Blaze (6 page)

That's a jealous attitude!

Tara, please. Not now. I'm very busy.

Then concentrate on helping these people and stop being envious of Blaze's skills!

I am not envious! Just curious.

Melody stooped beside a woman who was just regaining consciousness after the fall.

"Don't try to move," Melody said. "Another wagon will be here soon to take you to the village.

Can you tell me your name?"

The woman responded slowly to all of Melody's questions, yet her answers were correct, as Melody hoped they would be, and the head injury didn't seem severe. She did have broken ribs and a

sprained wrist that Melody treated.

A short time later, Dames Redd and Glenna arrived with a wagon to carry the injured to Femmeglenn.

While in the wagon, Melody took over assisting Blaze with the leg injury. By the time they arrived at the fortress, she knew the chances of saving the limb were good.

A couple of hours later as they washed blood from their hands in a corner of the infirmary, Melody thanked him for his assistance.

"I'm glad I could help. That leg will need to be watched carefully."

"Dame Redd is on duty in the infirmary tonight. She's very good, and if she needs us, my herbarium is right around the corner, so she can send for us—if you have time to stay for awhile, that is. I know we've spent most of the day at the ridge and in the infirmary."

Their gazes met. If his hands hadn't been wet, she had the feeling he'd have touched her face.

Taking two clean towels, she offered one to him.

"I think we need a swim and a change of clothes." Melody glanced at their bloodstained garments.

"Do you have something else to wear?"

"In my saddle pack."

Melody's pulse quickened at the thought of bathing with him. Outside the infirmary, she pointed to a stone building a short distance away. "That's my herbarium. Meet me there so you can change and I'll see that your uniform is washed."

He walked toward the stable and she turned toward the herbarium. Partway there, she glanced at him over her shoulder and her heart leapt when she found him staring right back.

Once inside the herbarium, she was glad to find no other Dame or apprentice waiting for her.

After removing her soiled clothes, she picked up a tiny loincloth and little vest made of silky green material. Trembling inside, she drew a deep breath. She'd taken the clothes at the insistence of Glenna. When the women had talked the night before, Melody expressed her keen interest in Blaze and also her uncertainty. She was not a young girl to go around flirting and fawning. Glenna had assured her that all women, regardless of age, were within their rights to flirt and fawn at any time

they set their hearts on an unmarried male who appealed to them.

"When you feel the time is right, wear the loincloth and vest before you really do turn old and dry up without ever having any fun," Glenna had said.

But was now the right time? She and Blaze had only just met. Still, she wanted him so much it was almost like hunger or thirst. He was a decent man who wouldn't use sexuality as a cheap tool for

simple pleasure. Something stronger than lust was developing between them. The paths their lives had taken, their connection to the spirit world, and their powerful and instant attraction to one another had to mean just one thing. They were soul mates.

Oh, that's a good idea, Melody, or should I say Sweet Music.

"What now, Tara?"

Having him change clothes with you in the herbarium then taking him to the river to, uh, wash.

"We need to wash up and you know it!"

Just for cleanliness or because you plan on indulging yourself with his sinfully gorgeous body?

"Do I need to ask you to go away again?"

Such ingratitude, brat! I only came back to translate for you while you were helping those injured people!

"If and when I do make love with him—"

If? Just put on those sexy little—and I do mean little—clothes and enjoy yourself!

After a moment's hesitation, Melody dragged on the loincloth and vest, glad that the silky material was rather stretchy, then pulled an ankle-length tunic over it.

"When I make love with him, I want it to be in private. Can't you understand that?" Melody tossed her dirty tunic in a basket, then stepped from behind the screen and glanced around the

herbarium. Everything was neat and in order. A rounded entranceway at the back of the room opened into a smaller room, her bedchamber.

Melody, why do his spirits get to linger around all the time?

"I have nothing to do with them, and neither does he. He said they don't listen to him."

Not like me. I'm at your beck and call. It's always Tara, come. Tara, go. I want to be alone, Tara.

Tara, it's time to come back and assist me with your divine wisdom. Don't you think I have feelings?

"I'm sorry, but how would you like it if I interfered with you and whatever it is you spirits do?"

You couldn't comprehend our manner of existence, child.

"Just please, give me privacy when I ask for it."

Of course.

"You sound angry again."

Why do you say that? I'll translate when he gets here and you won't even realize I'm around. Just be content in knowing that when you're having a wonderful time with his hard, virile body wrapped around you and thrusting into you, I'll be gone. I will have helped prepare you for the moment, but never get to share in it.

"Has anyone ever told you you're perverted?"

Now you add insult on top of injury?

"Tara!"

Don’t talk to me anymore. He's coming.

Melody was about to insert one last comment when tapping sounded on the door.

"Come in!"

Blaze strode inside, his gaze fixing on hers. Trousers, a shirt, and a cloth bag dangled from his hand.

"There's a basket for dirty clothes. I'll bring them to the fortress to be washed."

Staring at her with what might have been a smirk on his lips, he asked, "Shall I change here?"

Her heart pounding, she tossed him a sultry smile. "I'll turn my back."

Glancing away, she faced the back of the room and approached the shelves filled with medicines and herbs. The rustle of clothes told her he was undressing. That sleek, beautiful body was probably naked right now. Feeling a bit guilty, she picked up a polished silver dish from the shelf and held it up. The image of Blaze's body, every muscle chiseled to perfection, shone on the plate.

