Torran drew me into his lap, with my back against his chest. I found it impossible to relax when I was so close to him. Then his strong fingers started kneading the muscles of my shoulders, pressing into an incredibly tight spot just below my neck. I groaned and let my head drop forward.

Torran paused. “Tell me if it’s too much.”

“Keep going,” I demanded.

His chuckle vibrated through me, but he returned to the massage. By the time he turned me so that he could work on my right arm, I’d forgotten everything except how good his hands felt. He had remained coolly professional, but I burned everywhere he’d touched.

And some places he hadn’t.

Perched on his thigh with my right side facing him, I could feel the muscles of his leg shifting to keep us balanced on the edge of the pool. I wanted to straddle that thigh and rock against it until pleasure blotted out everything else.

I searched desperately for a distraction. Sitting like this, I could see his face and the careful concentration furrowing his brow. Tiny water droplets clung to his eyelashes, sparkling in the low light. The man was incredibly handsome. My eyes traced the line of his nose, the arch of his cheekbones, the lush slash of his lips.

And I knew exactly how good those lips felt against mine.

He glanced up, and I sucked in a breath at the sight of his eyes. Molten color—silver and teal and copper—blazed across his dark gray irises.

He froze, his hands hovering, not quite touching. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Your eyes . . . are you okay?”

A grin pulled at the corner of his mouth. “You’re in my arms, practically naked, and I get to put my hands on you. Did you expect me to be unaffected?” His expression turned serious. “But it doesn’t matter. You are safe with me.”

I swallowed. “I believe you. Do you want to stop?”

“Nidru chich,” he murmured. “But I will if you are uncomfortable.”

I didn’t know much Valovan, but every good soldier knew nidru was the word for “fuck” because we were all twelve at heart and learning foreign curse words had passed the time. If I had to guess, I’d roughly translate it as fuck no.

I smiled at his vehemence. I didn’t want him to stop, but I was uncomfortable, just not for the reason he thought. I shifted, trying to ease the ache that burned low in my belly. I buried my head against his shoulder and told him the truth. “I wish we weren’t bound by a life debt.”

“Why?”

“Because I would really like to take you to bed.”

He turned to stone under me before groaning, low and deep. “Shall I renounce the debt and redeclare it in the morning?”