She opened her eyes. They were dark and heavy with sleep. She blinked slowly, the dim crimson light from my veins illuminating the soft curve of her jaw.
She didn't pull away.
Instead, a small, sleepy sigh escaped her lips. She shifted her weight, tangling her bare legs more deeply with mine, and pressed her chest even firmer against my glowing skin.
"You're warm," she murmured, her voice thick and raspy.
The sheer, unguarded trust in that simple movement sent a violent jolt of possessiveness straight to my core. The purr in my chest grew louder, a deep, mechanical rumble that vibrated through the stone floor.
"Are you in pain?" I asked, my voice a low, gravelly rasp.
She shook her head slowly, her cheek sliding against my scales. "No. The cold is gone." She paused, her dark eyes drifting up to meet mine. The emotional numbness that had clouded her gaze for the past two days was completely absent. She looked raw, present, and terrifyingly clear. "Are you?"
"My wing is broken," I stated matter-of-factly. The sharp, blinding agony in my left flight joint had settled into a deep, stiff throb. "But my chest... the cycle." I placed my heavy hand flat against the center of her back, pressing her closer. "You stabilized it. The pain is gone."
"I thought I was going to die," she whispered, her fingers uncurling against my ribs. She traced the edge of one of my glowing magma-veins, her touch sending a hot spark ofelectricity straight down my spine. "And then I thought the heat was going to burn me alive. But it didn't."
"It will never burn you," I growled, the possessive biological imperative bleeding heavily into my voice. I shifted my weight, bringing my free hand up to cup her jaw. My thumb brushed over her lower lip. "You are the only thing that can touch the fire."
Tove's breath hitched. She didn't look away from my glowing eyes. The silence in the cocoon was heavy, thick with the intoxicating, shared heat of our bodies. The professional distance, the concept of the "resort concierge" and the "tourist," had been completely annihilated in the ash storm.
There was no going back to the way things were. Her confession in the dark had destroyed her emotional walls, and her physical touch had hijacked my biology.
"You belong to me now," I rumbled, the words tearing out of my throat before I could stop them. It wasn't a threat; it was a desperate, biological fact. "I will not let the cold touch you again. I will not let anything touch you."
Tove's pulse spiked against my palm. She leaned into my touch, her eyes dropping to my mouth.
"Then don't let me go," she breathed.
My control snapped.
I twisted my body, ignoring the sharp, protesting spike of pain in my broken wing, and rolled her onto her back against the cold stone. I kept my unbroken wing draped heavily over us, trapping the heat, as I hovered over her.
I brought my mouth down on hers.
Our first kiss was not gentle. It was a feral, consuming collision of physics. My mouth was rough and impossibly hot; hers was soft, tasting of cold rain and the bitter tang of the ash storm.
Tove gasped against my lips, her hands flying up to grip my shoulders. The moment our mouths opened, the thermodynamic exchange between us violently accelerated. The heat from my core rushed into her, while her chilling, grounding void pulled the dangerous excess energy right out of my blood. The physical rush of the exchange hit me like a kinetic shockwave. The deafening roar of my own superheated blood rushed in my ears, amplified by the sharp, desperate bite of her fingernails digging into the scales of my neck and the heavy, grinding friction of our tangled legs fighting to get closer.
I groaned, a deep, guttural sound that vibrated into her mouth, and slanted my head to deepen the kiss. My tongue swept against hers, tasting the raw, desperate human life in her. She met me with equal ferocity, silently demanding more of the fire she had come to this planet to find.
I kissed her until my lungs burned. I kissed her until the feral Rebirth beast in my chest clawed at my ribs, demanding I push her legs apart and claim her entirely, right there on the freezing stone.
But I pulled back.
I broke the kiss, my chest heaving, my forehead resting against hers. We were both panting, the air between us heavy and superheated. Tove's lips were swollen, her eyes blown wide and dark with desire, her pale skin flushed with my heat.
"Kaen," she whispered, a desperate, breathless plea.
"We have to move," I gritted out, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. It took every ounce of my Warden discipline to stop myself from kissing her again.
I lifted my head, letting the cold reality of our situation bleed back into the cocoon.
The ambient temperature of the cave was dropping. The rocks were leeching the heat from the air. We had survived the night, but we couldn't stay here. We had no water, no comms,and the resort was miles away across the most hostile terrain on the planet.
And if we stayed tangled together on the floor, I would completely lose the fight against my biology and take her.
"The storm has passed," I said, my voice rough. "We have to begin the trek."
