Nightshade (41 page)

“You’re very beautiful, Darry.”

“So are you.”

They were together, embracing, skin against skin, everything pressing close and joining as Jessa knew it should. It was what her love was meant for and she trembled at the rightness of it. “
Arribas pahjlah-ne-ellow
.” Jessa moaned and lifted her face along Darry’s, the feel of flesh making her hold tighter. “Yes,
Akasha
, oh
yes
.”

Jessa moved back on the mattress beneath her, watching as Darry set her knee on its edge and looked down at her. Darry’s warrior body was even lovelier than Jessa had suspected and she tried to take in all that was happening, but she only wanted her close again. Darry caught up her curls and tied them loosely behind her neck, then moved toward her as if she had read her thoughts.

“Open your legs, my love,” Darry breathed, both her mind and body clinging to the merest thread of composure. Her entire world tumbled into place. For the first time everything she knew and understood, everything she had ever dreamt of, every action she had ever taken made complete sense.
I’ve come home.

Jessa obeyed and then gasped as Darry slid her body between her thighs, moving her skin on the heat between Jessa’s legs. Jessa cried out softly and her thighs clenched in reaction. Darry’s pelvis was against her own, moving gently, and her mouth was on Jessa’s breast, hot and moist.

Darry thrust slowly and tenderly against her, lifting onto her arms. Jessa held desperately to Darry’s neck, her breath coming in short bursts and fueling the heat that was rising between her legs.

“You’re the most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen.” Darry brought her mouth close. “It hurts me to breathe.” And then she kissed her.

Jessa opened her mouth in total surrender, their bodies moving in rhythm as they kissed. But then Darry’s hips pushed harder and she could no longer stand it. She turned her face at the shaft of pleasure that knifed through her. Darry kissed Jessa’s neck, her lips taking her slowly downward. Jessa moaned and lifted her body, lost as Darry’s breasts slid along her stomach. “
Tua drassa matisse
,
Akasha
.”

Darry kissed her breasts, flicking her tongue on the hardened nipples before moving to her belly where her tongue teased the skin around Jessa’s navel. Darry reached up and cupped her breasts, kneading them slowly and rolling the nipples between her fingers until Jessa’s pleasure was close to pain.

Jessa felt it between her legs and deep within her thighs, and she smiled. The shadows played around the curved ceiling as she writhed on the covers, trying to breathe, though every breath lit a new and more furious fire. Everything trembled and jerked, and her hips pressed and retreated. She cried out when Darry’s mouth closed upon her sex, and her shoulders lifted from the bed. She dug her heels into the mattress as she fell back and raised her hips into the kiss.

Darry’s tongue moved to the fierce pulse in her mouth as she tasted Jessa’s spirit. The flesh beneath her was swollen and glorious, and she explored it all, her tongue sure of what it wanted, her teeth grazing with delicate care. She needed to show her, she needed Jessa to understand that she was everything. To understand that she was the only thing that mattered.

The sounds of Jessa’s pleasure filled her head and Jessa’s thighs clenched harder around her body. Darry closed her eyes against her own violent need and wrapped her arms about Jessa’s thighs as she sucked deeply.

“
Darry
…” Jessa gasped. “I don’t…I need, I need to…”

Darry pulled away slowly, kissing her flesh before pushing up. She kissed Jessa’s belly, opening her mouth and tugging on the soft skin. She tasted sex and sweat and a hint of something clean and dark beneath it all, knowing that it was the untainted flavor of Jessa’s skin.

Jessa’s hand was trembling as she touched Darry’s cheek, then pushed gently.

“I want you to come in my mouth,” Darry said.

“Yes.”

Darry’s hand was gentle but firm, and Jessa found it hard to breathe as her fingers circled and then teased through an ocean of spirit.

“Hurry, please…please,
Akasha
.” Jessa implored within a harsh intake of breath, then cried out when Darry’s mouth replaced her touch.

