Dalir's Salvation (14 page)

His gaze held uncertainty but no regrets. Protectiveness but not fear. He could overwhelm her easily with his strength, but his gentleness made her weak. Unspoken questions also shadowed his eyes, asking her to understand, to accept him. He hadn’t hesitated in revealing his power to protect her from danger, and he wasn’t apologizing for it now.

He urged her under the falling water. She let it all rinse away. Her fears. Her doubts. In the warehouse, he’d metamorphosed into something she didn’t fully comprehend. Ari drifted out of the waterfall and met his gaze. But, he was still Dalir. Wasn’t he?

She slipped past him and picked up a bottle. Hands shaking, she poured the liquid into her hand. Ari averted her gaze to his chest, not ready to put her answer to him in words. Unable to deny what she wanted. Just as he’d done for her, she massaged the soap into his skin.

His arms relaxed at his sides, but a faint glow of silver flashed in his smoldering grey eyes. Ari concentrated on her hands, smoothing them in circles over his chest, awed by muscular perfection, curious about the scars she hadn’t paid attention to before on his torso. He’d carried a sword. Had he fought enemies using it? Her palms grazed over his nipples.

He sucked in a breath.

She trailed down his eight pack. Ripples and ridges of tight muscle emerged underneath her fingertips.

His chest rose and fell. His thick shaft, bumped her belly as his breaths grew more and more unsteady.

She lapped away the drops of water dotting his nipple and teased with gentle bites. A low groan rumbled in his chest. Fine tremors vibrated underneath her lips as she glided lower and encircled him. The silky lather of the body wash aided in the gentle slide of her palms and fingers over his length. She tightened her hands around him, and he pulsed and expanded, more than enough to fill the tight embrace of her fingers.

Without warning, Dalir swiftly backed her up under the waterfall.

Water flowed over her head and into her face for a second, and then it parted like a curtain, held back by a shimmering light. It fell rhythmically near her shoulders.

Dalir gently manacled her wrists above her head. The feel of cold, hard marble on one side and his steely, hot erection throbbing on the other sent raw lust hurtling through her core.

“Ari.” Dalir’s hooded eyes glittered with light. “What are you trying to do to me?” As he nuzzled the side of her neck, his wet hair brushed against her throat. His nipping teeth along her sensitive skin awakened every nerve. “I’m trying to give you time to adjust.” He trailed a path of tortuous kisses down her neck to her shoulder. “I’m trying to be gentle with you.” He pressed himself against her belly, and his whole body shuddered with his intake of breath.

But, she didn’t want him tame. She wanted him real, unbridled, with no restraints holding him back. She wanted to show up just as real for him.

“No.” She pulled her hands out of his grasp. “No more secrets.” Emotions tightened her throat. Water mingled with her tears. “Show me everything. I want to see who you really are.”

The angles of his jawline grew more pronounced, as he grabbed her hips. “Hold onto me.”

Ari braced her hands on his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist. She wanted him so badly, tremors radiated through her from the inside out.

His corded muscles tensed underneath her palms. His fingers bit into her hips as he raised her higher. His eyes never wavering from hers, Dalir impaled her on his length, inch by wonderful inch.

The pleasurable stretch of her body taking him all in, it was too much, and yet, it wasn’t nearly enough. She wanted more.

Dizzy with desire and anticipation, Ari closed her eyes and let her head rest against the tiled wall. He kneaded her breast as he flicked the other nipple with his tongue. When he drew the tender peak past his lips and into his mouth, her inner muscles clenched harder around him. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pressed her heels into the tight muscles of his butt and grasped the back of his head holding him in place until he turned his attention to her other breast. The tender assault continued, her whole body consumed by sensations that left her hanging on by the slimmest possible strand of sanity.

He lifted his head and she untangled her fingers from his hair.

“Ari, look at me.”

Slumberous from pleasure, she gazed into a blaze of silver that almost consumed the grey of his eyes.

“See me,” he whispered hoarsely. “Know all of me.” Dalir lifted her up and brought her back down. He seated himself so deeply she felt the force of it down to her toes.

