21. Lorken
Lorken
Ididn’t slow my pace as I walked into the bathing chamber, taking long strides into the water and sinking up to my neck. I backed up until the torrent from above was directly on my shoulders, and I braced myself as the water pounded my bunched muscles.
Droplets sprayed in all directions and splattered in my face, so I kept my eyes closed and tried to let the waterfall work its magic.
There was a reason I’d designed my Raas quarters the way I had, and why I hadn’t followed the model set by the warlords who’d come before me.
There was nothing wrong with those quarters or the bathing chambers that contained modern soaking tubs.
I understood the advantage to various sections of water, each with different healing properties.
But that hadn’t been how our ancestors had lived. That hadn’t been how the original Vandar raiders had survived on the plains of our home world. They had lived in tents and slept on furs and bathed in hot springs.
I ran my hands over my face and through my hair, trying to keep my thoughts on my Vandar predecessors instead of on the woman lying in my furs. If I allowed myself to dwell on her for too long, I would either never leave the pool or I would rush out and return to my furs with her.
Heat churned in my core and thickened my cock as I thought of her lying beneath me.
Then I thought of the towel slipping from her body as I held her arms over her head.
It would have been so easy to lower myself and cover her body with mine.
It would have taken little effort to part her legs and settle myself between them.
And with only a single hard thrust I could have…
“Tvekking hell,” I growled to myself. “That is not what you vowed.”
Not only had I promised that I would do nothing she did not ask me to do, but I did also not want to take what was not given to me. As much as my heart thundered with the hunger to possess her, I would not have her that way.
I turned to face the rush of water so that it could beat on the front of my shoulders, and I breathed in the scent of the water.
The water in my pool might not be like the water in other Raas’s bathing pools, but it wasn’t without its own properties.
It might not seal a cut, but it did restore energy and power, especially after a hard battle or tough training session.
As I inhaled the minerals and let the water flow over me, the aches from the day before melted away. My skin tingled, and my muscles twitched with renewed vigor. I ran a hand down my chest until I’d fisted my stiff cock, which was not unaffected by the invigorating effects of the water.
It had been a long time since I’d been with a female, but life aboard a Vandar horde did not provide many such encounters. We were not space pirates who raped and pillaged, no matter what rumors the Zagrath wished to sow about us.
I leaned forward and flattened one palm against the rock wall, shifting so the water once again pistoned on my back.
Dragging my fist up and down the length of my shaft, I closed my eyes and let my mind drift back to Athena.
But it wasn’t her as I’d pinned her down that my mind conjured.
It was her when I’d entered my quarters the night before.
I recalled her dark hair spread across the cream-colored furs and her plump lips slightly open.
The towel covering her had skimmed over her curves but hadn’t hidden the dusky peak of her nipples through the fabric.
The paint that had been on her face when I’d saved her from the theatre had washed off in the pool, but she looked even more beautiful without it.
She was stunning, yes, but it was the defiant spark in her eyes and the challenge in her voice that sent heat pooling in my core.
She was no simpering female enamored with my status.
Instead, she was fighting me, despite her own body betraying her desire.
It had taken all my self-control to simply lie down without so much as touching her, but now I imagined what it would have been like to run my hands over her soft skin.
I envisioned my calloused hands caressing her long neck and her velvety shoulders before gliding down to cup her full breasts.
I could almost feel the pebbled skin as I brushed my thumbs across her tight points, her body responding to me even in her sleep.
A groan escaped my lips, but it was blessedly drowned out by the cascading water.
Stroking myself faster, I imagined her body writhing with pleasure as I continued to move my hands down the gentle swell of her belly before slipping them under her to clasp her soft ass and open her legs.
I didn’t need to know her body to envision the slick petals of flesh waiting for my eager mouth.
I let my head fall back as I imagined lowering my head between her thighs and running my tongue through her slick sweetness.
My body jerked, and I swallowed a hungry roar as my cock pulsed hot, my own seed spilling over my hand and into the water.
My breaths were ragged pants as I dropped my head between my shoulder blades and gave a final shudder of release.
Then I dropped my cock and stood under the waterfall to let the water rush over me again.
As the euphoria faded, I couldn’t help reminding myself that I could not make her succumb to my touch, as much as I desired to touch her. She might be my war bride, but it was in name only. The woman was in no way mine, and she seemed determined to keep it that way.
Maybe it was for the best, I thought. If my brother was right, she was a descendant of a notoriously brutal Zagrath. Could I take such a woman as a war bride? Would the Vandar allow such a union?
Pushing aside those thoughts, I walked from the pool and shook off the water.
Perhaps any encounters with Athena should remain in my mind and confined to the bathing pool.
Then I thought about her challenging gaze as I’d held her down.
If she remained determined to resist me, all my questions were moot, and all my dreams and fantasies were for naught.