Defeated, she twined her arms around his neck for stability. His fingers dug into her, and the sordid combination of authority, proximity, and his constant hard-on had her squeezing her thighs together again.
Rentir stumbled, recovering before he dumped her onto the ground. His nostrils flared as his pupils blew wide in his green eyes. “That smell again…”
“What smell?” She hedged, self-conscious.
“It is you,” he said, his tone accusing. “You’re… you smell…” He was panting, and she didn’t think it was from exertion. He hefted her higher in his arms, burying his face in her pelvis.
“Rentir!” She squirmed in earnest, unsettled by the deep, chuffing breaths he took with his nose against her groin.
One of those inhuman whines escaped him, and he looked up at her with his cheek rubbing restlessly over her mons.
“It’s getting harder to ignore. The longer I’m near you, the more it affects me. I need… I need to…” He whined again, squeezing his eyes shut and turning back into her crotch. “I don’t know.” The words were a muffled moan.
It was obvious at this point that he was smelling her arousal, and it was clearly making him insane. She didn’t know what to do.
Offer to end his suffering, the horny, moronic part of her whispered.Give him what he doesn’t know how to ask for.
She couldn’t. They were in the middle of an alien forest filled with predators she’d only begun to scratch the surface of, and she was supposed to be looking for her missing crew. Guilt twisted in her gut at the memory of Thea’s strangled scream.
You’d only destroy him, anyway.Her mind, eternally self-loathing, reminded her of the love and resignation that Felix had worn in his final moments as he’d wrestled her into her lifepod. It was like a bucket of ice over her arousal.
“I think you should put me down.” She was relieved when her voice came out so much steadier than she was feeling.
“No,” he said, straightening and resuming their path toward the lodge. “I apologize, I will not forget myself again. Allow me to do this for you. Please. You are fatigued, and I cannot bear your suffering.”
His words made her heart stutter. She would have clocked it for love bombing from any human man—no one normal made such grand and desperate declarations to someone they’d onlyknown for a day—but Rentir was no normal man. It was clear that something weird was going on, something he was struggling with. She thought she had more guile in her pinky finger than he had in his entire body.
“Just… keep your nose to yourself,” she muttered, avoiding his gaze.
CHAPTER 18
At first,it had been a struggle to resist the pressing urge to pursue Cordelia’s alluring scent again, but as they grew closer to their destination, her condition worsened. The tang of her blood had overtaken the sweeter scent between her thighs. The seal of the medipoxy over her wound was failing, and he could smell the beginnings of an infection beneath it.
Her body seemed so frail to him. She was shorter, less densely muscled, and more easily tired. Yulaira was a fruitful planet, but he was learning it may not be so hospitable to humans. He hated that thought. Curse the planet if it would not bow to her. Damn it to the depths if it worked against him as he tried to convince her to remain.
She’d stopped glaring at him, giving in to rest her face against his shoulder. The bridge of her nose and the high points of her cheeks were turning an alarming shade of red. Her breathing had grown more labored, and her dark brows knitted together over her glassy eyes.
“You’re worsening,” he murmured, moving as quickly as he could without jostling her too badly. His thighs burned with effort, but they were lasting him far longer than they ever would have before.
“I’m fine.”
“You are not.” The words left him on a growl of frustration.
“It’s just a sunburn, and the cryo hangover. I’ll be fine.”
“Your wound is infected.”
One of her hands pressed over the injury, and she winced.
“The medpod will fix it.” He wasn’t sure if he was soothing her or himself.
A faint droning sound made his ears twitch. He tipped his eyes skyward, squinting against the light of the midday sun.
“What is it?” Cordelia asked.
He’d opened his mouth to answer, but something whistled overhead. All it took was the shadow flickering over them, and he was sprinting for cover. He crashed through the brush without heed for the noise he was making or the way the branches whipped at them both.
Water. He needed to find water, and fast. The river couldn’t be far. They would have had to cross it to reach the lodge, and he was sure they’d been close last he’d checked.
