Entwined

Chapter Eleven

Callia hauled Zander to his feet. He swayed, but she caught him and managed to brace her feet on the rocks to keep them both from going down. Didn’t need her help? Bullshit.

“Hold on to me,” she said. She wrapped her arms up under his and around his back, supporting his weight. And holy cow, he weighed a lot.

He perched his palms on her shoulders. “I got it.” But he didn’t. Not even close.

She shifted under his left arm, slid her hand around his waist and grabbed his on her opposite shoulder to steady him. The blanket she’d tucked around him earlier slid to the ground and in the dim light she saw a flash of very male, very naked skin.

Ignore it.

She would. She was a professional. She’d seen plenty of naked bodies over the course of her career. And none—not even the really gorgeous ones—had ever turned her on.

None were Zander.

She shook off the thought, gripped his hand tighter at her shoulder. “Just a few feet to the pool. It’ll be hot.”

He didn’t say much as they moved slowly toward the water, and she was grateful for that. Even though the temperature in this section of the cave was like a sauna and perspiration slicked her skin, she was very much aware that she was wearing nothing more than underwear right now. But what were her options? She was obviously going to have to get in the water with him to hold him up, and she hadn’t brought a change of clothes. Wet undergarments were a small price to pay for making sure her patient lived and she didn’t freeze to death in the process.

They made it to the edge of the first pool. As she eased him down to sit on the rock ledge, she wished she’d thought to bring the lantern. It was darker on this side of the room. Shadows played across his skin as he dipped one toe into the water and pulled it back quickly.

“Skata.”

“I told you it was hot.”

She’d tested it earlier, just to make sure, and knew it was right around a hundred and four degrees, which wasn’t that bad except when you were already freezing. While he was preoccupied with trying to ease his feet into the steaming liquid, she slid into the pool and sucked in a breath as the hot water surrounded her legs and torso.

The bite was a shock to the system, but after a few seconds, her muscles began to relax. The water hit just below her breasts, the bottom of this part of the pool one continuous long flat rock that was smooth beneath her bare feet. She walked to where Zander was sitting on the edge of the pool, his feet now submersed in the water, his hands in his lap as he acclimated himself to the temperature.

Gods, he was really beautiful. For a moment, the look of him there, totally naked with the light from the lamp across the room highlighting the angles and planes of his very chiseled body, stole her breath. She’d seen him naked before, many times, but she wasn’t sure she’d ever stopped to appreciate his body aesthetically. Now she did.

His shoulders were broad, his chest muscular and defined, the play of muscle over bone so smooth it was as if he’d been carved from marble. His abs were taut and ripped, his arms as thick as her legs. And that thin line of hair that ran from his chest to his navel, then lower, was like a blinking arrow, urging her to keep looking.

She drew in a breath and told herself to wise up. He was her patient, she was his healer. Their past was so over and done with it wasn’t even funny.

Refusing to look down, she leaned into him and once again wrapped her arms under his and around his torso. His legs immediately opened, and within seconds she found his bare chest pressed up tight against hers. And other things. Most definitely where she didn’t need them.

Her heart rate kicked up being this close to him, just as it had in the king’s study, just as it had when she’d worked on him earlier. She had to grind her teeth together to keep her voice even. “Come on. We’ll go slow. It’ll feel good once you get used to it.”

He muttered something that sounded an awful lot like “I thought that was my line,” but then she didn’t care, because he was sliding into the water and she was focused on making sure his legs didn’t go out from under him.

He hissed in a sharp breath, let it out slowly. She kept a hold of him as they slid in deeper and the water rose up to their shoulders. His breathing slowed and he closed his eyes, but he didn’t make any attempt to push away, and she figured he either knew he needed her help right now or he was oblivious to the fact she was still holding him.

The water made him virtually weightless and easy to maneuver. Slowly she walked them to the side of the pool, where the rocks were smoother and more comfortable to lean against. Bracing his back against one very flat rock, she continued to keep her body tight against his so he wouldn’t slide under and drown.

Steam rose around them. The tips of her wet hair slapped against her shoulders. With a groan he rested his head back on the rocks behind him. Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead, so she lifted a hand from the water, shook the droplets from her skin and wiped his brow.

“Hmm,” he said as her fingers ran across his skin. “That feels good.”

A half smile curled her mouth before she could stop it. He’d always loved it when she massaged his forehead and ran her fingers through his hair. “Better?”

