“My kind scents desire strongly,” I say. “Yours hides it less than ours.”
Her face goes warm again. “That’s embarrassing.”
“No.”
To me, it is the opposite. It is intimate in a way words are not. It feels like truth escaping before pride can stop it.
I do not say all that. I am already saying too much for one night.
Her fingers smooth once over the edge of the wrap near her knee, a nervous movement if ever I saw one. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with that information.”
I almost laugh then, but the sound dies before it becomes anything real. “Nothing.”
“That doesn’t seem true.”
“It is the safest answer.”
That makes her hold my gaze longer. Good. Let her see some of the strain. Not enough to frighten. Enough to understand that I am not untouched by what passes between us.
I take one step closer. Then stop. Another discipline.
The firelight moves between us. Outside, the wind passes over the tent with a low shifting sound. Somewhere in the camp, a beast snorts and stamps, answered by a handler’s quiet voice. Inside, all of my attention narrows to the female sitting before me with my scent on her skin and heat slowly rising beneath her own.
I say her name once. That is all. But the way it lands in the room changes something. Her shoulders loosen and tighten at once. Her eyes flick to my mouth and back up so quickly I almost miss it.
Almost.
That small glance burns through me.
I go to her then. Not fast. Not with force. Slow enough that she could move away if she chose to.
She stays where she is.
By the time I reach her, my whole body is tight with restraint. I lower myself to one knee in front of her first, not toweringover her, not taking more height than I need. Even like this, we are too close. I can feel the warmth of her skin. The fragile human heat of her. It is one of the things undoing me most. Tigris females are warm. Strong. Living. But Keandra’s warmth feels more delicate, more breakable somehow, as if it should be cupped and guarded rather than merely touched.
I reach out and slide one finger under her chin, tilting her face toward mine.
“You know what I want.”
It is not a question.
“Yes.”
The word is barely there. A breath. I hold her gaze for one long second, giving her time to pull away if she means to. She does not. That is answer enough. I kiss her.
“I will not ask again.”
“I didn’t ask.”
My entire body responds to it like a lit fuse. Control shreds. The last of it.
One hard tug and I pull her forward. She gasps as she lands on the furs beside the brazier. I follow her down, caging her with my body, one arm braced by her head, the other pinning her hip. The firelight catches the sudden fear that flares in her eyes. I feel it in the sudden tension of her body, in the way her breath hitches.
Fear will not stop me. It will not stop this.
But I want her to feel it. My weight. My size. The fact that she is human and I am not, and I am about to claim her like a true Tigris Kai claims his mate.
My other hand comes up to grip her wrap. The rough fabric gives way with a sharp, satisfying sound, tearing from her throat down to her waist. Cool air touches her skin, and her scent spikes—sharp with fear, yes, but laced with something else too.A darker, deeper note of arousal that makes something primal snarl in my chest.
