Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,44

No longer straining against him, she gasped for every ragged breath, her eyes wide and dazed. A splintered hum tumbled over torn lips when Er’it feathered kisses over her jaw and scrubbed her scalp.

“Soon, kou’va,” Er’it whispered against the corner of her lips, though Aida’s eyes fluttered shut and her deep, even breathing came to him under the sound of the water.

She didn’t sleep long. Hair drying to wispy curls around her face, she groaned and squinted against the sun as her eyes opened. A shudder racking her body shifted his aching cock inside her, Er’it gritting his teeth through the sensation as Aida whined and flinched.

His cock so hard it pained him, Er’it muttered quiet curses and soothing words even though she wouldn’t understand them, not as he spoke in his native tongue. Easing free to kneel behind her prone body, wanting nothing more than to drive back in, Er’it fell to the side. Staring up at the cloudless sky, he listened to her crawl away to curl up on herself in the scrub grass. A glance showed him Aida’s back, her narrow shoulders trembling. Perhaps crying again. Perhaps hating him even more.

It mattered, but it did not matter. He would do whatever it took to keep his people safe, and whatever this was between them, it would end the moment he ended her. Inhaling until his lungs were fit to burst, Er’it rolled to his feet. Stooping to grab Aida up into his arms, he cradled her against his chest as he walked into the chilled water. He didn’t drop her this time, instead going to one knee in the sandy silt to set her down. Cupping the water in his large palm to smooth over her skin, he cleaned away the sweat and dirt.

From the beginning, he couldn’t get enough of her. He’d been obsessed with the feel of her skin, her scent. Now was no different. Reveling in the sensations, he washed her clean, even supporting her with a splayed hand at her back as he tipped her backward to rinse her hair. Er’it wanted nothing more than to bury his face against her soft skin and inhale her scent as he licked up the droplets of cool water, warming her chilled skin with far more than his breath.

Grunting, he turned away and performed the same acts on his body with far more violence and rancor than he’d had for her. Er’it whirled, his lip curled and a challenging growl emanating from his chest as something touched his side. Both sat back, more than a little dumbfounded, as Aida raised a shaky hand to point at his hair.

With most of his braids torn ragged from traipsing through the woods, he didn’t doubt he looked as savage as she thought him to be. He had no intention of performing the long process here and now, but his surprise at her offer had something within him softening. Not his cock, never that. It grew thicker, harder the longer he stared at her with one dark brow quirked.

She shied away from him. He continued to watch her as she wrapped her arms around her chest to hide away her breasts, her anxiety coating his tongue in bitter ash.

“Come.” Er’it snapped his fingers in front of her face, hating the way she flinched. Knowing she would, he did it anyway. Climbing out of the water, he left her to scramble out on her own and made her scurry behind him as he stalked through the woods back to their camp.

With his wounds healed and everything in disarray, they needed to get back to the others. He could ride Kal now, and the Phylix could carry them both. Nodding his head at his thoughts, Er’it paced the small glen to collect their clothing. Lips twisting into a taut line, he held up the ruined pieces of her tunic, the pants not much better with long tears at the hips and down the legs. Er’it didn’t remember ripping them when he took them off her, but he must have.

Exhaling hard, he wadded up his tunic and flung it at her. “Put that on.”

Aida followed his command, staying well out of his way as Er’it tugged his pants over his wet skin and hauled on his boots. As if she sensed his fouling mood, she stood motionless in the center of the clearing, head bowed and hugging the wide folds of his tunic close. It made him want her all the more, the