I feel his interest pique. He senses my distress, perhaps even the spike in my dra-kir. So, I slam up a wall between us. I build it out of panic and stone so he cannot see.
This is not for him.
This suffering is mine alone.
Mih-kay-lah shifts again. She rubs her face against my chest, her nose pressing into my sternum as she makes another thick sound in her throat.
I freeze.
Her hand tightens on my forearm.
“Morning,” she croaks finally, voice rough with sleep. “You’re still…here.” She shapes the words slowly, like her throat is as unused as mine.
I rumble a greeting deep in my chest.
A mistake.
Because she goes very still.
For one breath. Two. She does not move at all.
Neither do I.
If I do, I fear my member will burst from its confines and do things I cannot even imagine. So, I remain frozen.
For a moment, Mih-kay-lah does nothing. Then one hand reaches blindly, feeling along the arm banded around her. Then the wall behind her. Then the harness at my hip.
“Oh God,” she gasps, jerking up so fast she nearly cracks her head on the stone. She scrubs an arm across her mouth. “Was I… was I drooling on you?”
The movement drags her soft thigh directly over my aching ridge.
I have to bite my tongue to keep from letting my glow flare bright.
She is staring at me with big, wide eyes. Then her gaze drops to our tangled legs. She scrambles backward, kicking out until she is pressed against the far wall of the alcove, knees pulled to her chest.
“Oh, shit.” She runs her hands over her face. “I’m so sorry. I forgot.” Her free hand makes a vague orbiting gesture past my chest. “It’s just that you’re so…warm.”
I know that last word. Wh-arm. It goes with hee-ter.
“Yes,” I answer. “Wh-arm.” I tap my sternum, then jerk my chin toward her, trying to make the meaning clear. “You…wh-arm. Safe.”
She blinks at me, her throat moving. “Your English is getting pretty good.”
I do not know what that means, so I choose to ignore it. The only good thing is that my body is slowly cooling down now that she is not wriggling on me.
I close my eyes, trying to focus on the feeling of not having her in my arms. Maybe that will make my member behave. But this only makes me think of how shedidfeel in my arms, and my member starts to pulse again.
My eyes snap open.
Mih-kay-lah is watching me.
She is huddled against the far wall, arms wrapped around her knees, but the fear has drained from her posture. She is just…looking. Her gaze traces the line of my shoulders, the clan markings on my arms and chest, and finally rests on my face.
There is something different in the way she is looking at me. The hard, defensive shell she wears in the main cavern is…gone.
“You know,” she says softly, voice barely carrying, “you don’t seem so ‘Stabby’ right now.”
My ears tilt forward. I know that sound.