The water formed a cocoon around them. Every move he made into her body seemed to come with an awareness of what would intensify her pleasure, what made her wrap her legs tighter around his waist, what tore out her cries and caused her to dig her nails harder into his back.

An invisible force moved rapidly through the water and it seeped into her very being. It called for a release to him that went beyond just the physical. Letting go of everything holding her back; the fear, the uncertainty, the misunderstandings, the mystery of what lay ahead. Ari let him into her heart and claimed the orgasm streaming up from her feet, flooding into her limbs, and weaving ribbons of ecstasy through her core.

With a low near-growl, Dalir wrapped an arm around her waist, held her by the nape, and crushed his lips to hers. Ari’s thighs shook with each demanding thrust. The quivers in her lower belly grew stronger. Her sex clamped and squeezed around his rock-hard, length again and again as her first orgasm slammed into the next. She splintered apart, clutching helplessly at his broad back.

He lifted his mouth from hers, their heated breaths rushing in and out between them.

“Ari.”

She fought to raise her heavy eyelids. His gaze mirrored the need raging inside of him. An expression bordering on agony flitted over his face, and his whole body tensed. As Dalir latched onto her hips, the cords in his neck flexed underneath his skin. His thick shaft grazed repeatedly against her still sensitized flesh. Overtaken by sensation, she climaxed again as he shook with his release.

As she floated down, his legs trembled as he held her up against the wall. His head fell against her shoulder. “Don’t ever doubt this,” he whispered hoarsely against her throat. His whole body moved with his unsteady breaths. “No matter what happens, don’t ever doubt that what we have is real.”

Ari tightened her arms around him. Yes. It was real. Too real to deny. Too real for her to leave. Real enough to break her heart.

As Dalir lay in the sleigh bed with Ari, he glided his hand up and down her back. The erotic mix of soap, shampoo, and the musky scent of desire surrounded them. The power he’d released during their intense lovemaking still heightened his senses and his craving for Ari.

She adjusted her head on his shoulder. “Tell me more about who you are and where you’re from.”

Dalir kissed the top of her head. He wouldn’t make the same mistake as before. He’d tell her everything this time, no matter how hard or difficult it became to confess. Stroking over her hip through the sheet, he settled on where to start. “Like I said before, my home is another dimension called Alandia. My kind are called ancients. We possess certain gifts like the ability to travel time.”

“How does it happen? Do you just speed around from place to place?”

“Not quite.” Based on her experience coming to The Drift, it made sense she’d see it that way. “Time and dimensions aren’t just a straight line of past to present to future. It’s overlapping and infinite.” He opened his hand and willed a small, glowing golden orb to appear in his palm.

Ari’s eyes widened. “What is that?”

“A portal into time.”

She reached for the orb but stopped. “Is it okay to touch it?” She chuckled. “I don’t want to get sucked away to the Stone Age.”

“Go ahead. It’s perfectly safe.”

Her fingers skimmed along the surface.

As an extension of him, the energy inside the of the orb leaped and gravitated toward her touch. He tamped down need.

“But it’s so small. How do you travel in it?”

“Not in it. Through it.” With a silent command, he widened the sphere to the size of a basketball and hollowed it into a shimmering tunnel with no end. “I’d have to make it bigger for phasing, but within that space exists time in its smallest factions. I can see every one of them and follow their path to where they lead into the future.”

“And the past?”

“No.” He closed the tunnel and reabsorbed the sphere in his palm. “Always forward, never back. I can also extract power from time and use it as a force.”

“Are you an explorer then? Is that why you came here?” She stroked her hand over his palm.

He intertwined their fingers. “I’m here because I broke the law.”

“I’m sure you had a good reason.”

“How can you be certain?”

Ari’s gaze didn’t waver. “How you carry yourself. The way you think. You live by a code. You also inspire loyalty. My friend’s fiancés and the rest of the guys aren’t gullible. They wouldn’t follow you unless you were honorable. And I wouldn’t be with you now.”

His heart swelled as he traced a path down her cheek. He’d willingly fall on his sword than lose the absolute certainty about him he saw in her gaze. He leaned in for a kiss.

