“Can we just…” Crystal breathed, glancing up at him, looking away, before meeting his eyes. “Can we just forget about that?”
His gaze narrowed. “Forget about what?”
He was going to make her say it?
She steeled her spine. “My priority right now is finding Erin. If that means we have to trek through the wilderness of this crazy planet together, then fine. I know that you believe that I’m your—your mate, but I would appreciate it if you kept this purely, um, professional between us.”
“Professional,” he repeated slowly, elongating every syllable, making her face burn.
“Yes,” Crystal said. “I don’t want anything to happen. I don’t want a,” embarrassment coiled in her belly but she forced the words out, “relationship or sex oranythingwith you. And it’s not just with you. I don’t want those things withanyone.”
His face darkened, but she didn’t know what that meant.
“I’m not…” she trailed off, wondering how best to explain it. “I’m not…”
I’m not right, she was about to say, but she didn’t want to say that about herself. It sounded demeaning and she was done bringing herself down.
“I’m better on my own,” was what she finally settled on. “I just want you to know that upfront.”
“You are frightened,” Cruxan said, tilting his head to the side, as if it was just dawning on him, his voice alight with realization.
“Frightened of what?” she scoffed, though her tone sounded nervous even to her own ears.
“Of me,” he rasped, stepping forward again, pressing into her space. Crystal’s lips parted. “Of us. Because you feel it too. You know who I am to you and who you are to me.”
“That’s—that’s not true.”
“You sensed me,” he murmured, his eyes rapt on her. “Last night. Back in the clearing before I ever made myself known.”
Crystal shook her head, wanting to deny. On thevergeof denying it.
“Tev. You knew I was there. You felt a stirring within you. You looked right at me, in the darkness, though I had not made a single sound,” he said.
Crystal wanted to deny his words. But found she couldn’t. It would make an even bigger liar out of her. And maybe for once, she wanted to live among truths, not half-hidden lies.
“My Instinct awakened for you right then,” he informed her. “Did you feel it?”
This was too much. She couldn’t do this. Not right now.
When he stepped closer, she reached out her hand to stop him. Her palm pressed into his bared flesh, just above the ripples of muscle over his strong abdomen. He was hot, his skin blazing.
The truth was…she had felt something. She couldn’t explain it, not then and not now. And certainly not to him. But she could admit to herself, quietly, in the safety of her own mind, that she’d feltsomething.
Something that had scared her, that had invigorated her, that had dismayed and excited her, all at the same time.
“I think,” she said after a brief moment of silence, feeling his heat pour into her hand, “that we should start moving. We have a long way to travel and it’s almost midday.”
Cruxan’s mouth thinned to small line, disappointment evident on his strange features.
Crystal snatched back her hand, feeling oddly guilty, as she took a step away from him.
Turning her back, she peered into the forest, wondering how long it would take to reach the other side, trying to think of anything but the male standing quietly behind her.
Just when she thought he wouldn’t say anything more, he said, “Deny it all you want, female. But the Fates have a way of making their will known. We are destined. We cannot change that, whatever we may wish.”
Shocked, she jerked her head back to him.
We? Did he not want this either? And why did that realization send a little pang through her? That should make her feelrelieved, nothurt.
