Savage Need (Temple of Luna, #2) (6 page)

She nodded and bit her lip. "I have to go."

And he had to let her. He smoothed the tears from her cheeks with his thumb and smiled. "I'll talk to you soon."

"As soon as you're settled." She caught his hand and kissed his palm. "Goodbye, Jarek."

If he didn't let her go now, he'd forget how. So he lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles in return, then released her. "Be safe, Zahra."

She nodded and turned away. "You too." Her shoes whispered over the path as she hurried off, leaving him wrapped in her scent and aching for her.

Six months.
If he wanted to be worthy of a King's cousin in that time, he had work to do.

Zahra laid her napkin over her plate and rose from the King's table. "I need a favor, cousin."

Rais arched an eyebrow from his seat at the head of the table. "So
that's
is why you finally came to dinner after all my invitations."

"Your summons, you mean."

He waved a hand. "Same thing."

"Rais." The young blonde seated at her cousin's side had the same easy smile and open friendliness Zahra remembered from her days at the Temple, but Avani also seemed possessed of a short patience for her new mate's ego. "We're all very impressed that you're the King now. I promise. So stop being an ass."

Zahra's own nervousness kept her from sharing her new Queen's smile. "It's about Jarek."

He finished his wine and nodded. "The healer? The one you went to school with?"

"Yes."

He stared at her for several long moments before a small smile began to play at the corners of his mouth. "And what about Jarek the healer?"

"
Rais
." Zahra's cheeks burned at the teasing, but that wasn't what made her hesitate. Suppose he said no? "I've promised myself to him, and I want your blessing."

He said nothing.

After several tense moments, Avani sighed and gestured impatiently at the chair Zahra had vacated. "Sit down. That's his stubborn face, which means you might as well be comfortable."

Her cousin's jaw was tight. "When did this happen, Zahra? When he visited the Temple?"

"Then," she admitted carefully, still standing. "And--and a long time ago. I've always..." She clenched her hands into fists. "You don't have to be all right with it, Rais. I'll stay away from him if it's my King's wish. But I'll be alone."

Rais rose and walked over to stand in front of her. He grasped her upper arms and bent until they were eye to eye. "I didn't say no. I only wanted to make sure this wasn't too fast for you."

It had been so many things, but not fast. "I've loved him for years."

He glanced at his wife, who smiled gently. "If she went to school with him, she's loved him longer than you've known me."

"Indeed, she has." His eyes softened, and he kissed Zahra's cheek. "You have my blessing."

Relief made her weak, and she sank back into the chair after all. "That's all? You don't have questions?"

He laughed a little as he refilled his goblet. "You've never been the type to need to answer to anyone, cousin. I lay my trust in your judgment, as always."

He offered her more wine, and she didn't refuse. Now that her impossible question had been answered, she didn't quite know what to do.

But Avani did. She lifted her glass with a laugh. "You'll forgive me if I wish your intended all the luck in the world. Your family has more in the way of good looks and charm than is entirely fair."

Zahra smiled. "Jarek still has some healing to do. But when he's ready for me..."

She'd be more than ready for him.

Zahra pulled her rental car to a stop on the gravel drive outside the plain farmhouse, but there was no one in sight. She gathered the tin of cookies from the passenger seat and headed for the front door, but the sharp ring of an axe cleaving through wood stopped her.

She followed the sound behind the house and found Jarek, bared to the waist, chopping wood. His muscles tensed and flexed as he swung, and she had to suck in a sharp breath. Though they'd gone no longer than a few days without a video call over the last few months, she'd still forgotten his sheer magnetism.

She had to shake herself from her reverie as he swung the axe again. "Hello, Jarek."

His back went tense. He lifted the axe and embedded it three inches in the stump in front of him and then turned, his face wary, as if he didn't quite trust his eyesight. For several moments he simply stared at her while the breeze tugged at her hair. His nostrils flared slightly and his gaze dropped to her hands, and a smile curled his lips. "I know I'm capable of hallucinating you, but I doubt I'd conjure up your mother's cookies, as enchanting as they are."

His smile gave her the courage to cross the space between them. "When my mother found out I was coming to see you, she wanted to send her regards. I told her this was the best way."

"I was just..." He gestured to the axe, and to the ramshackle farmhouse. "My brother-in-law took my sister and the kids into town to run errands, so I was trying to pitch in. The barn's high tech, but the house still has fireplaces."

She nodded, her hands trembling. "It's a beautiful place. And it's--it's good to see you again."

His gaze flicked to the farmhouse again, and something in his eyes tightened. "It's not much. But it was home, I suppose."

It was clear he hadn't wanted her to see where he lived, and a surprising pain splintered through her. "Should I not have come?"

He started and covered the space between them in a heartbeat. Strong arms closed around her, pulling her against a solid, warm chest. "I'm sorry. I'm glad to see you, sweetheart. I am."

