her with hungry amber eyes. Landing on her backside with a hard grunt, she stared, her tongue traversing her lower lip as Er’it shucked his trousers down to reveal all of the gleaming, coppery russet of his skin.
She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the hard length of him as it pulsed in time with the heartbeat she felt thumping beneath the rapid flutter of hers. As much as she denied it, tried to deny him, still her core clenched over air, the slick proof of her desire flowing from her folds to wet the fabric of her clothing.
“Ah, kou’va. You try a man,” Er’it husked, crouching before her. With a speed and dexterity Aida found frightening and exhilarating all at once, he stripped her, tugging away the loose clothing until her tawny skin lay bare to the bright skies above.
Snagging the leather straps of the waterskin and pouch he’d carried with him, Er’it snatched Aida up. His raspy chuckle shivered along her skin as he strode farther into the trees. The burble of water became louder as they grew closer, a proper stream winding its way through a shallow depression. Passing sandy banks filled with the clattering of reeds, Er’it followed a winding path down to the rushing water. Lips tipping in a smile, he sat with Aida still wrapped around him.
Quiet though it was, his laugh was a true thing. Humor danced in his golden gaze as Aida squealed at the icy shock of the stream flowing over her lower half. Tossing his burden aside, he moved his hands to cup her backside and bring the spread lips of her sex tight against him, grinding her against his hard length. Chin dipping to nuzzle the space on her shoulder marked by his teeth, he rumbled a growl replete with satisfaction.
“What are you doing?” Aida asked, breathless as she struggled to maintain some hold on her sanity. She refused to be pulled under by her unnatural desires when she knew he would only hurt her again when he pulled away.
“We are bathing, kou’va,” he whispered against her flesh, tongue darting out to taste her. Growl turning dark and lusty, he licked a path up to her ear where he whispered, “Then I will give you what your body needs.”
Any comfort she still took from him vanished with her hard exhale. He wished to use her body, nothing more. Somehow still surprised at how soon she forgot her purpose to him, Aida’s shoulders slumped. Turning her head aside as he licked and nipped at her neck, she clenched her teeth and stared hard through the stands of trees, past the flickering brightness of the road, and into the forest beyond. Feeling their slow deaths, the unimaginable pain of being ruined, she relived a torment she became all too familiar with as each day passed. It was infected with evil and malice to the point anything living could scarce scrape out an existence within its moldering canopy.
Er’it growled a warning at her disinterest. Fingers digging into the softness of her backside, he punished Aida for her lack of attention with a hard bite to the still tender wound at her shoulder. Forcing all of her concentration upon the ruination across the road, she ignored him and paid no attention to his toying fingers, rough calls, or his mouth claiming her slack lips.
Snarling, he grabbed Aida by the shoulders. Shaking her hard, he resorted to grasping her chin in a cruel grip to force her to meet his gaze, searching her eyes for some answer to his unspoken questions. Changing tact, he cupped her cheeks, his thumbs tracing a slow path from her eyes to her mouth. Still, she gave him no response when he feathered a kiss along the seam of her taut lips.
Breath a rumbling sigh, he dropped his hands to the water. Cupping them to let the cold liquid run down her back, he wiped away the sticky sweat. He bathed her in slow passes, massaging the stiff muscles of her neck and shoulders. He had her lie back, each of them silent as he scrubbed at her scalp and worked the tangles free of her hair with careful fingers.
Knowing what he was doing did not stop Aida from relaxing into his touch, her every ache and tightness soothed away as the cool water refreshed her flagging spirit. Unaware how dirty she’d felt, how much it affected her, she let her eyes drift shut as the sensation of being