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Danni frowned and held her ground.
“I don’t know if the bedroom is the best place for this kind of talk,” she pointed out.
“Is that right, little girl?” Bravik’s eyes flashed in the darkness. “Maybe you’d rather go back to the living area and sit in front of that Goddess-damned pink beam of energy again,” he growled. “We do that, and I guarantee we’ll be fucking before the hour is out.”
“What? But I’m not—I would never—” Danni sputtered. “I mean, that would be very unprofessional.”
“Course it would, but that wouldn’t stop us,” the big Kindred growled. “Not if we were exposed to that damn Mother Stone energy.”
“Wait…you think the energy from the Mother Stone is what made us…act the way we did?” Danni asked hesitantly.
“Think about it,” he said patiently. “The H’rakens are exposed to it every damn night of their lives and how do they act all the time? They’re fucking horny as adolescents,” he answered his own question. “All over their mates constantly—it’s like they can’t get enough. Now why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know,” Danni admitted. “I guess I just thought it was their custom—a cultural norm for them.”
“I told you how many first contact missions I’ve been on and I’ve never seen any people who were so fucking horny for each other all the damn time,” Bravik growled. “There has to be a reason for that, and I’m pretty sure it’s because they’re exposed to that weird radiation from the Mother Stone. And that’s why we acted the way we did, too.”
“Really? Do you really think so?” Danni asked anxiously.
“I do,” Bravik told her firmly. “I mean, I think there’s got to be some mutual attraction to start with—I find you attractive as hell, little girl. And I’d like to think you don’t find me repellent or anything like that.”
Danni felt the corners of her mouth twitching in a smile.
“Well…I thought you were an asshole at first, but you are easy on the eyes,” she admitted. Not to mention how incredibly good he smelled all the time, but she didn’t say anything about that.
“You’re more than easy on the eyes, Danielle—you’re fucking gorgeous,” Bravik rumbled. “So take that mutual attraction and mix in what we were forced to do at the feast and then add the energy of the Mother Stone and what do you get?”
“I guess you get what happened a little while ago in the living area,” Danni admitted softly.
Now that she thought about it, she remembered feeling more relaxed while she was staring into the pink glow. It had seemed easy to be close to the big Kindred—maybe too easy. She’d been blaming herself and her loneliness for her unprofessional behavior, but if Bravik was right…
“If you’re right,” she said, thinking aloud, “Then a lot of what Navii was saying to me suddenly makes more sense.”
“Oh, like what?” he asked.
“Like…” Danni shivered as a cold little breeze rippled against her skin. “Ugh—it’s cold in here! I don’t think this house is very well insulated.”
“Come into the bed,” Bravik told her. “I promise not to touch you, little girl. Let’s just talk—tell me what Navii said to you.”
“Well…” Reluctantly deciding she could trust him, Danni walked over to the strange bed made of woven tree limbs. She slipped between two of the branches and climbed onto the thick, puffy mattress that had been formed by the puff balls.
The bed bounced and swayed with the motion and she found herself rolling helplessly towards the big Kindred.
“Whoa, take it easy, little girl.” He reached out a hand and caught her, then settled her carefully a little distance from his big body. “You okay?”
“I think so.” Danni was still shivering. “I thought this puff ball thing was supposed to weave some kind of cover over us?”
Bravik shrugged his broad, bare shoulders.
“I think maybe it takes time to grow or something. I’ve been lying here a while and there’s nothing yet.”
“That’s not good—it’s freezing in here!” Danni complained. “I wonder if there’s any other kind of blanket in the closet?”
“I looked. There’s not,” Bravik said. “Look, let me put an arm around you at least until you warm up. We Kindred run a little hotter than you humans—you’ll be toasty in no time.”
“I don’t know…that’s kind of what started everything in the first place,” Danni protested.
“No, what started it was the two of us sitting out there soaking up that pink radiation like a couple of idiots,” Bravik growled. “Not even realizing it was affecting us. But there’s none of it in here—at least as far as I can see. No pink glow, anyway—so we should be safe.”
“Well…” Danni nibbled her lower lip.
“Come on, little girl—trust me. I promise nothing’s going to happen,” Bravik told her.
Danni thought that it wasn’t so much that she didn’t trust him, as that she didn’t trust herself. Her body was still humming from their earlier intimate contact. Well, it had been until it started turning into a block of ice, anyway.
