If she could burrow under his skin she would. She wanted to live inside his body, and she wanted him to live inside of hers.
“We should get dressed,” he said sternly, but his large hands stroking her buttocks and back said differently.
They said that he wanted to keep touching her naked skin, just like she wanted to keep touching him.
“Why can’t we talk like this?” she argued reasonably. “One doesn’t need clothes to talk.”
He sighed with what might have been exasperation. With her or with himself?
“Because I cannot think when we are together like this,” he muttered.
Exasperated with himself then.
“I’ll think for the both of us,” she offered.
But honestly, her brain wasn’t too sharp at the moment. It was filled with cotton candy, sugary hearts and fluffy white clouds.
“Rui…”
His voice was frayed at the edges, as if he didn’t know what to do with her. As if she tried his patience and perhaps even his sanity.
She clung tighter to him, tighter than a barnacle, and said, “Talk. I’m listening.”
He was silent for a long while, probably gathering his thoughts.
Meanwhile, Rui listened to the steady beat of his heart and delighted in the flutter of his pulse against her cheek, where she rested it in the crook of his neck. She moved on top of him as his breaths made his chest rise and fall. It was like floating on top of gently rolling tides in the ocean. The comforting rhythm made her sleepy.
“I need you to bow out of the battle on the morrow,” he finally declared.
“No,” she immediately answered. Not at all miffed that he should ask her. She understood now that he only feared for her safety.
The big softie.
“Rui, ’tis too dangerous. You are still injured.”
Thankfully, she was mostly clothed. Beneath her tunic and trousers, bandages still bound her wounds. But beneath the bandages, she was mostly healed.
Wolfe didn’t know this. He would ask many questions if he knew.
“I am fit for the final challenge,” she responded. “I’ll go easy on you, wolfie. I’ve already determined that if I win, I’ll help you with your quest before I leave these lands. That’s what you need the Dragon’s Eye for, right? As long as there is time, I will do everything I can to help you.”
This time, when he remained silent, the air around them settled differently.
The tension in his body felt sharper. His heart that thudded against her chest, that she felt as if it were her own heart beating, seemed to falter and clench with pain.
This time, when he lifted her away from his body and set her aside, there was nothing she could do to stop him. Her own limbs felt numb and frozen by the distance that he projected.
He pulled on his clothes and boots in silence. In wordless accord, Rui straightened her own tunic and trousers as well. He strapped on his sword belt and dagger. She secured her own weapon against her back.
They both stood finally, facing each other.
“I am asking you, please, do not attend tomorrow’s battle,” he spoke low. “Do this one thing for me. Give up the Eye.”
Rui regarded him closely, but the night was too dark to see his expression clearly.
His face was an implacable mask. She couldn’t read him at all. His voice was emotionless. No remnant remained of the passionate man who’d been inside her just moments ago.
A whisper of a thought shot through Rui’s orgasm-fogged mind.