Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 106646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
I give him a wary look, considering. A back rub would help but…this is A'tam. He totally thinks with his dick. I know him well enough to know that it's totally up his alley to make it a back rub that turns into more. That is absolutely something he would do. "No funny business."
"I do not find your injuries funny."
He's been good to me today. And he absolutely deserves for me to trust him, just a little. I hesitate for only a moment longer before nodding. "Turn around while I undress. When I'm ready, I'll let you know."
A'tam gives me a look as if I'm being unreasonable, but does as I ask. I not-so-quickly pull my tunic over my head, wincing as my muscles clench up painfully. By the time I lie down on my stomach, I'm panting through gritted teeth, my back feeling like one big awful knot. "I'm good now."
"Speak if I do something that gives you more pain," A'tam says in a low voice. Then, his big hands are on my skin and he begins to rub.
I tell myself that I'm going to remain perfectly still. That I'm not going to be affected by this gorgeous man looming over me, rubbing my muscles and trying to make me feel good. That he'd do this for Daisy, or anyone else. That the best thing I can do is look completely and utterly unaffected.
This lasts for all of ten seconds before he kneads the sensitive skin at the base of my neck and I moan in bliss.
"Am I hurting you?" he asks, but I can hear the amusement in his voice.
"You know you're not," I tell him in a drowsy, blissed-out tone. "Don't even pretend."
He chuckles, and his hands sweep up and down my back, adding just enough pressure to gently work through tight muscles. "You have bruises," he murmurs as his fingers glide over my skin. "I do not like this. I am going to speak with O'jek when I return."
"Please don't. It's not his fault I fell."
"It is. He knows you are fragile. He should have paid more attention to you." He pauses for a moment, then continues in a lower voice. "He knows what you mean to me."
Just like that, I know this is no simple back rub. Because I know what A'tam thinks of me, too. I know he's determined to make me “his” in some way, even though I've made it quite clear that we're done. And yet…this is the part I struggle with, the part I can't seem to move on from. I like being with him. I like his brash, boyish charm and how he thinks his shit doesn't stink. I like that he rarely takes anything too seriously.
He's almost the perfect man, and I guess that's why I have a hard time establishing boundaries between us. Or rather…I establish the boundaries and A'tam crashes right over them, and I let him.
Like right now.
I absolutely should have left my tunic on. I absolutely should have declined a back rub. I absolutely should have gritted my teeth and stuck it out, returning to camp tonight.
I'm weak when it comes to A'tam, though.
I try to focus on a distraction. On conversation. I clench my hands in the furs and bite back another moan as his hands glide down my back in an utterly delicious movement. "So…you and Daisy." Oh god, his hands are fucking magic. Of course they are. It's a cruel trick of fate that everything about A'tam is magic except for his, well, wand. "You were having a good…run of hunting?"
"Mmm." His hands glide over my hips in a way that makes my eyes nearly roll back in my head. "Two fat hoppers. I could have caught more, though. The trails were everywhere." A'tam chuckles. "So many hoppers playing out in the snow after bad weather. I imagine they are just as tired of snows as we are sometimes."
That's the silliest thing, and yet it's disarmingly cute to hear from him. "You do realize this is an ice planet, right? Ice and snow are normal for that hopper. It's you and me that don't belong here."
He chuckles again, the sound low and sensual. "You are wrong. I think we both belong here."
Heat flares through my body, and I somehow suspect we're not talking about snow. "Maybe…maybe we'd better wrap up this back rub. I think I'm good."
"I have barely started." A'tam's voice is a low, sexy croon that makes my toes curl. "Let me keep touching you. It feels good, does it not?"
I don't answer. He knows it does.
"You are stiff now," he murmurs, fingers gliding up my spine like a lover. My nipples tighten and my core clenches, and dear god almighty, this is not fair in the slightest. "Where does it hurt?"