The Thief and the Desert Flower, page 9
Because he didn’t know what to say, Kyo rose and went to check on the cooking meat. It was nearly black on the outside and cooked enough inside. He slipped it off the spit and carved a slice for each of them.
They ate in silence, the warm, companionable feeling gone. He tried to bring it back by asking more questions about her life, but Chala replied in one or two words. She kept her eyes on her food and only ate half of what he gave her before setting the plate aside. “I’m not hungry.” She rose to her feet.
He opened his mouth to say something, but didn’t know what she wanted to hear from him, so he closed it again and watched her walk outside. The woman was too difficult to figure out. She wavered back and forth between acting friendly and hating him with the darting speed of a rabbit and about as much sense. He was growing impatient with taking a few steps closer to her then falling back six or seven.
Maybe he should act more like the hawk than the jackal, swooping down out of the sky and seizing what it wanted instead of biding its time waiting by the rabbit’s hole. Both methods were effective in taking down a kill, but the hawk’s way was less boring.
Outdoors, Chala squatted in the shade of the boulder to relieve herself and stared morosely at the steaming puddle evaporating with a sizzle on the hot sand. She despised herself for her muddled feelings. Kyo was a killer, a thief and a kidnapper with the ethics and integrity of an animal. There was nothing to redeem him. She should despise him and yet she kept being drawn in by his undeniable charm. In some ways he was refreshingly honest and innocent, not pretending to be anything other than what he was. Besides, he’d been very kind and gentle this morning while treating her burns.
Burns which she wouldn’t even have if he hadn’t dragged her out here into the desert! She sighed, pulled up her underwear and smoothed her garment back in place. It was exhausting trying to sort out her conflicting emotions, especially when her skin felt as if it had been flayed off, shrunk then re-stretched over her bones.
The smell of roasting meat still lingered when she returned to the cave, and Kyo had just finished washing their bowls. “Her” dinner bowl. How quickly this cave and the objects in it had become familiar. How soon before she’d leave them behind to live in another palace—far grander than her father’s, from what she’d heard?
She stopped in front of Kyo as he stacked the clean dishes. “When are you going to exchange me for ransom?”
He continued straightening them and didn’t meet her eye. “When is time.”
“And when will that be?”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry. Things move slow in desert. Is time when is time.” With that nebulous answer, he left the cave.
This evening Chala didn’t go outside to sit with him. The intimate feeling she’d had last night as Kyo had told her star stories mustn’t happen again. She must distance herself from him before she forgot who she was and where she truly belonged.
Chapter Nine
Living with Kyo while trying to keep her distance from him turned out to be extremely difficult. He was right there, all the time. She was always aware of his presence, so close and accessible. Although he never reached for her or tried to lie with her at night, she knew he wanted to. It was obvious in his heavy-lidded gaze as he watched her move about her tasks of keeping the den clean and cooking. A single word from her and she could have what they both craved. Now that she knew what sex was, she wanted to try it again. As she lay on her pallet each night, she pressed her legs tight together to soothe the aching, and sometimes her hand stole down to touch her sex.
Besides resisting the potent sexuality that hung in the very air, Chala had to combat her need for companionship. She wasn’t a naturally quiet person and couldn’t stay silent for long. Kyo was full of stories to share and observations about life that were completely foreign to her way of seeing things. She couldn’t keep from arguing with him or asking questions about his world.
“But why?” she asked for a third time when he still didn’t seem to understand her simple question.
“Why what?” His frustration was clear in his frown and his open hands. “I tell you already.”
“No, you haven’t answered my question. If you know eventually you’ll make a bargain and set a bride price, why kidnap the woman to begin with? Why not negotiate terms and marry her in a civilized manner? Then there wouldn’t be any animosity or fighting between the tribes before the matter was settled.”
“We make deal between families in tribe, yes,” he agreed. “But if a man see woman he wants while traveling, he take her.”
“Why? Don’t you see how unreasonable that is?” She almost yelled in aggravation. Was he being purposely dense?
