Page 109 of Tharn's Hunt
His tongue flicks against mine, once, and I forget to breathe.
I’m arching into him, gripping his broad shoulders, when?—
Clatter.
Stone on stone. Distant voices approaching.
Reality crashes in.
I break the kiss with a gasp, but Tharn chases my lips, growling when I turn my face away.
“We should probably go out there,” I murmur, though every cell in my body screams protest.
Tharn makes a sound—half snarl, half plea—and drops his forehead to my collarbone, his breath ragged. For a heartbeat, I think he’ll ignore the world and take me, anyway.
Then, with obvious grievance, he rolls away.
Cheeks flaming like the desert outside, I sit up, and pretend to have a modicum of decency as my gaze shifts over the cave floor for my bra. Stretching, I freeze.
Something’s wrong.
No. Wait.
Something’sright.
The exhaustion that’s clung to me like a second skin since landing on this cursed planet? Gone. The low-grade fever, the bone-deep ache, the fog that made every step feel like wading through syrup? Vanished.
I flex my hands. My muscles sing with strength I haven’t felt in months. My mind is clear, sharp, like I’ve been doused in ice water and sunlight all at once.
What the hell?
My gaze shoots to Tharn just as he reaches for me. “Tharn, I’m…stronger.”
His massive hands pull me back against his chest, my bare spine flush with the furnace-heat of him. His breath ghosts warm across my shoulder as he speaks.
"You were never weak." His mental voice wraps around me like another embrace. "Your body fought a war. Every breath here was a battle. And still—" His arms tighten. "Still, you burned brighter than Ain herself."
I turn in his grasp, needing to see his face. Those golden-amber eyes meet mine, their usual intensity softened by something that makes my throat tight.
"I have words now," his thoughts murmur, calloused thumbs tracing my hipbones. "So many words I couldn't say in the dust."
He pauses, eyes searching mine.
"When you showed me your world—all that water, all the green—I tasted your longing. And feared..." His gaze searches mine. "Feared you'd choose that sky over mine."
My breath stops in my chest. His claws extend just enough to prick warning against my skin as he leans down, forehead pressing to mine.
"Know this, Jah-kee…I will tear apart this desert to keep you. Shatter every law. Flood the wastes with lifeblood if that is what it takes."
His vow hangs between us, terrifying in its certainty. I should be alarmed. Maybe I am. But my traitorous heart pounds against his chest in answer.
I press closer, until his next breath fills my lungs too. "You idiot," I whisper against his lips. "Did you ever consider I might choose you back?"
Tharn goes utterly still at my words.
A snarl tears from his chest, and suddenly I’m on my back, his body crushing me into the furs, his mouth claiming mine in a kiss that’s more battle than affection. His hands are everywhere. Kneading my thighs, gripping my hips, dragging me against him until I feel the thick, aching length of him pressed between us.
"You. Choose. Me?"
