go to the hot springs tonight?” Jaxor asked as they ate their dinner that night. A very quiet dinner at that.
Erin bit her lip. The polli had been slow-roasting on the spit for most of the day. And it was delicious. It tasted like buttery chicken, but with the flakiness of white fish. Jaxor told her he preferred the gamey, tough meat of the kekevir, but the polli just might be her favorite meal on Luxiria so far, even counting the obiraxi fruit.
Even though dinner was delicious, there was distracting tension between herself and Jaxor that was difficult to ignore, that had been building throughout the day after their conversation about sex and the fated bond between them. Erin was sorry for it, not for the conversation, but for the feelings of unease that had sprung up because of it. She’d felt like she’d just gotten used to being close to him. To touching him when she wanted, to kissing him when she wanted, to teasing him when she wanted.
Now, they were back to being quiet, only this time, there was always the threat of them looking at each other and just deciding to rip each other’s clothes off for the hell of it.
Erin had been on edge all day. Yesterday, she’d had three mind-blowing orgasms. Today, she’d had none, only the memory of them. Her sex felt sensitive, primed, like it was beginning to expect relief regularly.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jaxor studying her. He was still waiting for a reply to his question and just thinking about the hot springs, remembering what had happened there between them, was enough for her to shake her head.
“I don’t think that’s the best idea right now,” she answered him. He was close, so close that their thighs were only an inch apart. Erin swore she felt little tingles across her skin there, as if her body sensed how near he was, as if searching for him.
Madness.
She saw his jaw clench at her answer, but he nodded. “Will you be all right to bathe in the falls?”
She’d mentioned she was going to wash after they had dinner and before they went to bed for the night.
“I can heat water for you here if it will be too cold,” he added.
She gave him a small smile and shook her head. “The falls will be fine. Thank you, though.”
She wasn’t particularly looking forward to an icy bath. She’d give anything to go back to the hot springs, but not with Jaxor there, not with him close. Even then, her chest ached to touch him…but she knew she shouldn’t.
Erin had been thinking about their conversation almost all day. Every spare moment, since she didn’t have that much to do around the base. She’d tidied what she could, cleaned where she could. In the afternoon, she’d asked for sewing material to alter the pants she’d stolen from him. He’d given it to her without question and that was what she did for the remainder of the day. It was a work in progress, but at least it would keep her hands busy for a couple days.
They’d avoided one another, tip-toed around each other, all while sneaking hungry glances and practically eye-fucking one another from across the base.
There was a frustrating maelstrom of emotions swirling inside her, so knotted and tangled that she didn’t even want to try unraveling them.
Remembering the way he’d glanced at her throughout the day, the heat in his eyes, made her squeeze her thighs together, but she could only hope he didn’t notice and returned to her meal.
After another moment, she heard his rough growl. When Erin turned her head to look at him, he raked a hand through his hair, pulling a little at the shortened ends.
“This is not working,” he rasped, almost to himself.
Erin’s treacherous little heart sped.
He sighed, as if resigned. “You need release. I have been scenting it all day. Let me just—”
“No,” she said, pulling her knees tighter together.
“Why not?” he asked, frustrated too. “I can make you come so easily. Then you will not be so on edge.”
If we consummate the bond, rixella, then there is no going back, he’d told her just that morning. His voice had been…matter-of-fact. Final. Grim. He believed with one-hundred-percent certainty that if they mated, then that was it. She was his. He was hers.
Not only that, but she remembered the crazed need last night. Knowing that she wanted him that much, so much that she was