Beautiful Warrior Read Online Free PDF Page A

some?” he asked.
    I nodded, still keenly aware of last night’s sex. “Yes, please.”
    He poured a cup and brought it to me. He wasn’t naked. He was wearing the same buckskin pants as yesterday and the same bone-handled knife. His hair was long and loose and looked freshly washed.
    I thanked him and took a si p. The coffee was thick and strong, too bitter for my taste, but I drank it anyway.
    The warrior returned to the table and went back to his coffee. Originally I’d met Duncan online, but the first time we’d met in person was at a trendy Starbucks-type place in the Media District. He’d gone for a double caramel macchiato, and I’d ordered a vanilla latte. This was definitely a far cry from that.
    “Today is the day,” he said.
    “The day?”
    “That I will help your sister’s people get across the border . Seven will be here in about an hour, along with the others.”
    “How do you know when they’ll be arriving?”
    “I can feel them.”
    “You should be the psychic instead of Seven.”
    He shrugged. “I just know what I feel.”
    I knew what I felt, too, and my heart was still painfully tangled with his. “I need to get dressed. But first I should get cleaned up.” 
    “You can wash in the stream , like I did this morning. Or I can heat some water and you can bathe with a cloth.”
    I didn’t want to venture outside, not if he wasn’t going to join me. “I’ll take the warmed water.”
    He put a large pot over the flame, and I watched him through troubled eyes. On the morning after I’d lost my virginity, Duncan and I had showered together, kissing and caressing and doing erotic things.
    Once the water was warm, he poured it into a basin and dunked a chamois cloth into it.
    “I can bathe you,” he said.
    “That would be nice,” I replied, sounding far too polite. I wanted him to touch me so badly, I ached.
    “ Then come here.”  He gestured to where he stood, beside the table, where he’d placed the basin.
    Nervous and naked , I padded over to him. I could only imagine how I looked, my skin dappled in fire-lit hues, my nipples pebbled in the morning air. No doubt I appeared beautiful to him. But if he was aware of how mixed-up I was, he might think otherwise.
    He lifted the cloth , wrung it out, and washed my face. Although the water was luxuriously warm, I felt chilled, as I so often did when I thought about the extent of my illness. Being schizophrenic wasn’t romantic, and I had no business encouraging this fantasy. I’d skipped my meds to help make it happen, but it hadn’t done me any good. Not if the warrior was still destined to die.
    He wet the cloth again and moved it to my neck and chest. He squeezed the excess water onto my breasts and down my stomach. The water formed iridescent rivulets. My hallucination was becoming even more dreamlike.
    More dangerously romantic.
    He lowered the chamois, sliding it toward my nether regions. I was shaved smooth. I’d done that for Duncan. Not because he’d asked me to but because a mutual friend had suggested it. Her name was Lori and she was my only female friend. We’d just recently become acquainted, and she didn’t know I was schizophrenic. I worried that she wouldn’t like me anymore if she knew the truth. Lori thought mentally ill people were creepy.
    Duncan promised that he wouldn’ t tell her about my illness. But what if I landed in the psych ward? Or what if I was already there? Would he be able to hide it from her then?
    By now, the warrior had the cloth pressed between my legs. I sucked in my breath. Duncan affected me in the same way. I was always struggling to breathe around him.
    He didn’t linger as long as I would have liked . He finished bathing me, front and back, and then dried me off.
    He stepped away , and I asked, “How much do you know about my world?”
    “Enough, I suppose, to a have a fairly good understanding of how it works . Everyone here knows how crucial it is to our existence.”
    “ How