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“Not too bad,” I commented as I finished the last stitch. “The skin is a little ravaged,” I admitted. “But it’ll heal quickly. I put more salve on it. Try not to jostle it too much.”
“Tell that to my new lover—she’s demanding,” came his reply, and my face heated at the word.Lover. He tsked. “After tonight, you’re still shy?”
I squeaked when Lorik tugged me into his lap—his still-naked lap, and I felt the side of his half-hard cock brush my arm. His kiss came suddenly, and I stilled, breathing into it, tingles shooting into my scalp. A kiss so sweet it made my teeth ache.
“And you say I’m the demanding one,” I teased gently, pulling back. “I still have a needle in my hand,” I warned.
“What’s the old Allavari saying? A needle through the eye if you’re not spry?”
I huffed out a breath and slapped at his hand when it began to wander. I grinned as I escaped his grip, smoothing my hair and my dress. Crossing to my cabinets, I used the time to get my heart under control. I dropped my tools into a soaking dish to sanitize and wrapped the remainder of the clean bandages neatly, tucking them into a lined drawer.
“I’m going to have to go into the market to get you more bandages at this rate,” I noted. For the bloodied ones, I tossed those into a basket to be burned with purple fire.
“I’ll go with you. We could go to Grimstone’s Tavern,” he said.
I sighed.
“Wouldn’t you like that?” he asked, leaning back in the chair, the tops of his wings twitching. I studied him like this, thinking it a shame that I didn’t have Aysia’s talent for art. Because I would’ve loved to capture this moment with paper and ink. To draw him just like this, frozen in time and in memory.
And Lorik would be a perfect subject. All sharp bones and maddeningly handsome features. He’d always made Rolara’s population of females swoon, even though none dared to approach him. He just had…an energy about him that warned others away.
Prey instinct,I thought. And most could sense that he was the predator. Or something like one. Dangerous. Hewas calculated while giving the impression that he was unpredictable.
“What are you thinking?” Lorik wondered, cocking his head to the side. “I can see the thoughts churning in that mind of yours.”
“Have you always had magic stronger than other Allavari?” I questioned, not wanting to tell him the entire truth.
“This again?” he rasped. “I told you before. I just know how to wield it more efficiently than most.”
“And who taught you that?”
He smiled. “Myself.”
“There was a moment in there,” I said, nodding my head to the door to my bedroom, “toward the end where it looked like you were someone else.”
Lorik blinked, lowering his chin. “How so?”
I shrugged a shoulder but kept it lifted, crossing my arms over my chest. “It was you, but it looked like there was magic shimmering over your face. You looked different. Stronger. Your features appeared more…sharp.”
If anything, he’d been even more beautiful, and I already didn’t think his beauty was fair. Allavari were known to be a physically beautiful race, with their willowy, graceful bodies and perfect symmetry.
Throw in Kylorr genes?
There might be such a thing as beingtoohandsome, and Lorik already toed that line.
“What are you asking me?” Lorik wondered quietly, eyeing me.
“Does…does that happen to Kylorr males a lot?”
Lorik blew out a short breath. I had the impression he was thinking about his answer with deliberateness.
“Kylorr get stronger during sex and especially after release. Though sex tempers our berserker rages, sex is still a primalthing. It calls to our baser instincts. It will always bring out aggression for a Kylorr. Satisfying aggression. And feeding during sex? It guarantees there will be a physical response. That’s likely what you saw.”
I swallowed past the thick lump in my throat. “I…I thought that might be the case. For living on a planet whose population is part Kylorr, I know embarrassingly little about them.”
“You’re a healer,” Lorik pointed out, gesturing me forward when he noticed I was lingering on the edge of his reach. I stepped into him, and he widened his legs, taking my palms in his. “Shouldn’t you study Kylorr to know them better?”
“I should,” I admitted. “But Kylorr get injured very rarely. And most that do heal quickly. Besides…I…I haven’t exactly been involved in village life. No one wants to trek all the way out here to be seen by me. The ones that do…they need the remedies only I have.”