“Is way it was always done. Tribes join together this way.”
“After fighting each other. If you’d simply put the negotiation first, you’d avoid bloodshed.” She shook her head.
“To steal a woman show her that man want her,” Kyo added. “You see? To ask permission take away from…” He waved his hand as he searched for the words. “Kloa. Tyokianna.”
“Pepper?” Chala recognized kloa as the word for the hot spice that scented Kyo’s clothes and which they often used to flavor meat.
He grunted and shook his head. “Heat. Spice. And tyokianna—having.”
“To ask permission takes away from the heat of possessing.” Her cheeks and the tips of her ears burned as she said it aloud. For one brief moment, she imagined Kyo throwing her down, right here and now on the cave floor, and taking her. She didn’t know how hard she’d struggle.
“Well, that’s a lovely thought,” she said dryly. “Very romantic.”
“Roman—tic?” he repeated.
“Never mind.” She set aside the dried peas she was shelling and examined her hands, the nails chipped and the palms growing rough from handling firewood. “When are you going to trade me to Brachas? I can’t keep living in this cave day after day. I’m out of my mind with boredom.”
She watched Kyo from beneath her lashes, checking his reaction. Over the past few days she’d begun to believe he didn’t intend to ransom her at all. He was going to keep her as a slave to do his menial labor for the rest of her life. This discussion of kidnapping brides made her doubt he’d ever planned to free her, and when she thought of it, he’d never actually had a chance to give a ransom message to anyone from the caravan.
He blinked and poked at the fire with a stick. The movements in themselves meant nothing, but his demeanor proclaimed guilt. “I leave to negotiate with Brachas today.” He lingered with a hiss on the word “negotiate”, and she guessed it was a new one in his Genderese vocabulary.
Standing, he held out a hand to her. “Come. You bored from sit too much. I show you something.”
She rose without taking his hand. “Show me what?”
“I can’t take you. You will be alone for some days. I trust you not to run because I take horses, but you need know how to defend if something happen.” He suddenly seized her arm. “In caravan you fight good. I show you how to do even better.”
Her eyebrows shot up. He was going to teach her to fight? The man really was crazy.
“When man grab you like this how you break free?”
Chala pulled against his grip and kicked out with her foot, but before it could connect with his shin, Kyo had spun her around and pulled her back against him. Now he held her tight in the circle of his arm, against his body. She struggled, but couldn’t break the iron band of his arm around her middle.
“No! Man is big. You are small. Must use cleverness to escape.”
She panted, breathless even though she hadn’t really exerted herself yet. “What do you suggest?”
Abruptly he whirled her away till she faced him and let go of her.
“Man expect you to pull away. You step in close and stab like so… Reach for my arm.”
Chala acted the part of the attacker, grabbing his forearm. Kyo lunged toward her so quickly she shrieked. His hand shot toward her eyes, two fingers extended to gouge them. He stopped inches short of doing so.
Her heart pounded. “Karachi!”
Kyo pulled back. “Or, try this.” He drew her swiftly back into his arms, twirling her around and close to his body again. “Maybe you can’t break free.” His breath puffed warm against the side of her face. “But you can hit with back of head. Try.”
Chala was confused. He was moving quickly, giving her no time to think, only to react. But she obeyed his command and snapped her head back. Pain bloomed in her skull as it cracked against his jaw.
Kyo grunted and cursed. His grip on her body loosened and she almost wiggled free before he caught her again.
“Good.”
“You’re crazy! Let me go.” She stomped on his foot, but he didn’t flinch, probably because her feet were bare while he wore boots. “Take me back where I belong and I won’t need to learn how to defend myself.”
“Patience. I make deal, then we see.”
“I don’t believe you. I don’t think you have any intention of letting me go,” she blurted, tired of pretending she believed his lies. She bent her head and bit his forearm.
He yelped and relaxed his grip. This time she pushed her body back into his, knocking them both off kilter. As Kyo stumbled, trying to catch his balance, she shot forward, out of his arms. She scooped up the small axe they used to chop kindling and spun around to face him.
