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Touch.
My palms slid over his thigh, and all I could think wasfleshandhard.
My nails cut into muscle as my whole body squeezed.
As if the pain somehow woke him, Val jerked his finger from my mouth. Swallowing, he unfolded from on top of me, rising to loom above. The breeze through the open door, now unobstructed by his heat-radiating, heavy, male body, cooled me to shivers on an instant. The jut of my nipples would be obvious.
A bitter disappointment reigned on his face, showing in the rigid lines of his mouth, then was gone.
Embarrassed? Frustrated? Angry? I didn’t know. I pushed to my feet and into his face. “Jesus, did you get a date in college? Did you miss dating 101? The bedroom? Wrong. Here was...”cravings.
“I take it the embargo on touching you is over.” He leaned in and kissed me once, full on the mouth, swallowing my gasp. “By the way,” he murmured against my lips before pulling away, “your neck’s got a beautiful bruise.”
Then he stood and morphed into mister practical and orderly.
“I’ll ease the pickup into that waterhole next to us.” Val surveyed the forest, and I heard the rush of water I’d missed before, during all the craziness. “He mightn’t have been quite human, but that corpse will incriminate us in what will seem to be murder. Water hides and washes away. We can hope it rains before they find this. Your driver likely chose this spot because it’s rarely visited.”
I nodded and climbed from the truck while feeling my neck for damage beyond the bruise. Least that thing didn’t ooze acid on its victims, and what in hell had it or Harry been?
“Do you know what he was?” I gestured at the dead body, but Val was already shaking his head. “And that thing I couldn’t see?”
He tilted his head. “You really couldn’t see it?”
No.
Things were not as they seemed.
Not me.
Not Val.
CHAPTER12
Zara
If someone killed a monster,didn’t that make them more dangerous? A bigger threat if they weren’t on your side? I studied Val as I sat in the car beside him.
He’d saved me, killed Harry and the nightmare of a creature he’d kept in the back seat of his truck—a creature I had felt, but Val could see.
Friend.
Then he’d pinned me down, pretending to wait for me to be free when he could’ve just cut away the tentacles.
Foe.
And let’s not forget how my body responded to him.
Such a fucking foe.
I shouldn’t be sitting here with him. I didn’t trust him. Didn’t trust what I wanted to do with him. The ghost of his weight still haunted my body.
I tore my gaze off him, swallowed my heartbeats.
I closed my eyes, so damn tired, the night so surreal—I was caught up in dreams. I just wanted to sleep, but I didn’t feel safe with him.
“Why’d you follow me?” The sound of my voice surprised me when I spoke my thought out loud.
He didn’t immediately answer; I braced for his lie.
