My stomach does an unhelpful flip. “Loud?”
“In… here.” He taps his temple with a claw. “Spoon. Claws.”
Oh. Wait.
Oh no.
Heat rushes into my face so fast I feel dizzy. I lean back against the rock, blinking at him.
“You heard that?” I squeak.
“Feel,” he corrects, rubbing his chest. “Echo. Loud echo.”
Jacqui warned us the mindspace can bleed through. That it did for her. And now, exhausted and shaking and with my barriers completely obliterated by an orgasm, I’m…broadcasting?
He heard me thinking about his fingers.
This is horrifying.
And… a little bit thrilling?
I wet my lips. “You can feel me?”
I don’t just think the words. I let go, just a little, of the tight grip I’ve had on my own feelings. The warmth in my chest. The awe. The way I feel safer with him than anywhere else in the universe.
I picture that feeling, then I push it toward him.
Sarven sucks in a sharp breath.
His glow leaps, bright enough that the tunnel walls throw the light back at us.
He takes a step toward me, drawn in like a moth to a flame. The feral look is gone, replaced by wonder.
“Tor-vakh,” he whispers.
He steps in, crowding me gently back against the stone, dipping his head until his face is so close I’m breathing his air.
My gaze drops to his mouth. It’s right there. An inch.
I want to kiss him. I want to know if his mouth tastes as good as the rest of him smells.
I lean up.
He leans down.
His nose brushes mine. He inhales my breath.
But he doesn’t close the distance. He hovers there, trembling, his lips parting.
“Not…safe,” he whispers, frustration bleeding into his voice. “Mouth…wants bite. Wants eat.”
The tension drains out of me in a sudden rush. My own lips part on a soft, silent breath.
His pupils are still wide as he swallows hard, the movement rippling down his throat. He shuts his eyes briefly and inhales like a man dragging air into starved lungs.
“Water,” he rasps.
It takes a sluggish second for my brain to parse that.
