I choked on my donut.“You ran them over?”Hope was turning out to be quite the fighter.
She shrugged like it was no big deal.“I couldn’t let them kill Aeko.”
“I mean, you could have.”I shrugged and ducked the swat Hope aimed at my head.“Hey!I’m joking, obviously.”
These two should know better than to talk to me when I was hungover.
It took me several minutes to escape my tent while my friends continued to grill me for details.I was forced to say I wanted to talk to Dargo before they finally let up.
It wasn’t a total lie.I didn’t want to look him in the face, but I did want to touch base.This whole mate thing had me feeling lost as hell, and he was the one that knew what was going on.I wandered through camp, steering clear of every turoch I saw, cringing as a few of them flared nostrils in my direction and gave me wide, hungry smiles.
No one approached me, but now that I knew they saw me as fresh meat, I felt like there was blood in the water and I was surrounded by sharks.Big, alien sharks.
I spotted Dargo standing by a barrel of water, pouring a cup over his head and shaking the drops off his face.In the daylight, his bulky frame and red skin looked even better than it had last night.
He looked up and grinned when he saw me, and my heart stuttered at the blatant happiness on his face.He’d completely destroyed my ability to ignore him and I forced myself to stand still and let him come to me.
Dargo's arm wound around my shoulders and he smashed my head to his chest in an enthusiastic hug.
"Good morning, little Firebrand."His skin was slick with sweat and there was a bleeding cut on his arm but his expression was nothing but pure excitement.
"Why are you bleeding?"I demanded.
"This?"He twisted his arm and looked at the cut."It's nothing, not even worth keeping the scar."
"Keeping the scar-" I cut myself off before I fell down one of his rabbit holes."Hope said you're fighting because of me."
"Of course."He waved a hand at a turoch slumped over next to the fire.The male's face was a puffy, bruised mess and he was grimacing as he cradled his ribs."Four challengers and more to come.You're very sought after."
"Why?"I stared at the male and wondered what had possessed him to get the snot beat out of him over me.I didn’t even know his name.
“You’re a beautiful female, full of fight.What male wouldn’t want you?”he asked, his expression confused.I decided not to mention the fact that no human man had ever wanted anything serious from me, and no one had ever gotten his ass handed to him for my attention.
“If any male would want me, why didn’t you?”
He froze.“What are you talking about?”
“Last night?”I prompted, wishing his lack of interest hadn’t stung me so much.“I was naked and willing and you went to sleep.”
He shook his head.“Didn’t I please you?Weren’t you moaning my name while I licked your cunt?Why would you think I didn’t want you?”
My face was on fire as several males turned to stare at us as Dargo kept talking.
“That-I...”I stuttered.“Stop talking!”
His shit eating grin told me he knew exactly what he was doing as he ducked closer and stole a kiss.
"I enjoy the chase," he murmured in my ear.My traitorous body lit up at his touch and I clenched my jaw to keep myself focused.“As long as you resist me, I’ll keep pursuing you.”
“I wasn’t resisting you, that was my point,” I gritted out.
"Not physically, no.You'll soften toward me eventually, I'm more than willing to wait."He ran a hand down my back and patted my butt, and despite myself, I leaned into him.There was something about the way he pushed my buttons that I loved and hated.
He could piss me off faster than anyone I’d ever met, but I couldn’t deny I enjoyed our sparring.
"I was naked last night, I'm not sure what you're waiting for," I muttered, wishing a dozen males weren't watching Dargo put the moves on me.I preferred my solitude, and the constant activity and noise of the camp was already wearing on me, and I’d only been here one night.
It was never quiet here, someone was always fighting, or shouting, or just looking at you.Dargo and I may be the newest gossip but would it kill people to pretend they weren’t staring?
