Page 88 of Planet Zero
“No? Okay, well. What, then? Or you don’t want to tell me?”
“I want to tell you. I don’t know if you want to hear it.”
“You’re starting to scare me, Zoark. What is it?”
He shifted a little like his leg was bothering him. “When we were at the caves, you told me something.”
“I told you a lot of things.”
“I’m taking you up on your offer.”
When his meaning sank, Addie’s throat dried up like desert sand in the summer heat. She wanted to say something, but didn’t know what and couldn’t get the words out anyway.
He cocked a brow. “Having second thoughts?”
She cleared her throat. “Well. It’s certainly unexpected. I mean… Not second thoughts, but… I don’t know.” She shifted the spear in her suddenly convulsive grip and cleared her throat again. “I’m glad, actually. You need to mate to be strong for your tribe, like your brother and Iguell.”
He was staring at her in silence.
Addie stomped her feet a little and asked politely, “When would you like for us to… meet?”
“Now.”
Her head went up. “Now?” she squeaked. “No, I can’t. I have to take a bath.”
“You don’t need a bath on my account.”
“Well, I do. I can’t… We can’t… There’s nowhere to…” She looked wildly around. The little clearing where they stood was ensconced on all sides by tall rocky hills covered in spots in multihued moss. The same moss carpeted the ground, and several wide leafy bushes rustled in the weak wind.
Addie shivered. “It’s a little cold,” she whispered.
“Shh.” He put a finger to her dry lips. “Don’t talk. I won’t hurt you.”
She stared, wild-eyed, at his homely face. Did he really mean to take her?
No. Impossible.
She should tell him she changed her mind. Tell him she hadn’t been serious at the caves, and only offered on impulse, out of pity. He wouldn’t force her.
And all the while, underneath this internal wavering, slow heat was beginning to pool, strumming her nerve endings, making them vibrate.
She would let him take her. And she would not do it simply for the good of the tribe. But he didn’t need to know it.
Addie slowly leaned her spear against the nearest rock.
“Alright.” Next, she took off her crossbody sack, lowering it to the ground. “My sweater. Do I need to take it off or will you just hike my dress up?”
“Come closer.”
She took a tentative step forward. And another. They stood chest to chest now. She could see the texture of the smooth skin of his neck above the opening of his shirt with three scars on the side, under his catlike ear.
Both his ears twitched. “Closer.”
She pushed against him, bringing their bodies into full contact. He smelled musky, animal, and enticing.
Slowly, he brought his head down and pressed his lips against hers oh-so-gently. Addie closed her eyes. Her senses were shorting, and she didn’t know what to think at this moment, what to feel. She could hear him breathe in slow pulls of air into large lungs. God, he was big. And alien.
Her heart beat a fast uneven rhythm.
