Capture of a Heart (5 page)

Gavenas was captivated, so much so that when she darted sideways and stole a kiss upon his cheek, Gavenas lurched with surprise. “Eh?”

Shoraya winced, batting her coal-dark lashes in apology. “Sorry.”

His flesh still tingled from where her lips had touched him as he struggled not to return the sweet gesture with a more firm kiss of his own. He gazed at her lips and swallowed at the pleasure he knew he could find between them. “There is nothing for you to be sorry for, Shoraya. Absolutely nothing. If anything, I should be the one apologizing.”

She shook her head and was about to speak before he interrupted her. “My thoughts must be like the wind to you that you can so easily decipher them in my head and answer them?”

“But you are the faeyanin.” She grinned.

“And you have the spirit of one. It explains so much. One does not need to be able to command the elements to communicate with them.” Gavenas clutched her tighter and used his strength to help her to stand. She trembled at his side, leaning heavily with her fingers digging into his, but Gavenas was patient, letting her calm down after what had to have been a trying task. He watched her face, seeing tiny beads of sweat forming on her wrinkled brow. She was still smiling, however. “Walk for me.”

Shoraya nodded before shuffling her right foot forward, then her left. It took some time, but with Gavenas’s help, she reached the nearest chair at the table. He assisted her down into the seat and fixed her a sizable bowl of porridge with fruit and honey.

While part of him was extremely interested in helping her to eat, Gavenas had to resign himself to the role of spectator as well as to the seat across from her. Even then he found little desire to move other than filling his bowl. Watching her gingerly lift the spoon with a surer wrist each time was mesmerizing.

She raised her eyes to peer at him just before pulling the empty spoon from her mouth. “This is so good. So sweet and warm.”

He gazed at her bowl and was surprised to find it half empty and her spoon descending again. “Don’t be so hasty. There is more.”

“But I have an appetite.”

The words were simple enough, but Gavenas’s mind created several interpretations, and none of them had anything to do with food. He spied his own bowl and felt what little hunger he had for porridge vanish. He picked up his spoon nonetheless and stirred his breakfast idly, chiding himself for his behavior. By the time he finally moved to take a bite, Shoraya was attempting to reach for seconds.

Gavenas lowered his spoon and moved hastily to help her, his own meal forgotten again in light of the chance to be at her side and serve her once more.

“I could have done that myself.” She frowned, but the gesture faded into a smile that sent butterflies stirring in his stomach.

Even after he ladled another helping of porridge into her bowl, Gavenas lingered, gazing down at her hair and wondering if she would mind if he rebraided it for her.

A loud shrill call coming from outside his den was just the impetus he needed to break from her side and his obsessive contemplations, and he welcomed it.

“What’s that?”

He started toward the doorway, certain of his visitor. “Don’t worry. It is a friend. I should go out and greet him. Finish your meal.”

Making his escape, Gavenas fled the den and strode out into the light of the forest, hampered somewhat by trees, bushes, vines, and the great creature tapping a clawed foot in the black earth surrounding Gavenas’s home.

The
ovamir
, easily standing at twelve feet tall, peered down at him with bright, yellow eyes, each larger than Gavenas’s head. It chirped a greeting through a beak that could have rended the flesh from even the toughest of hides, while puffing out a chest covered in dark-green scales. Bearing the head and wings of bird and the body of a grand mammal but the armor of a reptile, an ovamir was considered a lethal predator by humans, but Gavenas knew them differently, and this one in particular as he replied back with his own shrill welcome.

The ovamir looked over Gavenas’s shoulder and twisted his head sideways, eyes blinking vertically.

Gavenas turned to follow his friend’s gaze and found Shoraya leaning on the door frame of the den, peeking out from the curtain of leaves and feathers.

“That is some friend,” she said, her eyes and mouth wide.

Gavenas had the impression that she had never seen an ovamir before and sought to assuage any fears she might have had with an introduction. “Shoraya. This is Ganok, an ovamir. Ganok, Shoraya, from the mountains of the Deipma.”

