Had anyone besides Jin ever understood her in this way?
Even Elise had been held at a distance. Kira had seen Elise as a sister, but she never let down her guard. Not fully.
Now here was Graydon. Able to see through her so easily.
Kira had a feeling if she let him, he could wreck her, destroy her beyond all recognition.
Fear and desire melded, creating a cocktail of emotion that threatened to drown her.
As if sensing her preoccupation, Graydon went to work on her hair, his light tugs on her scalp feeling like they had a direct line to her libido.
"Lu-ongsaliva is rather special. It has a hardening agent that reacts to heat and air."
Kira frowned in realization. The substance coating her hadn't become unmanageable until right before she climbed into the shower.
"There's a trick to getting it out," Graydon continued.
Hiskienveloped her skin, an invisible caress that sent shivers through her.
Graydon used gentle movements to run his fingers through her hair. Each pass softening the strands a little more.
"Thelu-ongare made of soul's breath." Graydon's voice was an intimate rumble in her ear, his breath stirring the hair on the back of her neck.
The skin around her breasts tightened as she sucked in a shaky breath.
Mentally, she upgraded his threat level.
If he could draw out this type of reaction from her when he hadn't even really touched her, she'd self-combust if they ever had sex.
"Is that how one ended up on this planet?" Kira asked, trying to distract herself.
Graydon made a sound of agreement. "They're not constrained by the same laws of physics. Thelu-ongare wanderers. They follow the paths of the universe and always have."
Kira felt like this was important information Graydon was giving her, but she couldn't concentrate enough to put it all together.
"It's rare for them to show themselves on a planet without the Mea'Ave, however."
Kira twisted, her hair sliding out of Graydon's grip. "Why is that?"
Graydon reached for her hair again, playing with the ends as he sentkithrough the strands. "They're linked through a symbiotic relationship. If one were to disappear, the other would decline as well."
It wasn't a far jump from there to realize hurting thelu-ongwould also cripple the Tuann.
No wonder they were so sensitive when they found some of their own hunting them.
It made it all the more curiouser for alu-ongto expose its presence like that to save Kira and Devon.
"Your father's family and thelu-onghave always been intertwined," Graydon said, guessing where her thoughts had gone. "There has always been a representative of thelu-ongchoosing to act as an intermediary between their race and ours."
Kira looked out the large windows into the night beyond, her forehead creased in thought.
From what Harlow had told her, her father had also shared a connection with thelu-ong.
Nearly a century had passed since then. That was a long time to go without a connection between the two.
"Thelu-ongare even more long-lived than the Tuann. The passage of a few years is a blink in the eye for them," Graydon explained.
"You're saying they went out of their way to save me." Not Devon.
