“I…I c-can’t.”
“It is not an option.”
Her breaths came out quick. She was trembling more now but Cruxan questioned whether her new tremors had anything to do with the cold and everything to do with what needed to be done.
His brow furrowed. It was such a simple thing. Why did it frighten her so much?
Judging from her earlier reaction when he’d given her his tunic, Cruxan figured she was shy about nudity. Was that what this was about?
“I swear to you, female, on the Fates, that I will not look upon you,” he said hurriedly. “I only need to get you warm, female.”
Her trembling didn’t lessen. A howling wind raced through the clearing next and Cruxan felt the blow of it on his back, like an icy slap. He grit his teeth, knowing she was bound to feel some of it.
“I—I,” she started, her eyes meeting his in the darkness, though Cruxan knew that she would barely be able to make out his face, even this close.
Then he watched her shut those pretty eyes, blocking him out. He watched as resignation weighed down her chilled body. Her next words were so quiet that even with his heightened senses, he barely heard them.
“Please d-don’t take advantage.”
Something like dread and fury and grief roared through him, a strong, potent mixture that made his head spin. It took everything in him not to react.
A sickening suspicion rose at her words, at her tone, at her defeat.
“Never,” he said, his voice edged with a growl, though he tried to soften it at the last moment.
His heartbeat thundered in his chest, matching the storm. While Cruxan might not be as intelligent as Kirov, he wasn’t a fool. He could read something in her words that made him want to hurt whoever had hurt her. Many times over.
His Instinct prowled, restless, in his chest, the sensation as strange as the sudden emotion thrumming through his body.
He sensed Crystal’s arm moving between them and she sat up, hunching, her fingers on the hem of his tunic.
Immediately, Cruxan closed his eyes and assured her, “I am not looking.”
But he heard her. He heard the thick slap of her wet clothes as she peeled them off, heard her flesh against the soggy moss of the clearing’s floor. He heard the clothes land in a pile next to the extinguished fire and then he heard her rough breathing.
Next, it was what he felt, not what he heard. Icy, soft skin against his own. Crystal came to him, returning to her position, lying at his side. Cruxan pulled her back, with his eyes still squeezed shut, ignoring her pebbled nipples as they brushed his chest, ignoring her breath flutter over his neck. Her legs shifted, making contact with his still-clad legs. His pants were wet but he knew that taking them off was not an option.
She let out a shuddering breath and he could hear and feel her rapid heartbeat.
“Better?” he murmured.
After a moment, her arms pressed between them, the backs of her delicate hands resting just beneath his pectorals.
“Yes,” was her soft reply. She was still trembling, even as she admitted, “Y-you’re so warm.”
Take it, he urged silently.Take it all. Take everything,luxiva.
Finally, he opened his eyes, wrapping his arms around her back, though it made her tense.
“I will look nowhere but your eyes, female,” he told her gently. “I promise.”
Chapter Thirteen
It was a long, draining, miserable night.
But eventually, as time proved over and over again, the night passed and the morning soon took its place.
Crystal didn’t know how long she managed to sleep. She seemed to doze on and off, for minutes at a time, before jolting awake. But the last thing she remembered was a howling, biting wind and curling more deeply into Cruxan’s warmth. The next time she woke, it was morning.
