Page 46

“Don’t touch me.”Her voice shook slightly. Her entire body was vibrating with adrenaline.

He didn’t move. He gave no resistance at all. She realized that he could, perhaps, have stopped her from drawing the dagger if he’d wanted to, but he hadn’t tried. He was relaxed completely beneath her hands. Zara paused, surprised by the contrast to how he’d been a few moments ago.

Then she tilted her head and shoved her mouth against his. At first, he didn’t react.

Rain pitter-pattered on tree branches and soil around them, but the sound faded along with the voices of the other Varai as she coaxed his lips apart. She ran her tongue over the soft inner curve of his lips.

He sighed as her hand found the back of his head and held him against her. And though his arms didn’t move from his sides, his mouth began to work in tandem with hers. As he leaned toward her, opening wider and tonguing her gently, she felt flutters in her stomach.

She quickly pulled away.

What was she doing?

There was a long pause. Nero slowly leaned back against the tree.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t stab me again,” he said quietly, moving one hand toward the dagger she was still holding against his throat. She felt his fingers just brushing against hers.

She pulled back. A breath shuddered out of her. The light touch of his fingers against hers was further tangling her emotions.

“You can’t touch me without my permission,”she said.

“I know.”

By the dark cant to his voice, she knew that he did.

She did not sense the pity or shocked discomfort that she often provoked from other Ardanians who learned about her past. There was only a resigned sort of sympathy and acceptance. It was the kind of reaction that she only encountered from people who had also known much suffering in their lives.

Slowly, she lowered the dagger and slid it back into the sheath at his waist. Her hand lingered there.

Now that the panic had subsided, the anxious energy inside her had transformed into desire again. It was like her body had been given permission to want him again, and the arousal came flooding into her, like an outburst of nervous laughter after narrowly avoiding a fall.

She’d liked it when his teeth were at her throat, but she’d liked it even more when his hard body went soft and tender in her grasp.

It was ridiculous. She didn’t even know him. She couldn’t be thinking about this.

She pulled away from him.

He licked his lips. “It would look suspicious, but we could leave now, if you want to,” he said. “They won’t catch us if we ride Changa.”

“So you can bring me to another raiding party that will treat me like an animal?”

“It would be safer than staying here.”

“What about Naika?”

“What about her?”

“I cannot leave her here alone.”

Nero exhaled heavily, turning to look toward the camp again.

“They will hurt her,” Zara said.

Nero shook his head. “The Varai won’t just allow me to take her. They’ll fight me if I try to steal her from them. This is a woman who tortured me, if you recall.”

“Perhaps she had a good reason for doing it.”

“Other than the fact that she’s Paladin scum?”