of his weight behind it that Lizzan was forced to step forward—closer to Aerax, who stood before her now an arm’s length away.
Less than an arm’s length, as Caeb lithely turned and paced behind her again, shoving her forward another step.
Aerax’s voice was lower and more intimate than any stranger’s could have been as he touched his fingers to his bloodied chest. “Will you look after him while I am in the bath?”
Look after Caeb while he ate the sloth. Which was not for the cat’s protection as much as it was to reassure anyone who came across him that they would not be next. It was the same reason Aerax bathed him so often. Though he was no less deadly when clean, people were more likely to believe him tamed when he wasn’t covered in dirt and blood.
Caeb pushed her forward again, as if demanding an answer. Pulse racing, Lizzan nodded, and then her gaze fell to Aerax’s broad chest and her heart stilled. Three shallow furrows gouged his flesh.
“That is not the sloth’s blood?” Instead it looked like a wound from the sloth’s claws.
A flush darkened his cheeks. “I am out of practice.”
And Lizzan had already failed to properly protect him. Nor could she, if he disappeared into the jungle. “You are out of your senses to be hunting now at all! This is not the northern forest. You do not know this jungle or the beasts that live here. Even I rarely venture off the road.”
His brows rose. “You decide what is best for me now?”
“No, I—” Her teeth snapped together. Her face burned. “I only mean that you should take care.”
His expression softened. But as Caeb paced past her again, pushing her so near that only a breath of space separated them, Lizzan knew that softness did not mean Aerax was less dangerous to her.
Head tilting back to meet his gaze again, she reminded him, “We must be strangers on this journey.”
“Then before we leave, I will introduce myself to you, Lizzan of Lightgale.” His thumb lightly swept the sensitive skin beneath her uptilted chin. “I am a bastard prince with a purpose that has put distance between me and everyone I love . . . including my cat. He only wants to hunt and to be with the woman who holds our hearts. For years, I denied him both. But last eve, he and I came to an agreement—that we will hunt together again.”
Heart swollen, she said, “I am glad of it.”
“And when my purpose is done, we will find you.”
Pain punctured her swollen heart. “Aerax . . .”
“But we will be strangers now,” he said gruffly. “If that is what you need.”
She needed more time. Another season. Another year. Another life.
But she had chosen her path. Throat aching, she said thickly, “It is.”
Caeb snarled and shoved her into Aerax’s chest. Instinctively she braced herself, hands flattening over his ragged wound. Aerax didn’t flinch but Lizzan hissed out a breath, preparing to snap at the cat, then froze when Aerax caught her chin.
Suddenly there was only him, and his mouth hovering near hers, the roughness of his voice. “The eve before last was the full moon. Instead of letting you run, I should have hunted you down and taken you then.”
Hot yearning tugged at her core. But a moon night with Aerax was something else that she’d waited too long for. “You should have.”
At her response, heat flared through his eyes. His voice deepened. “We will still be on the road when the moon rises full again.”
“But we are as strangers.” Even to her ears, the protest sounded weak.
“And what of it? Strangers fuck.” He moved his mouth to her ear and softly growled, “They fuck at inns, in the private rooms and shadowed corners. They fuck beneath the stars, atop the pelt of a northern falt, with your thighs spread wide and your cunt wet from my tongue. Every night, we could be strangers. So dark it would be when I covered your body with mine, you would not see my face. You would only feel me deep inside.”
Lust twisted in her belly and threatened to buckle her knees. Only sheer will kept her upright. “We will not be that kind of stranger.”
His reply was a hum from deep in his throat. “No?”
“We can’t,” she whispered painfully, even as Caeb pushed her closer.
“Why?”
Because she would soon die. But she could not tell him. Instead she could only think of the ale in the barrels