Not even her.
When she began to quake around me, her spine curving like the finest bow, my own body answered hers. She shouted her release, squeezing me with her hands, her cunt, her thighs. Like she didn’t want to let go of me, either.
That was what did it. What sent me spiralling into the abyss of climax. The way she clung to me. The way she held me.
I remained on her and in her for so long afterwards that she finally had to weakly push at my shoulders and say, “Thaleo. I have to go.”
No.
“I know.”
It took every bit of the will I’d built up over my entire lifetime to pull out of her and let her slip from beneath by body. She disappeared around the corner for a moment, and I heard the sound of water splashing.
She was washing this encounter from her body before she returned to the lands of another Gahn. I was frozen with bitterness, unable even to make myself tie my loincloth yet.
Nazreen returned a moment later and dressed quickly.
“I have to go,” she repeated.
“Yes.” Finally, I found the strength to move again, stepping to her and smoothing the waves of her hair that had become mussed from my bed.My bed.Skies help me, I’d had her in my bed. “I will be here waiting for you on your return.”
She ducked out of contact with my fingers.
“Well, you might not be,” she said woodenly. She retrieved her foot shells, busying herself with those instead of looking at me. “The Vrika could come for you too, you know. Bind you to somebody else.”
“Impossible.”
The reply was out of me before I had time to examine it.
“Why?” she asked. Perfectly reasonable a question. No man knew the Vrika’s will until it was done. I’d already shamefully tried to sway the Vrika’s will by begging it for Nazreen in the night. And it had not answered.
“There are no more unmated women in my tribe,” I said, grasping at words, at anything to repel the possibility she’d just laid bare before me.
“But there’s us,” she reminded me. “You could get a vision of any one of us. Even one of the girls left at the Sea Sand settlement.”
Impossible.I kept it inside this time.
“Even if I choose you,” Nazreen said slowly, straightening up now that her foot shells were fastened, “you can’t choose me.Or even if the Vrika does come, and show me your face, you wouldn’t really be choosing me then, either. The Vrika would be.”
I wanted to take her by the shoulders, shake her, and ask her if it was not obvious that my heart had already chosen her. But I could not even say that much. Because my heart’s will had no purpose where survival was concerned. It was a folly I should have been strong enough to endure. But wasn’t.
“We’ll talk more when I get back,” she said. I did not sense anger in her, but a sort of resignation. “Goodbye, Thaleo.”
16
NASRIN
Iwas a fucking idiot for being jealous of Fiona as I made my way through the mountain to the place where the shuttle waited outside. An absolute dummy. But there it was.
Dalk had told Fiona that he’d murder any man who got a vision of her and tried to claim her as his mate. Way over the top, horrifically violent, and not something I’d ever want to hear coming from a partner.
But I was jealous all the same. Not of the murdery vibes, but of the fact that Dalk had no issue making his feelings for her known. He chose her, just as she’d chosen him. And he was willing to fight for her.
I didn’t even think I’d wanted Gahn Thaleo to fight for me. I hadn’t wanted any sort of commitment from him. Not until this morning. I’d thought we were just going through some shared experience – gloriously intense – but ultimately temporary.
But I hadn’t wanted to leave his cave when all was said in done. I’d forced myself to, of course, knowing that my friends were waiting and that it was time to go. Knowing that he wouldn’t ask me to stay.
At least I was looking forward to seeing our other friends in Gahn Errok’s mountain – Priya, Stephanie, Taylor, Abby and her sweet baby Keir. That took a little bit of the sting off of everything. Even so, I must have been wearing misery around me like a cloud when I met up with the group, because Oxriel and Zoren both jolted with awareness and turned to look at me.
