She catches my gaze and quickly schools her features into impassivity—I hide the whispers of my smile, too.
I gesture toward the stream. “You bathe first. I’ll stand guard.” I drop my bag onto the ground while Mayah rifles through her satchel for her only spare outfit.
Back turned, I lean against a thick tree trunk, trying desperately,futilely, to ignore the soft rustle of clothing as sheundresses, the gentle sounds of water as she wades into the stream.
Think about literally anything else, idiot.
Faramir’s sneering face. The last battle where I sliced off a man’s arm at the elbow. Her friends’ blood on my hands.
Anything except the fact that Mayah stands completely naked, just a few feet behind me, water lapping at her calves, kissing her bare skin as she cups it in her palms and cascades it down her body.
My trousers are uncomfortably tight. I shift my weight, clearing my throat.
“Are you turning around?” Mayah’s panicked voice calls out.
No, but I want to.
An amused sigh escapes me instead. “No, Mayah. I’m not.” I can’t resist adding, “Why, do you want me to?” A slow grin spreads across my face as she sputters.
“No!”
I’m disappointed when my neck doesn’t prickle.
After leaving the stream, we walk for hours, my heavy cloak thrown over my shoulder. Her faint steps echo behind me in the forest. After the torture of listening to her bathe, I know my eyes will wander if she walks ahead, all swaying hips and loose hair I want to tangle my fingers in. What would she—
Mayah looses a sharp yelp.
Immediately, I spin, hand on the hilt of my sword, ready to impale any threat.
I’m unprepared for Mayah to crash into me. I catch her around the waist with one arm, but the momentum sends us tumbling backward in a jumble of limbs. I cradle her to my chest, curling inwards as we plummet.
My back slams against the ground, the air knocked from my lungs. Mayah gasps, hands clutching my shirt, but otherwise seems all right. She bears her weight against my chest, andfuck, her thighs straddle mine. My hands are tight around her hips, her face buried in my neck. She smells incredible.
Familiar.
Maddening.
My cock stirs in my trousers, and it’s all I can do to quell the surge of desire. Her dark hair cascades around her face, a curtain between us and the world.
She’s not moving.
Neither am I.
Skies, I want to kiss her. Would it be so—
Yes. Yes, it would be catastrophic, idiot.
So I act like an ass. Again.
“Don’t get enough of me at night?” A teasing smirk curls my lips. “I’m happy to oblige, Mayah.”
The coarse words break the spell. She scrambles off me, leaving cold disappointment in her wake.
“Sorry,” she mutters, striding away. The poor girl is limping.
“Mayah!” I call out, still sprawled on the ground.
Slowly, she turns.