Zahra didn't want to let go. She dropped the tin and clung to him, her face buried against his shoulder. "I should have called, but I missed you. I needed to see you."

"My house isn't fit for the King's cousin," he whispered, the words muffled against her hair. "He told me once to stay away from you. That I wasn't good enough."

It sounded like the sort of thing Rais would say--a casual, offhand comment delivered without a thought to how Jarek might take it. "He must have changed his mind."

Jarek went stiff against her. "He knows?"

He sounded almost scared, and Zahra pulled back to look up at him, her own heart pounding. "Yes, and he's given us his blessing."

Strong fingers fisted in her hair. He groaned and crushed his mouth to hers, kissing her with the heat and need that had kept her awake at night, wanting.

It was the first time since speaking to Rais that she allowed herself to really understand what had happened. "I can have you," she whispered against Jarek's mouth. "You're mine."

"And you're--"

"Jarek?" It was a woman's voice, followed by the sound of a slamming door. "I thought I heard a--oh." The woman-his mother, if age and family resemblance were any indication--stopped at the corner of the house and stared at them with wide, shocked blue eyes.

Jarek kept one arm tight around her body, but he let out a tiny, resigned little sigh and whispered an apology against her hair before lifting his head and smiling. "Zahra, I'd like you to meet my mother, Chandis. Mother, this is--"

"I
have
eyes." Jarek's mother rushed forward and reached for Zahra's hands. "Oh, it's such an honor to have you here. But Jarek didn't tell me--" A slashing look at Jarek, who sighed again. "--and nothing's prepared."

Zahra's hands began to tremble again. "I was insufferably rude," she confessed. "I didn't tell Jarek I was coming. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"A wonderful surprise." Chandis squeezed her hands in a hearty grip, and it looked like only sheer force of will kept her from dragging Zahra into a hug. "You just keep her out here for a few minutes, Jarek, so I can tidy up the kitchen and heat up the kettle. And make sure you bring in enough wood to build up a good fire. Can't have the King's cousin catching cold just because your father can't stir himself to pay for modern conveniences."

Jarek's arm tightened around her shoulder. "Yes, mother."

Zahra kept her nervous smile in place until Chandis disappeared into the house again. Then she reached for her hair, smoothing it anxiously. "I've been traveling for hours. I didn't even think--"

"Shh." He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "You're in for it now."

She hadn't given a thought to meeting Jarek's parents, hadn't even brought a gift. She knelt and retrieved the fallen tin. "I hope they like cookies. And me."

"They'll love you," he assured her quietly before taking the tin from her hands. "But not a one of them has been more than fifty miles from this farm in their lives, and they certainly haven't been meeting members of the royal family. You're not going to get a second's peace as long as you're here."

"I'm used to it." Though, admittedly, she'd never had future members of her family fussing over her.

Jarek's chuckle was low and naughty. "Well, I'm not. I wanted to do a lot more than kiss you."

She blushed, mostly because she'd thought of little else over the last months. "We can't hide in the barn like a couple of teenagers."

"How would you like to go for a run tonight?"

The image rose of them entangled in an embrace, out in a clearing with the moon and stars bathing their skin in silver light. Zahra cleared her throat as her arousal spiked again. "I would like that."

A truck engine rumbled in the distance, and Jarek tilted his head and then groaned. "Rein it in," he muttered, though it sounded as if he was talking to himself. He straightened and turned them both around to face the long road that led to the farm. At the far end, an ancient truck rattled toward them, the kind that was so out of date not even humans bought them anymore, and no one without mechanical expertise could keep them running.

"That," Jarek murmured, "is our inevitable doom. My sister, my brother-in-law, a surly fourteen year old nephew who will probably fall in love with you, and twin girls who will be trying to play dress up with you within the hour. Are you
sure
you wouldn't like to go find a nice, safe orphan to love?"

She could make it through an evening with his family, even if everything he said was true. It would be worth it. "Too late. I already love you."

In the end it was his brother-in-law who saved them.

After two hours with Jarek's nieces climbing all over her and his mother hovering, Zahra was starting to look a little frayed around the edges. She held her composure with respectable determination, but Jarek had to wonder if she was reconsidering her declaration of love after all.

His sister had taken a strong, steady man as a mate, one who understood the earth and the seasons in a way some of their people had forgotten as they rushed to embrace human technology. When one of the twins suggested Zahra could have a royal slumber party in their room, Rothan gathered up his wife, children and mother-in-law and herded them out the door for a spontaneous visit to a neighboring farm. His parting look said more clearly than words that Jarek had best get them
both
safely out of sight before the family returned.

Jarek listened to the truck door slam and reached out to smooth a lock of Zahra's hair back into place. "You look a little wide-eyed."