“Dahr!” I immediately jolted awake and rushed to the other side of the tent, where his bed was, terrified that he suffered another injury.
He started rustling against my touch, his skin warm. Warmer than usual, but not boiling hot, like it was a few nights ago. His head moved to the side, a rasp escaping from deep down his throat. His shoulder started twitching and I lowered my gaze to notice that his fists were clenching and unclenching, as though he was preparing to fight someone.
A low breath released itself from my throat. He was dreaming. He was alright.
“It’s okay…” I said softly and, unable to control myself, I leaned in further to touch the side of his cheek. “You are okay,” I murmured as I gently caressed the side of his face in an attempt to calm him without waking him up.
A failed attempt, I might add.
As soon as my skin touched Dahr’s, his eyes shot open, inky darkness fixed on me. The warrior blinked once, eyes wide, theirfull attention focused entirely on me and the way I was towering over him, caressing him while he slept. In his own bed.
“You were having a nightmare,” I immediately explained and shifted to remove my hand from his face and get away from him. Instead, I found myself pinned in place, his hand splayed over my thigh.
“Don’t go,” he ordered, gentler than he had ever addressed me before. He blinked at me again with a pleading gaze, those long lashes fanning over his cheek, close to where my fingers had just touched. “Stay here tonight,” Dahr asked. All the while unhooking his hand from my touch. Setting me free to make my own decision.
“I can’t,” I immediately shook my head and pushed my racing pulse towards a calmer level. I couldn’t, I kept telling myself, in those few seconds while our gazes remained interlocked to have their own silent conversation. Could I?
His eyes were a universe pleading to be uncovered and I suddenly felt like exploring.
My body language or the expression on my face must have announced my decision, because Dahr did not waste a moment to move over to the other side of the bed and make room for me, before I had a chance to change my mind.
I didn’t expect him to be anything but a savage, but when I saw that he grabbed a blanket from the other side of the room and splayed it open for me, I started relaxing. He pulled the sheet he had used to wrap his lower body with, both to give me enough space and to indirectly tell me that the only thing we would do that night, in that bed, was to share companionship. It was something I also craved, something that made it impossible for me to refuse.
Wordlessly, I leaned down and stretched over the exact part of the mattress he’d been sleeping on, which still held his warmth. I wrapped the memory of his body onto mine, whileDahr copied my position and stretched his back as well, carefully wrapped in his own covering.
We remained there for long seconds, lying down and gazing up at the painted ceiling, both of us keeping a massive space in the bed between us. I almost retracted my decision, the awkwardness of the situation making everything a thousand times worse, but fortunately, Dahr took the lead and broke the silence.
“Can I hold your hand?” he asked without moving, without unpegging his attention from the point he was staring at on the ceiling.
I didn’t answer.
I didn’t need to.
I moved my right hand, which was still recovering from the binding, and stretched to find his own, letting them discover one another. It took us a good few minutes until we connected hands, his fingers and mine interlocking in a tight connection they were starting to enjoy a little too much.
“Good night…” I said, my voice barely audible, the sensation of his skin on mine being all too much and at the same time, not enough.
“Good night, March,” Dahr replied between even breaths, sleep catching up with him again.
I wasn’t as lucky and I laid there for what felt like an hour, clad in darkness and connected to his embrace. In the bed of my captor. Not knowing what would happen to me.
Scared of the days that would come.
And yet… feeling more protected than ever
Once the awkwardness of holding hands with my captor passed and I fully let myself enjoy the connection we were building, the night turned into a dream. Nothing beat sleeping in my own bed, but sharing Dahr’s, and feeling the warmth of his skin against mine, came a very close second.
I hadn’t realised how much I missed the connection, the contact of another human body next to mine and the small shivers his presence sent all over my skin. How protected and safe I felt, even though my mind screamed the reality back to me. The only thing I was scared of was waking up and breaking this trance we had forged in the darkness. We both knew it had no place in the light of day.
Fortunately, Dahr must have anticipated the awkwardness of breaking our connection while we were both awake, so he must have left earlier than usual, because I woke up by myself, stretched out in his carved-for-a-god bed. And, since thereseemed to be no requirements for me that morning and I wasn’t bound to a specific schedule, I decided to take advantage and linger in the still warm sheets.
That was, until the tent flaps flew open to display Karisha’s frowning gaze which scanned the entirety of the tent before stopping to spot me stretching out lazily on Dahr’s mattress.
“Here I was, thinking you were upset with me for putting you to work yesterday…” she walked over to my side of the bed, stopping to get a perfect view of me, caught in the act, and crossed her arms as she stared admonishingly, “...only to find your post-orgasm self having a lay-in.”
“What?” I jumped as though the sheets scorched my skin. “No, that’s not what…” I shook my head rather than find the words, determined to clear this situation up.
Her raised arm stopped my words. “Whatever it is, it’s none of my business…” Karisha even made a point to turn her head as I got out of bed, in case I would be naked underneath the covers, ”…all I needed to know was that you are alright,” she clarified and when I confirmed, her posture changed into a more relaxed one.
