“Some women just need time to grow into their power.” Avani’s words came back to him. She’d be devastated to be turned out of the Temple. “I won’t let that happen.”
“You can’t stop it, puppy. Not unless you want to come back here in six months or a year and find she’s been traumatized by a warrior who took what she offers too readily.”
Rais had to unclench his jaw to speak. “No one’s pride is worth what could happen. I understand that, which is why I need tonight. Give her to me.”
Celine spoke with her usual bluntness. “To do what? Even if you can control yourself enough to keep from hurting her, what do you hope to accomplish?”
The words were ridiculous. Insane. “I want to be sure and claim her before I go out on my last deployment.”
“Claim her.” Flat words, spoken without a hint of emotion. “That must have been quite a kiss.”
He met her stare with a stony one of his own. “I’ll need a mate before the year’s out. Avani’s lineage is impeccable.”
“Which is why she doesn’t need to be rescued. She could leave here tomorrow on the arm of any of a dozen men, were she not stubbornly determined to serve Luna. You won’t be doing her any favors by snatching her up in a moment of foolish chivalry only to tire of her.”
It was an insult, not only to his pride but to his honor. “I don’t easily give my word, Celine, and when I do I keep it.”
“That’s what worries me.” Celine sat back in her chair and watched him with those hard brown eyes. “I suppose the future is your choice and hers. But the present is my responsibility. Can you control yourself with her? You’re overdue a visit.”
He owed her the truth. “I may frighten her,” he allowed reluctantly, “but I have my control. I won’t harm her.”
“Fear can be worse than pain, Rais. If you terrorize her, her uncle will thrash you and your father may let him. And if she isn’t willing, if she isn’t eager, this will terrorize her.” One slim eyebrow went up. “If I send for her, will I find her willing and eager?”
Rais couldn’t check the laugh that burst free of him. “You think I’d trouble you to send a novice to my bed if she didn’t even want to be there? That’s preposterous.” He recalled the way she’d trembled and melted against him, on fire and sweetly aroused. “Of course she wants me.”
Celine rolled her eyes toward the heavens and reached for her computer tablet. Her fingers flew over the screen in silence, and she glanced up at him. “You match your father for sheer ego, my boy. You’ll find an acolyte waiting outside my door. She’ll take you to a room fit for wooing a nervous novice. If Avani is willing, she’ll come to you. If not, I’ll send someone sturdy enough to quench your frustration.”
Rais hesitated, torn. He wanted her promise that she’d send Avani, and he wasn’t even sure why. He’d done everything in his power to secure her; the final decision was hers, as well it should be. “You have my thanks, Celine. I shall look forward to seeing Avani.”
And Goddess help me if you send anyone in her stead.
Avani’s fingers trembled as she tried to push the tiny pearl button through its hole. Donning the ceremonial costume of a priestess preparing to gentle her first warrior was supposed to be a solemn event, one a woman had plenty of time to prepare for.
She’d had ten minutes, and her hands hadn’t stopped shaking once the whole time. She cursed softly and lifted her gaze to her best friend. “Whose idea were these tiny little buttons? What warrior will want to wait for me to get them undone again?”
Branwen chuckled. “I believe that’s quite the point. They’re to be ripped off, not unbuttoned.”
A fact Avani would have remembered if her thoughts hadn’t scattered the moment Celine had handed over the dress and the location of the room where Rais waited.
For me. Rais is waiting to rip this dress off my body. Rais is waiting to... Her cheeks flushed, and she lifted her hands to cover her face as a shiver claimed her. The worst part was not knowing if it was nerves or anticipation. “I’ve lost my mind, haven’t I?”
Branwen shrugged one shoulder and smiled slowly. “I don’t know. He’s a strong warrior. Not a usual first, but...”
Nothing about this was usual. She hadn’t been called before the high priestess and granted her white bands, or acknowledged at dinner with an invitation to the priestess’s table. She was still the novice she’d been an hour before when Rais had pressed her against a door with the hard wall of his body and taught her in one instant that she was nowhere near ready.
And now he wanted her. He was the King’s son, the heir to the throne of their people. Being called to his bed was the highest honor for any priestess, especially when everyone knew he still looked for a mate.
But when she looked at Rais she didn’t see the all-important heir. She saw the handsome soldier her uncle had brought home for the first time just after her twelfth birthday. In her uncle’s home Rais hadn’t been royalty. He’d been one of her uncle’s men, the latest in a line of rugged soldiers who owed her uncle their obedience.
