Surprised, she said sheepishly, “Maybe a little.”
Drawing had always been her escape. It had always made her feel centered when everything felt tilted. And right then? She felt decidedly very, very tilted…especially looking into Cruxan’s electric blue eyes.
“Eager to drawme?” he asked next.
Crystal sucked in a breath. “What?” she whispered.
“Last night,” he murmured and suddenly she remembered what he was talking about. Her face flamed. “You asked to draw me, once we reachedKroratax.”
“That…” she trailed off, not knowing what to say. So much for a subject change. “That was…”
His grin made her stomach feel fluttery. “Why is it that you want to?”
Oh God, he was going to make her say it.
Drawing in a deep lungful of air, she murmured, “You’re just very…eye-catching.” His grin deepened and she rushed out with, “During school we would draw nude models all the time. It’s not a big deal. It’s just…you learn a lot about the lines of a body, about shadows and highlights, and, um, movement.”
Why did her voice suddenly sound so weak?
His brow raised, his interest deepening, “You wish to draw me nude?”
Shit.
“Um, well…no?”
Since she was pressed tightly against his body, she felt his deep laugh first. It shook her front and her eyes widened at the richness of the sound, her stomach doing somersaults again.
She was in trouble. Deep, deep trouble.
“I will have to insist now,luxiva,” he rasped quietly.
She didn’t know what else to say, but found she couldn’t look away from his face. He went silent too, watching her with the same intense scrutiny. Strangely, she didn’t feel all that self-conscious as he studied her at his leisure. Of course, he’d been witness to dozens of her orgasms last night, so perhaps there wasn’t anything left she should be embarrassed about when it came to him.
There was a slight chill in the air but Crystal felt decidedly very warm regardless. The jungle was quiet that morning, though most sounds were probably blocked out by the buffer of the giant agave-like trees that cocooned them.
His eyes were warm, but there was tension in the lines of his forehead. His horns were still ramrod straight, as they’d been last night. Not once last night had he released some tension with her, so he must have felt a little on edge that morning himself.
When he broke the heavy silence between them, it was to murmur quietly, “I could lie here with you for the rest of my life span and be perfectly happy.”
Crystal’s breath hitched. There was a kind of surprised realization in his softened tone that tugged at her, as if he had just come to that conclusion.
She blinked back sudden tears. It felt different between them for the last day or so. It felt different between themnow, especially after last night. The fact that she wasstilllying in his arms, the fact that she hadn’t pulled away from his embrace yet told her a lot.
She realized it didn’t matter if her feelings for him were changing. She would be leaving. She had no intention of staying on Luxiria once the crystal was found, not like the others. She had her sister, she wanted to finish school, she had her dreams back on Earth.
Not to mention the fact that she didn’t think she was ready for another relationship. It had been five years since she’d left Leo. Lauren, her sister, had been bringing up dating again, to dip her toes in, for the past year or so. But Crystal had only felt panic and dread whenever she thought about having another boyfriend.
An alien boyfriend? She didn’t think she could handle that any easier.
There was no place for her there, not with Cruxan, though a part of her wanted to cry at the thought. A part of her wanted to cry at the raw awe she heard in his voice, because she didn’t want to hurt him when she eventually left.
Crystal cleared her throat and said quietly, “We should, um, get a good start today.”
She felt like a villain as she said it, obviously dismissing his words. She pulled away then, her limbs feeling a little loose and wobbly, and Cruxan shifted, letting her go.
He went quiet, letting her escape. Letting her escape behind the high, thick walls she’d built around herself for so long. Walls that he’d begun to crack and crumble with his charm and his honesty and his smile.
But she needed to remember that if she let herself get in too deep, it would only hurt both of them.
