with a stranger."

  "Did you...that is...could you?" Dendra, how could she even ask such a question? It was certainly not her concern.

  "Was my manhood up to the job?" He laughed and resumed his massage of her scalp. ">&t really. But I still had my hands and my tongue. She was satisfied."

  "Thiele,l didn't mean..."

  "I've schooled my cohort since then. He performs when I want him to."

  "What about your pleasure?"

  "My pleasure? Who would care about my pleasure?"

  "Why, you, of course."

  lived alone in this forest too'

  "Still..."

  "Rinse."

  She ducked her head into the water. He smoothed his fingers through her hair, rinsing away the flowers and their fragrant oil. She pushed back up, and he caught her around the waist and pulled her into his lap. She ought to object, to move away. But it felt so right to float tf1 his arms, looking into the moonlight, listening to the breeze rus

  He laughed again. VWhat odd ideas you have, little one. You've

  I

  through the emperors, smelling saarflowers and warm, clean man.

  He moved his hips and, unhindered by clothing or any other barrier, his hardness pressed into her back.

  "Have you commanded your cohort to perform now?" she whispered.

  "You're different, my little sorceress. He has a mind of his own where you're concerned."

  "I've told you—I'm no sorceress. I know no magic."

  "You've worked your charms on me. I've never been so continually, so maddeningly hard and ready."

  At that she did try to pull away. But he held her firmly. "Let me show you how it feels," he murmured into her ear.

  His hands moved from her waist, up and over her ribs, finally catching her breasts in his palms. Her breath came hard on a gasp, as he kneaded and tugged softly—using just the right pressure to heat her blood to the same temperature as the currents of water that lapped at her collar bone and slid between her thighs.

  "Yes," he whispered, his thumbs now playing over her nipples, making them hard. Achingly hard. She bit her lip, but a cry escaped from between them before she could stop it.

  "Yes," he repeated, as his hands moved lower. Back over her ribs in a slow caress. To her hips and down to her buttocks. He smoothed his palms over the outside of her thighs and pulled her against his hardness. She melted inside, tipped her head back against his shoulder and sighed and rubbed herself against him. If she made just the right move—it wouldn't take much—she could rise up and lower herself onto him. She could take him inside her. And he would...he would...he would...

  He rose abruptly, setting up waves of hot water around her and leaving her bereft. She glanced up to find him beside the pool, moonlight spilling over his shoulders and reflecting out of his eyes, his manhood standing erect. He reached his hand down to her. "Come, Kareth sa-Damil. It's time."

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  CHAPTER THREE

  Kareth stood in her little cottage and looked around her as though seeing everything for the first time. And indeed, this was the first time the room had been so brightly lit by a fire. The first time a man had stood by that fire, piling wood onto it until the flames jumped high, their tops disappearing up the chimney. The first time in this place that she would lose herself in a man's embrace. The night before had been only a sample, that she knew. Tonight her body would reveal how deep her passions ran, and this man—Thiele—would know how to play them.

  He finished building the fire and turned to her, stretching out his arms. "Come, little one, let me make you warm."

  She went to him. No point in resisting—he'd only bring her to the hearth if he had to. She stood only a foot away from him, staring up into his face. The light of the fire captured his beauty as the moonlight had before. The long shadow of eyelashes against his cheek, the angle of his jaw, the seductive curve of his lips. Those lips could move softly over hers, of they could burn against her skin. They pursed now, as he took her face in his hands. He tipped it upward and planted a soft kiss on her forehead.

  How did one resist such tenderness, even knowing the madness that would follow? Kareth had not the strength, so she leaned into him and sighed. He lowered his mouth to hers and took her lips, softly again. He lingered at her mouth, his lips and tongue tasting her, tempting her, daring her to come to him for more honey, more

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  heat. She tried to embrace him, but he held her away, drawing out the kiss for heartbeat after thundering heartbeat.

  His hands moved to the closure of her bodice and unlaced it. One last little voice of sanity sounded in her brain. This hadn't gone too far yet. She could still stop. "Thiele, no," she whispered.

  "Yes." He moved his mouth to her ear and nibbled at the lobe.

  "You promised," she breathed. "You said you wouldn't make love to me."

  He lowered his head further and kissed her neck. "I lie sometimes."

  She caught his arms, digging her fingertips into his flesh.

  He straightened and looked down into her face, his own expression drugged with passion. His eyes hung sleepily half-open, his lips moist and parted. "You want this, Kareth. You need this."

  "Thiele..."

  "If this were only for me, I'd resist. As hot as you've made me, I'd still hold back.
But you—you're trembling, vibrating in my hands."

  "The cold," she tried.

  "It's not cold in here." He pulled her into his arms and buried his face into her neck. "And you're hot, too. You're burning. Let me put the fire out."

  He held her against him, and she felt his hardness again. He crushed her to him, and a moan escaped his throat. He wanted her, and, Dendra help her, she wanted him. She would have him before he left. So, why not now?

  "Yes," she whispered. "Yes, Thiele, take me."

  He swept her up in his arms and spun her around, letting out a triumphant whoop. When he stopped, the room continued to swirl around her. Only his face stayed in focus—beautiful and radiant with Passion. "Ah, woman. How you make me work to have you. I'll have my revenge. Wait and see."

  "Take it now. Please, take it now."

  He headed toward the bed. He laid her down softly and reached for her gown. She offered no resistance but instead lifted herself to allow him to slip it and then her shift over her shoulders and head. When she lay back back again, her crystal slipped smoothly into the val-

  104 . Alice Gaines

  ley between her breasts.

  Thiele sat back on his heels on top of the coverlet and gazed at her, his eyes wide.

  "Mercy, woman. You're beautiful."

  She brought her hands up and over her nakedness. But he reached out and pushed them away. "I want to look at you," he said.

  "You've seen me."

  "It was dark last night and again tonight when we bathed. I never would have believed that under your loose clothes I'd find a form so perfect."

  "Don't flatter me."

  "It's not flattery." He reached out to run his fingertips over the length of her throat and then along her shoulder. "You don't have a glass here. You have no idea how you look."

  Perhaps not, but she knew how she felt. And right now the gentle pressure of his fingers made her skin come alive. She lay perfectly still, watching him. Watching his gaze follow the progress of his hand, along her side down to her breast.

  "And these," he sighed, covering one globe with his palm. "So full and round."