The guard opened his bloody mouth to answer, but a low growl from the
sahad
drew his attention. Fear rushed back into his eyes as he stared at the champion. After several long beats, he swallowed hard and slowly nodded. “Y-yeah. I tripped.”
Malik looked toward Kavin for confirmation. Unable to bear his gaze, she shivered and glanced down, wrapping the blanket tighter around her. To the guard behind him, Malik barked, “Gather his gear. And take him to the infirmary.”
The second guard’s eyes were wide with disbelief, but he did as Malik instructed. As the two shuffled out of the room, Malik said in a softer voice, “
Jarriah
, are you okay?”
Shame burned hot through Kavin’s veins. Shame and anger that she was here, that others had to see her like this, that she was at the mercy of all these males. She nodded, unable to muster up the words.
Silence echoed through the room, then Malik’s shoes sounded, followed by the snap of the cell door closing.
Relief pulsed through Kavin as she fought back the tears suddenly burning behind her eyes. She’d lived. She hadn’t been raped by that guard. But her chest rose and fell with quick breaths as if she were still in the midst of the attack. Why was she about to lose it
now
?
Metal groaned as the
sahad
tipped the bed back onto its legs, but Kavin barely cared. Her entire body shook, sending a chill over her skin and a sob rushing up her throat.
“It’s over now.” The
sahad
’s voice was soft. Close. Comforting. And then his arms were around her. Lifting her from the floor, cradling her gently against him, carrying her toward the bed.
She didn’t fight him. Didn’t even think to. All she could do was focus on breathing. On slowing her pulse. She sank onto his lap as he sat, and when he tugged her face down to rest in the hollow between his throat and shoulder and rubbed his hand up and down her back and hip and leg, she let him.
“Shh…you’re okay now. No one’s going to hurt you.”
He’d saved her. The thought revolved in her mind as her adrenaline rushed out on a wave. Not only that, but he could have been executed for doing so. The reality of that stole her breath all over again.
His body was warm against hers. Warm and big and a thousand times stronger than that guard’s, but she felt safe with him. Safer than she had with anyone else…ever. And she couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d just done.
Slowly, she swiped at her eyes, then finally lifted her head to look up. His square jaw was covered in a thin layer of scruff, his skin was the color of caramel, his eyes a rich ebony. And his hair, black as night and hanging almost to his shoulders, looked so soft she had the sudden urge to run her fingers through the thick locks. “Wh-what is your name?”
The words were out before she could stop them. Before she could
think
to stop them. His eyes widened slightly, but he didn’t let go, didn’t pull away, didn’t stop his hand running across her back, sending delicious shivers through her entire body.
“Nasir.” His lips—his very masculine lips—drew her attention, made her wonder what they felt like. What they tasted like.
“Helper,” she whispered, recognizing the meaning. “Your name is very much appreciated today.”
“I’m no hero,
jar
—” His words cut off abruptly as his brow dropped low. “I don’t want to call you that. What is
your
name?”
“Kavin,” she answered, relieved he didn’t want to use that word. Relieved she didn’t have to hear it.
“Isn’t that usually a boy’s name?”
“My father wanted a son.” He’d gotten her instead. Then had easily gotten rid of her.
She pushed that unwelcome thought aside as his gaze ran over her features. And her stomach tightened while she wondered what he saw.
Did he see a pleasure slave? A Ghul? Or did he see simply a female in a horrific situation?
“Fitting too,” he finally said in a quiet voice. “It means handsome. Though I think in this case, I’d use beautiful instead.”
Warmth bloomed in her belly. Warmth and something else…a tingling that started in her chest, moved up to encircle her breasts and made them ache, then spread slowly down to settle like a heavy weight between her legs.
Need—a need she’d never experienced before—rushed through her body, calling to her in a way that left her breathless. She wanted to run her hand over his hard jaw, to brush her thumb across his lips. To know what he felt like—just once. Was afraid of what he’d do if she tried. “Th-thank you. For what you did.”
“I’d have killed him if I could.”
