The Prince of Zammar

Up in Flames - Chapter Two

A dry hell! Leaving her alone would be torture.  

One last turn and Sadie stopped at what appeared to be a dead end. Jalen reached past her and depressed the hidden latch, allowing the door to swing open. Sadie stepped through the door and to the side, waiting for him.

Jalen walked in after her, and then stopped. Sadie hadn’t made a move to approach the baths and he wondered why. He turned to her and noticed her sullen expression. He quirked an eyebrow in question.

“Where do you want me?” she finally asked. Her tone failed to hide her irritation, and Jalen had to suppress his smile. He liked her firebrand temper, her challenges to his authority. Although she would submit to him in certain circumstances, she never lost her independence. He’d had people kowtowing to his every whim all his life, and she was a refreshing change.

If only their circumstances were different...

Jalen pushed the thought aside; this way only led to despair. Instead, he stepped closer to Sadie, and placed his hands on either side of her head. She pressed back against the wall, her expression a mix of of wariness and anticipation. The curse purred in his mind, happy to have her caged between him and the wall at her back. Mine.

Annoyed, he forced the thought away before he leaned in and captured her lips with his. Her soft lips felt and tasted divine, and he wondered why he’d waited this long to kiss her. Had he really been afraid of the intimacy of the gesture? This fear seemed so strange to him now. 

Those thoughts dissolved when Sadie parted her lips at the prompt of his tongue. He deepened the kiss and felt her groan in barely suppressed arousal. His cock twitched in response. If he didn’t stop now, he would take her again, right there against the wall. But they had important things to discuss first; he had stalled this conversation long enough already.

With great difficulty, Jalen broke off the kiss and stepped away from her. “Get in,” he finally said. “I will be right behind you.”

Sadie ducked under his arm and entered the closest of the baths. Jalen followed her, and submerged himself completely. Between Sadie’s efforts to calm his skin, and the warm water, he felt more at peace than he had in a long time. Unfortunately, it would not last.

When he couldn’t hold his breath anymore, he resurfaced with a gasp and flicked the water from his eyes. As he reached for the soap, the thought of asking her to scrub him came to mind, but then he dismissed the idea. It would only be another way to delay the inevitable. She deserved better than that. 

With a sigh, he took a few minutes to lather up his arms and chest, and scrubbed himself clean before handing the bar to Sadie and dunking under the water again to rinse. He glanced at her as he came back up, and she quirked her eyebrow in silent question.

Her expression had Jalen chuckling, which made her eyes widen in surprise. “Take your time to bathe, Sadie. I’ll answer your questions afterward.”

She nodded reluctantly and started lathering as he reclined on the bench seat to soak in the water. He watched her from underneath his lowered eyelids, enjoying the view of her hands over her breasts as she washed herself. 

“Hmm, very nice,” he said as she went to put down the soap again.

She froze and looked at him questioningly. She looked so vulnerable standing there waiting for him to speak. It almost broke his heart that she could go from confident to wary in such a short time. Damn his curse!

“Uh.. Jalen?” she inquired when he kept silent for too long.

Jalen steeled his nerve and answered, “Come here.”