King's Shield Read Online Free PDF

situation? “Yes.”
    “Oh, well, then, turn over. Let me work on you.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.” And, because he not only looked surprised but a little hurt, she added, somewhat desperately, “I know you hate being touched. That means you must hate touching other people.”
    His long lashes lifted. “That’s not true.”
    “I’ve seen you when people grab at you. Caresses. Fingering. Coco, and others. How disgusted you were. They couldn’t see it, but I did.”
    The curve of Tau’s mouth thinned to a white line for a moment. “That’s not touch, that’s possession. It’s true, I hated being regarded as someone’s pet lapdog, and I have always wondered if dogs feel the same. It’s why I never wanted a pet. But you’ve never done that to me, tried to make me a possession. You’ve never made any move toward me at all.”
    “Well, then, I’m glad to be of service.”
    Tau was puzzled by her flush. Anger? Her voice, so deep—she’d had the deepest voice of all until the boys crossed the threshold of puberty—was like the rough, chesty growl of a big feline.
    He laughed. “Jeje, you are impossible to understand at times. Will you, or will you not, permit me to use some of my trained trickery on you? Inda has asked me often enough, when his wounds trouble him. I believe we survived the encounters.”
    Jeje flumped over, her arms stiff at her sides. She knew her shift was awry, her drawers twisted, but she wouldn’t fumble at her clothes. Wouldn’t move.
    Fingers traced lightly along her back muscles, leaving tiny trails of warm prickles. She shut her eyes and clenched her teeth harder. Tau’s fingers expertly found the knots and kneaded deeply, a rhythmic, soothing sensation that really did ease the aches gathered all along her lower back—aches she hadn’t even been aware of because of the worse ones down below.
    Despite her control her breathing eased as the pain faded, leaving the warmth of . . . no. No! But when his fingers moved to her legs, and he worked his way along her pain-stiffened thigh muscles, the easement, and the attendant crescendo of building desire, made her unable to resist when he gently tugged at her to turn over. She kept her eyes shut, but her flesh and nerves tingled with expectancy.
    “Ah,” Tau breathed. “Ah.” And his hands drifted up her body, so gently, so softly, she didn’t even realize he’d lifted her shift until the cold morning air touched her charged flesh.
    He chuckled, the sound sending another flare of insistence through her.
    She opened her dark brown eyes. He gazed down, enjoying very much the confusion he saw in her usually capable, closed face. Jeje the wise, the considerate, the cool hand with bow and arrow who sailed through the worst fire-fights, and there were two, no, three, arrow scars to prove it. Not that she had ever complained, or even let anyone see them.
    He saw them now, and bent to kiss each. Long, soft kisses, and he sniffed her warm, slightly salty scent, and then bent to kiss her brow, and when her breathing altered, the tip of her nose, and then her parted lips.
    She growled, the jagged purr of a mountain cat.
    Now thoroughly enchanted, Tau pressed soft kisses on her collarbones, and she lay with her hands open, eyelashes fluttering on her cheeks as he, with infinite care, moved downward—
    A thud on the door startled them.
    “Sunup! You awake?” Inda yelled through the flimsy wood.
    “No,” Tau called, and grinned down at Jeje, a laughing grin that brought an even deeper flush to her cheeks, and her own rare, endearing grin in return. “We’re busy.”
    “Well, hurry up!” And, diminishing down the hall, Inda’s plaintive addition, “Why didn’t they think of that last night?”
    “Should we go?” Jeje asked.
    Tau was delighted to see his own want reflected in her steady dark eyes. “Let them linger over their breakfast,” he suggested, and she laughed.

Chapter Four
    CHERRY-STRIPE Marlo-Vayir and his brother,