“What are you doing, warrior?” he asked Oxriel, his sight stars cutting so sharp a line between Ox and me the air should have started bleeding.
“I asked him to escort me out of the sleeping caves,” I said, raising my chin. Damn him if he thought I was going to let poor Oxriel get in trouble for simply taking me on a walk! “I couldn’t sleep.”
And it’s your fault.
A muscle in Gahn Thaleo’s jaw ticked.
“You are dismissed,” he said sharply. “I will chaperone Nazreen the rest of the way.”
“He isn’t yours to dismiss!” I shot back, glaring at him. My hands flew to my hips. His sight stars followed my fingers, drilling into the places he’d held me so tightly last night. My pussy ached.
“Every male,” he said with maddening slowness, enunciating every word, “in this entire blasted mountain is mine to command.”
“And what about every female?”
Just like when he’d chased me into the water of that lake, a lightheaded giddiness overtook me then. The adrenaline rush of risk.
It paid off. He closed the distance between us at once, like a magnet drawn to my metal. He didn’t stop until he was directly before me. My breasts brushed his front on my next inhale, sending fireworks streaking from my nipples down to my clit.
“I think you and I both know the answer to that,” he growled.
“No, actually, I don’t know the answer. It’s why I asked. It’s why I keep on asking you things. Because I barely know anything about you!”
His sight stars, still more controlled than any other set I’d ever encountered, were practically vibrating, a subtly quaking storm. His brows were set heavily, his jaw taut with anger, evenas his gaze dragged over my face, my body, with something that could only be a raw and helpless desire.
I really was getting better at reading his emotions.
Or he was getting worse at hiding them.
He made a bitter sound, then said, “You know me better than most.”
I gawked at him. How could that be possible? I hadn’t grown up around him, like his people had. But…
He’d never had a friend. He’d likely never kissed anyone before me, either.
Had he never told anyone else about how he got his scar?
The thought just about winded me. And just like that, all my anger evaporated.
“What would you have me do, Nazreen?” Oxriel’s question was quiet. Unobtrusive. But firm. Telling me that he was here to do my bidding, and not Gahn Thaleo’s.
“It’s alright, Ox,” I said, turning to him. “You can head back. Thank you so much for coming on the walk with me. I feel much better.”
His warm sight stars searched my face. “Are you certain?” he asked, perhaps a delicate way of pointing out that I didn’t look better. I felt drained, and imagined my face must be paler than usual. But I nodded encouragingly at him anyway.
“I’m sure. You go make sure Zoren’s doing alright on his own. He might need you for something.”
That convinced him. Oxriel hesitated, then sighed. “Alas, you are right, Nazreen. While Zoren is an adequate enough male, I fear that, when it comes to caring for the new women, he is not nearly as capable or experienced as I am.”
“That’s exactly why I asked you to come on this walk,” I told him in serious tones, even though that was just a tiny bit of a white lie. I would have walked right out of the cave without him if he’d let me. But sweet Ox didn’t need to know that.
“Because you are very clever, Nazreen,” he said, his chest puffed, his sight stars spinning with pleasure. “It was an honour to escort you tonight. But as you say, I must return to Zoren. For he is entirely on his own now, and as there are two new women currently under his care, he is rather woefully outnumbered.”
I chose not to point out that the two women who now outnumbered Zoren probably didn’t even weigh as much as he did put together. Plus, they were sound asleep…
Oxriel raised his tail and bounded away, spurred on by thoughts of helping Zoren restore order to the sleeping caves. When he was out of sight, Gahn Thaleo said, “Why couldn’t you sleep?”
I was probably a coward, but I wasn’t exactly ready to admit that I’d been lying awake thinking about him.