“Uh-uh. I know that look. If we start that, I’ll never get the story. What law did you break to put you here?”

He kissed the fingers she’d pressed to his mouth. Now for the difficult part. He hadn’t shared everything with Thane or the team. Dalir forced a breath against the tightness in his chest. He dug up the hard, twisted, ugly parts of the past he’d buried. Their images emerged in his mind. “Eighty years ago, it was arranged that I marry. Her name was Taliana. She was an oracle initiate.”

“An oracle initiate, what’s that?”

“Oracles have special intuitive gifts, like you. Initiates go through additional training to become guardians and watch over the temple. She gave up her calling and agreed to the marriage. My brother, Kell, became angry over it, along with my appointment as my father’s successor. As I look back now, I should have seen how bitter he’d become. Not overnight but little by little as I excelled and people lauded my accomplishments. He was so obsessed over beating me in what I did well, instead of finding something he was good at or just enjoyed. When the retributionists approached him about staging a coup, I’m sure he saw his chance to get back at all of us.”

A pensive expression came over her face. She wet her bottom lip, and dragged it gently, through her teeth.

His sex hardened.

“Who are the retributionists. What did they want?”

Need cooled instantly. “Hundreds of years ago, exploration was important to us. We were curious about humankind. Ancients disguised themselves as humans and lived in the Earthly dimension. They studied the different cultures and brought back what they learned. Eventually, humans who were willing came to Alandia, but some ancients weren’t thrilled about it. They felt humankind weakened us and our traditions. A small group of ancients became more vocal than others against the equality of humans. People followed them.”

“Let me guess, with a little added fear and hate, the retributionists were born.” She looked down, but not before he’d spotted sadness in her expression.

At times like this, he really wished he could read her mind. She still blocked him. Doubt pricked in his gut. They’d just gotten back together, and this was a lot to take in. She’d done remarkably well, so far. He’d let that distract him from the hurtful complexities of his world that were difficult to explain. It made sense that her walls would stay up. “Yes, but they’ve never gained power. My father won’t let them.”

“Is your father like a president or something?”

“He is king of Alandia.”

“King.” Ari squeaked. She pushed up to look at him. “Then, that makes you—”

“His son.” Dalir pulled her back down to his chest. He couldn’t help but laugh at her open-mouthed expression. “Yes, by birth, I hold a title. So did Kell. He was next in line to the throne, but he wouldn’t have made a suitable leader.”

She chuckled. “Really? You think?”

Silence and the longing to unburden the painful, emerging recollections prompted him to continue. “During the coup, my brother attacked the temple where the oracles lived.”

Ari’s breathing caught. The hand she stroked over his chest stilled.

Words hovered awkwardly on the tip of his tongue. It was as if he was there on the cliff, seeing the horror unfold. “He killed Taliana. He showed no remorse. I attacked him. My dagger missed his heart. In Alandia, spilling royal blood is a crime. Period. Kell was sentenced for treason. I was sentenced for trying to kill him. The whereabouts of our home were stripped from our memories. Kell was exiled to exist as nothing, floating between dimensions. I was sentenced to live here in exile, but I discovered the ability to travel to the Earthly dimension, just not as a corporeal presence.”

Ari’s hand moving under his brought him back to the present. He threaded their fingers together.

She lifted her head. Moisture shimmered in her eyes. “That must have been awful for you. I can’t imagine how you felt.”

Lost. In a split second, anger and grief changed his entire existence.

“Did you love her?”

“I cared for her very much, but she’s gone.” Even as he said it, the words seemed to resonate as something he needed to know more than Ari. “I wandered for decades, trying to find meaning again. Five years ago, I found the team.” He formed his hand to the curve of her cheek. “And now, I found you.” He claimed Ari’s lush mouth. If there was more to tell, he’d get to it later, much, much later. Dalir shifted on top of her. He kissed her neck, her shoulders, wanting her, needing to be inside of her, loving her.

She squirmed underneath him. “Your brother, I found him once.”

“You don’t have to worry. You’re safe. You’ll never see him again.”

“I’m not worried about me.” She pushed against his chest. “I’m worried about you. We need to talk about it. If I can find him—”