Page 20 of Defiance
He took one of each from my hands, popping the cap off the top of the beer bottle. I breathed a sigh of relief when his eyes moved off me to sniff at the shilpakaari drink. I clinked my bottle against his, which earned me a twitch of his ear.
“Sláinte,”I said, taking a healthy swig.
“Kabei,”he responded, doing the same.
“Is that Advenan for cheers?” I asked, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
Novak leaned his forearms on his knees, tail curling around his seat. “We don’t have our own language anymore. I grew up speaking Hja Erle. Hjarna standard.”
“Kabei,”I said to myself. “Guess that’s a good one for me to know then.”
He grunted in agreement, looking down at the pastry in his hand. When he brought it up to his mouth and breathed it in, he closed his eyes, savoring the scent. Now that he was in the light, I could see how the top of his muzzle flexed, exposing slits hidden beneath the scales that might have been membranes to some sort of specialized scent organ. The slits reminded me of nares on a fish, which looked like nostril holes but were only for smelling and not for breathing.
Novak definitely wasn’t a fish, but as far as I could tell, his biology waswild.Like a collage. Was he a reptile or a mammal? Something else?
“I need you to stop looking at me like that, Charlie.” He growled my name like a sin, eyes still closed. When they opened, they dilated like stilettos, fixing on me. “Acting normal right now is extremely taxing.”
I blinked away, taking a swig of my beer. “Sorry,” I said as I swallowed it down in a rough gulp. “I guess this is altogether awkward no matter what we do.”
Novak’s jaw ticked, the scales of his neck rubbing together. “Awkward…”
I nodded to the pocket still in his hand. “Why were you smelling it? To enhance the taste or because I handed it to you?”
“Both.”
So Novakdidhave houndish qualities. I’d packed a few things as if I was target practice for a scent hound, but didn’twant to bring it up in case it would be insulting. Now, I set down my beer and leaned back, reaching my fingertips for the strap of my bag.
“I brought some things from my flat,” I admitted. “Nothing special, but things I touch often. Just in case you wanted to keep it.”
He grabbed my wrist and I gasped. He loosened his grip with a grimace, slowly pulling me back.
“I’m a predator, Charlie,” he said in a rash tone, gaze deathly still. “Yourchemiawill call me to the Hunt and I’ll be able to find you. Anywhere. Anytime.” He leaned closer to me, his shadow engulfing the food between us. “Most people are afraid of that. For good reason. That bag you're offering is like catnip.”
I licked my lips, stare falling to the uneaten pastry in a basket between us. I picked it up and rubbed my palms on it, smooshing the flaky crust until it was unappetizingly shiny from my nervous palms. With a hard swallow, I held it out for Novak to take.
“May you find me anywhere, anytime,” I said as if it were a blessing.
He creased his brow, sliding a tentative knuckle from my elbow to my wrist. When I didn’t pull away, Novak wrapped his fingers around my pulse and the crux of my thumb, bending my hand open. His tongue slithered from his scaled lips and pulled the pastry into his mouth. I glimpsed a mixture of canines and molars with muscular gums that bulged along the roof. Pillowy, like a viper.
The pastry disappeared and Novak swallowed with a groan, rubbing the top of his nose against my warm palm. His tongue flicked out against the veins on the underside of my forearm and I shivered. The way he rubbed against my skin waspure eroticism. Completely inhuman and bare. I squeezed my thighs together, short of breath.
Right. There was no way I wasn’t shagging him. Whatever reservations I’d had flew out the proverbial window as my touch-starved brain screamed at me to tackle him. Even if I hadn’t had time to learn much about him at all, I’d been primed to soak up this moment all day and I wasn’t letting the opportunity to crash together pass me by.
“Would you rather skip dinner?” I heard myself say in a breathy warble.
Novak’s eyes flew open and he bared his fangs, wrinkles forming along his nose. “How much can I touch you?” he ground out.
“As much as you want,” I panted, tossing the food and beers into a heap inside their cooler bag. I rolled to my knees as Novak’s hand wrapped around the back of my neck and dragged me towards him. His fingers were long enough to completely wrap around my throat.
“Where?” he snapped desperately.
“Anywhere,” I managed. “Everywhere.”
Novak pressed the bridge of his muzzle against my collarbone with a rough snarl, that spongy organ he’d called acolearaswelling as his lungs pumped like a marathon runner.
The intensity took me by surprise. The way his tail curled around my ankles and calves. How his tongue wrapped around my chin, tickling the spot behind my opposite ear. I held onto his open jacket to keep myself from falling backwards while he gripped me like he’d never let go. Like I was catnip.
But my knees hurt and I felt exposed. I peered up at the sky between his ears at the light pollution from the home towers, wondering who else was out patrolling the banks.
