Return to Shanhasson by Joely Sue Burkhart Read Free Book Online

straining for air before she ceased
trying to toss him on his back. He jerked them both up for a desperate gasp of
air and then crushed her against the side of the pool. He slammed into her,
hard, jamming as deep as her body could take him.
    Her choking gasp of pain stilled him.
Regret clawed his heart to ribbons. Had the strange oil driven him to the brink
of his control, or something else?
    Deep down, he feared he was losing her,
whether to her Blood or her High Throne, he didn’t know. He jerked back,
determined to withdraw and calm his fury before he seriously hurt her.
    “Don’t you dare,” she growled, throwing
her legs up around his waist. “Give it all to me.”
    Fighting to hold on to the last bit of
his control, he forced himself to remain still, until she planted her mouth on
the old scar on his throat. She worked his flesh with her teeth, reminding him
of how she’d marked his arse, and the last bit of his control shattered.
    He thrust as deep as he could. Deeper.
Vulkar help him, he could not fill her tight enough, deep enough, even when her
body convulsed around his, her arms squeezing off his air. Flames danced at the
edge his vision, tinging the water to blood, and still he took her hard,
punishing them both until he collapsed against the side of the pool. He could
only pray he didn’t drag her back to the bottom to drown.
    Hauling in another lungful of air, he
shifted her higher, determined to get her limp body out of the water before the
last of his strength faded.
    Somehow, he wasn’t surprised when
Dharman reached down and lifted her out of the pool. Still breathing hard,
Rhaekhar gathered his strength and heaved up out of the water, shaking a moment
on his knees.
    Sal slapped him on the back and helped
him stand. “You’re wheezing like a fat old stallion that just bred a whole herd
of mares in heat.”
    Nay, he felt as though the whole herd
had trampled him.
    Rhaekhar couldn’t be angry with the
lads, although if she’d been aware enough to realize her nearest Blood was
carefully scanning every inch of her naked body for injuries, she would have
blasted them all from here to Vulkar’s Mountain.
    “She’s unharmed, Khul, though she’ll
have a few bruises to remember you by after you leave on the morrow.”
    Grateful, he felt the last of his worry
melt away. “Whatever you do, lads, never let that oil anywhere near her again.”
    “Oh, I don’t know, Khul,” Sal said. “It
sounded as though you found it very…entertaining.”
    Rhaekhar gave the lad a look that would
have sent many a warrior reaching for his rahke ,
but the young Blood merely grinned wider. In many ways, the lad carried on
Gregar’s tradition of wicked humor.
    Rhaekhar held out his arms, and Dharman
gently transferred her over to his embrace.
    Nestling her face against his chest, she
whispered, “I smell like a dragon.”
    Taken aback, he sniffed her face and
shoulder. Traces of the oil remained despite their rolling frenzy in the water,
but he smelled nothing but spice. He didn’t even know what the mythical beast
looked like, let alone how it might smell.
    “I almost ate Khul.”
    Wincing, Rhaekhar braced for the
inevitable joke. Sal did not disappoint.
    “Don’t worry, Khul’lanna. You can eat me
anytime you desire.”
    * * *
    AS NIGHT FELL IN VELVET SHADOWS across
this miserable blasted land, Mykal stumbled into a low group of tents shielded
in a modest lee between dunes.
    “ Tal !”
    Shouts echoed in the night. Hands caught
him, lowering him to the blistering sand. His tongue was swollen, a massive wad
of cotton in his mouth; his throat as dry as the countless riverbeds he’d
stumbled across. He’d run out of water hours ago, but somehow, he’d known where
to go. Someone lifted water to his mouth, a wet blessing even though the fluid
was bitter enough to curdle on his tongue.
    Words flew about him, and for a moment,
they made no sense. This language was not his own. Panic raked claws down