I stared straight into his eyes. “I’ll say no such thing—”
He lowered his lips to mine. Words and thoughts deserted me, swept into a twister. Need coursed through my veins. I clung to his neck as he kissed me greedily, as a man starved. And maybe he was starved for physical contact, for affection, just like I was.
When he made a move to pull away, I gripped the horns on the side of his head and kissed him back.
“Don’t go,”rushed through my head.
I didn’t want this to stop. He proved more intoxicating than wine, and I couldn’t get enough of him. I craved more.
Gripping my backside, he pressed me tight to him, the hard ridge of his erection trapped between us.
Arousal zapped through me. I wanted to feel him inside me. If he were my intoxication, I wished to be drunk on him.
More.
Harder.
Faster...
My head was spinning. How did this man make me throw my caution to the wind?
Too fast...
All of this was happening way too soon.
I didn’t need this, did I? I certainly wasn’t searching for something like this. I didn’t even know these feelings existed.
I didn’t need a man right now, or another husband. Not that Xavran even could be my husband. Technically, he already had a wife. My sister.
Oh, that sounded really messed up.
Yanking back on his horns, I made him break the kiss.
“Susanna,” he groaned. “I want you.”
I shut my eyes for a moment, afraid to get lost in his again.
“Daddy!” Illal’s voice rang from the other side of the hedge. “Dad!”
The world came crashing in, shattering our hot, sweaty bubble of lust. Xavran released me from his arms, and I shouldn’t have disliked that as much as I did.
“We better go back,” I mumbled, straightening my dress, then smoothing my hair.
“You go,” he rasped.
Glancing down, I spotted the huge bulge tenting his pants.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll...need a minute.”
“Right, well...” I took a hesitant step away.
“Wait.” He came after me, cupping my face. “This isn’t over. Not at all. We’ll need to talk.”
We really should. This—whatever it was—needed to be sorted out.
“Okay.” I nodded. “We will.”
“Daddy!”
“I have to go.” I dashed behind the hedge, escaping his intense gaze. I found Illal by one of the food tables. “What is it, Illal?”
“Where is Daddy?” she demanded.
“He is...um...” I bit my lip, becoming aware of how hot and tingling my lips were after Xavran’s ravenous kiss. “Daddy must be here somewhere. But can I help you instead?”
A calculating impression flickered in her bright orange eyes.
“Yeah. I want some shohe.” She pointed at the huge cluster of small baby-blue fruit suspended under the roof of the gazebo.
Each elongated fruit glistened with crystalized syrup. Shohe was harvested in bunches, like giant grapes, but it was too dry and hard to eat fresh. Aldraians soaked it in sweet syrup for a few months. This was pretty much the only dessert available in Diria. Generally, Aldraians weren’t into sweets, Illal being an obvious exception.
“Your dad would want you to eat something else first,” I said. “Would you like some cuqrel stew? Or maybe a bit of qhuiste salad?”
Illal stomped her foot. “No. I want shohe.”
“Oh, let the child have a treat.” An Aldraian woman sauntered to us.
She seemed older. The color had bleached out of her hair over the years, making it lighter than her coral skin.
Illal immediately turned to her.
“Grandma! Can you get me that? Pleeeeease?” The girl sounded as sweet as shohe syrup.
“Of course, sweetie.” The lady took a small wooden bowl and picked out a few fruits with a pair of tongs. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Grabbing her bounty, Illal ran to play with the other children under the gazebo.
The grandma sighed, watching her go. “These children have so little joy in life with that father of theirs.” She offered me her hand. “I’m Inie. And you must be Xavran’s new wife?” Pity filled her pale-pink eyes.
“No. I’m the nanny.” I placed my hand on top of hers, briefly letting our palms touch. “Susanna.”
“Oh, the nanny?” She glanced back at Mara, who was laughing in the company of the ambassador and the mayor’s aid. A few more Aldraian men had joined them. “That must be the wife, then? Poor thing.”
Mara looked anything but “poor,” in any sense of that word. Dressed in one of her designer dresses and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, she held a tall glass with a colorful drink in her hand, laughing at something one of the men must’ve said.
“She has no idea what she got herself into,” Inie sighed. “It would’ve been best for you to never have come here at all.”
“Why is that?”
She pursed her lips, taking a pause before saying in a grave tone of voice, “Your new boss is a violent man.”
“Xavran? Violent?” I’d heard others call him “gloomy” or “unsociable.” This was the first time someone had ever referred to him as “violent.” “He’s been very nice, so far,” I protested.
“So far...” Inie echoed, ominously. “Has he told you what happened to his first wife? My poor daughter, Gelnall?”
“No. But I heard it was an accident. I’m so sorry for your loss—”
“An accident!” She scoffed. “Then why does he refuse to speak about it? If it were an accident, he’d have nothing to lose by talking about it, wouldn’t he?”
Losing one’s wife in a tragic accident wouldn’t be a pleasant topic to discuss with just anyone, I presumed, but said nothing.
Inie didn’t appear to expect an answer, anyway, as she continued, “Why did he make sure the details of the ‘accident’ had been sealed off to the public?”
“He did that?”
“Oh yes, he did. But why? If he had nothing to hide?”
I had nothing to say to that. In a way, I understood her frustration. She had the right to know the circumstances of her daughter’s death.
Inie leaned closer, speaking in a hushed voice, “The authorities said Gelnall was alone on that aircraft, but she couldn’t have been.”
I leaned in too, matching her tone of voice. “Why not?”