James must have heard, because his head turned in her direction, and she knew that he knew she was watching. His cock stiffened beneath his grip, and Ahnna’s lips parted, lust for him making her feel almost feral with need.
He lifted his face. “All right, Warden. Time for you to fulfill your part of the bargain.”
“Prisoner, approach!”
Ahnna twitched at the female warden’s shout from above. Biting at her bottom lip, Ahnna moved beneath the opening, the sunlight stinging her eyes.
“Strip.”
It wasn’t easy getting her clothes off with a broken arm, but Ahnna managed, standing naked but for the splints bound to her forearm. The warden dropped a piece of soap, and Ahnna held it to her nose, inhaling the scent of lavender.
Then water poured down. It was icy cold, and she gasped with shock as her nipples peaked, but the shock faded with the sweet pleasure of sweat being washed from her skin. She rubbed the soap over her body, building a lather on her breasts, then ran a soapy hand down one leg. Then the other.
Water poured from above, but over the splash against the floor of her cell, she heard James’s intake of breath. Heard the sound of his hand working himself as he watched her, and Ahnna pivoted so that he could see her ass as she ran the soap over it. More water, and she moved to her hair, cleaning the long lengths so that it hung in loose curls to her waist.
Her body ached with the need to be touched, and as more water sluiced down, she slipped her fingers between her legs, aroused beyond reason knowing that James was watching her. She heard his intake of breath as he climaxed, and it was nearly her undoing, but then the warden snarled from above, “Get your clothes on, prisoner.”
Ahnna ignored her. Discarding the remains of the soap outside thepool of water, she walked slowly toward the hole between their cells, then leaned against the wall. “Touch me.”
“You never cease to surprise me, Princess.”
She closed her eyes, a soft gasp tearing from her lips as he reached through, his index finger parting her sex.
“You must have enjoyed your bath,” he murmured, his finger slipping inside her. “You’re very wet.”
“I enjoyed watching yours more.” Her nails scratched against the wall, her body shuddering as his finger curved, stroking inside.
James made a soft noise of amusement. “Liar. I was watching you. I should have negotiated for a bath every day.”
She’d known that he had been, but the confirmation sent a thrill through Ahnna’s veins. “Consider it an incentive to find a way out of here.”
By way of answer, he slid another finger into her, his thumb finding her clit, the sensation making her knees weak. She’d already been aroused close to the point of climax, and his touch was on the verge of sending her over the edge. “Don’t stop.”
“I am yours to command, Princess.”
Her body was rigid with tension, the aching build between her legs so intense she could barely breathe, but Ahnna clung to the edge and refused to go over. Because she didn’t want this moment to end, didn’t want his hands to leave her body, but her control trembled as he teased and stroked her sensitive flesh.
“Come for me, Ahnna,” he growled, his words punctuated by his fingers plunging in and out of her. “Give in to me.”
Her control shattered, and her climax exploded through her body with such force that she sobbed his name. No part of her cared who heard, because she was consumed by pleasure that would have brought her to her knees if not for his fingers inside her. Stroking and teasing out every last tremble until she was spent.
Ahnna nearly wept as he withdrew his hand, and she slid down thewall until her cheek rested against the edge of the opening. Through it, she could see the shadow of his face. Hear the rapidness of his breath, and she knew that there was no other man in the world for her but James. She was his, circumstances and wars and fucking prison cells be damned.
Reaching through the opening, she took hold of his hand and gripped it hard, whispering, “I’m bringing this wall between us down, one way or another.”
Ahnna fell asleep with her fingers locked with James’s, drifting in and out of fitful slumber, her unconscious mind stewing over the knowledge that Taryn was on her way back to Ithicana and that time was very much of the essence. When she woke, her eyes felt full of sand as dawn light poured in through the opening above. Her mouth was equally dry, the awful heat having returned to the cell floor. It cooked the moisture out of her body and left her with a blinding headache.
Pulling her hand from James’s grip, Ahnna crawled over to her water pitcher and filled her cup. She drank long and deep, but as she lowered her arm into the sunlight, Ahnna went still. Her skin was smeared with white dust, noticeable now because the rest of her was relatively clean. Powdered mortar left behind when they’d cut the hole between her cell and James’s.Gypsum.
She squinted at the walls of the cell. The builders had used lime mortar to build the Furnace, but lime mortar took a long time to set. The modification to her cell and James’s had been done quickly, so they’d used gypsum. Wheels began to turn in her mind, and Ahnna scratched at the thick white crust that had caked in the lines between the stones of the floor from years of piss building up.Saltpeter.
Neither was ideal or a pure source, but Ahnna was Ithicanian, which meant she knew explosives.
And she knew them well.
She surveyed the meager supplies in her cell, and then picked up the soap and the dried vine ropes scattered about.
It was a start, but it wasn’t enough to accomplish the plan growing in her head. Crawling over to the hole, she hissed, “James!”
