The Barbarian's Owned(20)

“I would never harm you.”

She snorted. “You already kidnapped me.”

“I claimed you. I won’t harm you, but you are mine.”

She twisted in his arms and dared to look up at him. Swallowing, Rae knew she had only one more card to play. She wondered if she even could…

***

Garr had wanted to mate with her from the moment he met her. In the pool, he’d been near to prying those wet clothes off her body and holding her flush against him.

He knew she hadn’t been ready, but when she spun in his arms and looked up at him, he could see the desire in her breathtaking eyes. The blue rings had flecks of green, possessing more shades and depth than Ythirian eyes. He was lost in them.

The impossible softness of her full breasts pushed into him. He could feel the scrape of her hardened nipples through her wet bra and silky shirt. He wasn’t certain if it was the cool air or arousal, which had sensitized them, but he could feel them because they pressed into one of his striped markings along his abdomen.

Through a similar marking that ran down the palm of his hand and across two of his digits, he stroked her cheek and could sense her racing pulse.

“You want something, taliyar?” He stroked a ribbon of that hair, usually golden blonde but darker and heavier now from the river, so that the natural waviness was stretched slightly taut.

“Take me home,” she whispered. “My warm hotel has a huge bed.” She sucked on her lower lip and her breath tickled the nova marking over his heart, making him shiver. “I’ll mate with you there. But you have to take me home first.”

He smiled at her obvious ruse—he knew her arousal was real, but that her promise was not. And he would not have taken the offer even if it were real.

“When we mate, it will be because you pleaded for it. And it will be here on Ythir, where you will stay. I do not want to claim you once—I want you now and for always.”

Her sweet promises transformed into a glower, though he could sense she was still too afraid of him to demonstrate it in anything but an expression.

Vaya chose that moment to rise and glance their way.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Lyr told us to bed down, but she’s not sure that was the only monster. She wants us away from the tree line.” Vaya pointed out to a stone precipice along the ridge, barren of all vegetation.

Garr followed her finger’s point. “It’s bare stone. Sleeping on squama would have been warmer.”

Vaya shook her head. “She wants us there. I’m sure of it.”

“Very well. The rock it is.” Garr stroked another lock of Rae’s hair, but she flinched from his touch. “It will be cold.” He offered her his hand.

She flitted from his hold and strode for the precipice, putting as much space between herself and Garr as she could. It put her directly in the path of the chilly, nighttime wind.

He shook his head, tamping down his irritation. If all human females are like her, how did there come to be six billion of them?

***

The ledge Rae lay back on was her first opportunity to look up at Ythirian skies without the obstruction of a forest canopy, and it took her breath away.

The planet had a series of glowing rings like Saturn, the gradations of blue crossing the horizon like a far-too-large rainbow that dominated the nighttime sky. Beyond those glowing, heavenly bands of celestial light were unfamiliar constellations.

It would have been one of the most gorgeous moments of Rae’s life if the frigid wind and cold rock weren’t stealing all her body heat, leaving her weak and miserable. The chattering of her teeth filled the air.

As the temperature dropped, Rae wished she could swallow her pride, stand from the pebbled stone, and bed down in Garr’s arms if only just to curl her frozen fingertips and feet into his warmth. She recalled how his hot body felt pressed into her.

But he would take it as a sign she had acquiesced to him. He’d use it against her, or as evidence that someday she might somehow be “his.” And truth told, she didn’t entirely trust the small betrayals of her body in his presence.

Rae drifted into a shallow, restless slumber and was startled awake by his presence. The fear gripped her first—but he was merely curled around her, arms holding her, warm body radiating pleasantly into her. He was asleep, too, and therefore as harmless as he could be.

His otoya was snugged around her like a blanket, and she startled when she realized how naked she was. Somehow, he’d peeled off most of her wet clothes without waking her, having undressed her down to her panties and bra—a thing that should have set off a wave of panic and fury.

But the comfort and her own sleepiness overwhelmed her.