He’d received no special treatment in her uncle’s home, and she’d been fifteen before she realized the man who took her constant teasing with such unruffled good nature was the King’s only son. The last time he’d visited, she’d been sixteen and starting to notice boys who were starting to notice her back. But Rais had been exactly the same, ruffling her hair before asking her about her studies and her class work.
The memory of her teenage indignation at being seen as a child was almost amusing now. She had been a child then, an innocent with only the vaguest idea of what went on when a warrior took someone to his bed.
Avani dropped her hands and stared at herself in the mirror. Not a child anymore, and certainly not an innocent. The slender, jeweled leather cuffs buckled around her wrists and ankles had been fitted to her before her first night in the bed of a trainer, and her gown was designed to taunt a man with what he couldn’t quite see.
If it hadn’t been for the nervousness in her eyes, she would have looked like a woman ready to enjoy a lusty night in bed. She turned to Branwen and twisted her hands together to hide their shaking. “What if he changes his mind? What if I can’t please him?”
Branwen drew the ivory-backed brush through Avani’s hair again. “Remember your training. Remember what he needs, and how to help him. Don’t panic, and don’t try to force anything. Just enjoy it.”
Enjoying it wouldn’t be the problem. Enjoying it too much was the real danger. Letting Rais crawl under her skin until a young woman’s affection changed to a grown woman’s need.
Nothing to be done about it now. She caught Branwen’s hand and slipped the brush from her friend’s fingers. “Thank you for helping me prepare, but I need to go. He was already tense. The longer I wait, the worse off he’ll be.”
The pale brunette hesitated. “Be careful, Avani. Be safe.” She turned and hurried out.
Alone in her room, Avani reached for her robe and paused to brush a finger over the gold bands that encircled the sleeves. The heavy robe of a novice instead of the lighter, softer robe of a full priestess. It felt strange to pull it over the costume of silk and lace that barely covered her body, but she had nothing else to wear.
Her footsteps seemed to echo in the empty hallways of the Temple. She’d never been so aware of what was happening behind the soundproof doors she passed, of the tangle of na**d flesh and the carnal f**king that left a warrior gentled and a priestess sated.
They’d given Rais one of the opulent rooms tucked in the far corner of the Temple, rooms reserved for the strongest and neediest warriors. Avani’s hand trembled as she lifted it to the small scanner by the door. It would already be programmed to recognize her, and once she touched it and crossed the barrier, the room would become inaccessible to any but the Temple guards and the high priestess herself. A safeguard for the priestesses who handled possessive men who could turn violent if someone seemed determined to interrupt them, but a terrifying act of finality for a nervous woman.
In the end it was Rais who decided her. Rough and dangerous as he obviously could be, every instinct she had screamed for him. He would never hurt her, never cause her pain or distress. The worst thing he could do to her was reject her.
Avani blew out a breath and settled her hand against the panel. A heartbeat later the door whispered open, and her body tightened as she felt his power. Male. Warrior. Yes.
“Come in, Avani.”
Her feet moved without her permission, carrying her across the threshold. The door slid shut behind her and she caught her breath as her eyes adjusted to the dim room. Rais stood by the window, looking out into the sunset.
He’d discarded his shirt, and slanting light gilded the hard planes of his chest and shoulders. When he looked at her, his eyes were shadowed. “I want to speak with you. Before you come any closer.”
It wasn’t what she’d expected to hear, and her fingers stilled on the ties of her outer robe. “Yes?”
He only stood there, arms crossed over his chest, but his gaze was fixed to her unmoving hands. “I have enough control for now, but I don’t know how long it will last. If you aren’t absolutely sure you want to be here, you should go now.”
She knew the clearest way to show her willingness. It was so much a ritual it had become a symbol. A priestess in full robes was a woman to be approached with respect and deference. A priestess without them...
It was supposed to be smooth. In her imagination she envisioned her robe sliding down her body, pooling at her feet as she stood in silent offering. But nerves made her hands tremble, and the knot in her belt seemed tied too tightly. Not even an inelegant tug freed it, and furious heat rose in her cheeks as she looked down at her hands.
Rais stalked silently across the polished floor and plush rugs. “You’re to shed your outer robe, priestess.” He came out of the deepening shadows, and she saw his eyes blazing with unfed hunger. “Open it, or I will.”