“We have to try,” she said, looking up at him. “Please. She’s…she’s like a sister to me. I can’t just leave her out here with that male.”
Cruxan held her gaze. Crystal wasn’t above begging, especially if it meant saving Erin.
She saw when he gave into her. It wasn’t something she was used to feeling. Victory.
Hopeful, breathless, she watched him go over to the abandoned sandcraft. He hopped in, tried to power it on. When the engine wouldn’t start, he disappeared underneath the console, but his quiet curse made her stomach drop.
When he reappeared, he told her, “He destroyed the starter pod.”
She realized what he was saying.
“Hestrandedus here?” she asked.
“He did not want us in pursuit,” Cruxan said, jumping down off the sandcraft, landing surprisingly gracefully for someone so large.
“So what do we do now?” she asked softly, trying not to freak out. They were a long, long way from the Golden City, that much she knew. They’d traveled all day on that damn sandcraft and that sucker could gofast. “How are we going to find Erin?”
“Do not worry, female,” Cruxan said, approaching her. Her body jolted when his hand cupped around her arm. Startled, her eyes flashed up to his. He was so close and his body was so big that she couldn’t see around him. Even still, she felt his pulsing heat, even through the layer of his long-sleeved shirt, the same shirt that hung off her body like a robe. “We can still find her.”
“How?”
“My hovercraft has a locator, one Jaxor’an should not know about. We need to have access to a Com system to track it, but wecantrack it.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, a bud of hope beginning to bloom. “So where is the nearest Com system? Back in the Golden City?”
“Nix,” he said. “Kroratax.”
The name sounded familiar. It took a little while to place it but then she remembered. “That’s where Beks lives. With…Lihvan?”
“Tev,” Cruxan said, inclining his head. “He is the Ambassador of that outpost. It will take us…perhaps five spans to reach on foot.”
“Fivedays?” she asked, incredulous. “Why don’t we just head back to the Golden City? Surely it can’t take that long.”
“Because you saw the land when you journeyed here,” he said. “It is unforgiving land. There is no water, no game. The days are hot and the nights are cold.”
Crystal understood now. It would be a shorter distance, but it was more dangerous.
He must have seen the fear on her face because his other hand clasped her other arm, until he was holding her in place before him. She blinked, trying not to get flustered by his nearness, especially as bare-chested as he was. Even then, she could feelwavesof heat pouring off his body.
Hecould keep me warm at night, if we brave the desert, her mind whispered.
The thought came out of nowhere, shocking her that she almost gasped. But an image followed the thought and she couldn’t help but see it. Them, curled up. Her, stroking over that hot, sculpted flesh, caressing the lines and dips, memorizing them by feel. Him, watching her, desire in his eyes as his hands trailed down—
Crystal remembered that he could smell her arousal too late. By the time she felt the telltale throbbing between her thighs—for thesecondtime that morning—he let out a harsh groan and released her.
Crystal gasped, stumbling a bit on shaky legs, and started with, “I-I’m sor—”
“Do notapologize again,luxiva,” he rasped, his voice deeper than it’d been before.
Luxiva.
Crystal felt like she was spiraling. She knew that word. Knew what it meant.
Would shelastfive days, alone, with him? Would she be able to survive five days with him without doing something she’d regret, without doing something that might bring back old memories better left buried?
She had to.
For Erin’s sake.
