A Warrior s Desire - By Pamela Palmer Page 0,41

hold her.

Setting Tarrys on her feet in the water beside him, he stood.

"We need to get going."

His tone was sharp, his words gruff, but he didn't care.

Her words had thrown him off balance.

As he strode across the crystal to retrieve his clothes, the lights gleamed beneath his feet.

With swift, frustrated movements, he jerked his pants up his wet legs then returned to the pool to rinse out his sweaty T-shirt.

Tarrys was kneeling before the far wall, her palms pressed against twin circles of glowing yellow.

"Oh Esria, please provide the carnasserie bush we need to cure Charlie's poison.

I beg you, provide.

" Water droplets ran from her wet hair down her straight, slender back, glistening in the crystal's glow.

Something warm and painful stabbed him in the chest as he watched her kneeling in supplication, praying to this world he didn't understand, for him.

She glanced over her shoulder, looking around, then stood on a sigh.

"I didn't really think it would work."

Picking up her gown, she walked to the pool.

"The land provides sustenance.

Food, water.

Nothing so specific as a carnasserie bush, but it was worth a try."

Tarrys dunked her gown in the water, rinsing it out on the far side of the pool from where he did the same with his shirt.

He struggled to keep his gaze on his task and off her seductively bare curves even as he tried to forget the L-word she'd uttered.

"How are you feeling?" Her eyes, when she glanced at him were warm with concern, but revealed nothing of the emotion she claimed to feel.

Maybe she thought I love you was the proper way to end lovemaking for a human.

The thought almost eased his mind.

"I'm fine."

He frowned, thinking about it.

"I actually feel better than I have for days."

She smiled gently.

"I'm glad.

I wonder if my newfound power is helping you, too."

He followed her train of thought.

"You think you might have healed me?" With the sex? Marvin Gaye's voice floated through his mind.

Sexual healing.

Tarrys shrugged.

"I don't know.

It might not last."

She pulled her gown from the water and wrung it out, twisting the fabric into a pretzel.

Her gaze snapped to his, suddenly, and she leaped to her feet in a single graceful move.

"The Esri are moving again.

I can feel them."

"We'd better get going, then."

They dressed quickly, Charlie donning his gear, Esri tunic and cloak, as before.

"Are we going through the mountain?" Tarrys asked as her wet gown settled around her ankles.

He pulled on his tunic.

"The only alternative is to go back the way we came.

To fight the Esri."

"Yes."

He sighed, itching for that fight and knowing it could only end badly.

Now that Tarrys was able to call food and water, and couldn't be controlled, there was no choice.

Even if the poison eventually got him, she'd be able to get away.

"We'll go through the mountain."

Tarrys nodded.

"I agree."

As they ducked back into the dark tunnel, Charlie hoped they weren't making a grave mistake.

Tarrys glanced back to where Charlie followed in the narrowing tunnel.

The low ceiling forced him to bend even lower than before, but he saw her turn and looked up, meeting her gaze with warm, if somewhat guarded, eyes.

Love for him welled up inside her, overwhelming and confusing.

So much had happened in the last hours.

Too much to wrap her mind around.

Not only had she managed to break free of an Esri's control for the first time in her life, but she'd also inexplicably acquired power she'd never had.

Yet the thing that sang clearest in her heart was that Charlie had made love to her and that mating had been like nothing she'd ever experienced.

With him, she'd found a closeness she'd never imagined possible.

A beautiful sharing of passion and pleasure, of bodies and emotions.

She felt as if she'd seen into his heart.

His soul.

But he didn't seem to feel the same.

As the climax had come over her, she'd felt him pulling back.

Not physically, but emotionally.

As if he hadn't meant to get that close.

Hadn't wanted to.

Perhaps this was typical with humans.

Sharing their bodies with another was not something they did easily or simply.

She knew that.

Perhaps this awkwardness after was usual.

Or perhaps she'd somehow displeased him, though she couldn't imagine how that could be.

He'd reached his pleasure, she was certain of that.

And he was feeling better.

They'd been traveling for hours since they made love and he had yet to show any sign of weakening.

He didn't even seem to be overly thirsty.

A bright and newfound optimism lived inside her, now.

A hope that with her sudden power she might actually be able to get Charlie through Esria safely.

That's all she wanted,