Page 17 of Guardian's Heart

The lines on her exposed arm too were beginning to form a pattern, and when I stared a little bit longer at them, they were identical to mine. What in the supernova's name did that mean?

I pulled her up so her head lay in my lap and not on the hard ground. My eyes roamed over her delicate features, at the long, black eyelashes that fluttered slightly. Her closed lids fascinated me with their light, rosy, nearly translucent coloring. The skin there was so thin that I made out the movement of her eyeballs underneath them. Red lines, probably blood vessels, looked as fragile as she was.

Dark eyebrows arched elegantly over a nose that was slightly crooked as if it had been broken once. It distracted from her beauty enough to make her even more interesting. The pain she was enduring had paled her cheeks, and even her full lips were a few shades lighter than they had been before.

My eyes drifted toward her long neck, a neck I had wanted to throttle earlier and now called to me to nuzzle it.

Nuzzle it?

The pain had to be getting to my head.

Unwanted, the image of her naked body appeared in front of my vision. A sight that was hard to forget, even if I had only enjoyed it for a few ticks—seconds.

Rosy nipples on her pale skin had stood out and made me swallow in lust even now as the most excruciating pain of my life ran through me. Why in the netherworld was I thinking about her body while mine was on fire?

I wasn't though, not in thatway. I was more focused on the overwhelming need to take her pain away, to bear itforher. An unknown surge of compassion moved through me, followed by an undeniable urge to protect her.Protect her from what. A bitter laugh made it through my next moan. This was nothing I could protect her from.

You should try something, I told myself.

Frygg.

Carefully, I laid her head down on a softer part of the ground, set on making my way to the stream to see if water might help. I would have crawled if I had to, but thankfully, my leg was still working despite the searing pain running up and down it. She moaned, and her hand reached out for me, not wanting me to leave.

Torn, I pushed out, "I'll be right back."

I needed to see if there was something, anything, that could make her feel better after I tested it on myself.

I cupped water over the arm with the still growing black lines, but other than feeling its wetness, there was nothing. It was somewhat cooling, but the pain was still the same. I tried a few leaves and moss, but nothing worked. Another moan from her brought me back to her side, where I pulled her up into my arms while I leaned against a tree. Before I could stop myself, I gently kissed the top of her head and brushed the knuckles of my hand over her cheeks.

Then I gave in to the burning pain, leaned my head back against the tree's trunk, and thought,There are worse ways to die, while I closed my eyes.

NOVA

A screeching sound andthe tickle of a sunbeam on my face woke me. My entire body felt stiff, with the worst muscle pain I had ever experienced. I wasn't one to work out at a gym, but I had worked hard many times in my life. I had known muscle pains from carrying stuff, roping gators, and chopping wood, but this was nothing like it. This was the mother of all pains.

Slowly, I blinked my eyes open, aware that my head was lying on something solid yet yielding—a thigh.

A thigh!

"Ouch." I sat up too fast. Dizziness made me close my eyes again, raising bile, while my tortured muscles screamed in agony.

"Nova?" Zaarek's voice sounded scratchy. And yes, I was well aware that it was him I had been using as a pillow.

This time, I sat up a little bit slower. "Everything hurts," I complained, "but I guess we're alive, so yay?" My yay was asweak as a newborn's mewl and as sincere as a southerner saying,bless your heart, to someone who said something stupid.

Zaarek moved his arm, and my eyes automatically flew to his marks. I realized two things at once. First, his marks looked just like mine, and second, he wasn't wearing a shirt. He must have taken it off sometime during the night. I guess I realized three things because, good God, was that man ripped. My appreciation of his torso needed to wait because once again, my eyes were drawn to the markings on his side, hip, and, from the looks of it, moving down his leg.

"They're identical," I cried. "What does that mean? What is this?"

Had I gotten drunk with Zaarek last night, I would have concluded we had visited a tattoo parlor together, the lines were that even and patterned like thick vines.

He lifted his hand and gently brushed his finger on one of my lines. Surprised, I sucked in a deep breath. He looked at me with a question on his face while I lowered my lids. No way was I going to admit that his touch had gone straight into my clit. Hell no!

"I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" The concern in his voice was evident and strong enough that I didn't have the heart to lie, or at least not full-blown.

"No, you just surprised me, is all."

I was about to glid my finger over histattoobut stopped myself. What if he felt the same way as I did with his touch and decided to pounce on me? Hell no.

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