Unable to catch her breath, Jessa could only move and arch as the tears slipped from her eyes. She had never felt such things before. It was piercing and devastating and she wanted it to last forever, but there was a need she could not ignore and her flesh followed it, craved it, demanding to be released. The pressure built until her body could no longer contain it and she came, shouting and reaching a frantic hand into Darry’s hair as everything seized and burst with pleasure.

She convulsed and her thighs clenched as she trembled on the bed. Darry’s tongue flicked and coaxed from her body smaller shudders as her flesh dissolved and her hips wrenched. When Jessa finally began to still, Darry shifted and slipped her right hand between Jessa’s thighs and massaged within the soaking heat. Jessa’s thighs clamped tightly about the caress and Darry pulled her over. Her right leg went around Jessa’s hips and she held her as close as she possibly could.

Darry kissed her, and Jessa filled with weakness and satisfaction and moaning at the taste of her. Her tears came unbidden, and Jessa turned her face and pressed it to Darry’s neck. She gasped as the touch slid from between her legs and the strong hand slid up the small of her back.

“All is well, Jess,” Darry whispered. “I won’t let go.”

Jessa lifted her face and put her hand on Darry’s cheek as she fell from what seemed like the highest tower of the Jade Palace and left that dark place forever as Darry’s eyes reached out and caught her. She caressed Darry’s face and kissed her, sealing the features within her mind.

“Was that all right?” Darry asked.

Jessa kissed her again. “You are joking, yes?”

“You taste like paradise.” Darry wanted to come so badly, but Jessa’s satisfaction was perhaps sweeter than her own anticipation.

“I did not think…” Jessa’s tongue stroked in Darry’s mouth and then tasted of her lips in slow demand, “that you would do that.”

“I’ve dreamt of having my mouth on you,” Darry said. Jessa’s left leg moved between her own and she caught her breath at the pressure against her sex, her body tightening as Jessa’s thigh rubbed against her. “Jess, maybe you could…just…”

“
Akasha
.” Jessa saw Darry’s eyes and moved against her as she reached between them and slid her hand down the muscles of Darry’s stomach. Everything was tense and hard beneath her touch. “I’m going to touch you.”

“Yes,” Darry said roughly. “Yes, whatever you want.”

“Is that what you need?” Jessa asked. “Tell me.”

“Whatever you want.”

“I want to touch you.”

“Then just…just touch me, please.” Their bodies were together at last, the feel of Jessa’s breasts against her and the heat and subtle dampness of her skin, they were sensations that pushed her into a new realm of need. “Please, hurry. Or I think I might spend without you.”

“
No
.” Jessa’s hand slid through her curls. Darry’s leg tightened about Jessa’s hip as her body pushed forward. “No, don’t do that, please.”

Jessa caught her breath at the slick heat she found, and she stroked the hard length of Darry. She felt strong hands clutching and Darry’s hips moving. Darry was beyond lovely in her passion and Jessa slid her hand farther.

Jessa felt the release and was stunned as velvet muscles seized about her fingers and her hand filled with Darry’s spirit. She pressed the heel of her palm against the distended tissues and Darry cried out.

Vhaelin essa yellem ne-ellow!
Jessa prayed, and Darry called out her name as if in response, clinging to her.
Vhaelin essa
…
by all the gods, Darry, you’re so beautiful. Oh my love, you’re perfect.

Darry lay spent within her arms, exhaling the sweetest of sounds against Jessa’s neck as her strength fled. Her body shuddered and Jessa moved her hand. Darry jerked and moaned in response. “Jessa.”

Jessa rolled on top of her and plundered her mouth. Darry grasped weakly, trying to hold her properly. Jessa pulled away slowly, gazing into Darry’s languid eyes and smiling as she tried to focus. Darry looked wonderfully dazed. “
Vhaelin essa yellem ne-ellow
,” she whispered, pleased beyond anything she had yet felt.
I did that to you, Akasha.

“Yes.” Darry shivered beneath her. “Yes, me too.”

Jessa kissed her again and this time Darry’s arms were stronger. Jessa draped along her body, their legs entangled. In time Jessa’s heartbeat slowed and settled into a blissful rhythm, and she laid her head on Darry’s shoulder. She could feel the smooth muscles of Darry’s stomach under her hand. When Darry’s right thigh rose along her own, Jessa’s heart skipped.

