Zara felt her cheeks heat. She wasn’t ashamed, but she was a little embarrassed. “They’re gonna know what we did together.”
Solar grinned at her. “Oh. You mean they’re gonna know that I had my tongue in your pussy this side of twenty minutes ago?”
“Solar!” she hissed and looked around through the trees like there might be someone spying on them.
“Or do you mean that they might know that you fucked me until my eyes crossed last night?” He ran his hands over her cheeks as she blushed furiously. “Or that I came inside you? Or that you liked it? Wanted it? Begged for it?”
Zara swatted his hands away. “Well, I don’t assume they’ll know all the specifics. But they’ll know generally what we did.”
He brushed her hair back and pulled her in for a sweet kiss. One that warmed her all the way through. She got that bamboozling safe/cliff diving feeling again. “Yes, you shy little woman. They will know what we did. Generally speaking. But that’s what mates do with each other.”
“All mates?” she asked, cocking her head to one side. Something flashed in his eyes at her question. She knew she often accidentally showed him how sheltered she had been, growing up in the king’s court. But he never made her feel stupid. No matter how naïve her questions were.
“Well, I don’t think all mates are quite as creative. Or quite as passionate for one another. I did spend years waiting for you, after all.”
Zara tucked herself into his side. Smelled his grassy, windy, manly smell. She took a deep breath. “Okay. You’re right. They’ll know. So what.”
“So what,” he repeated, steering her through the trees toward the campfire.
But even his strong arm around her shoulders didn’t keep her heart from flopping in her chest as they stepped into the clearing where they held their nightly campfires. The chatter and card games immediately came to a grinding halt as the new couple appeared.
Zara watched the firelight dance across the faces of all these people she knew so well. Her family, really. In all the ways that mattered.
“Emerged from the love nest for some food?” the Oracle asked as he strolled up to Solar and Zara. “I assume you two are hungry after all the canoodling. Oooh! That just made me hungry for noodles. God, I miss noodles.”
Zara couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows and laugh at O. He certainly had a gift for cutting the tension. “Whatever everyone else is having for dinner will do just fine,” Zara said. Because they were awfully hungry, and it had been one of the reasons they’d chosen to emerge.
“Come give me a hand with it, sweetie!” Keiko called across the campfire from the kitchen hut. She was obviously in the middle of finishing up dinner for the camp. Zara automatically moved toward her friend to help, but she found herself gently yanked backward.
Solar’s arms came around her and held her firmly to him. Zara was acutely aware of their audience, but the second his lips touched hers, she was lost to him. Completely. His flavor. His tongue. His arms so strong and sure around her back. He pulled away, gently, and reality descended back over her like a warm blanket.
Keiko cleared her throat loudly and Zara jumped a little, flashed Solar a little grin, and hurried around the fire to help Keiko in the hut.
Zara stepped aside at the hut entrance for the three other Surgeres that Keiko shooed away. “Where are they going?” Zara asked.
“I don’t care,” said Keiko. “Anywhere but here. You. Details. Now.” Keiko shoved a ladle in Zara’s hand and pushed her toward the fish stew that needed serving.
Zara felt herself blush down to the back of her neck, but she knew that Keiko wasn’t going to leave her alone until she spilled her guts. So, taking a deep breath, she did.
CHAPTER TWELVE
God. She was so damn beautiful. Solar felt the breath dam up in his chest as he watched Zara move efficiently in and out of the kitchen hut. She set up utensils and bread and pitchers of water on the serving table. Her long hair swung behind her back and her skin glowed in the firelight.
“Solar,” Rafael said as he nervously stood at Solar’s side. Honestly, Solar hadn’t even noticed he was there until he spoke.
“Yes?” Solar said, keeping his face even and level as he spoke to the young pledge. He wanted to give nothing away. If the boy had a problem, Solar couldn’t afford to show weakness in front of the group. In the corner of his eye, he saw Zara pause, a pitcher in her hand as she watched the two men speak.
Rafael cleared his throat. “I just wanted to apologize to you.”
Solar’s face remained impassive and the boy shifted from one foot to the other. He cleared his throat and continued. “I didn’t know that Zara was… yours. And if I’d known, I never would have gone there yesterday. And I certainly never would have tried to fight. Not that it was much of a fight on my end.”