The ovamir shook, flapping its wings lightly while rattling off a series of squawks and chirps. He scratched a clawed foot into the ground and bobbed his head at Gavenas.

Able to comprehend every lewd suggestion and accusation from his friend, Gavenas scowled up at the twinkling eyes that peered down at him.

“What did he say?”

Gavenas swallowed. His cheeks burned with the flush of embarrassment as he looked away from his highly perceptive friend. “He said that he is very pleased to meet you.”

“I don’t think that’s what he said,” Shoraya replied, and she was right.

Still, Gavenas had no intention of relaying Ganok’s queries about her scent all over Gavenas’s body, his speculations about Gavenas’s nighttime activities with the dragon-kissed girl, or future plans to nest. Instead he corrected himself the best that he could, saying, “It was about the gist of his words.”

Chapter Seven

Shoraya knew when she was being avoided, and she also had a pretty good reason why Gavenas had been away from the den for the majority of the day. Not a word had passed between them about the night before or the actions they had taken. Gavenas had been unusually busier than before with matters outside the den. Most of the late morning and noon he had spent with Ganok, the giant of a raptor. He sprang back into the tent afterward to bring her a salad of greens and berries. From the hanging pantry, he plucked a dressing of vinegar, oil, and spices to add to her lunch. He left soon after, not bothering with a meal of his own.

His shyness and swiftness had been amusing to watch but irritating as well. She used her time alone well. Although she did not have her full strength and standing for a period of time continued to tax her body, Shoraya was able to shuffle about the den. She was able to retrieve her blades and clean them with items from her pack. She even attempted a few exercises, but by late afternoon, she was too exhausted to do much more than amble back to the pallet for a nap.

It was a scuttling noise that awakened her early into nightfall. She opened her eyes, expecting to see the faeyanin moving about. The fire was glowing, strong with thick wood, and the smell of roasted meat was in the air, but as she pried her eyes open fully, she saw no sign of him. The presence of the meal still wafting steam however, suggested that he had visited the den recently.

Making her way out of the bed and over to the pool, she took her time washing her face. She stripped off her gown and used one of the neatly folded cloths Gavenas had set in a basket to wash the sweat from her limbs. Finding the oil that he used to moisturize her skin took some time, as he possessed countless orbs, bottles, and cylinders along his wall, but the sparkling gold color and the scent of wildflowers were helpful clues.

She secretly hoped he would return and find her nude, soothing the oil onto every inch of her body, but by the time she had finished, he still hadn’t returned, and the food was no longer simmering.

No matter, she thought, donning her shift and moving over to the table, where the small feast awaited with only one table setting. He meant for her to eat alone, without him, was the message Shoraya perceived. He was probably even hoping that she would be asleep when he returned. She chuckled at the thought, even as she tore off a piece of the smoky, herb-roasted meat and sampled it. Flavorful and oh so tempting, it was difficult for her not to sit down and begin. She uncorked the bottle of wine and dared a sip of it, shuddering at the taste of the bold, fruit-tinged alcohol. She took another before replacing the cork and setting to work.

She chose a metal platter, testing the hardness with her fingernail before transferring the meat and the vegetables onto it. She carried the meal to the edge of the hearth and selected dimmer, white coals, which she gathered into a pile. She then placed the plate on top of the pile. The heat would not cook the meat further, but it would infuse it with warmth while she waited.

It was nearly four hours later—midnight by her estimation—when the den’s curtain was pressed aside and Gavenas came through the door with a look of surprise.

Shoraya was seated by the hearth and had amused herself sorting through a basket of mixed but precious stones she had found among his things. “I kept the food warm for your return.”

He walked over to the table and pulled off his outer cloak before settling it on the back of the chair. His gaze went from the table and back to her. “I was helping Ganok and his mate with the inspection of his newborn chicks. One had difficulties breaking its shell, but they are all quite fine now. Ganok wished me to name them,” he muttered, his voice tinged with confusion. “You ate?”

“I wanted to wait for you.”

He hung his head and sighed. “Shoraya.”

