I pull the blanket around us and close my eyes to search for sleep. I will need to take watch when the moon sinks. All I can think about is Mia’s confession that she has never shared a blanket with another.
Yet she is in my blanket.
My meq jumps, rubbing on the cloth of my pants. I would like to deal with it, or remove my pants, but neither is an option at this moment. While Mia might enjoy watching me pleasure myself, Orik is in the shadows keeping watch and he would wonder why Mia isn’t doing it. So I lie there, my blood too hot to sleep and the need to mate clawing at my veins.
As Mia sleeps, she rolls over and moves toward me, and I cannot keep the gap I desperately need between us. Her ass presses against me and I know there is no chance of sleep. But it is the first time I have had a woman in my bed all night.
I loop my arm around her and enjoy the torture that is her body pressed against mine, and the way the curls of her hair tickle my neck and chin. I’m surprised when Orik wakes me with a buzz. At first I think there is danger, then I realize it is my turn to keep watch so he can rest.
I ease away from Mia’s warmth and sit up to see him adding wood to the fire.
Anything?I ask.
No. The animals are leaving us alone and there’s no sign of any other humans.
That is what we are both worried about, the humans returning to kill us and take back their women. I hope Edilk is as safe as we are—though I am sure he has gotten less sleep.
I stand and stretch, unsurprised that my meq is as hard as a sword.
Orik grins.Not private enough for you?
I spread my fingers, and let sparks jump between them, but keep them lowered in warning. He gets the hint and lies on the ground near the fire. He does not want to fight, and I am in no mood for his teasing either.
I walk around our camp, checking that we are alone. Then sit to watch the moon set and the sun rise in the way I have so many times before while my brothers slept. Overhead in the trees, creatures wake. A few cloud-seekers take to the sky, their colors a deeper red than the ones from home. If I think of other things, then the heat in my blood will cool enough for me to manage.
So I spread my senses as far as I can. I feel Orik and Bridget sleeping, but Mia is awake and moving. The control that had almost been within grasp flitters away.
Mia, still wrapped in the blanket, shuffles toward me. “Can I sit with you?”
“Why?” My word is a growl.
She stops as though I jolted her, but her heart has not stopped. “I can go.”
“No, stay. I am…” What did she call me? “An asshole.”
I still do not understand why something so necessary is an insult, but it makes her smile. She moves to sit next to me, but I shake my head. “A mate would sit here.” I indicate to my lap. I part my legs so she may sit between them.
Her tongue darts over her lip before she nods. She is about to sit when she turns to glance at me. “Does it hurt?”
“Sitting? No.” I bite back on a smile, understanding what she meant but wanting her to say it.
Her cheeks darken. “No, I mean your…” she points between my legs at the obvious jut of my meq.
“At the moment, no. It is uncomfortable. A hunger that I can’t sate.”
“And when you are starving, what happens?”
I consider lying. But a starving man will do anything to stop the gnawing of his stomach on his bones and the rut is no different. “Then it will hurt.”
And I will distance myself from her, and my brothers, so I don’t harm them.
“Will this make it worse?” That frown is back, as though she is trying to figure me out. I remind myself that she’s not asking because she cares.
“No.” That isn’t a lie. “It will help ease it for a little.” Now that it has started, being close to her is both torture and delight, keeping me on edge with the rut not worsening because my body can sense her. For the moment, being near her is enough. While she is nothing like the woman who brought it on in the first place. Mia is the one who reawakened it.
She settles between my legs and leans back against my chest, the blanket draped around her. I wrap one arm around her and feel the way her arms are crossed over her chest beneath the blanket. Her body is tense even though we are just sitting. Does she not trust me?
If she didn’t, why would she seek me out?
