A Sinless Betrayal - Cherie Benjamin (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

He looks up at me and says, "Close your eyes until I say to open them."

"Why can't I just—"

"Do as I say." The voice is so dominating over my whiny, submissive tone. I silence and close my eyes. He pulls my horse through the forest. I sit blindly on Rana Fashe's saddle, rocking with her movements.

We walk like this for a few minutes before my horse stops in her tracks. "Can I open them now?" I ask eagerly. I don't hear anything but rustling at first. My eyes fly open instantly and I'm staring straight at him. He's taking his hair out of his braid, with his back facing to me.

He nods his head. "Yes." There's a single feather strung in his long black hair; it's a beautiful red one, probably plucked from the backside of a cardinal bird. I take a look at my surroundings. I'm blown away.

My mouth falls open at the sight. A giant waterfall surrounded by trees and wildflowers and weeds sprouting out of rocks like little bursts of happiness. Birds sing in the trees loudly, the music of locusts and cicadas ring in my ears. "This is beautiful!" I cry.

He smiles a slight smile, the corner of his mouth peaking up at the end. "This is my secret place in the woods," he says. "I found it and I claimed it. See the trees?" I look around at some of the trees by the waterfall. They had claw marks in them as well as a bit of animal blood splattered on it.

Abigor places his heavy hands on my wide set hips and lifts me down from my horse. I stand there arranging myself as he ties the reins of the horses to a tree branch. The grass is tall; it's almost to my knees.

He turns away from me and starts towards the great pool of water that sits below the waterfall. I start to follow him, but then I instantly stop. He reaches around his back and unties his breechcloth and slips out of his pants, throwing them into the tall grass.

Mystified but intrigued, I watch him as he takes a running start before diving gracefully into the water. He emerges a moment later, shaking his hair out aggressively, like a dog. He smiles and chuckles softly. "Water good."

"The water is good," I correct him. He gives me a look before mumbling something in Hausa right back at me—it's probably insulting to my culture, but I'm used to his rudeness by now. I stand back a few feet, sitting on a rock so the cold water doesn't splash at me.

He watches me from in the water. "Come in," he suggests. "An' swim wit' me." I shake my head and rub my arms.

"No," I tell him.

He frowns. "Come in," he says a little louder, and with a little more force.

"No," I tell him in a sterner tone. "I don't swim. And it's not proper for a lady to be swimming with a male, especially in his naked form. Back where I come from, people would talk generously about this if they caught us."

He sneers at me, lifting his upper lip in disgust. "Fuck pro-per, you in Barbarian country now. There ain't no rules here unless I say so. Come in." I shake my head again, moving back on the rock. He sighs and swims out into the pond. "Guess I'll just have fun all by myself."

I don't say anything. I just watch as he moves around in the water with surprising agility, his muscles rippling with each inch he swims. I sigh and lay back on the warm, flat rock that I'm currently sitting on.

Looking straight up, I see white puffy clouds rolling and tumbling over themselves in a clear, cerulean sky. Trees overflowed with fresh green leaves sway with the passing breeze that runs through the forest with youthful dexterity.

I don't hear Abigor splashing around in the water, his breath or even feel his presence. I sit up abruptly and look around. He's gone. He's not out of the water, but it in—and he must be drowning.

I don't know how to swim but I can't risk him dying at my hands, so I strip myself of my silks as fast as I can and go to the water's edge in a panic. "Oh, fuck me…Abigor!" I swear that my heart's never pounded faster. I look around in the water, searching for a heavy body floating near the bottom of the clear water. But I see absolutely nothing.

Suddenly, I feel a wet, large hand on my arm, tugging me in. And before I can even register what's happening, I'm plunging beneath crystal clear waters. I emerge, screaming, with my hair stuck to my face.

And when I see him, I pound on him as if he's a punching bag. "You scared the absolute hell out of me! Oh, I hate you Abigor, I hate you…"

He fends my blows off with a cocky smile. I slip on a patch of mud and go under the water again. I cry out in shock before slipping into the water a little more. "I can't swim!" I panic.

He hoists me up into his arms and holds me there securely until I've calmed myself down a little. "Shh," he says. "I've got you. I'm not gonna let you drown." I hang onto him like he's a rope suspending me over a cliff.

I glare up at him. "Why would you do that? I thought you were hurt. I was getting ready to jump in there and almost kill myself trying to save your backside, which, might I add, was perfectly fine."

He looks down at me in an amused manner. "It got you in, didn't it?"

I gasp. "You're absolutely evil!"

He smirks and starts to walk around in the water while carrying me in his arms. "The water's nice. Wouldn't have got you in any other way."

My mouth drops open slightly. "That's because I don't know how to swim!" I cry. "I could drown. Women back where I live aren't taught how to swim. It's not proper."

