Page 59 of Bull Moon Rising

My face flushes hot. “I mean, it’s just a common name, you know? Very masculine. I’m sure a lot of men want that sort of name. Something with a lot of swagger and testosterone. Not that it doesn’t suit you. It does. You’re very masculine. Very suited for something that aggressively male.” I pause, realizing that my words might make it seem as if Hawk is the type to beat me in private if I keep using words likeaggressive. “Not aggressively male in a bad way. I just mean—”

“Go on,” he continues, his mouth drawing up in an amused smile. “Please continue to extoll my masculinity.”

If my face got any hotter, it’d be aflame. “I mean, it’s just very lucky that you managed to get the name that’s perfect for you. You would think it wouldn’t be available.”

“So you think it’s perfect for him?” Mereden’s voice issosweet. “That’s adorable.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You did.” Hawk is giving me the most hard-to-read look. I can’t tell if he’s choking on laughter or just wants the conversation to end. “As for the name, it was timing. I knew the old Hawk. When he passed, I put in for the name first. I could have just as easily been ‘Goose.’ ”

“ ‘Goose’?” I sputter, forgetting we have an audience. “Oh, you’re far too masculine for something like ‘Goose.’ ”

“She sure keeps saying ‘masculine’ a lot,” Lark mock-whispers to Mereden.

Goddess, I’m just making things worse. “Kipp,” I blurt instead, trying to distract. “What about you? What name do you want?”

The slitherskin shrugs, touching the tip of his tongue to his eyeball, and then moves to Magpie’s side and pats a hand on her. The message is clear. She can pick it.

“Something clever and quick,” Magpie says. “ ‘Swift,’ maybe.”

He nods, and I suspect he’s pleased.

Lark snaps her fingers. “I just thought of the perfect name for Mereden!”

The once-priestess perks up. “Oh?”

“ ‘Swallow’!”

Mereden throws a stick at Lark while we all try desperately not to laugh.

Time around thefire is nice. It’s pleasant to laugh together and relax, to talk about our hopes and tease one another about names. We linger for an hour or two, until Magpie pushes us off to bed. “Enough gossiping. Tomorrow’s going to be a tiring day. You’ll need your strength. Get some sleep.”

We head off, and for the first time in hours, Hawk approaches me. He puts a hand to the small of my back, guiding me to the tent we’ll be sharing. My face scorches again, as I suspect everyone is staring at us. I bite my lip as I duck into our lodgings. “Your tent is bigger than the others.”

“Taurians are bigger than humans.”

So they are. I’ve noticed Hawk has distinctly…nonhuman proportions on certain parts of his anatomy. His thighs are absolutely enormous and nothing but rock-hard muscle. His biceps are as thick around asmythigh, and I’m not a small woman. Of course he’d need a larger tent.

I lie down on the pallet—a guild-issue pad to make sleeping on rock a little more bearable and a matching scratchy wool blanket—and Hawk settles his big body next to mine, dominating the narrow space. I’m intensely aware of how big he is now that we’re pressed close together, and the sheer size of his head and horns. His shoulders are huge, too, and he turns on his side, getting comfortable.

He leans in, his muzzle near my ear, and his breath steams my skin. “How’s this?”

“H-how’s what?”

“Are you comfortable?”

I clasp my hands over my blouse, because I’m not sure where else to put them as I lie on my back. “I mean, I don’t have a pillow,” I whisper. “But I’m certain I’ll get used to it.”

“Sit up,” he says, and when I do, he adjusts his large form and then indicates I should lie back down again. I do, and I’m cradled at the curve of his shoulder, resting against him.

Oh. That was…kind.

“Better?” he asks.

My skin prickles with awareness, my nipples tightening against my clothing as I think about last night. Aboutlicking. Somehow when I’d imagined our marriage of convenience, I hadn’t factored in pleasure. I thought we’d have sex, of course, but I hadn’t thought beyond that. Now I can’t stop thinking about Hawk touching me again. Hawk and his delightfully strange—and thick—tongue.

A tongue that went all over me. Everywhere.

---