Kyo was back on his feet. Eyes glittering, he moved toward her, lithe and graceful as a cat. She swung the ax toward him, not in a spinning arc as if to cut off his head, but a little jab intended to threaten and force him back.
He ducked down and lunged up in front of her. His arm swept out, hitting hers with a stunning blow that sent the ax flying and clattering on the ground. It felt like her arm had been hit by a hammer. Stinging pain shot from the point of contact. Before she could even cry out, Kyo had her in his arms again, pulled up tight against him.
He gazed into her eyes, less than a hand span away. “Very good, sachense. You learn fast.”
“You hurt me!” She smacked her hands against his chest, her arm throbbing.
“You’ll live.” He lowered his face, closer yet, only inches away. His lips were parted, the lower one moist and gleaming. She focused on a tiny brown mole to the left of his nose to keep from staring at his mouth.
They stood together, bodies swaying slightly, and all she could hear was his breath, the blood rushing in her ears and the trickling of water from the back of the cave. Would he kiss her? What was he waiting for?
Suddenly, she couldn’t bear it any longer. She rose up on her toes and leaned toward him. Her mouth settled over his and she tasted him, warm and spicy. She sucked his lower lip into her mouth and he groaned. Then she took it between her teeth, tugging and making him groan louder. Chala bit down—not a playful nip, a hard bite, her teeth tearing through his flesh.
Kyo yelled and pushed her away. His hands flew to his mouth. Below his cupped hands, blood trickled down his chin. “Lagro! Lagro, mochran!”
Chala licked her lips and tasted copper. She glanced past him, gauging the distance to the cave entrance and her chances of reaching it before he grabbed her again. Lunging to the left, she darted past him.
Kyo tackled her to the ground. She hit the rocky floor hard enough to drive the air from her lungs, and he landed with his body half covering hers. Gasping for air, she tried to crawl from beneath him. He rolled to the side, flipping her over so she lay face up. He straddled her body, pinning her down.
She glared into his bloodied, grinning face. He was panting and his eyes were as bright as the midday sun. “Kloa, yes? Hot!”
Her lungs burned as she inhaled. Before she could say a word or spit in his face, Kyo descended on her like a diving eagle and kissed her. If it hurt when he ground his torn lip against hers, he didn’t flinch. He held her arms to the ground on either side of her head and kissed her with such ardor that she was breathless again.
She wiggled beneath him, testing to see if she could shift his body weight off of her. It was like being trapped under a pile of rocks, and his erection prodding into her belly was definitely rock hard. He dared to plunge his tongue into her mouth, heedless of the damage she could do with her teeth even though she’d just given him a lesson.
The tang of his blood and the new awareness of violence she’d never known she possessed combined into a heady aphrodisiac. Chala surrendered to his stroking tongue. Of its own accord, her tongue curled around his and her lips molded to his hard pressure. Her body felt like softened tallow, refusing to respond to her commands to fight him.
After a few moments, he released her mouth to kiss her jaw and neck, tickling her with his lips until she squirmed once more. He murmured something in Shinje against her neck and rocked his hips, rubbing his cock against her.
Her pulse fluttered as erratically as a trapped moth, and her already sweating body grew hotter. His grip on her wrists loosened as his mouth ranged over her chest and the swell of her breasts. “Lagro, ti claisse. Mi tyokianna ti.” The vibration of the words against her flesh, the puffs of air that accompanied them, melted her into a puddle of desire. Her ability to struggle drifted away on a current of pleasure.
Then his hands let go of her arms completely as he reached to caress her breasts and stomach.
Wake up! Don’t lose yourself this way! Chala burst from her erotic torpor into action. She grabbed Kyo’s shoulders and pushed against him with all her might. She dug her heels into the ground and arched her body, bucking him off of her. Her strength was a fraction of his, but she’d caught him off guard. With a twist and a roll, she ended up on top, straddling his body.
