“Yes.” Charick didn’t move. His eyes were like two small suns breaking through the din.
“What the hell is he waiting for?” I huffed, wrapping my arms around myself. It wasn’t the chill, but the warmth that made me tremble.
“I don’t know.” Charick sighed. “Perhaps Adtovar is right, and he wishes for confirmation of our mating before approaching.”
Well, of course, he did.
Thankfully, with my head turned, Charick couldn’t see the roll of my eyes, nor did he see the stubborn set of my jaw when I suddenly became tired of waiting around.
“Let’s give it to him.”
Charick cleared his throat, but even so, his voice held the faintest squeak when he spoke. “You wish to fuck?”
I turned to glare at him, noticing how the golden eyes had widened with surprise and… shit, was that hope?
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” I groaned. “Cool your jets, buddy.”
Charick blinked at me. “The evening air has already cooled me. I do not have a jet, and my skiff is in the guards’ custody. However, there might be a cave large enough for us to….”
I groaned in aggravation at the way my body seemed to catch fire at the idea of being wrapped up with Charick. Might as well get this over with.
I wrapped my fingers in the fabric of his tunic, trying not to register how the muscles of his pecs fluttered under my touch.
It was supposed to be like one of those movie kisses—the fake kind where it was simply a chore—a means to an end. The kind where the man and woman pressed their lips together while their other senses remained focused on the mission at hand.
Have mercy!
I’d never been so wrong in my life.
The minute my mouth grazed Charick’s, he stiffened, his golden eyes widening. It seemed like my actions shocked him. Aliens kissed, didn’t they?
It was simply to further the ruse—at least that’s what I told myself. I pressed closer, angling my head and letting the tip of my tongue play over the seam of his lips.
Charick pulled away, his golden eyes settling on my face with a gaze so intense it was like looking into twin suns. Something inside him shifted. I felt it, like a throb in the air that made me feel all hot and primal.
With a sound that was part groan, part growl, Charick’s powerful arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me off the ground as his lips crashed onto mine. His tongue was hot and slick as it eagerly explored my mouth, and his taste reminded me of cinnamon and hot chocolate.
My mind, at least the part of it that still pretended the kiss was a ruse, spouted all kinds of warnings. But my body, my traitorous, lusty, hormone-riddled body, wasn’t listening. It had been ages since I’d been kissed. Especially a kiss that set my body to flame like this one.
I linked my hands around his neck, pressing closer, feeling the hard pebbles of my nipples press against the rock-hard solidness of his chest, and something hot, hard, and incredibly large spring to life against my thighs.
Have mercy!
“Willa,” Charick groaned as he broke the kiss, his golden eyes sweeping over my face.
The way he said my name was an expression of desire and longing, but it also held a question. Charick was giving me a moment. A moment to decide whether I wanted to keep pretending the attraction between us didn’t exist. A moment to pull away and keep up my safe, prudish pretense.
Fuck that.
I wound my arms tighter around his neck and pulled his mouth to mine. There was nothing but Charick. How his hot, hard body felt against mine as he plundered my mouth like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Then nothing.
I staggered at the loss of Charick’s body pressing against mine, his sudden absence registering with a blast of chilled night air. I blinked, trying to regain my bearings. Charick stood a few feet away, his large hand spanning the neck of an Aljani guard and holding the man at least a foot off the ground.
“Why do you follow us?” The dangerous timbre of Charick’s voice made even my skin prickle. Suddenly myhide and pounceplan seemed like the lesser of two evils.
The guard’s mouth opened and closed like a fish trying to breathe out of water. His pale blue eyes darted from Charick to me and back, but in that moment of shared gaze, I sensed he meant us no harm.
