Kavya’s mouth softened around a deeper smile. “Even you know I’m clever. ” She exhaled softly. “Too much for my own good? Not clever enough? No telling.”

“I protest. You’re talking again.” He rubbed his thumbs along her upper arms. “So there’s no one around who might play roulette with your thoughts. Time for a nap.”

Her expression of panic reminded Tallis of all he hated about her relationship with Pashkah. No, the only thing he hated about it. Pashkah made her less of a woman. He made her scared and small and doubtful. What the man had done at the assembly in that hopeful little valley was horrific. In doing so, he’d layered disappointment over her existing fear.

That wasn’t what he’d grown to expect from a member of the opposite sex. Pendray women were indomitable. Boudicca had drawn her inspiration from the Pendray, revered in myths as Valkyries. Kavya had that spirit in her, but only glimmers shone through at any time. When she’d uncovered that airplane and began filling it with fuel—that had been strength to the point of suicide or legend, depending on the storyteller.

Yet when Tallis mentioned a mere nap, she shrank into herself like some darting sea creature seeking shelter among the coral, although that was probably an analogy better suited to the coastal Southern Indranan.

“I’ll be right here,” he said. “I have two rather vicious weapons, I have a gift that makes grown men weep in fear, and we are relatively free of Heartless mind-fuckers who’d keep you from getting rest.”

“Where do you mean, ‘right here’?”

Tallis smiled. He slid his hands down her arms as he folded back onto his haunches. He looked up at her, while still clasping her hands. “Here.”

“In a field.”

“That’s wasn’t a question. Good. I won’t need to remind you of the rules.”

“There are no rules with you,” she said, slowly shaking her head. Shining dark hair tangled around her shoulders.

“All I know is that we’ll both be more zombie than conscious if we keep walking.” He let go of her hands and spread his. All around them was a field of sheltering green. “I’m going to sleep. Should you wish to continue zombie-crawling to Jaipur or wherever, be my guest. But think about that. If you’re caught alone by yourself, what would you do?”

—

Kavya’s eyes burned. The underside of each lid felt lined with the silt of a riverbed. She looked down at Tallis, who had cut a pile of stalks to assemble a makeshift bed. The ground still held the moisture of the monsoon season. He draped his coat over the top, stretched his long legs, and sank onto the vegetation with a sigh. Logically she knew those pointy stalks couldn’t be comfortable, but he might as well have been lying on a cloud. She longed for that calm, and for the calm she would find against his body. Those hindering layers of clothing would provide softness for her bed, with his strong muscles revealed for her pillow.

“Dragon damn it.” She sank to her knees. “Don’t say a word.”

Apparently Tallis was self-aware enough to try to stifle a smile, and when that didn’t work, he covered his mouth with the back of his hand.

She raised her brows. “Are you going to sleep with those blades at your back?”

At least there she’d caught him off guard. He frowned briefly and sat up. He unsheathed one seax and dug the blade into the ground at his left hip, halfway to the hilt. He would only need to reach across his body with his right hand to grab it from its concealment alongside a stalk. Holding the second weapon, he eyed its shining blade, then Kavya. “You handled yourself well with this. One day I’ll teach you how to use it properly.”

He shoved it into the ground next to its duplicate.

“One day,” she whispered. “I don’t think so.”

Without warning, he closed firm hands around her shoulders and pulled her stiff body toward his, alongside his, touching his. “You didn’t think you’d be taking a mid-morning nap with a Pendray exile in a cornfield either.” His voice was playful, as were his ocean eyes. “With all those minds at your disposal, I’d have thought you would have a better imagination.”

Tallis arranged their bodies so that one shoulder each dug into the thick, tall, sun-warmed bale. They faced each other, lying on their sides. Wrapped together. Legs extended. Hips paired, touching. No part of her could deny notice of any part of him. His torso, clad in only a lightweight cotton shirt, was hers to enjoy.

Kavya didn’t want to hear him talk anymore. She didn’t want to bicker or even joke. That allure of the physical was too powerful. So she kissed him. It was the first time she’d initiated a kiss, but she was too pent up to take it any further than a brush of sensitive skin.

Tallis picked up where she left off. He wasn’t stopping.

And she didn’t want him to.

She shivered and wrapped her arm around his firm abdomen. He was made of hard planes, like a man pieced together from scrap metal, yet with the grace of a finely honed blade. He was the living embodiment of his weapons—hard, graceful, vicious, beautiful.

Tallis shifted until he pressed her back against their makeshift bed. She soaked up the sight of him as he loomed so powerfully above her, blocking out the sun, replacing it with the need for him. Just him. He exuded the gorgeous, intimidating strength of monsoon clouds ready to part with curtains of rain. His eyes were narrowed, intense, greedy, but his lips appeared vulnerable. They were reddened and slightly swollen from their kisses.

I did that.

Tallis smiled.

Whether he heard her thought or not didn’t matter. Not when he pushed his palm up between her legs. “I’m going to give you something, Kavya.”

She swallowed tightly, then cried out when his fingers brushed the sensitive skin between her legs. Panic caught in her throat when she managed to reply. “What?”

“The gift of my restraint, and your first taste of pleasure.” He smiled again, this time with salacious humor. “Actually, I’m the one who gets to taste.”

“Tallis?”

He stilled and took a deep breath. “Tell me to stop. If you want me to.”

“Are you going to have sex with me?”

“No,” he said, his expression surprisingly neutral. “If the time’s ever right for sex, you won’t have to ask for clarification. You’ll make it happen. I know you that well, at least.” He bowed his head against her stomach. His hair caught the sunlight. The silver tips were filaments of precious metals, glinting like tiny, tiny mirrors. “But for now, I want to kiss you. Everywhere. Will you let me?”

Kavya’s head spun with a flickering slideshow of images. Where could he kiss? He cupped her mound and began to explore with his fingertips. She yanked her head from the ground. They locked gazes.

“Yes,” he said. “There.”

She gulped a breath. “Do it.”

“So bossy . . .”

He pulled her inner thighs wide. With a surprised gasp, Kavya adjusted her position on the bed he’d made—and she dug her heels into the soft earth. His shoulders became her handhold. Tallis slipped between the silk layers of her sari, then used roughened thumbs to part her folds. He dipped closer. He licked. He sucked.

Kavya paired a hoarse cry with a slap against his upper back. Her palm landed with a hard thumping sound. Beneath her palm, Tallis shuddered—long and uncontrollably.

“That’s it,” he said against her inner thigh. “Give me your aggression. I can’t take it out on you, but you can give it to me. Don’t close your eyes or bite your lip. Don’t keep quiet, Kavya. Take your frustrations out on me. I want all of it.”

Every nip of lips and teeth against her sensitive nerves wound her body tighter and tighter. Once she had been all supple ease and grace. Now she was a series of reactions to what he wanted. His pace. His direction. She gave him everything.

“Breathe. Breathe, Kavya. Watch me as I take you.”