His thumb stopped stroking and his fingers sifted up into my hair, putting pressure on so my lips touched his.
There, he whispered in English, “Oh yes.”
I found the right word or a right word.
I smiled against his mouth.
His eyes heated and he growled against mine.
Then his head slanted, his fingers pressed further, he ground my lips against his, they opened and his tongue instantly invaded. I made a noise in my throat and he rolled me to my back.
Then he demonstrated how energetic he would have felt after he seized the Dax. It was years later but clearly the glory hadn’t faded and I knew this mainly because, even after an already hot and heavy session, it… was… phenomenal.
So much so, my loud moans, whimpers and cries were noted by passersby, those inhabiting close chams and spies paying attention as were his groans, grunts and his final shout of cl**ax.
And after he was through with me, thoroughly through with me, I fell into an exhausted sleep not thinking about holding magic. Not thinking of calling to the heavens to make them weep, to sending a rainbow arcing through the sky. Not thinking that I might have the magic in me to send myself home. And not thinking about Zahnin and his wife, hoping all would soon be well in their cham.
No, I didn’t think any of that.
Instead, in the seconds before my husband’s warm, hard, big body settled next to and partly over mine, his arm wrapped around, our legs tangled, I didn’t think about anything.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Contest
Seven days later…
I dipped my fingers into the pot of black paint and saw they were trembling.
I had to get a hold of myself.
But soon, very soon, in fact, I was all dressed and ready to go in my golden finery and as soon as I painted my husband, we would be out of our cham and on our way to Lahn facing Dortak in the challenge.
I knew one thing, Lahn would beat him.
I knew something else, as much as I hated Dortak and as little as it said about me, I cared nothing about the fact his life would soon end but I still didn’t look forward to watching my husband cut his head off.
And I knew one last thing, Dortak would not hesitate to cheat and I didn’t want Lahn to get hurt when he did.
And I so didn’t want that that I knew I didn’t want it not because I simply didn’t want another man, an abuser and a cheater, to harm a man who would fight with honor. And I knew I didn’t want it not because Lahn had kept me fed and sheltered and showered in jewels and kickass clothes.
I didn’t want it because I cared about my husband and this feeling ran deep.
And because of this I was terrified out of my mind.
* * * * *
The last seven days had been good, very good, too good.
I had kept up my wanderings with Bain and Zahnin but now Zahnin was chatting. We didn’t have deep conversations where he bared his soul but he talked. He didn’t ask for advice or share how things were going in his cham but he did more than grunt unintelligibly at observations I made, he corrected my Korwahk and he often waded in to try to explain when I was speaking with my people on the (rarer and rarer occasion) I was messing it up.
Daily, however, I went to his cham to attend Sabine. At my request, Diandra and Claudine had sought and found the other girl not of Korwahk who was hunted with us. She was Fleuridian too, her name was Anastasie and although her warrior had been gentler with her, without the assistance I had or Sabine was getting, she was still lost in a culture she didn’t understand and more than a little alarmed by it (she had not, for instance, been sheltered from the selection or the celebration after). With Narinda, Diandra and Claudine gave all of us lessons in Korwahk and often Nahka would come by, sometimes bringing her friends, and lessons would descend into girlie time with Diandra and Claudine translating. With this, it didn’t take long for laughter to ring from Sabine’s tent.
And this laughter was ringing once when the flaps slapped back and Zahnin entered.
Sabine did not scurry away but her eyes did snap to him. She held her body tense but not tight nor terrified, just guarded.
I counted this as progress.