“I just thought you were avoiding me. Selfish, I know.” She left the rocks in their separate piles and stood up, brushing the dirt from the den floor off her gown and the backs of her legs. She padded over to the pool to clean her hands. When she turned around, she found that Gavenas hadn’t moved. Gone, however, was the look of wonderment on his features, replaced by a darker, stern focus, as if he were upset. Few things made Shoraya nervous, but the stern set of Gavenas’s jaw was threatening to. Cautiously she stood and went to the fire. She knelt down to retrieve the platter, which she returned to the table. “You’re here now. So? Let’s eat?”

“I am starving.”

“Me as well.” She smiled nervously, staring down at him. “You are an excellent cook. The food was so tempting. I have to admit I snuck a taste.”

Gavenas blinked, his dark-green eyes flashing silver. “You did?”

“Yeah. I did.”

Shoraya found his behavior odd. It seemed as if he was angry with her for being presumptuous, forward, for not falling for his trap, or so she thought until he came to his feet so suddenly before her.

Gavenas seized her about the waist and drew her flush against him. He was radiating warmth, his grip firm underneath the fabric of her gown.

“You should have eaten,” he said huskily. His eyes were upon her lips.

Shoraya reeled with the realization of his intent. Had she known what lay ahead, what he had obviously been restraining from her, she would have eaten heartily. She tested his biceps with her fingers and shuddered at the strength that she had barely had a glimpse of the night before. Everything about Gavenas radiated hunger, not the type that required food but one of a definite carnal nature.

She canted her hips forward, delighting in the promise of his turgid cock, easily tenting the front of his robe. She felt his hands drop down just below her ass to bring her even harder against him and sighed as her body longed for his desire. “You should be fed first.”

He had no answer or excuse to give her, instead moving forward to claim her lips in a dominating kiss that took any restraint she could have had and singed it to ash. Gone was the tentative male she’d thought he was, the shy reserved male who had apologized for seeking pleasure with her the night before. In his stead was a male set to claiming, one who eagerly raised the hem of her shift to cup her buttocks in large, feverish palms.

Shoraya’s head swam as he stole her breath and replaced it with the sweetness of his own, and while she tried to press upon him her need to memorize every inch of his tongue, he did not allow it. With every second, her limbs grew weaker and the throbbing between her thighs stronger.

Even when he freed her lips, Shoraya barely had the strength to do more than rest her head against his shoulder and breathe shallowly.

She found herself hefted into his arms and clung to him as best as she could. In the short span of time it took for him to carry her to the pallet, she realized the truth in his words. She should have eaten.

Chapter Eight

Part of him had prayed to find her sound asleep, having eaten her fill. Gavenas had avoided her expressly to that end, and yet when he arrived back to the den to find her waiting for him, all sense of restraint had dissolved within him.

He should have known better, that a female of the mountains would burn hot, that she would not shy away like some coy flower but instead be as bold as any flame and just as searing.

As he placed her down on the pallet, he could feel her heat transferring to him, causing him to sweat. His own clothing was an irritant he swore to be rid of as soon as he’d satiated a deeper need, one that had been plaguing him for every second of the damnable day and half the cursed night.

He knelt down before her with his hands upon her knees and pressed her legs apart. A moment was all that he could spare to take in her carnal scent, strong and sweet and caused by him. He leaned forward and slipped his palms beneath her ass before lowering his head to the dark curls upon her mound.

Peppering the soft skin of her sex with kisses, Gavenas swirled his tongue about the gentle flesh, collecting every droplet of moisture the soft forest sought to keep hidden.

Above him, Shoraya moaned, spreading her legs even farther to allow him access to her core.

Gavenas was grateful for the action even as he pressed his nose and mouth into the V of her sex, so hot and slick for him already. Tasting her nectar like a man starved, he was determined that no petal, no bud or crease would escape his attention, the intensity of which should have caused even him alarm. Yet the beast in him was ravenous.

Her moans and gasps were muted echoes in his ears as the throbbing of his own pulse was far louder. Mapping her pussy, every inch, with his tongue became a heated obsession to claim every ounce of her elixir.