Page 47 of Of Nightmares & Fire (Elusive Umbra #1)

“Shula—” I start, but my words lodge in my throat. She turns, and the low light catches on her radiant skin and the texture that should not be where it is. The unnatural lines crisscrossing, like side-winding tracks from the sand vipers of the desert.

“Kyros? What are you doing here?” She stiffens, covering her body with her arms. The worry on her face tells me it’s not her nakedness that she is concerned with covering, but I can’t even pay attention to that.

My blood is boiling with rage for the marks I see on her, and as much as she tries to drag outrage into her tone, I can feel her relief as though it is my own when she knows it’s me.

The relief that is quickly transformed into shame.

She looks down at my body, realizing I am fully dressed.

I don’t answer her question as I close the distance between us.

She refuses to look at me. Her gaze stuck on the water that laps between us.

I say nothing at first as I stare down at her and the way she seems to cower into herself, her gaze never lifting. It’s like a night and day difference from the woman I thought I was beginning to know and understand.

“Look at me.” I say, trying my hardest to keep the anger from my tone and failing.

She doesn’t move. Slowly, I lift my hand from where it’s fisted under the water.

Drips roll from my arm and splash back into the pool between us, and when my skin meets the softness of her face, her breath hitches.

I guide her face toward mine and step in closer, bending down so our noses almost touch.

She still refuses to lift her eyes. Her lashes fan out over her cheekbones, and tear droplets collect beneath them and fall down her face in rivulets. “Look at me, Shula.”

When she finally lifts her gaze and the storm of oceanic blue crashes into me like a tsunami, my lips part, my breathing growing faster with my turbulent thoughts.

Who could hurt someone so perfect? The raw worry drowning her eyes has me shaking my head.

I can’t help it. I can’t help but deny the thought of someone wanting to defile her.

Creating scars beyond just skin, I see them on her soul.

“I’m sorry,” she says, and I feel my brows pull down tighter than before.

“Who?” I ask simply. We both know what I am referring to. She tries to look away, and I refuse to allow it. I keep her chin in my grip. “Tell. Me. Who hurt you?” My voice vibrates through my chest with each word, and she shivers, her bottom lip trembling.

“My father… mostly. ” Her voice cracks, and the subsequent fissure breaks through more of my crumbling wall as I swear an oath to the divine.

I will send the man responsible to the pits of Zameil if I have to carry his lifeless body over the threshold myself.

Once I have reeled in my anger enough to speak again, I roll my thumb over her cheek, wiping away the moisture.

She leans into the touch just the smallest amount.

Giving me all she can of her limited trust.

“Mostly?” I ask in a whisper. She swallows hard, her blue eyes once again filling with tears and then darkening by the shadows of her past .

“Pravin too.” Her chin wobbles before she continues, and my nostrils flare with the building tempest of my fury.

“Sometimes my father would instruct him to punish me too. He—” She sobs, and I pull her into my chest, holding onto her tight, as she spills her anguish into my own soul.

It's something I never knew I would willingly want to share the burden of, but for her I feel like I want to take it all.

“I didn't want you to see this.” Her voice cracks.

“They will never touch you again. I will make sure of it. No one will ever hurt you like that again.” I push her out so she can see the promise in my eyes.

“I promise,” I say, hoping that she sees the truth.

“I don’t give empty promises either, Shula.

” Her eyes flick between mine for a long moment as she thinks, and I wish I could see into that beautiful mind to see what she is thinking of.

“What can I do to prove to you I am a man of my word?” Her lip rolls into her mouth and becomes trapped by her teeth as she considers my words.

“You once said that no one could save me from you. That if you were the one pressed to my body, not even the divine could save me. You said that I would be begging for your touch.” Her hands slowly fall away from her chest, exposing her breasts to me.

I don’t look at them, though. I keep my eyes locked with hers, even as I notice the way her chest heaves with her heavier breathing.

My own more languid and tangling with hers.

“I’m begging you. Make me forget.” We both stand there silently, breathing the words she just spoke, letting my own wrap around us and pull us together.

“Every foul touch. Every painful memory. Each scar on your soul… It’s mine.

I will take the burden of them from you.

” I gently cu p her chin, and I let the pain pull me toward her; just before our lips touch, I make her another promise.

