Page 22 of The Manticore's Fire

Abby choked a little on the water that splashed up into her face as she shouted her accusations. “No fair! I call foul on that damned rudder attached to your ass!”

Samir’s roar of laughter made her grin as a crazy giggle escaped her and then she screamed again, this time with laughter as he dropped backward with Abby firmly in his arms, plunging them both into the cold water. Their bodies sensuallygrazed each other as they twisted in the water and Abby shivered at the flex of his pelvis against hers. The contact was brief, however, before he shifted away and his big hands pulled her quickly back to the surface.

Abby broke the water sputtering, but she didn’t give up, instead she threw her weight as she jumped on him, dunking him into the water. On and on the play, wrestling in the water. She managed to break free, by fair means or foul, and swam away a few times but he always quickly caught her. They played until they grew too tired to play and dragged themselves back up onto the grass embankment where they sprawled.

She had to hand it to Samir. Not only was he stronger and faster, but he recovered quicker too, which presented some interesting possibilities that she was curious to explore. Abby kept such thoughts to herself, however, as she rolled onto her side, her eyes following the manticore as he began to pull down large fronds.

“What are you doing?” she called over to him.

“Saving you from sun sickness,” he replied with a surprising amount of enthusiasm, his tail curling and swishing as he worked.

She watched him curiously, but her confusion melted away when the rough form of a lean-to began to take form. He was making shelter for her. She had made her own shelters since she was eight years old, as required by her father for her first lessons of hunter training. A hunter ultimately could only depend on themselves. That had been the hardest lesson that he made sure she had understood from a young age to the point where any coddling at all by those trying to gain her attention had felt like personal insults toward her capabilities as a hunter. From Samir, it just felt different. He wasn’t coddling her. He wasn’t making her a shelter because he believed that his performative actions would endear him to some primitive female need to betaken care of rather than fend for herself as a means to woo her. No, Samir was just made differently. He made her the shelter merely because he wished for her comfort. And that was seductive to her, right down to rolling and piling fronds and thick leaves inside to make for a comfortable bed.

Even his smile when he finally stepped back, satisfied with his work, was infectious and she found herself returning to it as he hurried back to her and helped her to her feet.

“Come rest in here,” he purred. “You tire more easily than I so allow me to provide for you. The olives are not good to eat directly from the trees as they require soaking for many months in brine to cure them but remain here and I will provide for you a small feast so that you can sufficiently recover from the day’s exertion.”

Abby crawled into the lean-to and sank down onto the cool leaf beds with a small, content sigh. It seemed that Samir was intent on spoiling her, after all. Her eyes fluttered closed for a while but she awoke briefly to the smell of cooking food to find the manticore crouched just beyond their shelter, roasting some unidentifiable beast he had caught over an open flame. Piled on leaves there were figs, some sort of large orange fruit, and dates. He peered over in her direction and, seeing that she was awake, pushed the leaves toward her with a shy smile. She happily picked at the fruit, eating it as she watched him cook. She was proud to say that no matter how much she wanted to devour all the fruit in front of her, she didn’t make a complete glutton of herself. She picked at it slowly, sharing bites of the fruit with him as he turned the spitted meat. It was only when the sun was rising higher in the sky that he finally finished and removed the meat from the bone to pile it on the leaf that he carried inside with him.

“I really shouldn’t eat too much,” she said quietly. “If I do, I will get sleepy, and we still need to fill the water jugs.”

“Already taken care of,” he rasped quietly. “You were very tired. I have not only filled the water jugs—which was no effort at all—but also hunted plenty of beasts to keep us stocked on meat for a few weeks. It is being smoked as we speak some distance away on the sand.”

Abby frowned at that. “You needn’t have done all that by yourself. What else am I here for?”

“You are here as my hostage, remember?” he rasped with a quiet chuckle that brought a smile to her lips.

“So, you are saying I should just lay back and enjoy it like a queen?” she teased.

“Certainly. Enjoy it while you can. I will work you hard in the future,” he replied, his eyes gleaming with his amusement. “For today, because necessity dictated your unwilling presence, you are the queen of this oasis.”

“Okay, I accept, though I cannot claim that this is a bad deal for me.” It was only fair to warn him that she had been far from reluctant since arriving.

“It is not a bad deal for me, either,” he rumbled enticingly as he squeezed himself into the shelter with her, their bodies intimately close. “Would it frighten you to say that I have enjoyed today?”

“Oh, I’m absolutely terrified,” she breathed. “Now queen me.”

Samir grinned as he lifted a piece of meat to her lips, and she nearly moaned at the rich, juicy aroma that wafted up from it. She opened her mouth, and he slipped it tantalizing over her tongue. They both moaned in unison and Abby lifted a bite of meat to his mouth. Surprise flashed in his eyes, and she smiled.

“A small token for my knight,” she murmured and then shivered as his tongue slipped of her fingers, and he took her gift.

They ate their small feast, feeding each other little bites until nothing remained. And afterward, when Abby was lying on her back with one hunger satiated and more than a little aroused, Samir curled toward her, his bright eyes gleaming with an internal fire. He held her gaze as his head dipped as he slowly drew down the length of her body until he was crouched at her feet. He rubbed her feet and then calves and thighs, giving her true royal treatment as he eased the tension from her muscles while taking care to keep his claws sheathed. Though her muscles eased beneath his ministrations, her belly tightened as hot arousal slipped from her cunt to paint her thighs.

Samir paused, his hands massaging her hips and his nostrils flared. He met her eyes questioningly and Abby replied by spreading her thighs. Hunger brightened his gaze, and his tongue stroked along the inside of her thigh, its silky soft length that bore the texture of neither a cat nor a man, gathered up her arousal in long strokes. He licked one thigh and then the other before sealing his mouth over the core of her pleasure. His tongue bathed her and began to press into her, filling her with its girth as his humanoid mouth closed over her folds and sucked eagerly. Her hips rolled with his strokes, her body arching with the need as the heat of her climax consumed her. Pleasure rose and broke within her repeatedly as she offered her body’s nectar to the male that greedily drank it down until she was limp and weak from pleasure. She barely had the energy to twitch anymore by the time Samir pulled away with a deep chuckle.

Through exhaustion and her lust-fog, she stared up at him as he wound himself around her, curling his body around her snuggly so that his back faced the sun, casting the whole interior in shadow.

“Rest now,” he murmured with a yawn.

Abby peered into his shadowed face, her brow puckering. “What about you? Don’t you need to… you know?”

Another raspy chuckle rumbled from him, and he nuzzled his cheek affectionately against the top of her head, drawing her forward so that her head rested on his broad chest just above the powerful beat of his heart.

“Unnecessary,” he quietly replied. “This was only for you, my queen.”

A smile drifted over Abby’s lips as she drifted into the best sleep of her life.

Chapter

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