“Who’s there?”
Water swished. I tensed. C’ael had said he wouldn’t let anyone in, so who?—
“It’s only me, Leela.” Iblees’s baritone drifted toward me.
I turned my head toward it as the mist parted to reveal his epic form. His hair was loose, cascading over his shoulders, golden tendrils nestled like silken ribbons against the darker tones. The water skimmed his hips as he glided from the shallows toward me. I was suddenly back in the steam baths in Prashikshan, my back against stone as Araz advanced on me. He’d been pissed at finding me there, accusatory even, but now, here, in this hot bath, the male who bridged the distancebetween us did so with a different intention in his smoldering eyes.
Breathe, Leela. Keep your eyes on his face. Don’t look down.
My traitorous gaze worked against me, dropping to his powerful chest, then to the cobbled abs and delicious Adonis belt that pointed to delights I knew only too well.
The water rose as he got closer, breaking the spell. I exhaled then steeled my spine as he came to a standstill a few feet from me.
I was naked.
He was naked.
It was fine.
The water and steam covered it all. Oh gods, he was so close, I could touch him if I wanted. Press myself to his skin and revel in the contact and breathe in his cranberry scent. My eyes heated with longing.
“How are you feeling after the training?” he asked.
“Sore, but the hot water helps.”
He moved a little closer, and I resisted the urge to step forward and meet him. “I heard you were formidable with the bow,” he said softly.
I shrugged. “Turns out I have an innate skill for archery.”
“Your arm must be tired…” His gaze dropped to my shoulder. “I can massage the muscles if you wish.”
I bit back a moan at the thought of a massage. But having him touch me…Yeah, bad idea.
I cleared my throat. “I’m good.”
His lips parted, nostrils flaring. “I know when you’re in discomfort, Leela. I can sense when you’re in pain or when you yearn…I can feel your desire…I feel it now.”
I sucked in a breath and fixed my attention on his bare chest, close enough to lick. His scent was an aphrodisiac seeping into my senses to weaken my resolve.
His chest rose and fell on a deep breath, and when he spoke, the vibration of his voice rippled through me. “Look at me, Leela.” I lifted my chin to meet his gaze, breath stalling at the heat that waited there. “Are you recalling the last time we were like this? Alone in a steam bath, back when I was doing everything in my power to warn you away from me. To hate you and to make you hate me.” He cupped my jaw gently with one hand, thumb teasing my lower lip. “Have you any idea how hard it was for me not to take you fully that night? I was almost inside you, and I stopped because you asked me to. And now…Now I need you to ask me again.” He pressed down on my bottom lip. My heart lurched, gaze whipping up to meet his as the memory of that night all those weeks ago filled my mind. I’d licked him then. Taken his thumb and sucked it into my mouth. “Ask me to stop.” His voice was strained.
I wanted to taste him. Oh gods, I needed to.
“Tell me to leave.”
I licked him, and he went as still as stone, our gazes locked, and in the next moment, he’d lifted me up, one hand bracing my ass as the other arm wrapped around me, his thick length sliding against my core.
“Ask me to leave.” He nipped at my earlobe and gripped my ass tighter, positioning me against him so that the thick head of his cock pushed at my entrance.
My hips tilted toward him, the motion instinctive and needy. I bit back a cry.
“Leela.” His voice was a ragged, broken thing. “Please, tell me to stop. Tell me you don’t want this.”
But I couldn’t. The words refused to come, buried beneath the heat that coursed through my body. The yearning, twisting, tightening, need carried only one word.
The name he needed me to give him, and the one that I’d been withholding.
He rolled his hips, inching into me, and my head fell back, my gaze meeting his as a soft moan spilled from my lips.
