Page 52 of Sands of Atonement

“I hate you.” I wanted to sob, but I refused to show the weakness he had just accused me of.

He leaned his head forward. He brought his lips to my ear. They were warm and soft, and a warm trickling sensation plummeted down my spine.

“You came to my palace to kill me, and you got caught. You’re now mine to do as I please.” He nipped my ear.

I froze.

My heart against my throat, I could hardly breathe. A part of my body wanted to lean into him, but I stopped myself from doing it.

“Well, I hope you take care of your women because it would seem that you leave them extremely unsatisfied. Safina sends her love.”

“Don’t push me, little warrior.” I could feel his smile against my throat.

But I want to, were the words I didn’t dare let leave my lips.

He brought his face in front of me. “I’m still a man.”

My heart skipped a beat. Ezra's thighs were surrounding my hips, but it might have been the walls closing in. Heat rushed past my neck, into my face, and down to my core.

“Are you? It doesn’t seem like it?” I exhaled. How could his eyes be so soft, but pierce through me? My gaze dropped to his lips. They were full and swollen, begging⁠—

What was happening?

Something blinked from his eyes at the same time mine did. He was my enemy, and I wanted him dead.

Suddenly, Ezra ripped a part of my slip. “What are you doing?” I snapped.

I struggled against his pressing weight and pushed my fists on his chest, then elbowed him in the face. His jaw tightened, and his nose flared, and he grabbed hold of my wrists, placing them above my head. “Ezra, let me go.” I was breathless. With as much force as I could muster, I kneed his groin, and his face fell over my shoulder.

“You’re going to learn today, Eshe. I swear this,” he grunted against my ear, sending warm shivers down my body.

Before I knew what he was doing, Ezra lifted my wrists to my bedpost and tied them securely. My breath shallowed. I pulled them toward me.

And again.

I couldn’t free them.

I used Garamgai’s technique to unravel myself, but the cloth only tightened.

Ezra pulled his body off me and straightened his tunic. His eyes turned dark and hard as they narrowed on mine.

Panic settled in.

My lungs tried to remind me to breathe. Remind me that I was not in the baths in Zyriah.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t breathe.

“Ezra, please. Don’t leave me like this.”

He shot me a devious smile and waltzed out of the room.

I used my meditation to slow my breath. I was going to be okay.

This was nothing.

I just needed to calm down in order to figure this out. And I was going to.

Time slowed as I used my teeth to pick at the tiny threads of my ripped slip.