Page 18 of Savage Giant

Curious, I reached out and caressed her arm.

She gasped and her eyes filled with wonder.

“Is it back?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes. How-how are you…” Her voice trailed off. “It feels incredible. Like you’re sending a current of warmth through me.”

I considered the healing energies nearly all Montikaans were blessed with. We could touch the soil and watch as the nearby plants grew larger and more vibrant. We could also use our energies to put out fires, keep the rivers unpolluted, and there were a few among us who could heal others by touch alone.

While I could sense the emotions and spiritual energies of others, as far as I knew, I had never managed to send a current of my own emotions into another individual. Were my abilities changing? Or were they simply changing where Cari was concerned?

“I cannot fully explain what’s happening,” I said as I continued stroking her arm, “but I do not think it is something to fear. If you want me to stop touching you, please tell me. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

She flushed. “Don’t stop touching me, Gorran. Not yet.”

Chapter 11

CARI

The wind howled,causing the old cabin to creak. I didn’t want to think about how cold it was outside, or whether I would’ve made it to town before nightfall, had Gorran not intervened. And even if I had made it to town, there was no guarantee I would’ve found shelter. If not for the big, sexy Montikaan, I very well might’ve frozen to death.

I sat at the kitchen table, eating my second bowl of vegetable soup—at Gorran’s insistence, of course—and for the first time since I’d arrived at the cabin, my stomach was satisfyingly full.

My Sasquatch protector sat on the floor next to me, since there was no way he could fit in a chair, drinking his second bowl of tomato soup. He’d picked the cans at random when I’d informed him that I wouldn’t be eating unless he joined me. After two months alone, it was wonderful to have someone to share a meal with.

A couple of hours ago, I’d wanted nothing more than to escape him. But now I was glad for his company. I enjoyedtalking to him and learning more about him and his people, and I was particularly fascinated by Montikaan mating customs.

I kept getting a mental picture of Gorran approaching me from behind as I offered myself to him, kept imagining how fierce he would sound as he thrust inside me and bellowed out the mating call.

“Thank you for sharing your food with me, pretty human,” he said, setting his empty bowl on the table. “The taste was unlike anything I’ve consumed before, but I enjoyed it.”

“You’re very welcome. I’m glad you liked it. Did you get enough? There are about thirty more cans of tomato soup in the cabinets. Please have some more if you’re still hungry. Or try a different kind. The vegetable soup is quite good.”

He patted his stomach. “I am fine, but thank you. I had eight fish for breakfast this morning, and some pokklam berries as well.”

The lights flickered, and I made a mental note to gather some lanterns once the kitchen was cleaned up. The lights overhead, as well as all the kitchen appliances, ran on solar power. It didn’t take much sunlight to charge the panels on the roof, but if the storm lasted more than two or three days, we’d have to use the lanterns.

At least the woodstove kept the cabin adequately warm, and there was plenty of firewood stacked on the covered porch. We wouldn’t have to worry about freezing.

Well,Iwouldn’t have to worry about it.

I doubted the cold bothered Gorran very much. His thick fur probably helped him withstand temperatures that would turn me into an icicle.

We spent the rest of the day talking, casually touching one another, and watching the snow fall. I even scrounged up some hot chocolate, which Gorran enjoyed more than the tomato soup.

The silent moments between us weren’t awkward. We could sit next to one another for an hour in quiet companionship, with neither of us uttering a word, and it didn’t feel uncomfortable in the slightest.

Throughout the day, I kept sneaking glances at Gorran’s muscular body, and I was particularly enthralled by his perfectly sculpted butt. Whenever he stood up to stretch his legs and walk around the downstairs of the cabin, I would take the opportunity to admire that firm, fur-covered ass of his.

Sometimes he would catch me staring, and he would pause and look over his shoulder at me, his eyes glowing, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled long and deep. When I became achy between my thighs, which seemed to happen every time he got up and strutted around, his cock would harden and jut straight out, impressively huge with a pearly drop of his essence gleaming on the bulbous tip.

A few times when he touched me, I sensed more than his warmth and his affection. I sensed his primal need to claim me, the savage urges that pulsed through him. Honestly, I didn’t know how he controlled himself. But I appreciated it, nonetheless.

Because I wasn’t ready. Never mind that we weren’t in the proper location for mating—it seemed very important to him that we mate in his people’s settlement so they would hear his mating call—but my virginal apprehensions increased with every furtive glance at his enormous appendance.

Yep, I was a twenty-six-year-old virgin. Working long hours in the restaurant hadn’t left me much time for dating, though I’d long dreamed of settling down with a nice man and starting a family. And in those dreams, I’d always hoped to live in a small, cozy house in the forest, far from the violence that plagued the more densely populated areas of the United States, far from the areas that were war-torn.

But I supposed Gorran was a virgin as well. Was he older than me? I wasn’t sure, though I thought he must be a few years older. His handsome face held the beginnings of age lines, the same lines humans usually got in their early or late thirties. They only added to his masculine beauty, made him appear deliciously rugged.

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