“Their deaths are the exception. I will spill every ounce of their blood in your name, but that blood will only stain my hands, and I will wear it proudly in your honor.” I seal the promise with a deep kiss, allowing my tongue to explore her mouth.

Her arms wrap around my neck, chest pressing against mine, and I silently curse myself for not taking off any clothing.

My cock stains under the wet material as her legs wrap around my hips and she seats herself over the ridge, moaning into my mouth.

It takes every ounce of restraint I have not to release myself and bury it between her legs.

Instead I brace her with my hands, each one cupping her bare ass, fingers squeezing as she rolls her hips over me.

I can't suppress the groan that builds with the friction of our bodies.

She reaches over my shoulders, pulling my tunic up my back and allowing me to shrug out of the constraining fabric.

Our bare chests touch just the slightest, and it's the first time I look down at her breasts as I break the kiss.

I look between the two hardened peaks, licking my lips, and slowly make my descent to entrap one with my teeth.

She gasps, arching her back beautifully.

She pushes her chest further into my mouth as I walk forward and set her on the ledge of the bath.

There is a natural underwater seat that she rests her feet on as I release her nipple and give the same attention to the other breast. Growling as something primal seems to take over me, feeling her hand rake through my hair.

Her eyes widen at the sound as I pull back and make eye contact with her.

I throw one leg over my shoulder. Trailing my hands over her slick legs, I press my thumb over her clit and circle slowly, rhythmically, in time with her breathing.

Just as I feel her tensing, I change the motion.

I toy with her entrance, her release almost tangible, but not quite there. No, that I want to taste.

“What did I tell you, Shula?” I ask, trailing my tongue between her breasts and dropping to my knees on the step between her legs. When she answers breathlessly, I am hovering my lips above hers.

“I—” My eyes narrow as I drink her in as she lies beneath me. Panting, confused, and needy for my touch. Perfect. “Every touch is yours.” I smile into her mouth before claiming it. Between kisses I praise her.

“Good, what else, beautiful?” I ask, moving to her ear and taking the lobe into my mouth. She sucks in a breath as I also dip one finger into her at the same time.

“Every painful memory.” She confirms, and I nod, sucking along the skin of the column of her neck.

“Every one of them will be replaced. Pain will now be pleasure.” My tongue flicks over her nipple as I make my way lower, loving the way she starts to squeeze her thighs together, needing the friction that I am denying her.

“What else?” I ask as I give her some of the movement she wants, pressing another finger into wetness, grinding the heel of my hand over her clit.

“Each scar— Oh divine!” She calls out as I continue the slow torture, and I growl.

“Each what, Shula? ”

“Each scar on my soul.” She moans, and I drop between her legs, scoring a line between her lips, taking a taste before diving in like the parched man I am. She yells more for the divine, pulling my hair at the root, and I gasp as I come up for air only to dive back between her delicious thighs.

“I’m afraid I won’t be sated with just the scars, Shula.

” I breathe between feasting and fucking her with my fingers.

“I’ll have you give me everything.” I flick my tongue over her clit and curl my fingers as she tightens around them.

“Will you give me everything?” My rumbling growl vibrates my lips as I keep them planted, ready to drink down her release.

“Yes! Take it all, Kyros, please! It's all yours!” She exclaims, and I suck her clit into my mouth as she pulses and writhes, pulls and grinds, pants and moans.

Her confession, my proclamation—they swirl around like magick, and as she trembles, she drowns me in her come.

She melts in the glow of pleasure. I kiss the inside of each thigh where they vibrate with aftershocks.

Letting my hands trail her legs, then her waist, I raise up to meet her eyes, press a gentle kiss to her lips, and then pull her back into the water.

I help wash her, silently brushing my fingers over her back.

Rinsing away the previous pain and caressing it with a new memory.

I pull her into my lap, and she rests her head on my shoulder, not much different than when we were riding.

My cheek presses to the top of her head as she lays her back on my chest. I wrap my arm around her middle, and she holds onto it as though it is anchoring her to this realm entirely.

And with my other hand I trail my fingers over her skin in small circles and long lines, each brush saying more than one word could.

Neither of us says anything as we sit there in each other's embrace, but in my chest I know she wasn’t the only one giving just now. I know now what he meant, Karnnen… it’s just a flicker, but it burns.

She gave me her soul, just as I have given mine, and together our twin flames now burn .