Page 73 of Stealing the Star Stone
“No,” she spun, catching his hand.“You honor me, but I should earn my own.”
He smiled, his two front teeth missing.“You will not be here long enough.”
“True, then my lack of beads should not matter.”
“You come for the Kovari Shol as most do.”He stroked the blue tattoo.“Few have made it this far.Some bring evil with them, but Lethaar protects us.”
“Tell me, Khepan, the last one we touched, it shattered.Will this happen again?”She frowned.“Destroying another…Kovari Shol would sadden me.”
“It depends on the life within the shol.If it has seen millennia, it will die.”He leaned in to whisper, “It chooses to be discovered.I sense you carry one now.Perhaps that is why my chief shows you favor.”He flicked out a loincloth.“Refreshments await.I am certain my chief longs to converse with you.”
She stared at the strips of fabric and grimaced.
“Your garments will be cleaned.For now, this is what our males wear.”
She nodded and let him dress her.The loincloth was snug, like a pair of boy shorts.Two strips draped to the floor, covering her front and back.
“Do you like this man?”he asked, tucking and fastening as he circled her.
“You mean the one whose body I’m in?”She shifted from one foot to the other.“I didn’t at first.”
Khepan chuckled.“The shol does choose the most volatile of matches.I believe it is bored with the easy and fainthearted.”
She stilled.They’d been arguing when they’d touched the star stone.But not with the second.Mm, maybe that’s the key?
“This way, Eli,” Khepan said, gesturing to the archway.“Your things are safe.”
She gazed at the weapons, checked that the safety was on, then hurried after the old man.With Eli’s long legs, it didn’t take her long to catch up with his hobble.
Women stared at her, their cheeks darkening when she smiled.
“You are a curiosity.The last stranger was older with silver hair.He did not have a shol with him.”Khepan scowled.“But he wanted them all.”
Orien.“He’s chasing us, and if he finds us here, I fear for your people.”
“I shall warn Chief Amenkar.”Khepan left her on a cushion-littered rug, darting away on his spindly legs to the dais.
She sat, choosing a spot with the best view, then spent a good deal of time trying to arrange the strips to best cover her.A serving girl offered a drink in a tall goblet.The liquid was purple with herbs floating on the surface.Nova thanked her and took a tentative sip.The honeyed nectar was tart with a hint of mint.She hummed, smacked her lips, and drank some more.
“Thank you, again, Bigeeli,” Eli said, snapping Nova’s gaze to him.
Her mouth dried, her insides churned, and her cock sprang to life.He’d never looked lovelier.His skin gleamed, the flames flickering over him like he’d been coated in gold flakes.His copper hair streamed around him, thick braids adding volume.He wore a loincloth, too, along with strips of matching cloth that diagonally covered his breasts from one shoulder to hip.Bracelets clinked on a wrist and an ankle, and when he sat beside her, he brought with him the sweetest fragrance that rivaled the tartness of the fruit juice.
“Fuck, Eli,” she rasped, fighting the rising desire.“You made me beautiful.”
“You’ve always been that to me,” he said.
She met his gaze and tumbled into the turbulent depths of his eyes.An intensity promised more than she could handle, if she had the courage.
He sniffed the goblet a girl placed in his hand.“Damn, but it feels so good to be clean.”
She chuckled around her galloping heartbeat.“Yeah, and I learned a few things about the stones they call shols.”She took a gulp of juice to coat her tongue.“Orien’s been here before.I suspect it didn’t end well.”
“Shit.”Eli stiffened.“He’ll probably follow us.”
“My thoughts exactly.And their lances, as impressive as they are, can’t compare to our modern firepower.”She pointed to the dais with her goblet.“Khepan went to warn the chief.”
She choked on a sip when Amenkar strode toward them, his strips flapping aside and exposing muscled thighs that implied an impressive workout regime.He was handsome with his bronze eyebrows arching over dark eyes.That chiseled jaw that seemed a little too dominant.When she’d been younger, she’d had a girlfriend or two but hadn’t deviated from men for long.Now, she’d do both without batting her eyelashes.
