Page 54 of Flameborne: Fury
I’d wanted to curse God the moment I knew we had to leave the solitude of that cave. We should have haddaystogether, alone, to cement this fragile bond. But there’d been no question of the urgency for our return. So, I whispered hurried words to her during flight, scrambling to keep her heart centered and her trust in me.
I’d known it was needed, but not nearly how much. It was why I’d wanted her to speak, to trust me with her tender pieces so I could show her she was safe. But we were Furyknights. Even when we didn’t pursue battle, it found us.
I won’t stop caring because you’ve been hurt.
She should have rebuked me for implying that it could be otherwise. Instead, she’d shivered when my speculations brushed up on her fear, then opened like a flower to the sun atmy reassurance.
They’d been simple words. Only decent. And yet, she’d responded withhope.
Not joy. Not relief.Hope.The reality that someone might care for herdespiteher past was an idea she’d long given away.
What had happened in her life that had so brutally stripped her of her own beauty?
I still needed to know.
But instead, when she’d turned to face me, to shine at me, tothank me?God knew, I’d been torn in two. Frantic for her. Desperate to connect. And simultaneously appalled.
She came to me like a supplicant, eager for any crumb. She should have stood before me like a Queen.
Kgosi rumbled his approval in my head, but I shoved him out. My dragon and I were firm in our bond. This was a moment I needed solely with my mate.
To my delight, she started nibbling at my neck as I carried her across the meadow where we landed. I’d refused to let her walk. Even holding hands as we ran was too distant. I needed her against me.
Kgosi had sent me a mental image as we landed, a pool beneath the trees he’d spied on the descent. Hours earlier it would have been too cold, but now, though the winds were stiff, we’d moved far enough south and the storm had blown out enough that the sun warmed the grass—and my body inside my leathers.
As Bren sucked on my neck and whispered my name, I picked up my pace, jogging, desperate to get her under the trees and away from the dragons, my mind crawling with all the reasons we shouldn’t take this time, but since the dragons were unwilling to travel further…
Thank God for their mating drive.I chuckled to myself, breathless.
Bren smiled when she heard me laugh. “What’s funny?” She had her fingers laced behind my neck as I cradled her and her bag she’d slung over her chest, because we hadn’t waited to remove anything once the dragons were free.
“I caught myself thanking God for a giving me an ironclad excuse to take you again instead of continuing back to the Keep,” I said in a voice rough with need as we reached the nearby trees. I could hear water nearby and thanked God Kgosi had told me about the little waterway. We both needed to bathe properly, especially if I would return home to an immediate audience with the King.
It was only another minute before we broke through the trees to the sight of a narrow river, it’s opposite bank higher than this side, with a wide pool that slowed the current. The water would be cold, but the heat generated by the growing sunlight, the dragons’ bond, and our own, would keep us warm.
Personally, I could use something tostiflethe internal flames.
Our joining had been so frantic, so urgent, I felt I hadn’t taken proper time with her. And though she seemed as eager as me, I was keen to wrestle back some self-control.
“Time for a bath,” I grinned as I lowered her to her feet.
When she stood at my toes, I almost broke and dove on her. But I gritted my teeth and let her go, helping her remove the satchel slung over her chest.
“Do you have soap and a towel?” I asked, my voice already ragged when her lips curled up and she nodded.
Then we both scrambled to remove our clothing as quickly as possible.
I stumbled getting one of my boots off and almost fell and she spluttered a laugh—and managed to get naked more quickly, running straight for that pool. Then shrieking and bracing when the cold water hit her skin. But she didn’t stop until shewas waist deep, when she tipped forward, diving beneath the rippling surface, then rippling back up two seconds later like a porpoise, gasping against the cold, the water sluicing down her rosy, pebbled skin as she shot to her feet, pushing back the strands of her hair that had been loosened from her braid by the wind, blinking, and blowing from the cold.
I grabbed the soap and towel from her bag, but was frozen by the sight of her, rising out of the clear pool like some kind of water nymph. And suddenly gripped by the memory ofthatdream.
“Bren,” I croaked. She pushed the water off her face and eyes, then stood, hands on her hips,smiling.The skin on her face, neck, and arms were tanned, but she was pale everywhere else. Unlike the rest of us, she couldn’t take her shirt off when a training day grew hot.
I was struck by the sight of her, and the eagerness I felt in the bond. Here she stood in broad daylight, shining with water, nipples tight and high, her skin flushed with the cold. And unlike my dream, she didn’t cover herself.
Every muscle in my body tightened at the sight of her.
“God, you’re beautiful,” I breathed.
