Page 28 of Resisting the Alien Rider

Garrek heaved a sigh so gigantic it was like I’d asked him to cut off his own tail so Killian could use it as a chew toy. But, to his credit, he did finally sit his ass down.

“Thank you,” I said. “See how easy that was? You’re so dramatic.”

“My ears are sensitive,” he muttered. He rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes, and when he looked at me again, they’d gone back to their neutral purple shade. “Make it quick.”

“I will! I already told you I would,” I clucked. Killian used my moment of distraction to leap up,saying something about getting some dried meat from his bag to munch on. He disappeared inside his tent.

I shuffled closer to Garrek on my knees. Even seated as he was, he was still so freaking massive. The size difference between us was nearly unnerving. Nearly, but…

Not quite.

Despite how much bigger he was than me, how much obviously stronger than me, I didn’t feel any unease with him. In fact, it made me feel safe.

“Could you tilt your head towards me a little bit?” I asked. I rested my free hand on his shoulder to steady myself and felt the muscles beneath his leather vest leap in response.

Garrek eyed me from the side before turning his gaze forward and ultimately acquiescing.

“Thanks,” I whispered. I took my hand from his shoulder and gently probed at the base of his ear.

His whole body spasmed in response.

“Sorry!” I breathed, wrenching my hand away. “Is your ear bothering you, too?”

“No,” he practically spat. He hunched forwards, crossing his arms across his lap as if his stomach were hurting him. “I told you. My ears are sensitive.”

“OK. But that wasn’t just an ‘I’m sensitive’ reaction!” I cried. “That was, like, a ‘you just touched a live wire to one of my raw nerve endings’ reaction!”

Garrek whipped his head to face me, his jaw working.

“Why don’t you tell me what the most sensitiveplace on your body is?” he hissed. “And then I can poke it to gauge the severity ofyourreaction.”

Heat flashed through me, because I knew instantly what the most sensitive place on my body was. And now, all I could think about was Garrek brushing a calloused fingertip experimentally over the swollen surface of my clit, murmuring in that dark, smoky voice, “Right here?”

I was pretty sure that was about ten thousand times worse than poking one of this guy’s ears.

“I’m not the one being examined right now, thank you!” I exclaimed. “The sensitive bits of my body are not any of your concern.”

That seemed to shut him up. He made a vicious growling sound in his throat, clamped his fangs together, and shoved his head towards me once more.

“Hurry up.”

“I will, I will,” I muttered. Instead of touching the outside of his ear this time, I opted for gently placing my hand against his hair. Without meaning for them to, my fingertips buried themselves in the thick, smooth strands. His hair was so much softer and cleaner than Killian’s had been before I washed it. He must have bathed at some point recently, though I wasn’t sure when that would have been.

I also wasn’t sure why I was so preoccupied with the idea of Garrek bathing at all. He could be covered head-to-alien-toe in absolute filth for all I cared. It shouldn’t make a lick of difference to me.

Garrek tensed when I used the otoscope to shine alight into his ear and peer inside, but he kept the dramatic muscle spasms to a minimum this time.

I was fairly certain by now that Killian’s ear was infected. The inside of Garrek’s ear, though entirely different from a human’s, looked healthy from what I could tell. The skin inside was a smooth, slightly darker version of his deep blue hide. Based on that, the inside of Killian’s ear should have been a deep teal colour. But instead, it had been a slick, veiny black.

“Watch it,” Garrek suddenly snarled. I pulled back to see that my thumb had crept up a little bit and had bumped the outer skin of his ear once more.

“Sorry!” I put the otoscope into the chest pocket of my pyjama top. “Are yousurethat doesn’t hurt? You can tell me if it does. I’m a trained nurse, you know. Even if it’s not infected, I might have something that can help.”

“No,” he said after a slight pause, “I did not know that.”

“That I’m a nurse? Well, I am. So you can be honest and tell me. Does this hurt?”

I brushed my fingertips along the edge of his ear, as gentle as a whispery breath. He felt like the most exquisite velvet.

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