Chala grabbed his wrists and pinned his arms beside his head as he had done to her. She grinned at him, the same bloody grin of conquest he’d given her. Her heart pounded and her body hummed with energy. Between her legs and in each breast, her sexual power throbbed. She dug her nails into Kyo’s wrists and leaned over him until her face was only inches from his.
His eyes were nearly closed and his lips parted. Lust radiated from him as palpably as the draw of a magnet. His body quivered slightly between her legs, like a horse ready to race if she spurred his flanks.
“Animal,” she muttered before attacking his mouth, kissing him hard and deep while she ground her sex against him. Fire crackled through her. The sense of power sitting astride this wild mount gave her was like the surge of freedom she used to feel as a child when she ran into the wind with her arms outstretched.
She licked his damaged lip and plunged her tongue into his mouth, wrestling with him that way for several heartbeats. Then she pulled away and dove for the soft spot beneath his jaw. Kyo tilted his head back, offering his throat, trusting she wouldn’t tear it open. She licked the salty sheen of sweat from his skin and pressed kisses to the hollow between his collarbones where his pulse raced.
Her hands slid from his wrists to his palms. Their fingers interlaced. His long, strong fingers wrapped around hers were a strange comfort, making her feel safe for some inexplicable reason. She gripped his hands until she had to let go because she needed her own for other things.
Pulling the neckline of his shirt down, she licked and kissed the hard, flat plane of his chest. As it lifted and fell with his breathing, she felt the life pulsing through him. He was vibrant and alive and seemed more real to her than anyone she’d ever met—and she felt more real around him than she’d ever felt in her life before.
The low-grade fever of desire which had burned through both of them for the past few days, unmentioned but as loud as a constant rumble of thunder, now flared into a scorching conflagration. Kyo raised his torso and she tugged off his shirt. Chala lifted her arms and he pulled her dress over her head. In a scramble of limbs and bumping bodies, they stripped naked.
Feeling shameless and as wild and free as some kind of animal, Chala resumed her position astride his body. She reveled in the look in his eyes as he devoured her body with them. Her breasts thrust out, perky and pointed, and she rubbed her wet sex slowly along the length of his long, thick shaft. Kyo’s throat worked as he swallowed hard.
“Like that?” she teased.
He grunted in answer. His hands rested on her hips then slid around to her buttocks to grasp and squeeze.
Chala slid her pussy up and down his erection several times then reached down to guide his cock to her entrance.
“Wait.” His voice was harsh and strangled. “Wait. I do something first. For you.”
He grabbed her waist and lifted her off him. In seconds she was on her back and he was kneeling between her spread legs. “You will like,” he promised.
Her breathing quickened as he leaned over her, his hands caressing her belly. He nuzzled her breasts, rubbing his cheeks between them and sniffing them before running his tongue on the underside of each curve. Chala shivered as his tongue tickled her. Anticipation built as he licked up the slope of one of her breasts and drew her nipple between his lips. His tongue swirled around and over the erect nub before he sucked it into his mouth.
The warmth bathing her breast washed straight down to the juncture of her legs. She was a candle melting into a puddle of liquid wax as he suckled one tit then the other. Her eyes nearly closed as she arched her chest toward his mouth and his teasing fingers that pulled and twisted her other nipple.
Kyo played with her breasts for a few moments then pressed a kiss to the breastbone between them. He traveled a path down her stomach to her navel. Chala’s belly leaped inside and the taut skin covering it twitched. His hands stroked her sides, up and down, soothing her, while his mouth roamed below her stomach down toward her sex.
Her eyes opened wide and she looked down at the top of his head, the slice of profile moving lower until he was kissing right along the edge of the tangle of hair marking her pussy. He skirted it and when his nibbling kisses reached the crease of her thigh and groin, she wiggled and twisted. She reached out and touched the side of his head. His glossy hair slid beneath her fingers. She guessed where he was going with his talented mouth and had to decide if she should push him away or accept what he offered. To have his mouth touch her intimately must be wrong, but she’d allowed him so much liberty with her body already, what was a little more?
