He loved her resilience, her complete refusal to back down or give in. How she’d fought her way into the world, a frightened, backward child with no friends or family, and clawed herself a place. How fearless she was when faced with pain and misery that would overwhelm anyone else.
She was scarred, bitter and more than a little insane, and Bael loved her.
After an hour or two of lying there watching her sleep, he felt her stir and idly stroked her shoulder, which was now as healed as if the injury had occurred months ago. As Bael was wondering whether this newfound healing power might erase some of the scars on her back or ease the mangled muscles of her leg, Kett opened her eyes and silver flashed at him.
Bael’s heart swelled in his chest and he felt himself smiling without even intending to. Kett smiled back, her face sleepy, and she rolled her shoulders, frowning a little in confusion.
“Better?” Bael asked as she shoved aside the covers to check the wounds on her stomach and hip. They too were healed.
You think love hurts. Looks to me like it heals.
“Much.” She looked up at him. “Did you know this was going to happen?”
That I’d fall madly in love with you? “No,” he answered honestly.
“It’s not a Nasc Mage power?”
“Kett, I don’t know what Nasc Mage powers are. I only know what my parents didn’t bother to hide from me, which wasn’t much. No one ever taught me how to use what I’ve got. I never thought I had any power, except Var changing his shape.”
Kett ran her fingers over the scars on her hip. “Somehow I don’t think this was Chance’s ointment.” She suddenly rolled to her feet. “Wait.”
She left the room, totally naked, and Bael watched her go. He doubted Kett had forgotten to get dressed. It was more like she didn’t care.
A moment later she was back, closing the door and leaning against it. Her brow was creased.
“What?”
“Jarven’s not healed. I mean, he’s getting better, but it’s not like this.” She gestured to her body.
A flash of jealousy stabbed Bael. “You went to see Jarven completely naked?”
“He was asleep,” Kett said dismissively, walking over to the bathroom.
“What if he wasn’t?”
“Bael, he’s seen me naked before.”
That had him on his feet and in the bathroom before he knew what he was doing. “Naked?” he repeated.
Kett gave a slow sort of smile, which had his cock stirring, as she leaned over to turn the shower on. Had he not been naked with the woman of his dreams, Bael might have taken a moment to appreciate the beauty and modernity of the bathrooms in Nuala’s house, but right now he had more pressing things on his mind.
“Jealous?” she asked.
“No,” Bael said sulkily, and Kett rolled her eyes. “Let me rephrase that.” He grabbed her waist. “Yes.”
“You are?
“Hell yes. How come he’s seen you naked? He said he’d never slept with you.”
“No, but he has seen me change shape and he’s cared for me when I’ve been injured…and Bael? You can’t possibly pretend that’s your sword pressing against my hip.”
He grinned. “I could, but I didn’t think you’d appreciate the pun.”
She slid her fingers into his hair and kissed him, long and slow, a soft morning kiss despite that it was the middle of the day.
“I need to take a shower,” she said, “because I’m still covered in that ointment, among other things.”
Bael grinned, because he’d been responsible for those other things. “I’ll help.”
“I’m a big girl. I can wash myself.”
“Yeah, but I want to. Besides, I’m dirty too. I need to wash.”
It didn’t take much to convince her. Stepping under the warm water, he beckoned her into the tub and picked up a bar of soap. It smelled warm and woodsy, not what he’d usually call a feminine scent, but it suited Kett perfectly.
Kissing her again, he ran the soap over her back, her shoulder, taking care on the newly healed skin.
“Does it hurt at all?” he asked.
“Hardly. Feels like it’s been healing weeks. Months.”
He kissed the pink skin then moved down to kiss her breast as he ran the soap over her hip.
“See, I knew you didn’t really want to get me clean,” Kett said, but he heard the smile in her voice.
“I do,” he protested, “but then I want to get you dirty again.”
He washed the remains of the ointment from her skin then kissed the scars it had healed. Well, maybe they were scars he’d healed. He still didn’t entirely understand how it had happened.
Kett shifted, restless, and Bael breathed in the scent of her arousal. Smiling, he slipped the soap between her legs and massaged it back and forth over her pussy lips. She widened her stance to accommodate him, and Bael lifted one of her feet to rest on the edge of the tub. Kett tensed, but instead of moving his head between her legs, he ducked to the side and kissed the outside of her thigh.
Kett went utterly still, because his tongue was darting over the rip of pink flesh where the tiger had crippled her.
“Does it hurt?” he asked, looking up, and she shook her head in tiny jerks. Smiling, Bael resumed kissing and licking the length of the terrible scar, dropping the soap as he did and letting his fingers take over between her legs.
“What are you doing?” Kett gasped as the water poured down on them both.
Bael flicked her clit with his fingertip. “What’s it feel like?”
“Like you’re licking my scar, you sick man.”
Bael rolled his eyes. “Last time I licked your scars, what did it do?”
Kett said nothing.
“You mad woman,” he added, and her foot lightly kicked his back. Smiling, he carried on, but when he’d kissed and licked his way along her thigh half a dozen times, he figured it was time to stop. He lowered her foot to the ground, brought up the hand he’d been stroking her with and sucked her moisture off his fingers.
Her eyes never left his face.
“Turn around,” he said, his voice low, and she did. Bael pressed against her back, feeling her body twitch as her bare breasts touched the cold, wet tiles. He brushed her hair from the back of her neck and kissed her there. She shuddered delightfully.
He started kissing and licking over the crosshatch of scars on her back, his fingers once more delving between her legs and finding her even hotter and wetter than he’d left her. And while she writhed and his cock ached, he concentrated on covering every inch of her scarred back with his mouth, healing her bit by bit.
Some other asshole had created these marks. But maybe Bael could ease them.
He was using both hands now, one curving around between her belly and the wall to stroke her clit, rub up and down, make circles around it, and the other delving into her hot, wet pussy to find that sweet spot inside that made her convulse.
She came to one shuddering orgasm like that, his fingers inside her and his mouth on her back, and then he slipped his hand back a little, probing at the tight ring of her ass.
She tensed, and he murmured against her skin, “Do you want me to?”
“Sure,” she said, her tone almost nonchalant. Almost. “If you want.”
Smiling, he stroked her there and she gave a low moan. His fingers were slick from her orgasm and he slipped inside easily, his other hand still stroking her clit and her swollen, puffy labia. When he’d pushed one finger all the way into her ass, he did the same with her pussy and finger-fucked her, feeling how close his fingers were inside her. Wondering if she’d ever done this before-she doubtless had. Had she ever done it with two men? Felt one thick cock push into her pussy while another filled her from behind?
He decided he didn’t care. His cock was full to bursting and he’d kissed all the way down her spine to the white lines crossing the top of her buttocks. He needed to be inside her, now, before he came all over the bathroom tiles.