Chapter 9 #2
Nerves made my movements jerky. It was a large room, but I felt too big for it. Like there wasn’t enough room in this whole tower for the both of us and all the tension crackling between us. “I don’t know what to say.”
She blinked at me. “Say you like me.”
“I like you.” I threw up my hands, knowing my voice was getting loud. Knowing that she was likely about to laugh and explain my feelings in some scientific way that I didn’t want to hear. “Are we done here? Can we stop standing here and get to work on a plan to get off this rock?”
Her lips curved. “I like you, too, Torven.”
The simple admission took a moment to sink in. “You do?”
“Of course I do.” She took back the cloth and set down both it and the water container. “Did you think I was just being friendly when I asked you about your relationship status? Or when I kissed you back yesterday?”
“I thought…” I shook my head. “I don’t know what I thought.”
“I’ve been thinking about you since the day we met,” she continued, her voice gaining strength. “Even when you were being gruff and criticizing my equipment choices. Especially then, actually. There’s something about competent, protective males that apparently does it for me.”
Some tight knot in my chest began to loosen. “So where does that leave us?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’ve never been in this situation before. I’ve never felt this way about anyone.”
The honesty in her voice made something warm unfurl in my chest. “Neither have I.”
We looked at each other across the small space, and there was nothing else. Nothing but her.
“Hey,” she said softly. She reached up and cupped my face in her hands. Her thumbs stroked across my cheekbones. “I don’t know what we’re doing,” she whispered.
“Neither do I,” I replied, my voice pure rasp.
Then she was pulling me down to her, and our mouths met in a kiss that was nothing like the tentative exploration from the day before. This was urgent, desperate, full of all the want and need we’d been trying to suppress.
I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her closer, and she made a sound of approval that went straight to my cock. Her hands tangled in my hair. She pressed against me and my body drank it in with the same hunger as if I was starving of lami.
I let my hands roam, tracing the curve of her waist, the soft swell of her hip. When I cupped her ass and pulled her more firmly against me, she could feel exactly how much I wanted her, and she responded by rolling her hips in a way that made me groan into her mouth.
Her nipples were hard points against my chest, and when she made a soft, needy sound and pressed closer, I thought I might lose what little control I had left.
Then my neck exploded in fire.
I jerked away from her with a sharp curse, my hand flying to the burning sensation that felt like someone had pressed a brand to my skin.
“What’s wrong?” Zara asked, concern immediately replacing the desire in her voice.
I pulled my hand away and looked at it, expecting to see blood. But there was nothing.
“Oh my god,” Zara breathed, staring at my neck. “Torven, there’s something on your neck.”
I turned toward the window, using the reflection in the glass to see what she was seeing.
Dark, intricate markings had appeared along the left side of my neck, tracing down toward my collarbone in patterns that looked like ancient script or tribal designs. The marks were still forming, the pigment seeming to write itself across my skin in real time.
Mating marks.
The knowledge hit me like a lightning strike, bringing with it a clarity that was both terrifying and absolute.
Zara was my mate. The female I’d been trying to keep at arm’s length, the brilliant scientist who challenged me and frustrated me and made me want to be better than I was—she was the other half of my soul.
I looked at her, seeing her with new eyes. Every protective instinct I’d felt, every moment of desperate fear when I’d thought she might be in danger, every surge of attraction and affection—it all made sense now.
She reached out to touch the marks, her fingers tracing the patterns with gentle reverence. “They’re beautiful.”
“Rivers.” I caught her hand, pressing it flat against the marks. “Do you understand what this means?”
Her eyes widened. “Are they…?”
“They’re mating marks. You’re my mate.” My words came out rough with wonder.
“And you’re mine. It means we belong to each other.” Her voice was steady, sure.
The absolute certainty in her voice took my breath away. “How can you be so calm about this?”
“Because it feels right,” she said simply. “Because when I look at you, when I think about spending the rest of my life with you, it doesn’t scare me.” She smiled. “You’re definitely as interesting as atmospheric data to me.”
Maybe it wasn’t a conventional confession of love and devotion, but coming from Zara, there was no higher compliment.
I pulled her against me, burying my face in her hair and breathing in her scent.
Everything that had been chaotic and uncertain in my life suddenly felt like it had fallen into place.
The mistakes of my past, the guilt I’d been carrying, the fear of failing someone I cared about—none of it mattered now.
What mattered was the human female in my arms and the marks on my neck that proclaimed to the universe that she belonged to me, and I to her.
“I’ll protect you,” I murmured against her ear. “No matter what happens, no matter what we face, I’ll keep you safe.”
“I know,” she whispered back. “And I’ll figure out how to get us home. We’re going to survive this, Torven. And you should probably start calling me by my first name, now.”
“I don’t know.” I held my mate in my arms, soaking in the warmth of her body and the steady beat of her heart. “I kind of like Rivers.”
“Fine.” She shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve gotten used to it.”
For the first time since we’d crashed on this hostile planet, I felt like we might actually make it out alive.
Because now I had something worth living for.
Now I had something worth fighting for.
Now I had her.