Chapter 15 #2
I felt accomplished; we had two pools to use for bathing and water. Things were looking up quite a bit.
Ducking out back through the crevice and blackened interior of the first chamber, I poked my head outside of the entrance.
“Shava. Shava!”
She jerked, arms tightening around D and checking he was all right. Sensing nothing but his sleeping form, her eyes snapped open and focused on me.
What ? she mouthed silently.
“I found something. Come see. ”
Her eyes narrowed, but her curiosity won out over her annoyance like I knew it would.
“Fucking dark.”
I reached for her hand to help guide her through the dark and counted it as a minor victory when she didn’t pull away. We walked through the cave, ignoring the ashy remains of the Noble demon. “Through here. I found something through a crevice in the back.”
She grumbled something under her breath, but allowed me to guide her.
“It’s small, but you’ll be able to fit better than me.” I squeezed through first and she followed quickly, barely needing to turn sideways to fit through.
“What’s that? I smell water?”
The moonlight illuminated her chin, lifting and sniffing the air.
“You can smell water?” I asked, a little dubious.
“When something is short in supply, you get really sensitive to it,” she replied, striding forward with confidence and an excited, heady rush to her voice.
“Shava, what?—”
I swallowed my words as she whipped her tunic over her head and plunged straight into the water with a flash of plump tits and a rounded ass.
Standing still like a moron, I shook my head, coughing as her head broke the surface of the water.
“Are you insane? You don’t know what’s in there! What if it’s poisonous? What if there are man-eating creatures?” I lectured.
I highly doubted there was any such thing in the water, but you could never be precisely sure, could you?
Shava spit out a stream of water at me. It landed short, but the point was taken.
“You are foolish and take perilous risks,” I huffed, but I walked toward the edge of the water towards her, like a moth drawn to flames.
She laughed throatily. “I went my whole life without a bath until I was reaped. A stone girl taught me how to float and not panic, saving my life in the bathing house. Now I am obsessed with baths. You cannot tell me there is a warm bath somewhere and not expect me to get the dust out of my hair.”
Her head disappeared under the water again, this time for much longer.
And still she didn’t surface.
Uneasiness churned in my gut. I knew the basics of treading water, but had never done it in practice; I’d always gotten bathed in my mother’s small tub as a child, and when I was reaped I was tall enough to touch the bottom of the pools in the bathing houses.
Would I be able to touch in this pool? What if I couldn’t?
The ripples on the surface of the pool went still.
“Shava? SHAVA!”
Damn it all.
I splashed into the water fully clothed, thrashing around a bit and trying to keep my feet under me.
Forcing myself out towards the middle, I tried to keep my head clear as my toes lifted from the bottom and I was forced to use my hands and feet to keep myself afloat.
I reached out blindly for Shava, not having a clue what I was doing.
My head bobbed under the surface, warm water flooding my mouth.
A hand grabbed my shoulder and pushed me up. Glorious air met my skin, and I coughed. Shava shoved me back toward the edge until my feet touched again. Shaking and unnerved, I clutched onto a rock ledge that jutted out from the side of the pool, attempting to collect myself .
“Don’t you Nobles grow up in the bathing pools?” Shava sidled up next to me, reaching up with one hand to hang off the rocky ledge with me. The angle exposed the curve of her breasts poking out just above the water. I would have given my left hand for a little more light in the cave.
“Scribes are allowed in there once a week and only with limited time. I was always tall enough to touch,” I bit out, still embarrassed by my shortcomings.
“So you dove into a pool blindly in some kind of attempt to … what?” she asked.
“Make sure you weren’t drowning,” I mumbled into my chest.
Shava hummed to herself.
“What?” I shot back, self-conscious and out of sorts in my sodden clothing.
“I can’t figure you out,” she continued, eyeing me warily. “You damn a child to death, then risk your life for me. It’s confusing.”
I gripped the rock hard, the pads of my fingers scraping against the rough surface.
“I’m not confused at all about you,” I blurted out.
One dark eyebrow arched at me. “Oh?”
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her breasts. And she knew it.
Her hands slid to my chest, making quick work of the few buttons on my tunic. The wet fabric slid off my shoulders and made a heavy TWACK as she threw it up onto solid ground.
Her hand on my bare chest was warmer than the water.
“I still don’t like you.”
Her hand went further and further south. My mouth went dry.
“But you’re not a total asshole. ”
“Fair enough,” I croaked out. I’d agree I was the scum of the earth or a dragon turd if it meant she just kept doing what she was doing. Clover had been fun, but never had she taken charge like this before. It was intoxicating and intriguing.
Her hand wrapped around my cock and squeezed.
I groaned.
“Listen here,” she continued. “I know you’re not the Noble-born boy you claim to be. How can you be, with the dark hair? And all the other girls say you look a lot like the king and the little prince. I’m not stupid .”
She squeezed again. But it was hard for me to focus on the threat when it felt so fucking good.
“You’re not stupid” was the only thing I could push out.
She smiled more ferociously than Zariah had in his dragon form.
“I want to protect my own. Your own. We work together with the prince to protect and save those who we can. We find somewhere for them to go, whether that’s here or elsewhere.”
Sure, fine, whatever she wanted. As long as she kept touching me just like that …
I shook my head. “I can’t leave the palace,” I argued. “I have my research, and my studies. I?—”
Her hand stroked up and down my length, making any further thoughts impossible, let alone speech.
“You’re selfish. And I still want you. What does that make me?” she whispered fiercely, then crashed her lips to mine.
It was night and day compared to Clover.
Clover was a cool breeze across your face, soothing a hot brow and whispering sweet nothings into your ear.
Shava was a burning fire, scalding herself into your flesh as you thanked her for the honor.
And for her, I’d happily burn.