“There. Are you happy? You’ve seen me. Now, go make fun of me somewhere else and leave me to die.” She pushed at him as she released the cloth.
He reached up and grabbed it tightly, pulling it hard and forcing them to press tighter together. Who was she? What was she blabbering about?
“Intoxicating,” he whispered and reached up to touch the side of her alabaster face. “Who hurt you?”
A long cut ran down her cheek, a bruise was on the other, and her full ruby-red lip was busted. Outside of being roughed up, she had to be the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. She put Jazmine to shame ten times over easily.
Thick silky waves of dark red hair framed her face, and her button nose and deep blue eyes were beautifully matched to her skin tone, as if heaven had made one last angel before closing its doors.
“The guards, you idiot.” She pushed at his chest. “Stop looking at me. Please. Leave me a smidgen of dignity before they tear my head from my shoulders.”
“Why did you kill a guard?” He licked at his lips, suddenly aware of just how violently his body was reacting to the beautiful girl. His cock was working its way down the leg of his pants, pulsing with his heartbeat, and no doubt giving the girl full access to just how much control she could have over him, given the chance.
“He tried to rape me.” She pushed at Nojan again. “Let me go. We’re both going to be killed if we get caught in here.”
“Who are you?” He glanced down as the swell of her prodigious chest lifted with each breath she took. A small blue charm sat between her breasts, hanging from a tarnished gold chain around her neck.
“I’m nobody,” she growled, which only seemed to shoot fire down the center of his stomach. “I told you that already.”
He’d been turned on by watching commentary about Territhian women or reading books, but this was a whole new experience. He needed to watch himself or his eyes would—
“What the hell is wrong with your eyes?” She reached up and brushed her fingers just below his eye.
“Nothing at all, angel.” He plucked the charm from the top of her breasts and stifled a groan at how good her skin felt against his fingertips. “You’re the oracle. I’ve come for you.”
“No, you haven’t. You have the wrong girl, creature.” She kneed him in the balls and jerked out of the folded curtain.
He groaned loudly and dropped to his knees. Fire raced up his stomach and left him dizzy as he tried to get his breath.
“Wait,” he mumbled and pressed his hands into the sandy earth beneath him. “Wait. I need to talk to you.”
She was running full speed ahead, which only left him with one choice. Swallow his nuts as they sat in his throat and pray like hell he would catch her before the palace guards did.
He forced himself to his feet and took off, cupping his crotch and cursing the girl with what little anger he could muster. She was scared, running for her life, half beaten, and believed herself to be some hideous creature that she most certainly wasn’t.
How many times had she asked him not to look upon her or referenced her beauty as if she were the vilest creature known to exist? Was she kidding, or had Rantel’s people somehow forced her to believe that she wasn’t at all the woman she was?
Nojan picked up his jog to a sprint as he caught sight of her crimson hair dancing in the wind behind her. Knowing her name would have helped a lot, and yet he was almost on top of her.
“Wait!” he called out to her and ignored the stares he got from the various creatures all around them. “What can I do to help?”
She turned and her big blue eyes widened, almost stealing his heart with nothing more than a look.
“Nothing. Turn and run.” She cried out as three guards tackled her and threw her to the ground a few feet in front of him. She glanced up from the ground as she struggled under the weight of one of them and mouthed, “Run.”
“I can’t,” Nojan mumbled and moved toward the closest vendor to pretend as if he were looking at something beautiful, which he was. They were mistaken about her. All of them. She wasn’t vile in any manner of the word, or maybe something was wrong with him.
It wouldn’t have taken more than her muttering that she was interested to have her over his shoulder and on her way to being properly fucked for the entirety of the afternoon.
Was she the virgin that Kara spoke of? He turned as they picked her up and walked her back toward the castle.
“You’re going to pay for this, you bitch.” One of the guards backhanded her as Nojan growled softly behind them.
He might want to rush in and save the day, but after studying the ways of the cat-people for far too long, he knew it would only mean death. Once he was slain and his blood ran black, they would know that the Vartiks were alive and well.
Nothing was worth that. Nothing.
