back balancing on both hands behind her, eyes half-closed, panting.
"I've never felt like this in my life," she whispered, her gaze purely carnal as it raked its way down his torso and lingered on his groin. She had to remember to look up at his face to finish what she was trying to say, but forgot what that was as he outstretched his hand for her to stand and follow him to bed.
"Nor I, ever, in several thousand years."
It was now or never, and she was beyond saying no. But the fact that she was actually going to do this was almost an out-of-body experience. Forgetting that the pool wasn't water, she dipped her hand into it to splash the cool substance on her face. Last-minute clarity had been the objective. Yet it happened so fast, Cain's stooping down and yelling no, but unable to catch her wrist as it came up--the blue energy covered her eyes and forehead.
"What?" she murmured as he got down on his hands and knees, stricken, holding her to him.
"Oh, sweetness, I did not have time to remove the charged energy in this pool. No woman should ever see... Please forgive that it was in my home." .
He hugged her so tightly as he stroked her hair that she gasped just to breathe; it wasn't passion.
"Cain... I don't understand what. . ." Her words slowed down as the image finally settled behind her eyes into her second-sight. Her body froze and trapped a sob that she refused to allow to break free. "He did it to me again . . ." Her head found Cain's shoulder as she absently stroked his long bundle of locks down his back. "This time it's a she-dragon?" Damali laughed, but the sound of it was discordant with the harmonic energies around her.
"And here I was trying to put the Isis in my guilt," she said, her voice becoming quieter and quieter. "Right here I was wrestling that bitch of an emotion to the ground, trying to--"
"Shush," Cain said as her hand balled into a fist at his back. "Let me take this out of your mind," he said, kissing her temple.
She shook her head no as her visions blurred with the hot moisture in her eyes. "No. I need to remember this live and in living color." "I would not have--"
Her hard kiss crushed away his words, but to her surprise, he yanked out of her hold and held her cheek firmly, now on top of her, looking at her eye to eye.
"Not like this. Hand me the rod. You need the healing balm, not for me to add insult to your injury by fucking you. I will make love to you, but never fuck you. Now hand me the rod."
She could feel her face begin to crumble as his words and wisdom slapped her hard. It was the kindest, noblest thing any man had ever done for her, and she could no more reach for the rod than stop sobbing. She gathered up the front of Cain's robe and buried her face in it, as she felt him grip her with one arm and reach to something just out of his grasp with the other.
His calm, repetitive, shushing sounds made her cry harder as every indignity she'd experienced in dealing with Carlos and all his female side deals and shenanigans suddenly crested over the edge of her heart with bitter tears and wiped out a major portion of her respect for him. She saw it all. Cain had meant him no harm, had tried to take him to court, but, noooo... Carlos's pride and his side-dealing ways had him balling some dragon broad in Cain's house to get a passport home. Could he wait for her to break through--no--and why? Because he didn't give her credit as a Neteru to be able to quickly figure out a strategy. So doing some broad was an acceptable excuse? Not!
"I am so tired!" she shouted at Cain's chest.
"I know, sweet one. Light of my world, it will pass. Give me the pain. I will hold it."
"No," she finally said, as the fast-moving storm quickly ebbed.
She struggled to sit up and disengage their bodies, which he obliged as he laid the rod over his legs. She wiped her eyes and face and let out a cleansing breath.
"This isn't your mess. I need to go home and clean it up myself. You were right. I needed to be clear and make decisions. Being