But it wasn’t. He would send her back under. Keep her down. The cleansings were always her worst punishment.
“In and out. Slow and easy.” Warm heat seared into her back as she was lifted and slammed against a wide chest.
Without thought, she followed his command, breathing in time with the steady rise of the muscled chest at her back.
“Good girl. Just like that.” He shifted her in his hold, the water lapping at her neck as he held her closer.
Another long breath. Her heart calmed. She knew it couldn’t last, but she did her best to sear the sensation into her soul.
“Better?” His low baritone rumbled in her ear.
Reluctantly, she nodded. She would endure this, too. She always did.
“Good.” He let out a slow breath. “You scared the shit out of me.”
Panic gone, she took full stock of her current situation, especially the thick, veiny forearm curled beneath her breastbone that could crush her with one strike, and the rock-hard male part jabbing into the curve of her bottom.
She attempted to shift away. Talg was always roughest inside her right before he punished her.
Her captor only held her tighter. “Stay still.”
“W-what happen now?” Her voice quivered more than she wanted. She was glad she couldn’t see his face. “How long I under for cleansing?”
He didn’t say anything.
Icey dread pooled in the pit of her belly. “P-please tell.”
He flipped her around so that they were face-to-face, her legs straddling his hips.
“What did you think was going to happen here?” The water had darkened his hair to near black, droplets beading on his long, spiky lashes, making his green eyes even more intense. “Did you think I was going to hold you under?”
She tried to understand what he was up to.
“What happened to you, Nayla?” His tone was even harder than before.
She stiffened. “W-what you mean?”
“Did someone hold you under the water? Ramm or Talg?”
She didn’t want to think about the past. All she wanted was to know what was coming so she could brace herself for the pain. “What you going to do?”
She’d threatened him. Resisted. Fought back. If she’d done that to Talg, she’d already be dead. Or worse.
“Answer my question.” Another droplet rolled down the straight blade of his nose, over the dip between his lips. He was so fierce. The hard press of his man part nestling into the V of her legs, as insistent and huge as the man himself. “Did one of them hurt you? Is that why you’re afraid of the water?”
“I-I am in comfort in water, but…” She held up her bound wrists. “This is how pack p-punish and cleanse Gazi.” She swallowed hard. “Hold under water. I-I prefer beating as punishment. P-please.”
Her captor stilled. The lines in his forehead deepened until they were sharp, angry slashes across his forehead.
“Fuck.” He cleared his throat, his hold still firm as his wild green eyes bored into hers. “I just wanted us to cool off and get clean.” He blew out a breath. Unwinding the rope at her wrist, his thumb gliding over the faint marks in her skin. “I’ll make you a promise, wild thing, and you know by now, I always do what I say, right?”
She gave a nod. She did know that. She might not trust much about him, but he had proven this to be true.
“No matter what goes on between us, I will never strike you. I will never hold you under water. I will never cause you extreme physical pain. In return, you’ve got to agree to trust me on this—and react in ways that won’t risk yourself.”
Shocked, she turned his words over in her mind. He couldn’t mean it. Not the promise not to hurt her. Nor the suggestion that he cared about preventing her from harming herself. And yet he had never lied to her. Not once.
“Why you make promise?”
“I know what it is to survive that kind of brutality. I refuse to have you fucking terrified of me.”
It took her a moment to find her voice. “H-how you know that brutality?”
Of all the unfathomable things he’d just said to her, she found that part especially impossible to comprehend. He was so strong and powerful.
“I was a little boy once.” Again, it was as if he knew her thoughts. “My sister and I had to deal with an asshole who was a lot like Talg,” His eyes dulled as he spoke, the vivid green leaching away.