“Well…” Darry said. “I suppose now I shall
have
to give you my horse.”

Jessa laughed and met Darry’s eyes, which were filled with love. “For certain.” She laid her head back down, her body still shaking with humor as she took hold of Darry’s waist and held tight.

“At least for an afternoon.”

Jessa laughed harder and pinched her hip. Darry let out a hiss and grabbed Jessa’s hand. They twisted together and rolled across the bed, where Jessa came out on top and sat astride Darry’s hips.

Jessa pinned her arms to the mattress. “
Pootah en tua belowsh
!” She kissed her, releasing Darry’s wrists and then took hold of her face. She felt Darry’s hands on her hips as her tongue found happiness. Her feelings swelled beyond anything she had ever thought love might be. “More, please.”

Darry lifted her shoulders from the bed and took hold of Jessa’s waist as she was pulled up, moaning in the heat of their kiss.

*

Jessa lay naked on the bed as Darry rummaged through the shelves by the desk. She had slipped on her trousers, but that was all. “This floor is bloody cold.” Darry chuckled, moving some scrolls.

Jessa saw the deep bruises that darkened the skin of Darry’s lower back. There was a strange mark on her left shoulder blade as well, a long welt, dark and angry and the blood stippled just beneath the surface of her skin.

Darry turned with several long candles in her hand. “We can save—”

Jessa stared at the bruise on her ribs and saw that it had darkened even further in the few hours they had been there.

“All is well,” Darry assured her, moving to the bedside table. She lit the candles and placed them in an empty holder and blew out the lamp, then sat on the edge of the bed and Jessa pushed herself up and leaned onto her right arm. She slid her other hand gently along Darry’s lower back, and the skin was abnormally hot beneath her touch.

Darry stared into the darkness across the chamber. “You must stop this,” Jessa said, unable to keep the worry from her voice. “Do you hear me,
Akasha
?”

“I’m a soldier,” Darry answered. “Soldiers have bruises.”

“Not like these.”

“Yes, like these.”

Jessa moved her hand up Darry’s spine and spread her fingers lightly over the welt. “And this?”

“That was an accident.”

“What sort of accident?”

“Etienne’s sword is very fast.” She closed her eyes at the gentle touch.

“Why are you doing this?”

“The Solstice Tournament is soon. I wish to be ready for it.”

Something in her voice sent a sliver of fear melting along Jessa’s spine. “And then?”

“And then? And then I win.”

“What will you win,
Akasha
?”

“My freedom.”

Jessa said nothing. She stilled her hand at the small of Darry’s back.

“After I win, I will renounce my title and resign my rank,” Darry said, sounding very certain of her words. “And then I will leave this place and never return. I want you to come with me.”

When Jessa said nothing, Darry turned and slid her hand along Jessa’s neck. “They will never let us be, Jess, do you understand? You were brought here for Malcolm to judge. You’re a daughter of royal blood, the blood that is a sworn enemy to my land. Your part in a marriage is meant to bring about a sort of peace that has never been. At least that’s what Malcolm would like us to think, but I don’t believe it, not for a moment. And even if we disregard such a thing, I’ve already learned that I’m not to be allowed what I want. They have let me play at my life, thinking perhaps that suddenly I will change my mind and wear skirts to the table and take up lacemaking.”

Jessa smiled at the thought. “But don’t they know you? There is love in your family, Darry, the likes of which I’ve never known for myself. I
see
it.”

“I’m not saying they don’t love me.” A look of pain washed through Darry’s eyes. “But my father and Malcolm, what they did. I’ll not live under that yoke of dishonor, Jess. I love my family and the people of my country. Have I not chosen to serve Arravan with my very life if need be? But no more. All men are allowed the freedom to love as they wish and yet I am not? Who should care whom I steal my kisses from or find beneath me on the sheets of a warm bed?” Darry claimed a slow kiss. “None but the one who lets me steal them.”