He corrects me. "Was not proper. But like I said before, fuck it. You're not in Bellechester anymore, little one. Lay back into the water. Feel the water on your skin."

I lay back into the water, wetting my braid as well as the crystals on it. I'm in nothing but skimpy scraps of underclothes that I opted to wear under my red silks. I'd never been in anything but bathwater my entire life, and the feeling of floating on top of cold, refreshing water was completely new and sensational.

I sigh and grab at his arms; he helps me sit up in his arms, droplets of cool water running down my cheeks and catching on my long eyelashes. "It's cold in here," I tell him. He looks down for some reason and then nods back at me.

"Yeah," he says with another cocky, arrogant smile. "I can definitely tell."

Suddenly, I look down at my chest. My nipples were straining against the material that contained them. "Oh…" My face grows extremely red, and I don't even know what to say to insult him, so I say the first thing that comes to my mind. "Sorry."

He looks a little taken aback. "Sorry? Why are you sorry for something like that? It's…natural. S'beautiful. I think it's…" He leans in close to my ear and whispers, "Erotic. Besides Eliz'bella, I'm more naked than you are."

I find myself shuddering, more from his tone dripping with sex than the cold water. I slide out of his arms and deeper into the water, covering my chest with my hands and the water. He nods his head towards the waterfall. "C'mon," he says. "I've got something I want to show you. A secret hiding place for just you and me."

He pulls me towards the rocks and the waterfall. Then he lets go of my hand and jumps up onto one of the rocks in all of his naked glory, and slips behind the great fall of water. My eyes widen. He calls my name, a loud echoing sound only magnified by cave walls and water. I follow him into the back, ducking behind the great falling of water to reach the cave behind it.

Abigor's already started the fire back there, sitting there watching me with his knees crossed. "Ku zo nan," he says. "Sit with me."

I walk over to him and sit next to him by the fire. He's got a dead squirrel in his hand. I reel back in horror. "Where did you find that?" I ask him.

He looks around the cave. "Here," he says matter-of-factly. "Where else?"

I grimace. "You don't know how long it's been dead for."

He chuckles humorlessly. "Yes, I do. And it's been dead for about a minute now."

My eyes widen and I shake my head. "You are truly what they say you are…a merciless barbarian."

He shrugs his massive shoulders. "Should live up to my title," he tells me. "I kill for means of survival."

I don't watch when he pulls out his dagger and digs the blade into the squirrel's belly. "And your men…I suppose they kill for fun?"

Again he only shrugs his shoulders. "I know what they're capable of. But I'm not there to say whether or not they can kill someone or not. That's where my brother comes in."

I gasp in shock. "What are you talking about? Is that why you don't participate in raids?"

He nods his head and I hear a crack when he cuts the feet off of the squirrel. "My brother would have definitely tried to slit my throat if he didn't have something to do with the kingdom. My father gave me the spot of King, so he repaid my brother with being in charge of running the raid parties and troops. But I oversee them first."

"But the killing," I murmur. "That was at his hands?"

Abigor nods. "I honestly wouldn't expect any less from him. He is mugun mutum, a no good soul. There's nothing I can do about his lust for blood."

I shake my head violently. "No…no, that's absolute crap. You're the king, you should have every privilege, every last word! You need to get your brother in control. He's the one that's killing so many men, he's even merciless to the women and children."

He nods. "I'll try."

"Please do," I whisper.

He nods again. "For you."

I look up at him and swallow the lump that had been residing in my throat. I touch his tattooed bicep with the tips of my fingers. "Thank you." He doesn't answer. Instead, he skewers the skinned squirrel on a stick and thrusts it over the fire. I grimace. "That's ugly."

He laughs. "It is, isn't it? It won't be so ugly when we cut 'im up and eat 'im."

I scoot a little closer to the fire, pleased with the warmth that it gives me. "I honestly have to say that I've never tried squirrel."

"It's good," he tells me. "But small. Like snack, not meal."

I watch it cook in the fire with interest. "Why are you so kind to me?" I ask out of the blue. I'm feeling particularly brazen today.

He looks over at me through his peripherals. "Do I have a reason not to be?" he asks me. I don't know what to say to that, so I just settle for saying nothing. "You are a good companion. Loyal. Trustworthy. Strong. Strong man needs strong woman to bear strong children."

I'm confused by the sentence. What does he mean by 'strong man needs strong woman to bear strong children'? Does he wish for me to have his children? I don't question it right away. Maybe he means something else. It's possible. "You're very comfortable in your skin, aren't you?"

I watch as he moves around freely, naked as the day he was born without a trace of embarrassment. "Yes," he confirms. "Naked is natural. There is nothing wrong with skin. It's our bodies, and I do not believe we should have to hide them. Shame is not