Page 76 of Sun Elves of Ardani

“Not well, but well enough.”

She watched him take a few laps across the pond. His body moved smoothly, his limbs scarcely making a splash. He swam the same way he moved on land: with an otherworldly elegance and grace.

He stopped to tread water, looking back at her. “Are you going to take much longer?”

She’d stripped to her underclothes, then paused. She fingered the collar of her undershirt. “Are you so eager for me to undress?”

“Have I not made that perfectly clear?”

She hesitated another moment, then pulled off her top and stepped out of her underwear. Neiryn was treading water quietly, watching her. She felt her cheeks flush, and she quickly stepped into the water, wading in until it was up to her shoulders. The heat of the day had not entirely burned away yet, and the water felt pleasantly cool.

Neiryn swam closer and took her hand. It felt strange to touch someone while she was completely naked. It felt strange knowing he was also bare next to her, just beneath the surface of the water.

“You’re beautiful, Kadaki.”

She detected no trace of humor or irony. There was only genuine emotion in his voice. She reached up to put her hands on his shoulders, then pulled herself up to kiss him.

One of her hands moved to his waist, and her fingers hit the irregular skin of the scar that ran across his side. “This is new,” she said.

“Ah. I was wondering when you would notice it.”

“Does it hurt when I touch it?”

“No.”

She trailed her fingers across it. It was long since healed. There was nothing she could do about it now. She wished she had been there to help him when it had happened. The burn had been severe and targeted. It was an intentionally inflicted wound. An attack.

“What happened?” she asked.

He explained that five years ago, his captain at the time had had a romantic partner who had been one of the soldiers in Kuda Varai with Neiryn. She’d never made it home, and the captain had blamed Neiryn. Some time after that, they were sparring, and there had been an accident. Or, what appeared to be an accident.

“Rhian?” Kadaki asked, frowning.

“No. This was my superior before her. Rhian is a stark improvement. I know you don’t like her, but believe me, it could be much worse.”

It must have been awful. It was the sort of injury that gave you nightmares for years afterward. And the first thing she’d done when he’d appeared after five years was throw fire at him. “I shouldn’t have attacked you when you first arrived here. I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

“Maybe I deserved it a little. I didn’t think of how you must feel. I didn’t know things were so bad here.”

He pushed away from her, swimming into the deeper water.

“Where are you going?” Kadaki asked.

“I’m swimming,” he said. “Isn’t that what we came here for?”

She frowned. “I thought that was a pretense for something else.”

Moonlight shone on his teeth as he grinned.

Taking a breath, she pushed off from a rock and followed him, very slowly and ungracefully. Had she not been wearing the collar, it would have been much easier. A simple spell would propel her through the water with little effort.

Neiryn swam past her, seemingly just to show off. She stopped, treading water. He kicked off a rock on the other side of the pond and came toward her again. She grabbed at him, but he dodged and swam by, giving a short laugh. The sound cut through the night, and it was more noise than they probably should have been making, but she couldn’t help but smile.

He looped around and swam by again, and this time she lunged for him. Again he shook her off and started to swim away, but when she floundered and choked on a mouthful of water, he quickly stopped and wrapped an arm around her waist. Instinctively she clung to him. He was standing on the bottom and the water just reached his shoulders. She wrapped her legs around his waist and curled her arms around his neck.

“I must be honest,” he said. “It was just a pretense for something else.” He smiled, and at that moment there was no doubt in her mind that he was the most handsome man in Heilune.

The feeling of his expanse of bare skin against hers, with nothing between them, was painfully arousing. The tips of her breasts were tightening to sensitive points where they pressed against his chest. The space between her legs was growing swollen and soft and achy with arousal. She couldn’t resist tilting her hips to rub herself against his stomach. It felt good, so she did it again.

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