Was she asking him to join her? Were they to formerly become a mated pair already?
Moving to get up, she pressed her palm to his shoulder.
“Alone, Giles. I need to be alone for a while.”
When she got up he did not protest. She moved with ease again and though he couldn’t understand the strange feeling suddenly rippling through his heart, he watched her walk away from him.
She moved down the slope and a part of him wished to give her privacy but another part understood that they weren’t in a completely safe area. Getting up, he walked after her, telling himself it was just to keep watch and see that she was safe.
But when she began to strip down to nothing, he didn’t turn away. And seeing her naked this time, it was like he’d never seen her before.
Her movements were graceful and smooth. Her body long and lean. The inky spill of hair ended just above the line of her apple-shaped bottom. Lilith moved toward the water, and with each step he caught a glimpse between her thighs. His mouth watered. He’d seen her nude so many times, but it had never bothered him before.
Now he could not take his eyes of the rosy tips of her nipples, the fullness of her breasts, her slim waist and plump hips. A vision of her writhing upon him, her hands all over him, came suddenly upon him and he was hard and ready, painfully so.
She’d said no.
Why was it bothering him?
He’d told her hoping to spare her being bound to someone like him. It shouldn’t bother him. She’d made the wise choice.
Gripping a low-hanging branch in his fist, he found himself wishing he were a free man. For the first time in all his life, Giles hated the man he was.
He’d only ever broken faith once before and it had cost him everything. He’d vowed never again. A demone was defined by the vows he made. Giles was loyal, always had been.
He told himself it did not matter. That the only reason he felt anything at all was because of their forced time spent together. But as she dipped her head beneath the water and kicked up her foot, floating with a lazy smile on her face, his heart twisted painfully in his chest and he knew it for the lie it was.
She did matter.
Lilith mattered to him.
But if she wished to walk away, he would let her. He would have to; he would honor her decision no matter what. Closing his eyes, he took a step back, intending to give her a bit more privacy.
And just as he was about to head back to camp, the snapping of a twig caused him to turn back around.
He had just enough time to see a group of five or six dwarves surrounding Lilith. She was screaming as their hands grabbed at her.
Lilith called her light, shifting to a wolf. But it was no use. With one powerful blow she was knocked unconscious.
It all happened so fast—within a fraction of a second—that Giles could only stand there in stunned silence. When he blinked himself back to reality, it was to note that he, too, had been ambushed. There was a circle of ten around him and one of them was holding a black candle that flickered with deepest, black flame.
“Ain’t no shiftin’ allowed, demon ilk,” the thunderous voice of the one holding the candle cried, and then something hard and powerful knocked into his skull from behind, causing him to black out instantly.
Lilith had no idea where she was. She could barely even remember what she’d been about to do. Moaning, she gingerly lifted a hand to her hair.
“Little wolf,” Giles’s soft rumble caused her to gaze up at him.
“Knight? What?” She shook her head.
“Shh.” He placed a finger over his lips and then pointed straight ahead.
Shaking the marbles loose, she blinked through her blurred vision and noted that they seemed to be locked inside of a hollowed-out corner of mountain. The moment she noticed that she also noticed she was sitting in water and not only were her ankles chained together, but she was bound around her middle with a fibrous section of rope.
“What?” She jerked with a sudden jolt of adrenaline brought on by a sharp burst of fear.
Wolves did not like to be tied up.
Breath coming in rapid-fire punches, she twirled on her butt as the enormity of their situation became obvious to her. She was sitting inside a large, black cast-iron pot. Beside her, Giles sat in his own pot.
“Great wolf!” she cried. “We need to get out, we can’t—”
“Shh.” He hissed again louder, and this time his brows dropped and his head swiveled toward the door where a long slice of shadow inched beneath it. “They’ve posted guards,” he began in a whisper. “I heard them say they would not begin supper until the meat had awoken.”
“Meat?” she squeaked, swallowing down the bile that had risen at the mere mention of them being meat. “Shift, Giles, get us out of here.”