Page 19 of The Ozar Triad

If she was insane, she never knew she had such a terrific imagination. And detailed. His semi-erect cock was long and thick and just as green as the rest of him. It tapped his thigh with a fleshy slap as it thickened. She jerked her gaze to his face. Why had she even been ogling him? She needed to get it together.

Setzan handed her over to Klaej so gently she hardly felt herself being passed between them.

“A man doesn’t take advantage of a helpless woman.” Her voice was breathy. She didn’t seem to have the energy for anything more forceful. It was nice, feeling skin on skin. Her nipples pebbled as awareness washed through her. It was against all logic, but them handling her like this shouldn’t feel so good either.

“Mate. We don’t take advantage of females. We make love to them and when we finally make love to you, you will beg us to do it.” Setzan also stripped, kicking his leather to the side. He was just as tall and proud as his brother. She vaguely wondered how on earth they would even manage to make love to her. Surely something as big as those didn’t fit in anything she might have.

Klaej stepped under the stream of water with her. It felt so wonderful, she lost her train of thought.

Setzan moved behind her and then massaged her skin with a sweet-smelling soap. She swallowed a groan as he worked out some kinks she hadn’t known were there.

“Tell me you want me to stop and we will.”

His hands were like ambrosia on her skin. His careful touch was a tonic to her soul. By all rights, she should be fighting them tooth and nail. At least objecting more than she was, but his fingers were magic and his mindful attention was a soothe balm to her battered soul.

“My brother will stop if he is doing something you really don’t want him to do,” Klaej murmured. His brow lowered as he stared at her intently, waiting.

“Do you want him to stop?” Klaej said.

Setzan stopped lathering her arms and was watching her with the same potent longing. As though she would do them a disservice if she told them no. “Would you stop if I asked?”

Seztan nodded. “We will take you out and dry you and make sure you are safe, as would be your wish. Shall we continue, or shall we stop. It is up to you.”

She should tell them to stop washing her, to put her down and let her take care of herself, but the warm water relieved the aches of her body, the lethargy tugged her limbs and a lulling tranquility simply eased her soul. There were no words to fully describe what was happening, only that she wasn’t worried. In fact, she liked Setzan’s large hands moving over her skin. She felt…precious. There wasn’t a time in her life when she’d been treated this way. The temptation to cave in was too much to fight. Not when she’d been through so much.

She let out a deep breath, giving herself up to them.

She didn’t feel unsafe, just – disconcerted. It was just so much of a temptation to let them care for her. To give in, just this once. Just to know how it might feel to be the centre of such focused tenderness. Besides, she was gritty and it would be heaven to wash the stink of the dumpster away. “Then, it is okay to wash me.”

The corner of Setzan’s mouth quirked and his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. “As you mate.” His fingers massaged in the sweet-smelling soap and she drifted for a moment, caught in the simple enjoyment of being washed.

She should be wary. She should be on guard. But she was none of those things, as though something greater than herself was at work. Great, losing my bloody mind as well as the use of my limbs. Even as she thought those things, she couldn’t bring herself to worry.

“Tell us who put you in with the refuse and we will seek retribution,” Setzan spoke.

She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes and had rested her head against Klaej’s chest. Hopefully she also hadn’t been drooling. “Huh? Oh, I put myself in there.”

“What!” Klaej’s roar was loud in the little space.

She cringed.

“My apologies, but no mate of ours will ever think she is anything to be thrown out and discarded.”

She might have been a little taken back by the sentiment, misplaced as it was, but she was still angling for a way to persuade him to return her mind to her body.

“It’s always a place the enemy will not think to look. A trick. Find the most disgusting place you can find to hide when you’re in danger. The enemy will more likely pass on by than step foot where you’re hiding.”

Setzan’s steady fingers moved to her scalp where he rubbed in shampoo. His fingertips made firm little circles as he washed. Then, Klaej turned so that warm water cascaded over her hair to rinse out the suds. Not so much as a bubble went anywhere near her eyes.

“That is very clever, but how would a delicate female such as yourself know about something like that?” Setzan whispered in her ear. She didn’t bother even opening her eyes this time.

Between the warm water and massage, her body was quickly seeking the rest she so badly needed—and it wasn’t because Rujali had ordered it.

“I’m a soldier,” she murmured. “I’m trained to know things like that.”

“A soldier?”

“Yes. Someone trained and hired by a country to fight in wars for the safety of its people.”

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