Page 48 of Tyr

Tyr swallowed hard at her gentle touch.

“Did it hurt? The acid he spit at you.”

“I’ve had worse,” he choked out.

She turned his metal hand over and inspected his palm and the back of his hand again. She ran her fingers over the spot where the leather had disintegrated.

His body reacted to her touch despite himself.

Whelp… so much for the pep talk. Could he not control anything around her?

“There are small little pits in the metal that weren’t there this afternoon at Vali’s.”

She could tell that?

Concern crossed her features, and something bloomed inside him. Concern. Concern for his well-being. No one had ever been concerned for him before except Vid and Herm. No one.

“These won’t get worse, will they?”

She looked up at him, and he blinked several times.

“They shouldn’t.”

She nodded. “I hope you sent that bastard somewhere truly awful. Makes me sick to think I am half the same species he is.”

Tyr turned his palm up and gripped her hand. “You know I wasn’t talking about you back in the parking lot, right? When I saidhis kind,I didn’t mean you.”

She nodded.

“Just because you may share a scintilla of blood with that creature doesn’t make you anything like him. Humans share a great deal of DNA with apes, but apes don’t treat each other the way humans do.”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

They stared at each other for a long minute before Tyr asked, “Where would you like me to start? Your arm?”

Celeste nodded and turned around. “Then maybe my neck?” She pushed her hair to the side.

Tyr swallowed hard. “Of course.”

He squirted the lotion into his palm and rubbed his hands together. He paused only for a moment before setting his metal hand on her arm and lightly massaging it into her muscle. When the oil had seeped in, he poured more into his hands and then squeezed her shoulders, working his way up to her neck.

Her head fell forward, and she moaned.

Damn, if it wasn’t the most erotic sound he’d ever heard. Every particle of him wanted to hear her make that noise over and over as he buried himself inside her.

He hesitated.

He should stop. It wasn’t right. But even as he thought it, something deep inside disagreed. It was right. For the first time in his existence, it was right. She was right.

He ran his fingers over her neck and around the sides of her throat and back again. He slid his fingers under the collar of her t-shirt and rubbed her shoulder blades. She bent forward further and paused before lifting the hem of her shirt and sliding it up her back and over her shoulders. The lace of a peach-colored bra stared at him.

He placed his palms on her cool, damp skin and rubbed it upward. Goosebumps rose over her skin, and she shivered.

His gaze remained on the clasp of her bra. So small. So delicate. He could have the thing off her in less than a second. Then he’d slide his hands around to her breasts. Those undoubtedly beautiful globes that had teased him for days. He wondered what the color of her nipples was. If they matched the color of her full lips. Or if they were the color of?—

Tyr tore his hands away, realizing he’d slid them down around her waist to her belly.

“Uh…” He retreated from the bed and backed toward the door.

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