The two females scrambled to their feet, inclining their heads, but not speaking. I froze, naked in the bathing tub. All the air seemed to leave the room as my heartbeat tripled its rhythm in my throat.
“Rothi kiv,” he said in his dark voice, his eyes finding me in the bathing tub and holding.
Immediately, the two females left after draping their washing cloths over the edge of the tub.
And suddenly, I was alone and naked with the horde king.
Chapter Four
“Kalles, you look frightened,” the horde king said. His voice sounded almost…mocking.
I stiffened in the bathing tub, indignation rising, but I tamped it down. I still had the presence of mind to recognize that he held the power over me and it would be best not to anger him.
He turned from me, which gave me a momentary sliver of relief, but it was to rummage through one of the closed chests I’d spotted earlier. Sinking lower into the bath water, making sure it covered my jutting nipples, I watched carefully as he crouched, his back muscles shifting in the golden light as he searched for something.
I let my eyes linger on him longer than I should. Just because he was my new master, it didn’t change the fact that he was visually intriguing. The gold beads and wraps in his hair flashed, the golden, swirling tattoos adorning his dark skin glimmered, those scars, long and deep, bringing questions to my mind, though I didn’t dare voice them. He was strong and large and powerful and dangerous, a cautionary tale I’d heard since childhood made flesh.
When he stood, I saw he had a silk shift night dress in his large hands. It was practically transparent and it confirmed my suspicions that he had more than one female ‘serving’ him. Why else would he have that in his private possessions?
When he approached, I leaned forward, hugging my knees to my chest in an attempt to shield my nudity, looking up at him warily. I cursed that the water was clear now, instead of the dark brown it’d been earlier.
“Stand,” he ordered.
I froze. “What?”
“You are clean now. Stand, kalles.”
There was a challenge not only in his voice but in his eyes. He was testing me again. Why?
He’d called me brave back in my village. He’d also called me foolish. Perhaps Iwasboth because that challenge steeled my spine and set my teeth on edge.
Slowly, I unwrapped my arms from around my knees and stood as I swallowed past the nervous lump in my throat. Would he take me this night? Was that why he wished for me to bathe? Was I to start ‘serving’ him immediately, though we’d ridden through the night, though I was chafed raw between my thighs?
The horde king’s gaze tracked over my naked body, lingering on my breasts, the curve of my hips, and the dark tuft of hair between my legs. He made a rough sound in the back of his throat and it made me jump.
“Step out,” he ordered, though his voice was considerably deeper than it’d been a moment before.
I licked my dry lips and did as he commanded, though I couldn’t suppress my wince as a twinge of sharp pain shot through my backside.
The horde king stilled. “What is it?”
Pride made me say, “Nothing.”
His eyes narrowed and he grabbed my wrist, hauling me towards him. The sudden movement made me grit my teeth, but he turned me, inspecting me.
He growled out something in Dakkari when he saw my flesh, the redness of my backside, no doubt, and then he turned me, peering between my legs, at my inner thighs.
My cheeks flamed with humiliation. I’d never been naked with a male before, not since my mother used to bathe my brother and I together when we’d been children. I wasn’t used to baring my body so freely, especially in front of rapt, attentive, yellow-rimmed eyes.
I gasped and jumped when he brushed his fingertips across my reddened, sore flesh.
“Don’t,” I protested, trying to twist away from him. But he held me still, though I squirmed.
Finally, he released my wrists. His face was tight when he turned me back around to face him and he scooped up a spare fur blanket, using it to roughly dry off my body, though his touch gentled when he reached my hips…and below.
It surprised me, but I was too nervous to let out a single breath, so I stood, frozen.
“Put this on,” he commanded, dropping the transparent night dress in my hands.
