Page 13 of The Stallion & The Tigress
Sahar took in the cramped room with only thecot and a stool to sit on.“No.I wanted to bring the milk.Oh, Ipromised Anya, our head cook, that I would ask if you would takethe time to meet with her.She is from the steppe lands too, and ishoping to speak with you of your homeland.”
“Of course.”Aleksi stepped up to the doorand Sahar took half a step back.He grinned and her cheeks pinked.“Perhaps tomorrow after training I can meet her at the kitchens,maybe sweet talk her into some more milk and meat to fill Kiska’slittle larder.”
“That would keep your half-sister fromcalling you a scavenger.”There was pity in her expression and hervoice, something Aleksi didn’t want from her or anyone.“Youcould’ve explained your actions, then she would have looked thefool, not you.”
“What do I care what she calls me, or why,”he said so gruffly that Kiska mewled.He tucked the kitten closerand ran a soothing hand down her back.“I know the truth,” he saidin a harsh whisper.“You know the truth.What do I care what thosespoilt, cannot-see-beyond-their-own-royal-noses like Anastasia andYago think or say about me?”
“What does Yago have to do with what yoursister said?”she snapped.
“He’s like her, thinking he’s above othersbecause of an accident of birth.”
Her big green eyes grew larger and she liftedher chin a notch.He had insulted her again.He should be sorry forit, but all he could see was that cursed oily worm fawning overher, and her accepting—no, enjoying it.He set his shoulders andnarrowed his gaze on hers.“Why do you defend him?”
“Because,” she said, her voice as stiff asher spine, “I prefer to judge a man by his actions, and he was theonly man to step aside and offer me a place beside him in the lineof riders.He treated me as an equal.”
Aleksi snorted.“You are as blind as you arebeautiful.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Ask someone who was there, someone who saw,who truly saw.”
“Like who, Ratter?Your new best friend, aman who hates the Wolf’s parents almost as much as my parentsdo?”
Aleksi shifted Kiska, who had fallen asleepand was purring in his arm.“They have good reason to hate them,”he said.“Surely you have been told the stories.Talk about judginga person by their actions.”
“Yago is not his parents.”
“And you are not yours, and I am notmine.”
“Why do I even try to talk to you?”
Aleksi smiled, slow and sure.He reached outand twined his fingers into the thick, black length of her hair.This he knew the answer to.“Because,” he murmured, “you are drawnto me as I am you to.Because you could scorch me to bare earthwith those blazing eyes of yours and I would rise back up and takeit all again and again and again.”
She swallowed hard, and the fire in her eyesmelted into swirling pools of emerald.“Why did you call metigress?”she whispered.
He wrapped his hand around the back of herneck and pulled her closer.“Because,” he said, his voice comingfrom somewhere deep in his chest, “you are a tigress.”He closedthe hair’s breadth between them with his lips.“You aremytigress,” he breathed into her parted lips and grinned as thebreath she had caught and held came out in a sigh.He touched hislips to hers, nibbling lightly, tasting her salty sweetness, andwhen she neither bit nor pulled away, he covered her mouth withhis, devouring her lips, her breath, a starving man granted asumptuous feast.She moaned in surrender, the most sensuous soundhe had ever heard, and he pressed closer.An ear-splitting shriekbroke them apart.
Aleksi glanced down at Kiska, who had beensquished between them and was giving him her most indignant glare.“So sorry, little one,” he cooed, shifting her on his arm.Helooked back up at Sahar, grinning from ear to ear.She slapped himacross the cheek.Hard.
Sahar slept little and fitfully.The low,resonant sound of Aleksandr’s voice vowing to rise again and again,the warm strength of his hand on her neck, pulling her inexorablyto him, to his mouth, soft and tender as a whisper one moment andthen hard and unyielding the next, swirling round and round hersleep-starved mind with the dizzying heat of a fever dream.
Finally, exhausted, she slipped into asemblance of deep slumber as the sun began its ascent in theeastern sky, and did not rise from her bed until almost noon.Mostof the household were already busy with the day’s duties, so shegrabbed a piece of flatbread and a ripe pear in the kitchens andmade her way to the stables, slinking past Zolotoy’s stall, whichwas empty.
“‘E’s out workin’ ‘is gold stallion,” Rattersaid from where he stood grooming Lasair.“As should you be.”
“I overslept,” she said, stating theobvious.
Ratter stopped combing Lasair’s mane and hisgaze darted to Sahar.Unlike most young women of royal households,she did not normally sleep in late.She liked to be up and outsidewith the sun and the horses.“‘Is kiss that good, eh?”
“What?Who?Why would you say that?”
Ratter grinned and touched the side of hisnose.“I be roomin’ wit Lasair these days an’ nights,” he said.“Iwas right next door.I ‘eard the whole thing.Includin’ theslap.”
Sahar said nothing, though the flush of hertraitorous cheeks told Ratter all he thought he needed to know.Unfortunately, what Ratter knew, he seldom kept to himself.
“Then you heard me walk away from thearrogant ass right after I slapped him.”
“I did, an’ I ‘eard im chucklin’ to hisselfafter as well.”
