“You know,” Raaze said as they followed, “I’ve always wondered why certain parts of Parac’Norr are off-limits. Geological instability is such a convenient excuse, especially when the rock formations suggest they’re actually more stable than the areas we’re allowed to settle.”
Kraath said nothing. But his hand trembled again, worse this time. The shaking traveled up his arm before he could suppress it.
Finding Michelle and Zeke was secondary now. Let the medic and his female fend for themselves. They survived the storm.
If there were hidden populations in the restricted zones, everything about Parac’Norr’s careful balance would shift. His own plans, decades in the making, would need to be completely revised.
And he was running out of time.
“Commander,” Raaze said suddenly, his entire body going still.
Kraath stopped, his hand moving automatically to the weapon at his hip. “What is it?”
“Don’t look now,” Raaze said quietly. “But we are being followed.”
Aliens had way more stamina in bed than she’d thought.
Michelle’s thighs burned with each step down the rocky slope. Not just from the hike—from Zeke. From the way he’d taken her against the cave wall, then again on the moss, then once more when she’d woken him with her mouth before dawn. Her body ached in places that hadn’t been touched in years, muscles protesting the enthusiastic workout they’d gotten.
Totally worth it.
A fallen tree blocked their path, massive trunk chest-high and slick with morning dew. Zeke vaulted over easily, then turned back to help her. His hands found her waist, lifting her up onto the log.
But instead of helping her down the other side, he stepped between her thighs, his hands sliding up to frame her face.
“Zeke, what?—”
He kissed her. Not gentle, not questioning. His mouth claimed hers with the same intensity he’d shown in the cave, tongue sweeping in to taste her. She made a sound against his lips—surprise, need, she didn’t know—and slid her arms up to loop around his broad shoulders.
When he pulled back, they were both breathing hard.
“Been wanting to do that all morning,” he murmured against her mouth.
Heat flushed through her. “We should keep moving.”
“In a minute.” He kissed her again, softer this time but no less thorough. His thumbs stroked her cheekbones as he explored her mouth with a focus that made her forget they were exposed on a mountainside.
When he finally lifted her down from the log, her knees were weak for reasons that had nothing to do with the hike.
She glanced sideways at him as they picked their way through the debris-strewn forest. Morning light caught the sharp angles of his face, and she remembered how those eyes had burned gold in the darkness when he’d looked down at her. Heat crawled up her neck.
So what now? Two nights of sex and they were... what? Together?
His hand found the small of her back, steadying her over a fallen log. The touch lingered after she’d found her footing, his thumb stroking once through the leather before pulling away. Small gestures like that had been happening all morning… a brush of fingers here, a protective hand there. Like he couldn’t stop touching her.
“Careful,” he murmured, yellow eyes scanning ahead. “Ground’s unstable from the flooding.”
She nodded, but her mind was elsewhere. On the way he’d called her “mine” in the darkness. Had that been just sex talk or something more permanent? Men said all kinds of things when they were balls-deep, and she wasn’t naive enough to think?—
“Stop worrying.” His voice rumbled near her ear.
“I’m not?—”
“You’re doing that thing with your forehead.” He traced the crease between her brows with one finger. “Same look you get when you’re calculating load tolerances.”
The comparison startled a laugh out of her. “You’ve been watching me work?”
“I watch you all the time.” He pulled her against his side, pressing a kiss to her temple.
