BROOKE

It’s clear I’m going to have to be more obvious.

I think about it all the next day and into the night, when I’m lying in my furs pretending to sleep. Dinner was tense, with Taushen shooting me questioning looks with every bite he ate. I went to bed immediately afterward, but I haven’t slept. I’m just lying there, staring into the darkness, trying to figure him out.

He said I was his mate.

He’s pushed me away ever since.

He might be afraid to make the first move.

Or he just might be happy that we’re friends and he’s dreaming of one of the sixteen girls back at camp. Maybe it’s not Tiffany that’s my competition, but a dark-skinned beauty sleeping in the pods even now.

Fuck.

Why am I so stupid? Why did I fall for a guy promptly after I friendzoned him? Is it me? Am I the problem here? Can I just not be happy with what I have?

I’ve tried, I really have. It’s just that every time he smiles at me, or teases me, I feel this deep, sweet ache inside. I want more. I want him to touch me again. I want to wake up with his arms around me. I want to know that I’ve got a partner in this crazy world that I’ve found myself in. I want him deep inside me.

And I can’t bear the thought that I’m the only one that might want this.

I don’t give up, though. I never give up. It’s time to be slightly more obvious. Obvious in such a way that it actually makes me cringe a little, because any Earth guy would see what I’m doing coming from a mile away…but Taushen’s not an Earth guy. He’s woefully clueless, so I’m going to have to be that much more forward.

So I toss and turn in my bed, pretending my sleep is restless and awful. I let this go on for a minute, and then I sit bolt upright with a little cry.

“Brooke?” Taushen’s at my side in an instant, his hand on my shoulder. “What is it?”

“A horrible nightmare,” I whisper, turning and burying my face against his chest. “It was so awful!” I cling to him, waiting to see his reaction. If he just gives me a pat on the back and tells me to go back to sleep, I’m going to scream in frustration.

To my delight, he puts his arms around me, zero hesitation in him. “I have you,” he tells me, and one big hand strokes my hair tenderly. I could weep at how sweet he is, how thoughtful. He holds me close until I stop fake-shivering, and even after that, seems content to let me snuggle against him.

I take greedy advantage of it, too. He’s so warm and he smells fantastic—like soapberry and musk and big sexy male and all the good things I love. I want him so badly I could cry. Why did I ever think we should be just friends? I should have taken that night of fantastic sex—drugs or no—and told him that I wanted it again, but this time without coercion. That this time I’d touch him and it’d be because I wanted to, not because some goofy drink was making me. That it could still be just as good in every way. No, better. Better because this time I truly wanted it and him.

Instead, I have to play silly games to make him realize I’ve changed my mind. I sigh.

“I should let you go,” he says, misinterpreting my sigh. He pulls away. “You—”

“No,” I say quickly, and cling to him like a baby monkey. “I’m afraid I’ll have more bad dreams. Stay with me?”

He hesitates.

I slide under the blankets again and hold on to his arm, patting the furs with my other hand. “You can lie right next to me. There’s room for both of us, I promise.”

I’m afraid for a moment that Taushen will see through my oh-so-obvious ploy and call me out on it, but he only nods and slides in next to me. His feet brush against my leg, and then I can feel his tail flick against my thigh, as if he’s making sure that I’m really okay with this. I resist the urge to grab it and tuck it between my thighs, because that would be dirty and wrong.

I mean, I still want to do it, because I love me some dirty and wrong.

Taushen’s arms go around me and he pulls me back against his chest, and for a moment, I’m just lost in how good it feels to press up against him. I’m enveloped in a full-body hug and I love it. So good. I close my eyes and pillow my head against his hard chest.

“Are you comfortable?” he asks softly, and I can feel his hand stroke up and down my arm, rubbing it.

“I’m great,” I tell him, even though those small touches are making me get a little damp between my thighs.

“Go back to sleep, then. I will hold you and make all the bad dreams disappear,” he tells me, and his tail strokes my thigh.

God, he’s killing me with how sweet he is. I want to eat him alive. For now, though, I’ll just settle for putting my hand on his hard abdomen and sighing happily. “Right. Back to sleep.”

I’m quiet—though not sleepy—for several minutes while he continues to stroke my arm and hold me close. I try to keep my breathing even so he doesn’t suspect I’m awake.

And then I slowly inch my hand down, lower.

I’m sleeping in nothing more than my tunic top, because it gets too warm at night for leggings and boots both. I don’t have panties or my leather bra-band on either, and I’m going to use that to my advantage. I give another heavy sigh as if I’m sleeping and then hook my leg between his, more or less pushing his knee between my thighs.

And I slide my hand even lower, until it’s resting on the band of his loincloth. It’s the only thing he’s wearing, and for a moment, I wish he was sleeping naked. So, so naked. But I can work with this. I yawn, and then slide my hand right onto his crotch.

He’s hard as a rock, and huge.

Yes. He’s not made of stone, after all. Friendship, my ass. This man wants me.

Taushen sucks in a breath. For a moment, he doesn’t breathe—and damn it all if it doesn’t make it that much harder to pretend that I’m asleep—and then, carefully, pulls my hand off his junk.

Damn it.

I continue pretending to sleep, smacking my lips and rubbing up against him. I put my hand back on his stomach again, and when he relaxes, put it back on his hard cock once more.

“Brooke?” he asks, voice low. “What are you doing?”

“Mmm?” I am such a terrible actress, because I don’t sound sleepy even to my own ears. I lightly rub his cock through his leathers, my pulse pounding. I’m definitely wet now, and hungry for more touching.

“What is it you are doing?” he asks again, and pulls my hand off his cock once more. “You are not sleeping, are you?”

Found out. Damn it. I decide to plow ahead with my plan. I turn my face toward his skin and nuzzle his nipple, then lick it with my tongue.

The breath hisses from his lungs, and I have to bite back my moan of breathless excitement. In the next moment, though, my moan turns to frustration because he pushes me away, scooting backward in the furs. “What is it you do, Brooke?”

This isn’t exactly how I envisioned this going. I was hoping it’d have more sexy humping and less accusation. “I’m trying to seduce you,” I say playfully. “Let’s have sex.” And I put my hand boldly on his cock again.

He grabs me by the wrist and stares down at me. “I do not understand.”

“I dunno, I thought I was being pretty obvious,” I mutter.

“You said you wished to only be friends!”

“Yeah, well, maybe I changed my mind? I’m allowed to do that!” I jerk my hand back from him, my frustration bubbling to the surface. “You’re really hard to freaking read, you know? I’ve been throwing myself at you over and over and all I get is blank looks. I don’t know if those blank looks mean you’re not interested or you’re just clueless. Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part that you’d still be interested, but you can just tell me outright, you know. I can take a hint. And if you—”

He flings me onto my back on the furs, cutting off my words. His intent face looms over mine, a scarce inch from my nose. Taushen’s curious gaze devours me. “You…have been trying to get my attention?”

“Uh, duh? Washing your back? Feeding you? I figured since that wasn’t direct enough I’d just grab your dick, but even that didn’t seem to work.” My hurt feelings are surfacing, and I push at him. “Get off me.”

“No.” His lips twitch with amusement.

“I’m serious. You may think this is funny, but I don’t.” I actually kind of feel like crying with disappointment. “I get it. The window has passed. I snoozed, I, uh, losed. You can let a girl down easy. I—”

His mouth covers mine.