“See here,” Zuri said, turning a knob near the head, or foot, of the tub; he wasn’t sure which was which. The knob turned and water flowed from the attached spout. “It’s drawn from the isikolo’s well.”
Tau walked over in wonder. He put his hand beneath the water and felt it pass over his fingers. It was cool.
“Get in.”
“I’m dressed.”
Zuri pursed her lips. “Yes, that is a problem.”
Tau’s eyebrows shot up. “Lady Gifted!”
“Exactly, Lady Gifted! That’s an order, Initiate. We will not permit the unwashed in our presence. And you do happen to be both particularly unwashed and particularly in our presence.” Zuri waved her arms at his clothes and Tau looked down to make sure she hadn’t gifted them away somehow.
“Off,” she said, stepping closer to help with the process.
Seeing she wouldn’t be deterred, Tau stripped as fast as possible and stepped into the tub’s cool waters, sitting down to hide as much as he could. He caught Zuri looking him over.
“That’s good,” she said. “I’ll get soap.”
“Soap?”
Zuri took a rust-colored brick from a shelf near the bath. She knelt beside the tub and dipped it in the water near Tau’s thigh, lingering there, her fingers brushing the flesh of his leg. Tau’s face burned as he felt his body reacting. Zuri must have seen it as well but didn’t comment and began rubbing the damp brick over his body. It wasn’t a brick, though, and, as she stroked it over his skin, it created a lather that smelled of sun-dried grass.
The soap wasn’t as large as Zuri’s hands, so where she cleaned, she touched, her fingers caressing his body. Tau shifted his hands, placing them over his lower stomach and upper thighs, trying to hide his body’s betrayal.
Zuri moved the soap in slow circles over his chest. “So many bruises. So many cuts.” She placed the soap in a bowl beside the bath and walked to another shelf. She came back with a tiny bronze dagger. “Face first,” she told him, going for his neck.
Tau caught her by the wrist, holding her fast.
“Tau…”
He tried to make his fingers relax, but they wouldn’t. He was lost in memories of the demon, the one with hand’s-length claws that had slit his throat. It morphed into the one with the barbed tail that had ripped his chest open with its teeth. Then that one shifted, becoming the four-armed nightmare that had strangled him, snorting foul breath in his face as he died.
“Tau?”
Hands shaking and mind still in the fog of memory, he managed, somehow, to let go. Zuri moved with deliberateness, letting him see every movement as she brought the dagger to his face. He jerked at the blade’s first touch.
“Care! I don’t want to cut you.”
He closed his eyes, breathing too fast and flinching when the blade kissed his flesh again. Zuri was gentle and fast. She used water to wet his skin and scraped away the scruff he’d grown. To keep her balance as she leaned out and over the tub’s edge, she placed a hand on his shoulder.
His eyes were still closed—they had to be for him to ignore a knife so close to his face—but her touch had him reacting again. She finished his face and neck, worked on shaving the stubble from his head, and her hand moved to his chest. As she shaved him, her fingers drew lazy circles and his body’s need shifted from arousal to desire to insistence. He groaned in discomfort, shifting in the tub, hoping to find a position that would offer relief, and didn’t even realize when Zuri was done.
She moved to the side of the tub and reached for him, the fingers of her right hand touching, then holding his manhood. Her caress made him jump, sloshing water out of the tub as his eyes flew open.
“Tau…,” Zuri said, her face determined, the same look she’d worn the first time they’d kissed. Her eyes were large but hooded, lips apart and full. Tau thought to say something, but her hand was gliding up and down, reducing his world to her fingers.
Zuri kicked off her slippers and eased into the waters, her black Gifted robes still on. She came near, sitting over his legs, her clothes floating around them. He could feel the bare skin of her thighs on his, and her left hand was around his neck, her right still stroking. She leaned toward him, closing her eyes, and she kissed him.
Her lips, her body, they brushed against him. And, where once the fingers of her hand, rising and falling, had been enough, they became too little. Tau’s own hands drifted to Zuri’s hips, and she rose onto her knees, using the hold she had to guide him to her.
“We can’t,” Tau said, knowing she would have to be the one to stop, because he couldn’t. “It’s forbidden.”
She kissed his forehead, his cheek, his lips, and, fumbling at first, she drew him inside her.
“Goddess… by the Goddess…,” Tau said, feeling her sheathe him.
“Is this so wrong?” Her voice was breathy. “Why would this… Ah!” She closed her eyes, let her head fall back. “Why would this be…”
They found a rhythm and all the demons in Isihogo could have assaulted the bathing room and Tau would not have stopped. They moved together, kissing, caressed by the cool waters, suspended in ecstasy. Then Tau found there was more.
It was as if he was caught in an avalanche, picking up speed and force. Zuri kept pace. No, she was the one making the pace.
“Yes,” she whispered, her lips near his ear. “Yes, Tau. Yes!”
Her voice, the need in it, did something to him. The avalanche became a flood and, eyes squeezed shut, he felt pressure, pleasure, and pain. His ardor coalesced, crowned. It drew him into her, overcoming him until, like a drowning man piercing the surface to take a breath, the tension burst, granting release.
“Goddess wept,” Tau groaned as he looked into Zuri’s fire-bright eyes. He was drained of… everything, but felt whole. “Zuri…” Her name, it meant something new, something he wanted to understand. He lifted a hand from the waters and touched her face, wishing everything and everyone gone, wishing life could be the two of them and nothing more.
“Tau,” Zuri said. “Tau, you can’t stop.” Zuri was still moving.
“Neh?”
“Tau, I need—” She grabbed him by the chin, making him look at her. “Don’t stop!”
His need was vanishing with astonishing speed.
“Tau? Tau!” Zuri said.
He moved his hand back into the waters, took hold of her hips, and moved, syncing up with her again.
“Yes!” she said. “Like that! Like that! Like… Oh! Oh, Tau!”
Her nails dug into his neck; she arched her back and pressed her knees into his sides. He felt her body around him, almost forcing him from her, and she threw her head back, crying out so loudly he had to stop himself from putting a silencing finger to her lips. Then, with one last spasm, she collapsed on him, shaking. Tau was about to check that she was well, when she kissed his chest.
“Can you go again?” she asked, lips tickling his collarbone.
“I… Give me a few breaths?”
“Yes, a few breaths. This time in the bed.”
“The bed?”
“Yes, I want to try there.”
Tau nodded and Zuri shifted, unsheathing him. She stood in the tub and wriggled out of her robes, letting them fall into the bath. Her dark skin was smooth, her breasts round, firm, and as perfect as the rest of her. Ananthi couldn’t be more beautiful.