I continued staring into this stranger’s eyes, transfixed.
“You’re Auralian,” I said.
“And you haven't answered my question.”
He grinned. I sat up, which brought me into firmer contact with his hard cock. All that energy shifted instantly to arousal.
For a split second, I actually consider having sex with this complete stranger. I don’t even know hisname.
Only the fact that we’re both coated in dirt and there are twigs in my hair and down my clothes holds me back from making a regrettable decision.
The stranger takes advantage of my confusion. He pulls on my trapped hand to bring me down, took my face between his palms, and kisses me. I have a split second to squeak with surprise before our lips meet. Not gentle. Not soft. But delicious. I moan. He slips his tongue between my teeth. Five seconds later, I lay flat on his chest, chasing his into his mouth.
When he pulls back, I scramble off him, thoroughly embarrassed. That’s one way of beating your opponent, I muse sourly.
“Where did you come from?” He asks. Embarrassed, I push back to sit on my heels. What iswrongwith me?
“River Bend. You?”
“Here.” He lay back in the dirt with a lazy half-smile. “Ansi tribe.”
“You liar.” The Ansi haven’t existed in centuries. They disappeared after the last great war, the one that led to my tribe’s control of the Moon Temple five hundred years ago. How the fuck does he even know about the Ansi? They’re a myth. No one outside this island has ever heard of them.
“I’ll prove it.” He jerked his head. “Come with me.”
“Oh, no. I’m going that way.” I point in the direction I was headed before he snatched me. At least, I think it’s the way I was going… Looking around, I realize with a sinking feeling that I had no idea which way leads out of the Boscage and back to the road to Oceanside.
The very dangerous road to Oceanside, which I’ll have to navigate alone.
“Are you, now?” my companion laughs. “Do you know where that path leads?”
Okay. This mystery guy might be hot enough to distract memomentarilyfrom my mission, but one kiss doesnotearn him teasing privileges with aprincess, soon to bequeen. Especially since he’s obviously spinning a yarn by claiming to be Ansi.
Even if there was tongue.
“No,” I reply sweetly. “But you’re going to tell me.”
On the last syllable, I press the tip of the dagger hidden in my boot beneath his chin. Even white teeth flash against his dark lips. A fluttery little shudder works its way down between my shoulder blades. My blade doesn’t waver.
“I like you,” those sexy lips say.
“That makes one of us.”
He winks. This guy is unbelievable.
“I think you like me too, Sunshine.”
I can’t help it. I laugh, despite myself. He’s so self-assured. The only other man I’ve ever met with this much brazen confidence is Lorcan, and he doesn’t have the cheeky sense of humor. “I’m Myseci, you complete weirdo. The sun and I aren’t really friends.”
Unless you count Zosia, the descendant of the Sun Goddess, my best friend.
“I figured. You people tend to be as pale as your patron goddess.”
Five millennia of inbreeding will do that. I try not to think about it. There’s more intermixing these days, but Auralia has been a mostly self-contained society for five thousand years. My people started off as a subtribe of the Sun Goddess Auralia, and eventually declared independence.
How does this guy know about us, though? River Bend, my castle, is a five- or six-day journey by horseback to the north under ordinary conditions. If he truly lives here in the Boscage—and judging from the way he’s dressed…
Now that we’re not fighting, I realize his outfit is…unusual, to put it mildly. I glanced down at the bright blue leather bands around his biceps. Dragonskin leather. The high sheen is coveted, but the animals are difficult to catch and skin, so it goes for a high price. His shorts are crafted of hide, laced with matching blue leather. Chalky handprints cover his torso and thighs. His muscular thighs. I briefly imagine marking him there with my handprint.
