“Shahsha, my beautiful ladies,” I breathed when I saw the aloe vera. “Shahsha.”

They looked at each other, lots of brows raised or knit but this went along with smiles and then they kept busy.

Once I was out of the bath, all five of them and myself pressed the moisture out of the aloe vera and swiped it carefully on the burned parts of my skin.

God. Heaven.

Then I put on a lightweight, short nightie made of sky blue satin. Teetru and Jacanda set jugs of water on the table with soft cloths, Teetru making motions to me to communicate I was to use the jugs if I needed cool compresses.

I smiled at her, pressed my hand against my mouth and then extended it to her, to Jacanda and to Packa, Beetus and Gaal standing at the cham flaps.

“Thank you,” I breathed, they nodded and Beetus even hesitantly gave my gesture back to me.

It was cute so I winked at her. She, being Beetus, giggled and winked back.

Ghost jumped up on the bed, I winced when she got to me and her paw grazed my skin before Teetru rushed forward, confiscated the cub and said soothing words to me (and Ghost, who she was taking with her) on her way out.

The minute the flaps closed behind them, I collapsed on the silk sheet and stared at the ceiling of the tent.

One day down. Tomorrow, hopefully I would wake up at home and this sunburn would be a memory of the coma I was kind of hoping in a sick way I was in.

If not, I’d tackle the next day, again, one step at a time.

* * * * *

I woke when my thighs were gently pushed apart, my eyes opened, my body started and then I felt Lahn’s mouth between my legs.

Oh man, he hadn’t done this before.

“Lahn,” I whispered, scooting up to get away from him but his big hands shoved under my ass, his long fingers curled around at my h*ps and he held me to him. “Lahn,” I called but he made no noise, just kept working me.

I twisted my h*ps but he held on and then what he was doing penetrated.

God. I didn’t want it to feel good but, f**k me, he wasn’t good at this; he was great at it.

“God, Lahn,” I breathed as my body melted and it did this against my will.

He lifted me at the h*ps and sucked my cl*t hard and any will I had against what he was doing evaporated. My h*ps jerked. Then they started rubbing against his mouth, I couldn’t stop it, I didn’t try. It felt that good, so good; I didn’t want it to stop. No, I wanted more. So I rubbed harder, more demanding and my hands went into his thick, soft, long hair to hold him to me.

But he wasn’t going anywhere and he gave it to me harder, he didn’t stop, his mouth worked me until he got what he was working for and in getting it, he gave me fireworks.

“Lahn!” I cried as he made me come against his mouth and I was still coming when he surged over me, pulling the nightgown with him, over my head it went and then it was away and a second later, Lahn was inside me, filling me and damn, but I loved taking his cock.

My eyes opened after I came down and I saw he had both hands in the bed beside me, none of his weight on me, just his h*ps moving, slow, steady, delicious, between my legs. His head was bent and his eyes were on me.

I looked up at the painted warrior f**king me and as I did I thought he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Fascinated by his streaks, I lifted a hand and trailed it down the paint at the center of his chest, down his abs and to the hair between his legs.

“Kah quaxi, nahna quaxi,”*** he grunted, his h*ps rotating as he slid back in and my neck arched as my eyes closed.

Wow, whatever that was he did with his h*ps that felt good.

“Kah quaxi, Lahnahsahna Circe, nahna quaxi,” he grunted, his h*ps rotated the other way, that felt better and he kept taking me, slow and sweet.

My eyes opened and my hand slid back up his belly to his chest as I breathed, “Baby.”

That must have been what he was looking for because he lowered his body to mine and I took his heat on my fevered, burning skin and didn’t care. I simply wound my limbs around him, pulling him closer.

“Ruhnoo kah quaxi, Circe, ruhnoo kah xac,”****

“Yes,” I whispered as his h*ps rotated again and his thrusts got marginally faster. “Mayoo, Lahn.”

“Me,” he denied. “Ruhnoo kah quaxi.”

“Okay,” I breathed as the slow burn built.

“Ruhnoo kah xac, kah Lahnahsahna,” he growled.

“Yes,” I repeated, lifting my h*ps to receive all of him and he gave it to me, slow, slow, then faster and faster until we were both breathing heavily, I knew I was close again and the whole time his painted black eyes never left mine.

“Lahn,” I whispered when it started, my limbs getting tighter, my hands, which had been roaming his back, his ass, his shoulders, his arms, clenched him to me.

“Ruhnoo kay,” he grunted, putting power behind his thrusts, my frame jerking with them and that was it. My body arced from the small of my back to my head, pressing into his as an orgasm as slow and sweet as his lovemaking swept through me.

Then I kept taking him, his face now in my neck, his driving c**k jerking me with every thrust, his grunts sounding against my skin until he pounded in slow, his h*ps rotating with each thrust, again and again and again as he groaned in my neck.

He stayed still for long moments before he pulled out and slid off, his slick skin gliding against mine.

Then he was on his side, head in hand, elbow in the pillows, one leg cocked with his foot in the bed, the other leg the length of mine (and longer). He watched in the candlelight as his hand slid through the black paint he’d transferred to me, over my chest, between my br**sts, down, down, between my legs then his finger slid over my clit, making my h*ps jerk lightly and a noise escaped my throat.

His sexy, sated eyes came to mine and his hand moved back up, now trailing our combined wetness through the paint on my skin to come to rest light on my belly.

“Kah quaxi, nahna quaxi,” he whispered and I had no idea what that meant but whatever it was, it was important to him.

“Okay,” I said softly.

“No,” he whispered back and leaned an inch into me, “good.”

I wished he wouldn’t be like this, for instance, great in bed and sometimes so damned sweet.

“Right,” I muttered, “good.”

He grinned at me, bent his head and ran his tongue along my shoulder. Then he settled down on his side but not on me like the last two nights, just beside me. He grabbed my hand, cocked my arm and held it against his chest but that was it.

He was minding the burn.