Adding more pressure, she ran her thumb down the strong curve of his spine.
Would he let her follow it with her tongue?
Larissa pushed back even as her mouth parted to make the thought a reality.
Sleep, that was the ticket. She needed a break from this day in the worst way. Sleep would be good. Sleep would get her emotions back in line. Clearing her throat, she said, “You look completely healed. I’m not a nurse though, so you should have one of your people look at it.”
His muscles still trembled where she had caressed him. His lips still carried the warmth of hers. Her scent filled his nostrils.
This woman was consuming him, bit by bit. She was becoming the reason and the reward of his existence, and if he did not shield himself, everything he did not have to give would belong to her.
He turned and brought her back into his sight. She was so appealing standing there, the over-large shirt hanging from her frame, her hair still damp and laying along her back.
Her hands were twisting together in a nervous fashion, her pupils dilated, darkening her eyes to the color of the stormy sea.
Once he had boasted to a group of young warriors that he could withstand any torture. The woman before him made him realize the fool he had been.
She forced her hands apart, a deliberate relaxation. She was trying to bring normalcy back to their interactions. “So, gargoyles can shift, huh?”
He hung onto the safety line she provided, willing to walk away from whatever edge they had been traveling. “We have hidden it for a very long time. In the distant past other races knew. In return for our trust, we received death.”
Her eyes widened. “Your allies turned on you? How did they succeed?” She paused, then in a mutter meant for her own ears more than his, said, “I’ve seen you guys in battle. I’m not sure anyone could win against you.”
Pride swept through him at her assessment of his skills. “We are more vulnerable in our human form. We are stronger than humans, but nowhere near the power of our gargoyle forms. We foolishly let others know of this weakness.”
His thoughts drifted off into memories until he was a boy at a fire, listening to the weathered elder tell the darkest moment of their race, the only story that ever brought him to his knees.
Soft skin cradled his face, breaking the memory. Larissa was before him, her warm eyes pleading for him to confide in her, promising him she would be strong enough for them both. “What happened?”
“There was a great celebration. Gargoyles were invited, including the children and the elderly. We were asked to come in our human guises. We did.”
His eyes closed and his head bowed. He did not want to finish the story. Not because he did not want to relive the elder’s words as she warned them all on that firelit night to never trust an outsider again, but because he wished Larissa to never be exposed to the depths of depravity some were capable of.
Those soft hands slid around his neck, pulling him down into her arms. She buried her face into his neck. He leaned into the silk of her hair, pulling in breath after breath of her beloved scent.
“I’ll never tell,” she said, low tones that still displayed the steel of her will. “I swear to you, I’ll never tell.”
He wrapped his arms around the little human and into her hands, he placed the fate of his people.
They stayed still for long moments before Larissa broke the contact. “I’m sorry you are in this position. I realize now how hard this is for you, making the decision between staying separate and entering this new world.”
“I wish,” he paused, the words stopping on his tongue. Uncertainty was not something he shared with others. The leader must be invulnerable. Still, she was not a member of the Clan. His doubts would not be held against him. “I hope that those who do not agree with my decision to help you will understand when this is over. They are so intent on never being vulnerable again that they lose all the possibility that this world can offer. But then I remember what has come before when we opened ourselves up, and I wonder if I am the naïve fool many call me behind my back.”
“Terak, you are not a fool. You are a great leader, one who cares for his people more than he cares for himself. Your instincts will not steer you wrong.”
“There are many of my Clan who do not possess your surety.” He backed away from her, the weakness that demanded he take her in his arms becoming stronger the longer he was near her. “I owe you a debt. You protected me.”
She snorted, the tiny sound adorable to his ears. “Well, you protected me. I say that makes us even. Or if you argue it, I’m probably still in your debt with your two life-saving rescues against my one. Besides, it’s a moot point. The way I see us, we are now allies trying to figure out what is going on.”