Page 63 of A Soul to Embrace

When he noticed she was slow to move now, which was so different to how she’d initially leapt for him, pity filled him. Lethargy had set in, which would only be temporary, but it was so different from the aggression she’d just displayed.

He walked over and scooped her into his arms. He grunted as he lifted her hefty weight, setting her down on his bed with her head on the pillow. Just as he made to retrieve his blanket to pull it over her, she grabbed his wrist.

“Please,” she whimpered, squeezing his forearm until he winced. “Please don’t leave me.”

“I’m not,” he answered while prying her fingers off.

He grabbed his blanket and pulled it over her before using hers to tuck it behind her like a wall. Then he lifted the material and slid in beside her, although a little higher than her, so he could slip an arm under her neck to support it. He pulled the material over her head to shield her from the cold and then wrapped his arms around her shoulders and forced her face against the centre of his chest.

She squirmed against him but was quick to slide her arms around him in return. She nestled closer, and closer, until every part of their fronts touched. She burrowed into him, under the blanket saturated in his scent, and whimpered.

When she kept rubbing her thighs together, he begrudgingly shoved a knee between them to give hersomething. Wetness spread across it, and his heart pounded deeper, his cock thickening in reaction to a female grinding against him.

With his bare chest providing her with much needed warmth and skin contact – his scent fresh and pressed against her nose, and his heart close to her ears – he hoped this could lull her. He couldn’t provide the intimacy she required, but he could soothe her and let her feel safe in his presence while she was suffering.

He ignored how she began to lick at his chest, occasionally flicking one of his hardening nipples and causing him to jerk. His cheeks and ears grew hotter each time it happened, as his own arousal caused his pulse to pound all throughout his body. Her claws stabbed into the flesh of his back, tickling it until he almost bucked at the sensitivity of it with a needy grunt. Her pants cascaded sultry breaths, and his skin prickled as they waved over his bare chest, while his ears twitched each time she let out quiet, sensual moans. Her breasts were surprisingly soft as they pressed into him, and he marvelled at the silkiness of the fur around her shoulders and neck as he stroked her soothingly.

His eyes crinkled in anguish when he was forced to ignore how his cock pressed between them in a tight squeeze and his balls ached in growing need. He was thankful she didn’t notice the hardness, nor understand its meaning.

Fuck me. This is going to be a torturous night.He foresaw the next hours being long and requiring much restraint on his part.

He’d also have to swallow just how deeply he’d been denying that he’d found Zylah attractive from the first moment she took her humanoid form. How her slip of clothing had been naggingat him, and how her gentle voice had been tingling in his ears. Or how her jasmine-and-violet scent had both soothed him and caused lapses of desire in him when it was lightly spiced from her unhidden arousal in the past.

Hard to deny that when all her feminine curves were not only captured in his arms, but were wriggling in need... forhim.

And how his body very easily – and readily – responded to it all.

Shit.

When Zylah woke, her mind stayed groggy and her body lay limp with lethargy. She struggled to wade through the blur of the last day, and the disorientation was only eased by the warmth and scent surrounding her. She buried her skull into the masculine cushion before her as she tried to bring herself out of her muddled thoughts.

She found it hard to let go, as if the only thing anchoring her in calmness was the male before her. His heartbeat was gentle and steady, his breaths even.

She managed to lift the coverings from her head and look up without disturbing him. With her shoulders nestled between his lax arms, she took in the way he rested against the bedding.

He lacked a pillow, and most of the blanket was resting over her. There were noticeable dark lines under the inner creases of his closed eyes, as if he was exhausted and had only just recently fallen asleep.

The shaved part of his scalp was visible since the long strands of his hair were brushed back and pooled beneath the side of his head. One of his dark, segmented horns was tangled in hishair, while the other was hidden away. She noticed how his long white eyelashes framed his cheeks with spiked shadows, and they looked even more delicate up close.

He’s very pretty,she thought as her sight dipped to his parted lips. They released quiet breaths that rhythmically pressed his pectoral muscles into her. His jagged, mean fangs were just visible past the soft lips she was moments from reaching up to pet.

It took her too long to notice that his chest was bare, and that waking like this was unusual for them. His back was even towards the entrance of the cave, when usually he slept with it against the wall protectively.

I like this.She adored how they were lying together.

Bright yellow flickered into her sight as joy overcame her, and she squirmed a little to get closer.He’s so warm.His soft, smooth skin tingled her straying fingertips as she touched the hard muscles going to his back.

Then the reality of the last day came to mind.

I... the sickness!she recalled with a horrified whine.

White invaded her sight, and she gasped before shoving herself away. She scrambled until her back met the cold wall of the cave, and she flinched in surprise when it felt like the wall struck her; she was still affected by the residual fever from earlier.

Jabez grunted in surprise as her shove pushed him to his back, and he quickly sat up as well. He opened his eyes into tight, tired slits, and the wrinkled creases under them deepened.

With her heart racing in her chest, Zylah cupped her hands to her breasts while shaking her head.He saw it!She didn’t want to be seen like that! She reached up to grip her antlers as she remembered how she’d acted, how she’d clung to him, squirmed against him,lickedhim.

Reddish pink lifted into her sight in mortification at the same time tears began to float around her vision.I didn’t want him to see it.

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