Page 102 of The Horde King of Shadow

I jolted. To the Karag, scars weremeantto be displayed. On females, they were considered attractive, alluring.

“I liked the archives. I never needed to hide there,” she told me. “Though in a way, I guess I was. There were other males, but I could always see their true intentions. They wanted to get close to me to get close to my family. Dannik usually scared them off, and I didn’t care for a single one.”

“You never wanted to experience sex? To know what it felt like, being with someone that intimately?”

“I did,” she said, her head lolling back onto my arm so she could meet me eyes. She smiled lazily. We’d made love twice—once in the bath, once in our furs. We were both sated, sleepy. “And now I do.”

I chuckled. “Is it everything you thought it might be?” I teased gently, capturing her fingers when she traced my lips. I nipped at them with my teeth.

“Oh, yes,” she whispered, all seriousness even though her eyes twinkled in the golden light of our dwelling. “No complaints at all.”

I grunted.

“Do you wish I was more experienced?” came her unexpected question.

“What?” I asked, frowning, rolling onto my side more so I could see her better.

“I’m not bad at sex, am I?”

I scoffed. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am,” she said, her tone earnest. “You’re my first lover, Sarkin.”

“And last,” I growled, a delicious possessiveness curling low in my belly.

She smiled. “You’re my first husband too.”

“And last.”

It looked like she wanted to say something else. Perched on the edge of her tongue, her smile dying as a shy expression overtook her teasing amusement. My heart picked up pace in my chest.

Come on,aralye, what are you going to say?I wondered, though I thought I knew.

You’re my first love toowas what went unspoken, a silent thing between us.

And last,I would inform her.

Klara swallowed the words, and I stroked my fingers over her exposed shoulder, feeling the softness of her skin, still warm from our bath.

“Because I’m inexperienced with these things,” she said instead, going back to where the conversation had deviated. “I’m only acting on instinct.”

“Then I will tell you, wife,” I rasped, my lips replacing my touch, trailing them up her neck to her ear. A full body shiver racked her, a little gasping breath shuddering from her. “That you have only the most perfect of instincts.”

And it’s madness…wanting you this much,I thought, capturing her lips for a gentle, lazy kiss.

For the first time in my time asKarathto the Sarrothian, I wanted to lock myself away with her. Just for a little while. I didn’t want to burden myself with Elthika migration or Elysom politics or the heartstones in Dothik or the preparations for the journey back to Sarroth.

Selfishly, I just wanted to stay in this bed with Klara. I wanted to fall asleep beside her and wake up to her, with no pressing obligation of needing to be anywhere else.

When had I ever felt like this before?

“I brought you gifts,” I told her, pulling away from our bed of furs to snag the satchel from the ground near the doorway.

She rose onto her elbow, her full breasts on display. “Gifts?” she asked, hesitant but hopeful. Curiosity rose in her luminous and inquisitive gray eyes. “Really?”

“From Elysom,” I said. “One day, you will see our capital city yourself. It is quite a beautiful place. But until then…”

I crouched down and dug into the bag.

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