She should be scared—that cold look she recognized from the ring was back in his eyes—but she wasn’t. After everything she’d seen these last few days, she knew he wasn’t the monster the highborns made him out to be. He wasn’t even close. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because then I’d be thrown in isolation, or worse. And I wouldn’t be able to protect you. The same way you protected me last night.”
Oh
…
That warmth shifted to something hot and insistent. She pressed her knees together to stop the ache building to explosive levels between her thighs. And this time, when the urge to touch him hit, she lifted her hand without thinking. The blanket fell to her waist, but she didn’t stop it. The need to feel his skin beneath her hands was too strong.
He tensed when her fingertips brushed his jaw. Realizing what she’d done, she pulled her hand back. “I’m sorry. His blood…you had a smudge.”
His hand captured hers before she could lower it, but there was no pain in his grip. Only a tingling she felt all the way to her core. “Don’t…stop. I…like your hands.”
Her pulse picked up speed. Was he saying…?
His eyes darkened, and as she watched desire bring a flush to his skin, her heart pounded hard. He placed her hand against his cheek again. Tingling sensations rushed through her flesh. And when his gaze dropped to her breast, visible with the blanket open at her waist, her nipples tightened until another wicked shot of heat arced all through her pelvis.
“I’d like to help you, Kavin,” he said in a gruff voice. “To thank you for helping me.”
He was asking permission. Never, not in a million years, had she imagined this was how it would happen.
Her entire body tightened at the erotic implication of his words. At what she imagined him doing to “thank” her. At what he would ask of her when that “thanking” was done. But there was no fear. No revulsion. Only…excitement. An excitement that told her this was right.
“Yes,” she whispered.
His eyes grew even darker. Beneath her, the muscles in his legs tightened as his arms closed around her back.
She wasn’t going to die. As he lifted her from the bed and carried her toward the pool she’d just been in, that realization settled in. Followed by the chilling reality that when this was over, she’d be sent back Zayd. And the
sahad
who’d saved her in more ways than one would forever be a memory.
Chapter Eight
Nasir wasn’t sure what he was doing. Certainly not anything he’d planned. But seeing that guard attacking the female…
Kavin
…it had unleashed something inside him. Something he thought had died long ago.
Heat pulsed through his groin as he lowered her to her feet. She clutched the blanket around her while he tugged off his sandals, then reached for a towel from the edge of the bath. Holding it up to shield her body, he waited while she dropped the blanket at her feet, then tucked the towel around her breasts.
Her eyes were wide and curious while he moved down into the warm water, still wearing his pants, and held a hand out for her.
She hesitated, then finally relaxed when she realized he wasn’t insisting she lose the towel. Slowly, she stepped down into the bath, the cloth hitting high against her legs, drawing his attention to the toned, creamy flesh of her thighs. Making him hard with just a look.
If ever there was a time when a female was more vulnerable, he couldn’t imagine it. Her fear was long gone. Her gratitude for what he’d done so palpable, he sensed right now she’d let him do anything to her that he wanted. But he didn’t want to be like her highborn. Didn’t want her to look upon him as she had that guard. What he wanted—for reasons even he didn’t understand at the moment—was to see her tempting lips turn up in a smile. To learn more about who she was and where she’d come from. To—for a moment—find a peace he’d been lacking for way too long.
She lowered herself into the water and sat on the seat that ran around the inside of the bath. Her gaze strayed to the bandage on his side. “What about your wound?”
“It’ll be fine.” He clenched his teeth as he eased down into the water, ignoring the burn in his side, then reached for a washcloth from the edge of the bath. After wetting the corner, he swiped the dirt and blood from her face. Blood, he was thankful to see, that wasn’t hers. “I think that guard will think twice about touching you again.”
“Thanks to you.”
His gaze skipped from her cheek to her eyes. Soft, hypnotic eyes, as green as the foam that rolled along the shores of his homeland. Reaching for her hand, he held her fingers up so she could see the bloody nails where she’d clawed at the guard’s eyes. “No, Kavin, thanks to you. If you want, I can show you just where to strike to protect yourself from another attack.”
“You can?”