“Way better.”

“I told you you were cold.”

“Not anymore. I think I feel my toes again.”

Her smile widened. That was definitely good news. She continued to rub his forehead, his temples, trail her finger down the bridge of his nose and up again. Had he broken it at one point? She didn’t remember the small lump there in that spot. She glanced at his throat, at the long jagged scar he’d gotten in some fight. This one she remembered well. Remembered running her fingers and tongue over it as they’d made…

Dangerous, a little voice warned. If you don’t stop touching him, you’ll cross the healer-patient line…

She frowned. She was part human, wasn’t she? Didn’t she deserve a few minutes of downtime herself? After the last few hours—days, for that matter—she deserved more than a few minutes. Hell, after the last ten years she deserved a lifetime of peace. Why couldn’t she relax and enjoy these few stolen moments with Zander, free from the animosity and anger that had ruled them both for so long? Was it too much to ask for just a handful of minutes to remember why she’d fallen for him in the first place?

Yes. Definitely yes. Getting close will only end badly.

As she sat there stroking him, arguing with herself and feeling guilty, she found she wanted this moment to last. Needed it to. For reasons even she didn’t understand.

Almost as if he heard the voices in her head, his eyes popped open, shattering the serenity. She stilled when she realized he was completely focused on her, the blue-gray pools of his irises as clear as she’d ever seen them. “What?” she asked hesitantly.

“Why did you come?”

“I…” Okay, yeah. Damn those superhero healing properties. He was definitely lucid now. “Because Titus asked me to.”

“You could have said no.”

True. And she’d considered it. For all of two seconds. But like a fool, she’d never been able to turn her back on him. “I made a vow to help those in need.”

“Even me.”

It wasn’t a question. They both heard it. Instantly she remembered all too well how he could turn a blind eye to those in need. And just like that the peaceful moment passed.

She dropped her hand back into the water and focused on that scar on his throat to avoid his gaze. Water droplets glistened on his naturally tanned skin, ran over the puckered surface.

“Even you.”

Silence settled between them. His breathing and the lap of water against rock was all she heard.

“Where did you go?” he finally asked. “After?”

Shock registered. That he was asking. That he even cared. After all this time, did it even matter anymore? She thought about not answering then figured, why not? “I…I needed some time. I stayed where I was. In Greece.”

He nodded. And she couldn’t help wondering whether he’d known where she was all along. “I heard a rumor you went to a human medical school.”

He had? News flash to her. Why would he even care? She could ask. She wanted to. But ultimately decided against it. She didn’t want him becoming agitated in his state, and if he was trying to satisfy some morbid curiosity, then she’d just let him. For now. “I did. I studied at the Aristotle University of Thessaloníki.”

He lifted a hand from the water to scratch his stubbly jaw. “Weren’t you afraid? In the human realm, alone? Argoleans are prime targets for daemons.”

She shrugged, stared at a droplet of water that ran from his cheek, down across his strong, square jaw and under, to trail down his scar. “At first, a little. But Thessaloníki is a big city. I made sure I was never really alone. Daemons don’t like to make a scene in front of humans if they can avoid it.”

“They used to avoid it,” he said quietly. “Things are different now.”

Yeah, they were, weren’t they? Now that Atalanta was mortal again her daemons didn’t care who got in their way. She’d been so lucky the day…

Her stomach churned, but she forced the memory back. “My father was also with me for a while. That made it easier at the start.”

“Oh, right,” he said with very clear disdain. “Your father. Why does that not surprise me?”

She lifted her eyes to his and saw in his chiseled features that the contempt he’d had for her father was very much alive and kicking today, though why it mattered to him now she’d never know. He’d once accused her of letting her father rule her life. And for a long time, she had. But when it came down to the most important decision, she’d gone against what her father wanted. And paid dearly.

She looked back at the water curling softly around Zander’s skin and tried not to remember the pain. But it never really went away. “Do you really want to talk about my father?”

“No.”

His immediate answer was no real surprise. So why did the blunt word make her chest ache?

“I just want to know one thing,” he said. “Why did you come back? If the human world was so great, why return to Argolea at all?”

What answer could she give that would make sense? She didn’t want to tell him her father had begged her to return. Or that the increase in daemon activity in the area had scared her enough to make her consider returning to a world that devalued its females. And she definitely didn’t want him to know about the daemon she’d run into one night walking home from class. That had definitely been a sobering experience, especially after the way the creature had stared at her like he recognized her. She’d been lucky the group of humans had come by when they had and she’d escaped unscathed. But she definitely didn’t want to tell Zander about it now or see his I-told-you-so smug expression.