Unruly auburn hair grabbed at his neck. A narrow waist flared into the firmest, most perfectly shaped buttocks she had ever seen. Her nipples tightened at the thought of squeezing those prominent globes of taut muscle and smooth flesh. And his legs! Long, lean, and curved with

muscle, they were enough to take her breath away. How good it would feel to be trapped between those powerful, hair-roughened thighs!

Not that I blame you, but don't you think you're being a little dishonest? If you're going to ogle the man, at least give him the opportunity to do the same to you.

Tara!

All right. All right. I'm slinking back into silence.

Melody placed the dish on the shelf and waited until Blaze called for her to turn around.

His magnificent body was covered with a billowy green shirt and loose brown trousers.

"Ready for a swim?" she asked, grasping two towels from the trunk in a corner of the room.

Nodding, he picked up his bag and offered her a smile. They left the herbarium and strode through the fortress gate. A frequent visitor to the Opal Order, Blaze headed for the sizeable lake everyone used for swimming.

Melody grasped his arm, her belly tightening at the hardness of his biceps. Meeting his gaze from the corner of her eye, she smiled flirtatiously and tugged him toward the woods. "This way.

There's someplace I want to show you."

Together they walked to the forest and down a well-trodden path.

"You have some unusual healing techniques," she said. "I honestly didn't think that man's leg could be saved."

"It was risky, but from past experience with similar injuries, I believed it was a risk worth taking."

"Did you learn such methods in the east?"

"I learned much there and in other places as well as among the healers of our Orders, yet that technique was suggested by one of the spirits."

Though she felt guilty admitting it, she was glad his expertise had been the result of his mingling with the spirits.

She grinned. "So it was sort of a cheat."

"A cheat?"

"They bestowed knowledge the rest of us wouldn't have possessed."

His brow furrowed. "The man's leg is whole."

"I know. It's wonderful. Yet how can you be sure the spirits are always right? If they tell you to do something and it results in a worse injury than the one you're trying to heal, how do you live with that?"

Blaze drew a deep breath and stared at the path ahead. By the expression in his eyes, she had apparently touched upon a sensitive topic. Perhaps he had made mistakes before due to the spirits'

advice and felt guilty about them.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that." Melody brushed a curl behind her ear. "If it wasn't for you showing up when you did, I'd have taken that man's leg off. I am grateful to you."

"You probably would have saved his life. If I didn't have previous experience with the technique I used, I would have removed the leg, and I don't think your question was unwarranted. Many times

I ignore what the spirits tell me, particularly when other spirits, whom I know and trust, warn me that their intentions aren't good. But there are times when a spirit pushes his will so hard and seems so genuine in his belief that I must listen. I have made terrible mistakes that I regret.

Sometimes such mistakes result from listening when I shouldn't or not listening when I should.

Fortunately, the longer I live with the spirits, the fewer mistakes I make. It has been years since they have led me astray—or since I have trusted the wrong voice. You must understand what I mean, having a spirit of your own to guide you."

Melody turned to him, studying the fine lines on his face and the clearness of his blue eyes. Yes, she had a spirit, but Tara had never led her astray. Contending with one friendly spirit was nothing

like the experiences he must endure on a daily basis. Surrounded by voices from beyond the realm of the living, he constantly had to decide what was good and real and what were simply ghosts' tricks.

Grasping his hand, she walked off the well-worn path to a narrower one riddled with sharp turns and shadowed by overhanging branches.

Blaze ducked, shoving branches from his face. "Where are you taking me? Am I to follow Sweet Music like a lost man lured by the strains of a faerie's flute?"

"If it's faeries you're after, then this would be the place to find them."

She grasped his hand and tugged him through a clump of trees.

Together they stood on a flat, smooth rock overlooking a cascade that emptied into a pool of water surrounded by a thick growth of trees. Alluis Flowers, magnificent beauties the size of a man's hand with velvety black leaves, floated on the water. Other than a few rays of sunlight crisscrossing the pool, the place was dim, shadowed by curtains of leaves and reeds.

"Such beauty," Blaze murmured.

"This is one of my favorite places. I discovered it with Glenna the first year of our apprenticeship."

He climbed down the rocks, his steps sure and steady, and squatted by the water. Sliding a graceful hand beneath one of the black flowers, he lifted it, careful not to destroy the roots dripping into the pool.

Melody joined him, running a fingertip over the flower's soft petals.

"Alluis," he said. "One of the only flowers in our world that blooms in darkness."

"There are few flowers to rival its beauty."

"Yes." He held it next to her cheek. "Yet even it pales near yours."

Melody's pulse fluttered. Beneath her robe, her nipples hardened and she resisted the urge to squirm with pleasure. How much she wanted this man!

Blaze placed the flower back in the pool and stood, tugging off his shirt. The sleek muscles of his torso rippled. Melody longed to run her fingers through his crisp chest hair and taste his fine, soft lips again.

Suddenly his gaze met hers and he smiled slightly before turning his back to her.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought the lady would like to undress and get in the water first."

"Thank you, Sir." Melody dropped her robe. Wearing only her loincloth and the tiny vest, she waded into the water. "You may turn around."