SIN and HONEY: Seven Years of Longing

Chapter 13: Leah

 The tent closed, and Leah saw the outline of Achan's legs just outside the entranceway as Rachel walked away.

            After a moment of silence, Levi turned to her. "Lie back and rest," he ordered softly, as he opened his bag. "We are lucky, Leah. It could have been much worse. You could have died."

            "I wanted death." She tried to steady her breathing and stifle the pain, but she groaned, clutching her ribcage near a cluster of stings.

            Levi looked up, his brow furrowed and his dark eyes fierce. "I swore I would protect you. I would have offered myself to Laban in exchange for your life. I would have killed him myself before I let any harm come to you."

            She drew enough strength to lift her hand up and touch his cheek. He grasped it and kissed the inside of her wrist—and through her pain, desire began to wrest itself free.

            "I have something for your pain," he said, reaching back into his bag.

            "I'll have more of what you just gave me," Leah whispered, and Levi's cheeks reddened.

            "Be serious, Leah." He opened a jar of pale yellow paste. She sat silently and waited for him to explain, but he dipped a finger into the jar and gently applied it to the red dots on her lower leg. It stung a little, and her knee recoiled out of impulse. He offered her his arm to squeeze and she did, gratefully.

 "Honey and vinegar," he explained. "The vinegar may sting a bit, but it cleanses bad humors. And the honey heals inflamed skin. Together they will work wonders very shortly. You'll see."

 "Honey, to cure bee stings?"

 He smiled sadly, reaching behind her back to grasp her braid. Amit must have done it while she was sleeping.

 "The bees did not mean to hurt you. They were scared. This will be their apology."

 Silently, he applied the salve to the stings on one leg, then the other. The pain swelled for a moment before drifting away like the final notes of a somber song.

 He looked up at her tentatively. "May I?" he asked, touching the neck of her robe. She nodded, unable to say more with the lump in her throat. Levi gathered the ends of her robe and helped pull it up over her head, revealing her naked body to him. His fingertips floated to the red spots on her shoulders and chest where she was wounded.

 "I love you,"she said suddenly, because she couldn't hold it in anymore. "I've always loved you. Because of this, because of your gentleness. You always made me feel so safe."

            "No,"Levi says, putting the bowl down and taking her hands in his. "This is my fault. I dishonored you, and your father's position. My love for you has poisoned your family and made them turn against you."

            Leah laughed. Actually laughed. Levi looked outraged, but that just made her laugh more—and it hurt, but it felt so good, like singing or kissing him.

            "You find this funny, Leah?"

            "No,"she said, clutching his arm and wincing in pain through laughter. "You said almost the same thing the first time we kissed, do you remember?"

            Levi didn't smile. "Of course I remember."

            Leah had been waiting for months, hoping he would try. Levi's entrance into the camp was unremarkable for everyone else—the familiar groups of merchants came and left all the time after trading their own products for Laban's hides, thick goatskin rope, wool, and livestock.But to Leah, Levi had seemed different. He wasn't like the other merchants who boasted and drank, who gambled and swore and took slaves to bed. Levi kept to himself, polite and respectful—and she wasn't sure after their first conversation if he had ever seen a woman before in his life.

            Finally, he kissed her one night after a camp wedding—and then proceeded to ignore her for three moons. When he did finally approach her again, it was only to apologize for losing control. I respect you, he had said, which brought a smile to Leah's face, know that.

            Leah had always thought girls who swooned looked silly, until that moment when she did it herself.

            "I don't regret it,"Leah said, reaching out to him and gathering the tips of his curls into her palm, pulling him closer to her. "Not the kiss, and not anything since."

            Their foreheads touched and Levi sighed, gathering her into his arms. Even though she felt safe in his healing embrace, Leah wanted to scream. If she were strong enough, she would fight.

 "It's not fair,"she said, shaking her head and looking in his eyes. "I should be able to choose."

 "I know,"Levi said, his hands moving to her calves, putting the balm on the stings there. The vinegar made her flinch, but he leaned down and blew cool air onto her wounds. It was strange, the combination of tingling pain and the sensation of his touch—it made her squirm slightly, wanting more.

"But what's important now is that you live. Hopefully whatever man your father picks will give you a good life. Maybe things I couldn't, like jewels and gold and lots of land—"

"I don't want any of those things,"Leah said, and leaned forward to kiss him. Levi was taken aback at first, but within moments their kiss deepened. As he pressed their bodies together and teased her lips with his tongue, her pain slowly became a dwindling memory.

 Levi's cool breath traveled along her clavicle; he kissed each sting, a welcome breeze in the humid air. Soon, his lips touched her neck and she gasped—not from pain but from need. Her naked body, thinly veiled by only a sheet, shivered as his lips followed the trail paved by his healing fingertips. He tasted the dip between her breasts, like pale moons in the lamplight, and nipped at their peaks.

 Leah became shy as she watched his gaze flitter across her body, and she hid herself with the sheet.

 "Don't hide from me, please,"he begged, cupping her cheeks with his palms. Leah melted into his touch, and time slipped away. His eyes took in every dip, every curve—even every wound—as though they were the most beautiful, most delicious things he had ever seen. For the first time, bared before him, Leah saw herself as he did: perfect, not plain.

 "Do they still hurt?"Levi whispered, fanning his hands across her back.

 "Not anymore,"she said into their kiss, growing unsure now of where her body ended and his began. 

****

Things get even hotter in the next chapter! 

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