“How . . .?”
He grinned. “Don’t ask. Kullu’s a big city and we walked a lot of streets. We’re not going to Karachi or wherever with you standing out like a vagrant at a wedding. Or me, for that matter. But eat something first. You look ready to blow away.”
Her stomach agreed with a loud rumble. She dragged a thin blanket off the bed and sat beside him, her legs outstretched. Both of their backs were against the wall, with a clear view of the door. The room was small and spare, but taking up that position seemed automatic for Tallis—with his eyes trained where an enemy might invade. Kavya’s caution came from how she thought about the world, constantly tripping from mind to mind in search of hostility.
That means of defense was so draining. She was exhausted.
Finding no present threat, she finally ate. No, she savored.
And she pushed her thigh against his.
Tallis shifted his shoulder so he could face her. She expected to see sardonic mockery, and in that, he didn’t disappoint. “Hello there.”
“It’s for practical reasons.”
His grin was cheeky, daring her to make thigh-to-thigh touching into something practical. “Do tell.”
“Remember how you kept me disguised from those gathered in the encampment?”
“I liked that part. The rest of the day not so much. But those few hours in my tent are well worth remembering.”
“You kept my mind occupied.”
“I did.”
“So . . .” She ate another bite, chewed, hesitated, procrastinated, and finally swallowed. “So do it again. Keep touching me. My mind will stay with you. Pashkah won’t be able to find me if I’m disguised that way.”
He affected a contemplative look. “You’re telling me that the best means of keeping you safe is to have my way with you, until you can’t think of anything else? Just complete focus on the man who wants to seduce you?”
Kavya forced calm into her next deep breath. “Yes. Keep me distracted. But I need to know I can trust you.”
“I can do that.” He set his plate aside. “Just remember you’re the one who mentioned touching. But I won’t need to if distraction is the goal.”
Kavya stared into his ocean-blue eyes and tried to imagine what tricks he intended. He was a Reaper but he had a great deal in common with the Tricksters of Clan Tigony. He was smooth, cultured in the ways of human beings, and had no sharp edges. Everything about him said, Calm down. Trust me. I can make this happen.
Only, she knew the difference between his slick exterior and the monster that lurked beneath. She knew the difference, and she liked it.
“Very well,” she said. “How would you distract me without touching me?”
“We could always talk. Stay concentrated on my accent, which I’ve been told is marvelous for lulling women out of their knickers and into my bed.”
“Arrogant isn’t a strong enough word for you.”
“We could fight,” he said, grinning. “That worked well last time, too.”
“That’s a given, not an option. It’ll happen no matter what you do.”
“True, that.”
He stood and left the room. Kavya waited, finishing up the palak paneer that was, indeed, growing colder by the second. Only a sliver of heat remained under the deep center of the rice. The whole time, she watched the door. Waiting. He wouldn’t leave—not when he had hooked her with intrigue and attraction. Maybe this was part of his intention. He was distracting her by causing her to wonder where he’d gone and what he was doing.
After finishing her food, she used water from the basin—water that may as well have been ice cubes—to wash up. True to his word, Tallis had stashed a modest maroon sari in his pack. She felt almost feminine again when she wrapped the intricate folds around her chilled body, and used the comb Chandrani had procured to untangle her hair.
She was sitting on the bed, impatient, huddled with a blanket around her shoulders, when Tallis returned. He held a steaming cauldron of water, with his hands protected by two mitts. He took one look at Kavya and laughed. “Impatient, were you? Too bad. But for me, ice baths are only for those intending to get rid of one’s arousal. I want to stoke mine.” He set the cauldron on the floor and dunked a washrag. “Kavya of Indranan, I’m going to strip for you.”
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
Yes, taking Kavya of Indranan by surprise was quickly becoming the highlight of Tallis’s time in the Himalayan foothills. Using the word strip before an admitted virgin elicited the surprise he’d sought.
Then again, she’d stolen his breath by transforming from a bedraggled traveler into a stunning, freshly scrubbed woman. She wore the sari he’d snatched from an unsuspecting merchant. Tallis had meant to be quick, grabbing the first he found, but the sari complemented her coloring to perfection. She was painted in shades of gold, bronze, and carnelian red, like sunrise over dark granite streaked with clay. With wet hair and her shoulders swathed in a rough wool blanket, she was the most exciting blend of innocence and sensuality Tallis had ever seen.
A wide-eyed temptress.
As if she’d been practicing the facial expressions that were so new to her, she shifted from curious to wary to flat-out panicky in the span of a heartbeat. “None of what we said downstairs needs to be fact. It was a means of getting us a room for the night.”
“Will you use the same techniques when securing us a flight out of here?”
She looked away, etching her thumbnail into the wooden headboard. That word use made her so uncomfortable. Even sickened. Could she really have been so altruistic all these years? If given the opportunity to influence people’s decisions, would Tallis have been able to resist the temptation? No matter how formidable his berserker, he didn’t think he was that strong.
“We have days to figure that out,” she said, still picking at creases in the wood. “The storm won’t break soon. The runway will need to be cleared. The villagers won’t make that a priority compared to making sure the roads are plowed first.”
He grinned and wrung out the washcloth. “So what you’re saying is, we could be stuck here for days?”
“Days—” She cut herself off, eyes darting from the basin of water to the white-pummeled window. “Perhaps.”
“By the third or fourth night, we’ll have to let the innkeeper watch. He won’t settle for your mind games.”
“Quit being crude.”
“Fine,” he said with a shrug. “I can always touch you as a distraction. I’m quite fine with that approach.”
Shaking her head, she backed tighter against the wall. The blanket dropped down from one shoulder. Only then did he realize that she’d slipped a flannel shirt from his pack over her sari. She was silk and flannel. Sleek and warm. Completely alluring. He liked it too much that she was wearing something of his. Or, he liked it just enough, considering what he was prepared to do.
If he could go through with it.
“Do what you want.” Her voice was resigned but her eyes still quick, darting, wary. Interested.
“I plan to.”
He unfurled the rag and scrubbed it across the back of his neck, around the front of his throat, and up his face. The tattered washcloth didn’t have the bite of a stronger rag, but the hot water made up for it. Tallis couldn’t help but exhale in a shuddering sigh of pleasure as the warmth soaked into his skin and assuaged tensions he hadn’t acknowledged. He’d been too tense for too long. As the tendons of his neck softened and relaxed, he only wanted more.