This Battle Lord's Quest Read Free Page B

not hungry. Heaven knew she’d gorged herself on the noodles Berta
had made to go with the diced rabbit soup. More like peckish.
    She made her way downstairs to the kitchen and lit
a lantern. Rather than reach for a piece of fruit from the bowl on the cabinet,
she checked the cooling pots stacked inside the enormous pantry. The large clay
jars were from a Mutah compound called Benesta, which dredged the mud used to
make their pottery from the bottom of the huge freshwater lake located near the
fortress. With trade opening up more and more between Mutah and Normals, places
like Benesta were coming out of hiding to offer their goods, like these
containers that could store food items for days without spoilage.
    Berta had drawn simple images on each pot to
indicate its contents. Atty found the one she was searching for, and lifted the
moist towel from the lid before opening it and reaching inside. Her fingers
immediately found the cluster of grapes she was seeking.
    “ Aha! Caught you with your hand in the
cookie jar!”
    Atty jumped, her free hand already holding her
dagger outward as she whirled around. It was an instinctive reaction, brought on
by years of self-preservation. Only by the thinnest of margins did she not
throw the long knife in Yulen’s direction.
    “Dammit, Yulen! What have I told you about sneaking
up on me?” She was peeved at him, but at the same time, she was proud. Her
husband had taken all his lessons from her to heart, until he could now track
and stalk game with an expertise that impressed even Mutah hunters.
    The hulking black shadow standing in the living
area laughed as he went back over to the front door, closing and barring it for
the night. Strolling over to where his wife was in the kitchen, he plucked a
grape from her handful and popped it in his mouth. Atty immediately noticed
something was lacking.
    “Where’s Mattox?”
    “With Tory and Fortune. He’s spending the night
with them.”
    “Why?”
    “Because Liam and Saxon are planning on inducing
labor on Mother, and I figured it could take most of the night. In case either
of us was needed, we’d be able to run over there without having to worry about
him.” He leaned in to give her a moist kiss that tasted of grape juice. “And,
in the event we wanted to try for number two, ourselves.”
    He kissed her again, licking the corner of her
mouth. His hands were already under her tunic, moving with slow, deliberate
motions across her bare skin. Massaging. Teasing. They cupped her breasts and
pinched her nipples. Atty moaned. His kisses stole her sanity. His hands were
melting her across the table. The grapes fell from her fingers as she grasped
his broad shoulders to hold on.
    “My Atrilan.” His mouth brushed across her neck,
his tongue inciting tingling sensations as he touched upon her sensitive skin.
Hungrily, she sought his lips again, wanting him to drive her over the brink.
    Their hands fumbled in the pale light to undo belts
and buttons. Atty started to shove her pants down when she felt herself being
pressed back onto the table, a spear of flesh pressed insistently between her
thighs. She grabbed it with one hand, but Yulen took her wrist and disengaged
her fingers.
    “No. This way.” His breath warmed her ear. In the
next instant, he moved away from her. She opened her mouth to protest the loss
of his body heat in the coolness of the room, when he took her by the hips and
flipped her onto her stomach. Jerking her backwards until her legs hung all the
way over the edge of the table, he spread her butt cheeks. Atty dropped her
forehead to the wood and moaned in anticipation.
    It had been too long since they’d been able to have
this kind of sex. Playful sex. Spontaneous sex. Too often these days they were
interrupted either before coitus or during, and usually by Mattox. Ever since
the boy learned how to climb out of his crib, they had given him a regular bed,
but opted to keep their son in the nursery in the room adjacent