Chapter 22
Forget the Cucumber
I paused with a walnut halfway to my mouth.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Karim’s powerful back, marked by battle scars here and there.
His tapered waist. His tight ass flexing.
Those long, muscular legs that carried him down the stone steps of the pool–and all that raw, silvery perfection shimmering in the blue-green light of the crystals. He looked divine.
Never had I been jealous of water before. Ahhh. To be the liquid sliding up Karim’s thighs inch by delicious inch, in a slow dance of seduction. To lap at his abs and the sharp V below–
Karim turned to face me. I threw that walnut in my gaping mouth so fast I nearly choked on it. I didn’t know why I felt the need to fake innocence, when he had brought me here to watch, but I wasn’t ready to admit my pervy ways just yet.
I bit into a cucumber stick to cover up my disappointment at the water hiding my Prince from the waist down.
Though, the view was still enticing. Particularly when he swept his hair back to reveal the broad expanse of his smooth chest. Add to that the black infinity of his hair cascading down his broad shoulders and floating around him in the water, and I was officially mesmerized.
Given the smoldering look he cast my way, my interest in eating him for dinner didn’t go unnoticed. If I kept this up, he might be out of the water and on top of me before I could finish my meal. I squeezed my legs together at the image of Karim prowling my way in all his naked, wet glory–
We were expected on the surface! A quickie was not what I wanted for my first time with Karim. I had to kill the mood, fast. “You and your half-sister–you have different mothers?”
He looked away, breaking our heated eye contact. He took the green soap bar and the algae-based sponge from the wall niche by the pool as he explained. “Mesia’s mother was braid-linked to our father before he fell for my human mother.”
I could imagine how well that had gone. “Is your mother still alive?”
“She died an hour before my father did.”
Forget the cucumber. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring back such dark memories.” I should have anticipated it but, in my defense, my brain had turned to mush the moment Karim had lost his clothes.
He shook his head. “It’s all right. This happened months ago, at the very start of the war, but I hadn’t seen either of them for a long time before that day.
” Scrubbing at his chest with the soapy sponge, he elaborated.
“My father moved away to live with my mother on the edge of the forest years ago. I stopped visiting them when I turned sixteen, the age of maturity for an elf. My position required me to distance myself.”
“Oh.” That sounded so harsh.
“I had experienced years of my mother’s love already,” he assured me.
“I’m glad.”
“She and my father were blessed with a long relationship, unlike the majority of braid linkages among my kind. Maybe it had something to do with one of them being human, because Deidre’s parents were linked until her mother’s death, too.
Whatever the reason, my mother and father both cared for me until my coming of age. ”
“But you said your mother lived on the edge of the forest?”
“She lived here only until I turned nine. Then she had to move to the surface, because her presence beyond the immediate need for my upbringing was threatening my father’s position. If he hadn’t had a pure-blooded daughter from his previous braid linkage, he might have been dethroned.”
“He and your mom had to separate?” And the Queen was wondering why I didn’t want to take her place? No, thank you.
Karim sighed and put the sponge away. “He didn’t want to let her leave. He was ready to face the consequences for being with her, but she wouldn’t allow it. She bought land on the edge of the forest and had a cabin built there. She met with my father and me there under the cover of darkness.
“It worked for several years until my father grew tired of all the hiding. As I turned 14, he passed the crown to my sister. She was already of age, braid-linked, and awaiting her first child. My father moved to live permanently with my mother. He still had to hide from human eyes, but as he often told me, he had no trouble spending the daylight hours at home when my mother was on the moss with him.”
I smiled. Despite all the obstacles, they’d gotten their happy ending. Well, sort of.
“Then the war started.” He sighed again and rested his arms on the edge of the pool.
I had the sudden urge to go hug him. He might claim he’d had the elves’ typical distant relationship with his parents and he’d gotten over the loss, but I could see the pain in those black eyes of his.
Still, I stayed where I was because in his culture, hugging was probably not how elves comforted each other. If they even let others comfort them.
“Hundreds of zombies came our way from the nearby human city,” he went on. “We took arms as soon as we received the report of our surface guards, but my parents’ house had already been overrun.”
“I’m so sorry! You don’t have to tell me more, it was cruel of me to ask–”
“You wish to know me better, to understand our ways.” His eyes bore into mine. “I will share my past with you now, in the hopes of destroying any remaining wariness of me in your heart.”
I frowned. “I’m not wary–”
He held up a hand. “Do not deny it. I’ve seen it in your eyes. I’ve smelled it on your skin. I’ve heard it in your questions. It is but natural when you don’t know me and my kind well.”
I bit my lip. He did have a point… I nodded.
“I also share this story with you in the hopes that you will tell me about your past in the days to come.”
“I will,” I promised. It would be a short and boring tale, but he’d trusted me with his past. It was the least I could do.
“We found my father barely clinging to life, my mother dead,” Karim continued with his heartbreaking story, sounding so composed.
“We took him home for healing, but he was doomed. He asked my sister to share the throne with me. In his name and for the sake of the Kingdom at a time of war when my knowledge of my mother’s world could prove invaluable.
I wanted nothing to do with the throne, but I took that oath just like my sister did. Then he was gone.”
