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“What? This entire time you’ve been blowing off how serious your wounds are. Talking about how strong you are and how death would never defy you. Since when are you an invalid?”
A wicked gleam entered his gaze.
“Since it suits my purposes.” He scrunched up his face, drawing his arms about himself. “Show some compassion, Zuh-Tephanie. I fear that I may catch my death of cold out here...”
“Catch your death, my ass. And I’ve already been more than compassionate tonight, thank you very much. Fine. Here.” I loosened the hides and then chucked one edge unceremoniously on top of him.
“How’s that?” I asked.
“Not good,” he answered gravely. “I fear the only thing that can save me now from this chill is sharing body heat.”
“Sharing... Are you serious? You arenakedright now!”
His gaze dipped to my chest before rising to my face again.
“The sharing of body heat would be much more efficient if you were naked, too.”
I burst out laughing. This guy was such a freaking ham. And in this moment, I kind of adored him for it. It felt so good to laugh after the fear and the stress and the blood.
“I don’t think you could handle that right now,” I said, wiping away tears of laughter. “It would overwhelm your delicate systems. Your heart would probably give out.”
“It wouldn’t,” he said adamantly. “My heart is very strong. As is the rest of me.”
“What happened to being an invalid?”
He frowned, knowing I’d cornered him.
“Ah. Right. Well, I am both, of course. I’m a very complicated male, as you will learn.”
I quirked a brow at him. “What if I don’t want to deal with ‘complicated?’”
He didn’t even bat an eye.
“I’m a very uncomplicated male, as you will learn.”
Somehow, over the course of our conversation, we’d inched closer to each other. I didn’t even realize it had happened until a deep inhale between bouts of laughter made my nipples zing with contact against Errok’s chest. And, what the hell, when had my head ended up on his outstretched right arm? And why was it so comfortable?
At some point, Errok’s left arm had curled around me. I now felt his hand, hot and possessive, splayed across my upper back. One of his rough fingertips skimmed gently across my shoulder blade, dipping beneath my tank top’s strap. That tiny sensation turned my spine electric, sparks of vivid heat moving downward into my pelvis. Without meaning to, I licked my lips. Errok’s brilliant white sight stars misted and pulsed, stroking over my face before falling to linger on my mouth.
A skull-splitting alarm bleated in my head. Panic at the proximity.
Panic at my own desires.
I can’t do this.
I rolled away from him.
But his huge fucking arm never moved. With impossible quickness, it hardened as I rolled onto my other side, caging me before I could scramble all the way away from him.
I panted. Earlier, I’d thought the injured Gahn had looked like an animal in a trap.
Now I was the one who felt trapped. And not by the iron bar of his arm holding me in place, but by the confusing, treacherous quagmire of my own feelings.
I am not supposed to like this! I am not supposed to like him!
The quagmire only deepened, threatening to drown me, when Errok spoke from behind me.
“Don’t run away, Zuh-Tephanie. Not from me. Not now.”