One corner of his mouth curled at her surprised expression. “If you know where weakness lies, you can take down anyone, even someone twice your size.”
“I think…I’d like that. Yes,” she said more confidently. “I would.”
A shadow passed over her eyes, one that made him wonder if she was thinking about the highborns who’d enslaved her. Or of the djinn who would touch her and use her for their own perverse pleasure once she was finally free of the dungeons.
He tamped down the anger that thought conjured as he washed her hand, gently rubbing soap over her nails, removing any sign of that guard’s touch, then moved to her arms. In the silence between them, he was aware of every breath she took, of the way she watched him, of the scent of her skin—lavender and honey—so intoxicating he was amazed he hadn’t noticed it before.
“Where did you get that?”
“What?”
“This necklace.” She leaned forward and ran her fingertips over the fire opal at the base of his throat. And as if she’d touched him, warmth spread beneath the gemstone and into his chest, then lower, flooding his belly and groin.
He sucked in a surprised breath and looked down. She was studying the gem, not him, continuously rubbing her fingers over the opal as if it alone held her focus. But the contact made his entire body twitch and tingle with the need to feel her hands on his bare skin. And suddenly, he wanted her attention off the opal and directed only on him.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered.
“I’m bound to it.” Was that his voice? It didn’t sound like him. It was deep, gravelly, aroused. He cleared his throat, tried to kill the lust now simmering hot inside. Couldn’t.
“How?”
Holy Allah, this close, when she tipped those eyes up, he realized just how mesmerizing they really were. Like miniature swirling galaxies, alive with light and life. A light he’d gone so long without.
“I was captured by a sorceress who bound me to the opal.”
“A sorceress?”
He nodded, not entirely sure why he was telling her the truth, needing to share it for unknown reasons at the same time. “One who commands an army of Ghuls.”
“Zoraida?” she asked in surprise.
“You know of her?”
Eyes wide with wonder darted back to the opal. But she didn’t touch it again. And his pulse beat hard, waiting.
Wanting
…
“I’ve heard stories. About her power over those in the Wastelands.”
“Where are you from?”
“The Northern Rim. My parents were…are”—she corrected—“farmers. They live in a small village. As children, we were taught to be on the lookout for Zoraida or any from her army.”
“And you’ve never seen her?”
“No. The only outsiders we ever encountered were…”
Her words trailed off, and a bleak look filled her soft eyes as she focused on the waterline at his bare chest.
Highborns
. She didn’t need to say the word for him to understand. “How did you end up in Jahannam?”
She sighed, a heavy sound he felt in the bottom of his own chest. “Zayd—the highborn who brought me to you that first day—came through our village. I was selling vegetables in town with my younger sister. As soon as I recognized him for what he was, I knew we needed to leave. My sister and I rushed home. But he was already waiting.”
Of course he would have been. Nasir had noticed the way the highborn had eyed her in his cell. A predatory look of ownership. The prick had seen Kavin for what she was—beautiful, young, and innocent—and pounced.
“My powers weren’t very strong then,” she went on. “I’d only just learned to teleport, wasn’t very good at it, and my younger sister had yet to come into her gifts. If I’d been thinking, I’d have taken her somewhere else, but I was afraid. And I thought we’d be safe at home.”
“What happened then?”
Kavin continued to study his chest. “My parents spoke with him in hushed whispers. He kept looking at my sister, and I was afraid he was there for her. She was only a child. And then my father announced that I would be leaving with Zayd.”
A trick. The highborn had pretended to be interested in the child to get Kavin’s parents to offer her instead. The entire thing singed a new path of anger through Nasir’s stomach. That a parent could so easily give up one of his own… That the highborns in this land had the right to take anything they wanted…even a person…
“My mother told me I had to go willingly. That if I didn’t, they’d take my sister too. And she assured me I’d be safe. So I went. Even looked at it like it was an exciting adventure. Zayd was…pleasant, at the start. And the city was so different from what I’d known. But then...then he brought me here.” She sighed again and lifted her arm from the water, looking around the barren room. “To all of this. I don’t even know if they miss me.”