Fighting the sensual lassitude that made her head heavy, she did as he ordered. His face was centered between her legs, with his mouth nestled against her private core. She caught sight of his tongue when he licked upward. Then flashes of teeth when he smiled, or the grim set of his lips when another shudder overwhelmed his broad shoulders.

Now she knew truly what he’d meant. He was enjoying this just as much. What must the effort be costing him, to keep from giving in to the animal desire to lever over her body and take?

Oh, that thought. She rode that thought until its rhythm matched the flick of Tallis’s tongue, until it crested and broke. A gasping cry ripped from her throat. Tallis gripped her backside when she thrust up, seeking more—and he gave her more. The pressure of his lips and mouth intensified her climax, while that maddening tongue prolonged it. Every time she thought she couldn’t ensure another moment of such intense ecstasy, she was convinced that she could. He convinced her.

Only when her thighs wouldn’t stop shaking and her throat ached from sharp, endless gasps did Tallis ease her from that wave of climaxes. He slowed his kisses. He caressed and soothed. Kavya couldn’t have moved for all the world, but he arranged the draping silk of her sari back around her legs and pushed up to his knees. After lying down, he urged her to tuck her head in the hollow between his chest and shoulder.

Long, languid moments passed as their breathing approximated a normal pace. Tallis idly petted whatever skin he could find, although his energy, too, seemed to be waning.

“I meant that as a joke, by the way,” he said, still hoarse. “You have plenty of imagination. But who could’ve foreseen this? Where we are?”

The last vestiges of pleasure worked down her spine. He pulled her closer. “Not me. Not ever.”

“I choose to take that as a statement of wonder and awe.”

“Exasperation and confusion.” She kissed his neck. “And yes, wonder and awe.”

“That works.” He smiled, then tucked loose tangles behind her ears. His touch—how could a Pendray berserker be so gentle?

She smiled tiredly, with the effort costing her what felt like the last stores of energy. “But . . .” Trembling with curiosity as more and more possibilities came into focus, she tightened her fingers against his outer thigh. “What about you?”

“Later, after we find a hotel. I’m very discerning.” He glanced up toward where green leaves created an awning against the blue of a clear sky. “Truly discerning.”

She leaned forward and kissed each eyelid. “Are you sure? After what you gave me . . .”

“I’ll hold you to it,” he said, eyes gentle. “Sleep now. We’ll reset this whole mess. When we wake up, we can revisit the tantalizing possibility of you choosing a topic of conversation.”

Kavya’s heart shoved into her throat. “I want to trust. I want to be prepared the next time my brother comes for me. But I don’t know if I’m capable of any of that. Not yet. Not even after what you’ve shown me.”

“What’s changed when it comes to your ability to fight? You came up from the streets.”

“Maybe it’s a matter of faith. I think back on the young woman I was, cobbling a life together out of mud and trash.”

“Not a bad thing. Admirable, actually.”

“I got caught up in the myth of my own resilience. Not everyone comes out unscathed.”

He tapped her temple. “You call yourself unscathed? Woman, you’re a head case, and I mean that with a surprising amount of affection. Remember, that’s coming from a guy who’s been talking to dreams for twenty years.”

“That is pretty messed up.”

“I don’t think unscathed is a word for people like us.”

“This won’t last, will it?”

“What?” He half grunted the question.

“This. Us. A moment like this when we’re not fighting anyone and we’re actually . . . serene. Good things don’t last.” They were hot and sticky, but Kavya wouldn’t have let go even if he gave her the opportunity.

“You need to know what a good thing is before you can figure out it won’t last,” he said. “This, goddess, this is a very good thing. Now do me a favor?”

“Hm?”

He smiled in that antagonistic, endearing way she was beginning to relish more than hate. “Question time’s done. Be quiet. Be still. The sun’s on your face. A man is holding you as if you’re the last piece of driftwood in an endless ocean. I’m that tired, and you’re that nice to hold.”

Long years of panic and habit screamed that sleep should be easy. But even there, feeling more protected than she had in years, she couldn’t.

“Kavya?” His voice was thick with the drug of fatigue. “You’ll be here when I wake?”

She kissed his lips, which smelled and tasted of her own body. Wholly erotic. “Yes, I’ll be here.”

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

If Tallis had slept, he’d done so in quick snatches like chasing birds, clutching a few feathers, and watching them circle back into the sky.

He jerked awake, but his body stayed still except for the flutter of his eyelids. The colors of the piercing blue sky flickered between his lashes.

The plane. The crash. The cornstalks and his seax at his hip.

Kavya.

The strange contortion of his body registered next. He had shifted again. Kavya was curled into him, her spine curved to make the letter C. Her head was tucked beneath his chin and her knees were drawn up to his hips. One foot negligently draped over his thigh. He still lay on his back, mostly, but he’d managed to encircle her with both arms. In the heat, she’d kicked free of silk from the hip down, exposing lush bronze skin.

The sole of Kavya’s foot was blistered, her socks and slippers victim of the elements. Slices stepped like ladder rungs up her arms and down her legs—the physical trauma of flight after flight. That he was only noticing now set a strange current to work inside of Tallis. He should’ve noticed. And that set off an argument. Why was it his obligation to notice? She’d been proselytizing for years before his arrival. She didn’t need a keeper.

He didn’t want to be her keeper. With his arms filled with the soft, voluptuous heat of a woman’s body, he wanted to be her lover.

He’d given her pleasure. He’d shown her the explosions of light that came with sexual release. The triumph was his. No other man would claim to be her first. That meant he would claim her virginity, too. In Tallis’s mind, it was a given. They would be lovers in all ways. Holding that firmly in mind had been the difference between tasting her feminine sweetness and burying his prick within her willing body. They’d been too tired. Too edgy. And he hadn’t trusted himself to be gentle. He wanted their first time to live up to the adventures they’d already shared, but he didn’t want to scare her. Dragon damn, he didn’t want to hurt her.

He wanted to make her gasp his name.

Just the thought aroused him. Eyes open. Hands tightening. Cock ready.

As a youth, so serious and proud of his intellect, he’d wanted to be Sath or Indranan—Dragon Kings whose minds ruled the day. He was beginning to see what a blessing his fury could be. There was no one stalking around the corner to take it from him, manipulate it, keep him from sleeping out of fear it would be used against him.

So, enough of that. He was a Pendray. He harbored a nasty beast down deep where most men stored ugly things. Fantasies about inflicting pain. Fantasies about rape and murder and theft and running away, because cowardice was just as ugly, just as worthy of concealing. Those uncivil fantasies glimmered like a distant mirage—moments where the mind took a backseat to very old instinct.