Page 49 of Joy Guardian

With one last shudder of bliss through us both, Kurai dropped his head in my lap and draped his arms loosely around my hips.

I rested my hands on his wide shoulders.

“Are you alright, darling?” I stroked his hair gently and smiled, warmed by the afterglow.

He moaned in my bare thigh, then kissed my lower stomach.

“I’ve heard of this…” he murmured against my skin. “I just never thought it would be this…thisabsolute.”

He raised his head, finding my eyes.

“What do you mean?” I brushed away his wavy, black strands that had fallen over his face.

“This is the most intense pleasure I have ever felt. You are the most wonderful miracle, Ciana. You are…” he gushed. “You have no idea how precious you are.”

I took his face in my hands. “This was your first orgasm, wasn’t it?”

He nodded.

Of course it was. Kurai had never been with a woman before, either human one or fae. But even if he had, sexual pleasure, just like any other kind of joy, was only possible for a shadow fae to experience through a human.

Affection filled my heart to the brim. Kurai had been gentle and loving with me. He’d been a friend when I needed one. He protected me with his life. I wanted to give him everything that fate had denied to his kind. He deserved tobehappy and tofeelhappiness.

“Oh, sweetie… come here.” I kissed him. “My pleasure is yours, Kurai,” I vowed against his lips. “Whenever I feel it, I’ll share it all with you.”

Thirteen

CIANA

Kurai lathered me with the plain soap that Joy Guardians used, helping me wash off the traces of all the sandstorms we’d been through.

“Do you want me to help you undo your hair?” he asked, lifting one of my thin braids. “I won’t be able to help you re-do it just as neatly, but maybe one braid could do for now? You have the most unusual hair color—pink. I didn’t see it on anyone before, either a fae or a human.”

“It’s not my hair,” I giggled softly.

“Whose is it?”

His shocked expression made me laugh out loud.

“Do you want the name of the person I cut it from?” I teased.

He squinted at me, sensing my humor.

“You didn’t cut it from anyone.” He waved me off, then asked hesitantly. “Did you?”

“No, Kurai.” I gave him a hug, laughing. “These are hair extensions, braided into my real hair, see?” I lifted a handful of braids over my ear, exposing the roots. “My real hair is darkbrown, almost black, not pink. No human has naturally bright pink hair like this, I promise you.”

My aunt took me to get the extensions after she and my uncle had taken me away from Dylan. I remembered choosing pink because I wanted to look in the mirror and see something bright and cheerful instead of the bruises. I wanted to look as different as possible from Dylan’s skittish, perpetually scared wife. I wished to be me again, and changing my hair color seemed like the first step in that direction.

As it turned out, being kidnapped by shadows was the next step. I’d been thinking less and less about Dylan. And when I did, it was without pain or sorrow but with relief that he was now securely in my past, unable to harm me.

Kurai smoothed the tight curls of the grown-out strands above my ear. “How wondrous.”

“Is it?” I smiled. His genuine interest in me had always been endearing. “How about we wash your hair now?”

I ran my fingers through his black wavy locks, freeing them from the cord that held them up.

After the bath, Kurai helped me out of the pool. I reached for my wet, dusty skirt, but he stopped me. “I have a clean one for you to wear.”

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