The look he gave me when I drew back could only be called incendiary.
“Look at the two of us,” he said casually, as if his voice wasn’t low and sinfully rough. “We’re covered in dust and dirt. And you need to clean the blood from your leg.”
I was slow to figure out his meaning; it took him catching the backs of my thighs and lifting me for me to catch on.
“Bad idea to keep all this dirt on us for so long, especially with open wounds,” I played along. “It’s justaskingfor trouble, especially when we have such private baths.”
His eyes darkened, bright topaz to shadowed blue. “Go help our new friends find places to stay,” he shouted to the legion. “Mak, take care of Raheema. Hiba will be here soon to check on her injuries.”
I’ll be fine,Raheema grumbled the moment I looked at her and opened my mouth.Go, mate.
My ears burned at the blunt encouragement, but I didn’t argue. Not when our injuries had already been patched by my cousin—and what a revelation that was—I knew she would heal. Plus, Varidian was giving me that dark, smoky look that made my toes curl.
I had a sudden interest in cleanliness.
CHAPTER 33
AMEIRAH
Despite the handsy touches and filthy words we exchanged on the way to the baths, the moment I submerged my body, I hissed at the vicious sting in my side.
“I’m fine,” I said when Varidian’s eyes darkened, pure wrath overriding his lust.
“I should have been the one to kill my father,” he growled, casting off his dusty leathers and sinking into the huge bath inset in the warm stone floor with me. “I would have made it last far longer than you did.”
I chewed my lip. “About that. It can’t be safe to harbour me in the Red Star. People will come looking for me—”
“Let them.” His warm hands found my hips, pulling me into him. Even though the harpoon injury had healed, he was still smeared with blood and the sight of it made me want to set things on fire.
“Do you even understand that Ikilled a king?It’s the worst kind of treason. I’ll be executed for it—”
“Absolutely fucking not.”
“It’sregicide—”
“I know,” Varidian said with a grin, sweeping closer, the water lapping around us kept warm by magic embedded in the stone. His stare simmered, a huskiness in his voice that made me extra sensitive to the hands on my body. “Aren’t you positivelymurderous,my beautiful, alluring wife?”
“God save us from your obsession,” I groaned. “Varidian, I need you to have some common sense right now.”
“I have sense,” he murmured, catching my lip in his teeth as he stroked over my hips, mindful of my injury. His palms moulded to my ass, positioning me until our hips aligned. He was already hard, and the wet slide of skin made his cock jolt against my hip. “I have the good sense to give my beloved wife several orgasms to ease the pain of the injury she got defending our kingdom.”
“We need a plan—”
“We have a plan.”
“Would you stop interrupting me?” I grumbled, and watched delight turn his eyes to glittering topaz. Oh, he was goading me. He wanted me angry and blazing; no doubt my wrath was a turn-on. I tugged the tie from his hair and wrapped dark strands around my fingers, pulling tight. He shuddered, his mouth parting. “Tell me the plan.”
“Touch me,” he begged. “Please, Ameirah.”
“Tell me the plan, and I will.”
He groaned, his eyes falling shut, long lashes casting shadows across his cheeks. “My brother is a secretive bastard, but for months he’s been training his ground legion in wyvern flight and gathering secrets on all the power players in Ithanys—and Kalder. I have no doubt his plan eventually involved theking’s death, even if we’ve escalated their timeline. He’s going for the crown. Let him have it.”
I reached through the warm water and wrapped my hand around his hardness, earning a deep, throaty groan with the long stroke I gave him. I knew Kamaal had secrets and knew there was no love lost between him and Bakshi, but what Varidian described was a rebellion. The council would never accept him as king—that room was full of the Zalaam queen’s people. I opened my mouth to tell Varidian about all I’d seen and learned in Cirestia, but he was panting—trembling—and I decided that dark story could wait.
The moment I kissed him, Varidian lifted me from the water and my back met the cold stone of the wall.
“Your leg. The cut you got defending the Red Star,” he said against my mouth, his hands wandering over my thighs as he kissed me, deep and urgent from the first brush of his lips to mine. I tightened my grip on his hair, taking control of the kiss when he began to draw away. I kissed him until my lungs burned, until my head threatened to spin.
