Page 36 of The Midnight Arrow
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.”
“From your glowflies,” Lorik said.
“Yes.”
“The shadevines,” he guessed.
“Yes,” I said. “But the people I see have usually been poisoned or have some kind of rare infection that’s taken hold. Tending to flesh wounds…I haven’t done that in a long time.”
“You tell me that now?” Lorik teased.
“You were poisoned, had an infection,andhad a difficult flesh wound,” I pointed out. “I think I did pretty damn well, considering the circumstances.”
Lorik chuckled, running his hands up my sides until they clasped my waist. He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the middle of my abdomen. Against the thin dress I’d thrown on after our lovemaking, I could hear him murmur, “You did a wonderful job, my little witch.”
His praise made me want to sink into a puddle at his feet.
“How are you feeling?” Lorik asked.
“About?”
“Much has happened today,” he commented. “Did you expect any of it?”
Veras. Aysia. The Sev—the Shade. And what had happened between us afterward. That was what he meant.
“No,” I admitted. “I don’t make it a habit to sleep with my patients.”
“You better not,” he grumbled, and I settled my hand on his warm chest, feeling so protected and safe in his lap. “You know what I mean.”
I sighed. “It’s been a long day—you’re right.”
“Are you tired?”
“Surprisingly, no.”
“Good. Me neither,” he said.