It was my turn to sigh. “Your father was a wise king.”
“I thought him weak,” Karim admitted reluctantly, and passed a wet hand through his hair.
“He abandoned his kingdom for a female, he died because of it… My sister held little love for him, since he chose a human over her mother. Also, he put the weight of the crown on her shoulders at a time when he was still fit to rule and she had a child to focus on.”
“She lost the child, didn’t she?” I said softly.
“Miscarriage. But it later happened again, so it became clear there was a problem. She broke her braid linkage with her first partner, despite her strong feelings for him. She believed the problem lay with him and was desperate to fulfill the royal duty of bearing an heir. With her second partner, she couldn’t conceive at all. ”
“Oh gosh.”
“She holds no love for her position as queen, and would give it up were I eligible. As it is at the moment, we share a throne none of us wants while pretending I’m nothing more than her advisor.”
“She hopes you will have an heir with a pure-blooded she-elf, so that you both could step down in their favor.” Now that I knew the whole story, I didn’t find the Queen so unsympathetic. She was just a woman put through hell by the crown and trying to do right by the Kingdom nevertheless.
“Yes, that is her hope.”
Karim went to stand under the cold water springing from the wall, letting it wash away the remaining suds and–I supposed–the dark memories.
I tried to shake the heavy feelings off myself–something I used to fail at before but had gotten better at in the past months.
No time like the apocalypses to learn to compartmentalize better, because while you dwelled on the bad, you missed the calm before the next bad.
Several minutes passed in silence under the peaceful sound of the flowing water. Then Karim turned to face me again and met my gaze.
“I will not repeat my sister’s mistakes, Jasmine,” he said resolutely.
“I will not leave the Kingdom like my father did, but I will also not let royal traditions smother my happiness. I will not give you up for the sake of legitimate heirs who may never come or may perish along with the Kingdom in this war.”
“Oh…” Where was he going with this?
He paused before stating, “My father wasn’t weak. I understand that now, because I feel it with my whole being when I look at you. He listened to his heart. And there is no stronger male than the one fighting for what is in his heart, my flower.”
“Umm.” That was all I could manage. No words seemed enough after that proclamation.
Karim chose that moment to climb out of the pool.
More like ascend from it. Every step was graceful, his muscles flexing and shifting under my wide-eyed gaze.
Water droplets, shiny like pearls under the dimmed lights, slid down his skin.
As he began walking slowly toward me, my brain shut down entirely.
I clutched the long-forgotten bowl of food to my chest. My knuckles went tight from the effort to hold on to it when all I wanted was to put my hands on Karim. To meet him halfway and run my fingers and lips over every single part of him, chiseled like a marble statue.
But I knew my legs wouldn’t hold me. My knees had grown weak the second he’d headed my way. Because there was no longer any water to hide the whole of him from me.
My breath caught and became erratic. My pulse drummed in my ears. Liquid heat pooled in my core. Holy… No man could ever compare.
Chiseled abs led to a well-outlined V directing my eyes down. His wet cock, a darker silver than the rest of his smooth skin, pulsed under my gaze. So thick and just the right size to make me see stars, it was the most well-proportioned cock I had ever seen. To take him inside me… Gosh.
I was close to passing out from all that raw male power focused entirely on me, when Karim abruptly changed directions. I nearly groaned out loud when he put his hands on his clothing rather than me.
But it was better than way; had he touched me, I would probably have combusted. I would be better prepared for his devastating effect on me the next time. If we survived until then.
Karim must have realized his little display, tease or whatever he’d intended this to be, was about to get out of hand. He had his dress on and the gold chain belt clasped around his waist before I could put the bowl away.
“Won’t you finish it?” He nodded at the barely touched food.
It took me several seconds to recover my ability to speak. No one should be allowed to look so hot in a dress. It was dangerous.
“I–I lost my appetite.” Since concern showed on his face, I quickly added with a shy smile, “For food.”
His lips curled in a knowing smile. “Sabinem. Then you can help me place the royal jewelry in my hair.” He handed me the gold box.
I opened it gingerly. This had to be the most expensive item I had held in my life.
Inside lay the gold beads I’d seen on Karim and the Queen.
But he must have worn a very small part of the collection, because the box contained more beads than I had ever owned.
And I used to wear a lot of beads in high school.
“Place them wherever you choose,” he instructed me as he sat on the bench with his back to me. “These are for keeping up appearances, not something I care about. Use as many as you wish. I trust you.”
He didn’t have to say it. Thanks to Deidre, I knew that this–Karim letting me touch his hair–was an act of absolute trust and intimacy. I’d never been more thrilled to add beads to one’s hair.
I placed the ends of his hair on my lap, marveling at how half-dry they were already, and got to work.
Running my fingers through the inhumanly soft strands, my chest felt light. Being here with Karim, just the two of us wrapped in quiet intimacy as we did something ordinary for our daily routine, made me feel happy for the first time since the apocalypses. Actually, even before that.
What I felt was a type of happiness I couldn’t put into words. I felt serene, at peace. I felt… complete. As if all I needed was right here. Just like in those rare dreams when I was with the man of my dreams, a soul-deep connection pulsing between us.
Could it be that I had found him in real life?