Page 70 of For the Strange and Surprising

I keep my left hand behind her head to cushion the impact as my right travels down her side until I grip her thigh. She feels fragile in my grasp, but she kisses me with a consuming ferocity that I can’t pull away from. Her tongue teases mine in a battle of wills that I’m sure to lose.

Now that I’ve started this, I’m afraid to stop.

I should have picked a fight with her. It would have been easier to walk away from an argument.

Ada’s nails dig into the back of my neck as Poko stops feet from us. I take my hand off her thigh long enough to wave dismissively at him. I have no intentions of giving in or losing this battle against her, but it’s a double-edged sword.

There is no victory in touching her.

He coughs, and she turns her head to her right, breaking away from me. She’s angled so precisely that he can’t identify her face. Her vermilion hair is another story, though. I take a deep breath as I turn my ire to his interruption. I should probably be grateful, but I can’t find it in me.

“Yes?” I clench my jaw to avoid snapping at him.

“Talodus is looking for you,” he tells me. “He said he’d be due east on the patrol route.”

Poko’s eyes slide over Ada, and her fingers flex even though she can’t see him. Her body is taut with tension, her chest pressing against mine with every inhale. I wish he would leave, but he just serves to piss me off more.

“If you’d like to head out from here, I can escort your lover back to the village. She shouldn’t walk the forest alone.”

I gaze down to Ada, and her sideways glare burns lesions into my skin. She thinks I’m going to let him take her, but he’d have to kill me first. I don’t have to like her to notice her reactions. I detest his presence too, so there’s at least one common ground we share.

“Let Talodus know that I’ll be with him as soon as I can.”

Rage simmers under the surface of my skin. When he witnesses my hatred boil over, Poko eases back a step. Ada’s breathing calms, and my temper settles to a slightly more manageable level.

I still growl when I speak. “My lover and I were in the middle of something, and we’d appreciate a moment to ourselves.”

His hands open and close as he lingers, taking note of the situation he thinks he’s caught us in. I let him assume the worst, because he won’t pursue Ada if he thinks she’s with me.

“That was a dismissal,” I snarl. “You can leave now.”

Poko glares disrespectfully but wisely retreats, not turning his back to us until he disappears from my line of sight.

Ada heaves a deep sigh, resting her forehead against my chest as she drops her leg. She jerks the end of her skirt from the waist of my pants, then rights her stance until we’re chest to… sternum.

It’s bewildering that standing in front of her—having her trapped between my bulk and the massive tree—causes me to realize exactly how petite she is. My size doesn’t intimidate her or even give her pause. She’s been swinging at me since day one, just not physically.

She tips her chin up, orange flecks bright in her hazel irises. Defiance flows across her features as she prepares to argue with me. I shuffle backward, putting some much-needed space between us.

So she doesn’t feel like I’m towering over her.

Also, because I don’t want to get kneed in the balls for kissing her.

The small distance gives me room to breathe something other than the sweet floral scent that clings to her skin. And I’m confident that I can block her leg from here.

“He’s lying,” she asserts, waiting for me to dispute her claim.

I nod in agreement. I saw him stalking through the village as if he were being watched; I followed them here. His suspicions might not have been wrong, but I doubt he was expecting either of us.

His attempt at separating us was too quick to be thought out. He had no idea she was behind him. I find it hard to believe with all the noise she was making, but his panicked expression was genuine.

And Talodus is with Connak. Neither of them would have sent Poko to fetch me. They know I’m with Ada, so they would have waited or had someone they trust come to get us both.

“Why?” I don’t mean to ask aloud, but the question pops out regardless.

She leans against the tree trunk, running her fingers through her hair. “He came into the clinic last week, saying that he’d been attacked, but Imryll knew he was lying then too. He told us that his name was Pavelo Blackwater.”

“That is his surname. I don’t know who Pavelo is, though.”