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“Isn’t that typical?” His voice was little more than a harsh whisper, but never had I heard a sweeter sound. He moved fractionally and his gaze met mine, the vivid green depths filled with relief and something else. Something I couldn’t really name but that had my pulse racing. “A pretty woman decides to caress me and I’m unconscious for the majority of it.”
Hopefully, that majority had included the few minutes of tears. I sat back on my heels and smiled. “Yeah, well, you might have slapped my hand away if you’d been awake.”
“Doubtful.” He drew in a breath, then released it slowly. I could almost see the strength flooding back into his body. “What’s the damage?”
“You can’t tell?”
He shook his head. “Everything is aching, although I feel a damn sight better than I did at this point last time. It took days before any of us could fully function. We were just lucky there’d been no predators in the vicinity to take advantage of our weakened state.”
“If there had been, their DNA might have mingled with yours, and you would have come through as something entirely different.”
“I know. Help me up.”
I raised an eyebrow and didn’t move. “Wouldn’t it be better if you rested a little bit longer?”
“Probably.” The smile that twisted his lips held little in the way of amusement. “But night is almost on us and I have no intention of being caught out in the open. The solar vehicle has to be around here somewhere—we should find it.”
“Why? If the rift did a number on it, then it’s not going to be of much use.”
“Perhaps, but we might be able to retrieve some weapons or at least some rations from it.”
“That’s a pretty big ‘might.’”
“So was surviving the rift.”
“Good point.” I rose, straddled his legs, then wrapped my hands around his and hauled him upright. It was an effort that left me shaking. Full strength, it seemed, really was a long way off.
His grip tightened briefly against mine, though he didn’t appear to be battling for balance. I flared my nostrils and drew in the rich, wild scent of him, trying to find any hint of change. Trying to find some trace of me. He, Nuri, and Penny had become forever linked after they survived a rift, so it was possible the same had happened to us.
“We won’t know what’s been done to us,” he said, obviously guessing my thoughts. “Not for days or maybe even weeks.”
“Is that how long it took you and Nuri to discover you were telepathically linked?”
“Well, no, because I was barely awake when she told me to stop the mental cussing and start thinking.”
A smile teased my lips. “Given that I can’t hear any cussing, it seems likely we’re not linked.”
“Possibly.” He half shrugged, then winced. “I was hoping to get a little of your healing magic, though, because right now I need it.”
I frowned. “You just have to shift to cat form to heal, don’t you?”
“That’s presuming I still can—and I’m too damn weak right now to try it. But given my DNA has been diluted a second time, there’s no guarantee I will be able to.” He raised a hand and gently brushed my cheek. His fingers came away damp. “Were you crying over me, Tiger?”
Yes. “And why would you think that?”
“Because I’ve seen you near death after battling wraiths, relieved and bloody after surviving impossible odds against the vampires, and furious after being shot. Never once, on any of those occasions, were there tears. So why now?”
I hesitated, tempted to lie. But the rift—and the fear that he might not have survived—had made me realize just how much I wanted to explore what might lie between us, even if nothing lasting and real came out of it. But my throat seemed to close over at the thought of telling him that and my heart was trying to leap out of my chest again.
“And what if they were for you?”
It was softly said, but we were standing so close he couldn’t help hearing it.
“Then I would ask just what they meant.”
My gaze searched his. Looking for what, I wasn’t sure. Certainly, he seemed to be keeping himself under very tight control. Only the pheromones that swirled around us in a dance that was both desire and something stronger—something deeper—gave any hint as to what might be going on within him.
“If you want honesty—”