So instead she shrugged and simply said, “It was just the right time to come back.”

He studied her with intense eyes, as if he knew she was omitting the truth. She averted her gaze and stared at his throat again, but her adrenaline pulsed, and her heart rate kicked up under that ruthless stare.

At some point during their conversation she’d let go of him, but he seemed to be supporting his own weight just fine now, and the conversation was already too intimate for her liking. She didn’t need to add physical proximity to the mix.

Just about the time she was going to tell him he was being rude and ask him to stop staring, he shrugged. His features relaxed as he slid farther into the water. “Must be nice having an in with the Council so you can come and go as you please. Most Argoleans aren’t so lucky.”

Lucky? The scars on her back tingled. And her mind skipped over the first few months she’d been home. She wouldn’t call that luck. Not by a long shot. She’d call it…misery.

Before she could think of an answer, his head disappeared under the water.

And all of it—the irritation, anger, even the misery—poofed right out of her head.

“Zander!” She braced her feet on the bottom of the pool and swept her arms through the water to find him. Only he was gone. Vanished. Right out from under her.

Panic closed her throat. It was so dark she couldn’t see him, the water nothing but a glassy black oil slick. Why had she let go of him? Why hadn’t she thought to bring the lantern closer?

“Zander!”

His head popped back up out of the water, and he gave it a shake, sending water droplets raining down around her. “Man, that’s hot.”

She nearly screamed with the mixture of relief and anger bubbling through her veins. Her eyes grew wide and she clenched her hands together in front of her in fists. Then she punched his good shoulder with what little strength she had left. Water sprayed up into his face where she’d slapped at the pool. “Oh, my gods, you scared the crap out of me. Why did you do that?”

He had the audacity to look confused. “Do what?”

And that’s when everything—his agreeing to bind himself to Isadora, his injury, being here with him like this, so close, their conversation and his disappearing under the water to scare her—coalesced in her brain until it was too much. The air whooshed out of her lungs on a groan and she let herself fall back into the pool, let it cradle her exhaustion and, for a second, take it all away.

Far, far away, where she didn’t have to think of any of it.

“Callia? What are you…? Skata. Come back here.”

His hand wrapped around her ankle. She felt him pulling her, but she didn’t fight the gentle tug, not even when water rushed over her face, cutting off her air. She was so tired. Emotionally wrung out and at the end of her rope. He was right. Coming here had been a major mistake. Had she thought she could handle being around him? She couldn’t. She needed to leave now and get back to her clinic, where things were normal. And predictable. And, dammit…safe.

Her feet bumped into his rock-hard chest, then her knees. She sensed him leaning over her, and then his arms wrapped around her waist. She still didn’t fight him, didn’t have it in her, not when he hauled her up out of the water, not even when they were chest to chest and she was sliding down the long plane of his body.

She sputtered, coughed, sucked in a deep breath as water ran down her face.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he asked in an irritated voice.

She coughed again and tried to shake the water out of her eyes. “Me? You’re the one who pulled…the disappearing act.”

“I was getting my hair wet, not sailing out to the open ocean for a midnight swim. You have no idea where this pool leads or what’s out there in the dark. First Titus, now this. Are you trying to punish me here?”

She stilled in his arms. Slowly looked up at his now-frustrated face. Tiny lines cinched his eyebrows together and creases marred his perfect forehead.

What did Titus have to do with anything? And why on earth would Zander think she was trying to punish him?

Water ran from her hair down her face to drip onto his broad chest. She stared at his bewildered expression, gave her head a small shake. Told herself she was seriously hearing things. “Are…are you still loopy from the meds I gave you? Or am I?”

He frowned. “One of us is.”

“Why—?”

“Because, dammit, I think I’m about to kiss you.”

That jumpstarted her muscular system. She pressed her hands against his shoulders as her eyes grew wide all over again. “Why in Hades would you—?”

He was so close she didn’t have time to brace herself. His mouth captured hers in a searing kiss that radiated all the way to her toes. His lips were hard and unforgiving and he tightened his arms around her as he crushed her to him, pulling her in until she had no choice but to grab on for dear life or slide under the water and drown.

Their attraction had always been combustible. Insane. Definitely unhealthy, when she thought of everything that had resulted because of it. Gods knew, she didn’t need a repeat of the years of pain she’d already endured. So why wasn’t she pushing him away?

He slid the tip of his tongue along the seam of her mouth. “Open for me, Callia.” His tongue made another long lingering sweep. “Let me in.”

Oh…she shouldn’t. One taste and she knew she’d be a goner. He’d nearly ruined her once before with his wicked promises of pleasure. If she let him in now…

His hands shifted on her back, slid lower. When he cupped her ass and lowered her so the hard ridge of his arousal brushed the cleft between her legs, she gasped.

He didn’t wait for an invitation. Or give her brain time to catch up with the moment. His tongue slid deep into her mouth without hesitation, and he kissed her, taking exactly what he wanted while she went a little mad at the feel of him after so very long.

Ten years. Had she so totally forgotten what he tasted like in that time? What he felt like? She groaned as memories of yesterday converged with the reality of today. Sweet, like honey. Dark, like danger. Mysterious, like the ultimate forbidden fruit. He was all of that wrapped up into one sinful concoction, enticing her to let go. But she’d been here before. She knew what would happen if she did.

Her fingers dug into the flesh of his shoulders. Her entire body tensed. She knew this was the jumping-off point for her, that if she didn’t end it right this second there’d be no turning back.

Something finally clicked in her brain. She pushed against his chest. Reared back. Somehow managed to break free from his wicked and talented mouth. “I can’t. Zander. I—”

“You can. I’ve seen it.” His lips were pink and close and way too tempting. She swallowed hard. “And I’m not giving you time to think of a reason to say no.”

His mouth covered hers again, with a little more urgency and a lot more forcefulness. She moaned at the way he nipped at her lip, at the way he changed the angle of the kiss, at the way he dipped his tongue inside to slide over and around hers until she felt drugged from the dark taste of him. But when he pulled her hips tighter against his, brushing the hard, bare length of him against her most sensitive spot, whatever bit of self control she’d been hanging onto evaporated right out of her grasp.

She melted. Groaned. And latched on to the unbridled ecstasy she knew only he could provide.

Her hands found their way up into his hair. She wrapped her fingers around the golden strands and kissed him back. He groaned his approval, stroked deeper with his tongue and lifted her up and down in the water to rub harder against her, right where she wanted it most.

Electricity zinged along her nerve endings. Water from the pool slapped the rocks at his back as he moved. She inhaled the sweet male scent of him and reveled in the taste on her tongue.

He turned her easily, as if she weighed nothing, and then she felt the smooth rocks behind her. But all she could focus on was the hot, hard Argonaut at her front. His mouth slid to her ear, her throat, down to the hollow indent near her collarbone in a way that had always driven her wild. Fleetingly she wondered if he was strong enough for sex, but then she dismissed the thought. His wounds had already sealed shut. And in the water she was nearly weightless.

“Zander…” She tipped her head back, closed her eyes, lifted her hips to rub in time with his. “Oh…”

“Gods, you taste good.” He hefted her higher in the water, until the surface of the pool hit at her lower ribs. “I need more.”

Desire burned in her center. He had the straps of her camisole down before she could protest. The cool air of the cave and the water droplets sliding down her chest puckered her nipples into stiff peaks, but it was the way he groaned his approval at the sight that supercharged her blood and sent her libido into overdrive.

“Taste me,” she whispered.

The arm around her waist tightened. The heavenly erection pressing into her panties throbbed. He cupped his free hand around her breast and squeezed, then lowered his lips to draw her deep into his mouth.

And the feeling…oh…better than she remembered. Hotter. Wetter. His tongue was on fire and so much more erotic than she’d dreamed. Her whole body contracted as he laved her nipple, ran his teeth over the point and sucked deep all over again.

He hitched her over to the side, moved to the other breast and laughed against her straining nipple. “Oh, yeah. Do it. Come for me.”

She was about to. She’d heard of females who could orgasm simply from nipple stimulation, but she’d never been one. She lifted her chest higher, pushed against him. And then realized she was rubbing against his thigh like a dog in heat.

Embarrassment burned her cheeks. She hesitated. But his mouth was on hers before she could say anything, and he shifted her back so his cock once more pressed against her satin-covered slit.

“That’s right. Stay with me,” he whispered.

She groaned. Kissed him back. Shivered when his fingers found their way to the edge of her panties to follow the line of silk from her hip to her inner thigh.

“Do you want me to touch you?”

She could barely form a coherent thought, let alone answer. Desire clogged her throat as she tightened her arms around his neck and lifted her hips, granting him access. Somehow she managed to nod.

His smile was a little bit smug and completely delicious as he took her lips again and slipped two fingers beneath her panties to run along her folds.

“Oh, man, you are wet,” he said as his mouth moved to her ear and his hot breath wound down the sensitive skin of her neck. His fingers stroked up and down, over and around, until she was moaning and riding him all over again.

“Do you want me inside?” She nodded. Grabbed tight to his hair. Nearly came when he circled her clit again. “Say it.”

“Yes,” she gasped. “Inside.”

He pushed in one finger. “Like that?” Pulled out.

Tension gathered. She could feel it building. Needed him to keep going. “Oh…”

“More?”

“Yes…” She groaned when he did it again, this time using two fingers to fill her. “Zander, oh, gods…”

He stroked her deep, just the way she liked. His lips found hers again, his tongue dipping inside to stroke her mouth like he was doing with his fingers. She was already so close she knew it wouldn’t take much to push her over the edge. She tightened around him, enjoying every slide and tug but wanting so much more. Her arms pulled him closer; her mouth gave exactly what he took. And she relished the groan that tore from his chest when she sucked on his tongue and wouldn’t let him go.

His fingers left her heat abruptly and she moaned in protest when he tore his mouth from hers. But then his hands were pushing and pulling and her moan turned into a yes when she realized he was stripping her of her panties.

“No more games,” he growled.

Her underwear flew by her head to land somewhere behind her on the rocks. His eyes burned into hers as he moved closer. She was so hot and needy she didn’t even mind that her camisole was around her waist or that if she wasn’t careful he’d see the scars on her back. Right now the only thing that mattered was him and what she desperately needed him to do to her.

“Tell me you want me,” he whispered as his hands wrapped around her waist and he lifted her in the water all over again.

She gasped as he pushed his way between her legs. He braced her back against the flat rocks, leaned down and drew her earlobe into his hot, wet mouth. Between her thighs, his hard thickness pulsed as it slid up and down her naked slit.

“Tell me,” he insisted, this time sucking hard on her lobe until a shot of pain licked its way up her skin. But it didn’t hurt. If anything, it felt good. He lifted his hips, rubbed up and down, found the apex of her opening.

The last ten years of wanting condensed into this one moment. “I do,” she whispered. “Oh…Zander…yes…”

His hips surged, and she sucked in a breath as the tip of his erection wedged its way inside her. She groaned. Found his mouth. Kissed him hard. It had been so long, she’d forgotten how big he was, how much strength was gathered under those corded muscles, how insanely wicked he felt between her legs.

He pulled all the way out, pushed in just a bit more. Groaned himself as his tongue stroked hers. “Callia. Gods. You’re so fucking tight. I won’t be able to last if you don’t ease up. You’re protected, right?”

She was quaking. So close to coming herself, and he was only an inch inside her. She quivered at the thought of the full length of him thrusting deep into her body.

He pulled out again, reached down and pinched her nipples. She gasped as electricity shot between her thighs and breasts. “What kind?” he asked.

“What kind of what?” she muttered as she tried to pull him back. Why was he bothering to talk when all she wanted was him?

“Protection,” he said as he lowered his head to stroke his tongue over her nipple. “I can’t chance you getting pregnant again, not when Isadora and I are about to be bound.” He drew her breast deep into his mouth, licked and sucked like he had before.

Only this time his mouth at her breast didn’t have the same effect. Something went cold inside her. Something that only moments before had burned red hot. “You’re still”—she swallowed hard—“binding yourself to Isadora?”

“Of course.” He moved to her other breast. Licked the nipple. Squeezed with his hand as his cock found its way back to her crease. “I gave the king my word.”

He was serious. There was no humor in his voice. And like a bolt of lightning, reality hit.

This wasn’t a reunion, as she’d foolishly convinced herself earlier. While she was totally wrapped up in the emotions of being close to him after all this time, for him this was nothing but sex. And he didn’t have any qualms about fucking her right this minute while his fiancée waited for him back at the castle.

Callia’s stomach pitched. And a thousand different I-told-you-so’s hit her from all sides.

She braced her hands against his shoulder and shoved. Hard. “Zander, stop. Wait. There’s something you need to know.”