Eden burrowed herself into the warm, safe embrace. The familiar scent of citrus, oak, and clean sweat filled her senses. Where was she? What happened to the light, the…pain?

The body under her shifted, and she rubbed her cheek against the soft knit of a T-shirt. “Darak?”

She opened her eyes to find herself swaddled by his body as he sat amid a sea of grass and tiny white flowers. Somewhere nearby a critter danced its way to safety, rustling the weeds in its wake. And…

Bees.

“How are you feeling?” His arms tightened about her waist as he rested his head on hers.

“They helped me?”

“I wouldn’t let them say no.”

“And now you have to spend your life in a lab.” She shifted position to look up at him. “What have I done to you?”

The look of love on his face pulled at her heart.

“You still haven’t told me how you feel.”

“I feel, um, actually, amazing. Like, I have never, ever felt this good.” She choked back the lump in her throat. “I was so afraid.”

“Me too.” He let out a deep breath. “Look, I have to talk to you about something. I think you’re going to be mad.”

“What? Tell me.”

“First of all, you’re cured.”

“Wow. You know, you’re right. I’m really pissed about that.” She tried to smile, but the emotion was too powerful for that. Bursting into a throat-stripping cry, she clung to him, her face buried in his neck. “I’m not sure, but I think I was dying. I mean, I felt myself letting go.”

“I know. I know. But you’re fine now.” He smiled grimly as he set her away from him. “The bad news is, you’re now my charl.”

Wiping her face, she sat back and frowned. “What’s a charl?”

“I’m not sure how to explain it.” He bit both lips. “Try to think about some of those crime organizations your planet used to have.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Back then, once you were made, you were in for life. The only way out was death. The person who spoke for you was responsible for you, and if you skipped out or did something against the family, the punishment would fall on the person who spoke for you.”

“I’m in the mafia now?” she asked, eyeing him doubtfully.

“No.” Grimacing, he wagged his head. “You’re sort of mine for life.”

Eden recoiled. “Like a slave?” Not that she didn’t love him with all her heart, but she’d be no man’s minion.

“No! Eden, no. It means we’re together. For life.” The expression on his face pled with her to understand.

“Together.” That could mean anything. She worked for him, she was his sister, she was his…what?

“Right.” He looked relieved. “Forever.”

She scratched her neck. “Did I, ah, get married while I was unconscious?”

“It’s not quite the same thing.”

Her cheeks burned as she struggled to understand.

He slumped. “I told you you’d be mad.”

“Yeah. I’m really pissed that I have to spend my entire life with a gorgeous guy who spends his whole day thinking of ways to make me happy.” She sighed. “What’s Krina like?”

“It’s hot and tropical. Why?”

“Well, if I’m going to live there, I’ll need to know what to pack.”

“You mean you don’t hate me?”

She blinked. “Hate you? I’m alive because of you.”

Darak eyed her uncertainly. Did he think she only wanted him because he’d saved her life?

She ran a hand over his cheek in a soft caress. “I told you, I’d already decided to ask you to take me with you. I want to be with you all the time, but what about you? I mean, I’m worried that you feel stuck with me.”

“Never!” His voice rang fierce as he cupped her face in his palms. “I’d give up everything for you. I thought you heard that part. I just don’t want you to feel stuck. You know, you weren’t exactly in on the decision.”

“I thought maybe you just wanted to help me.”

“If it was your friend—what’s her name?”

A pang hit her chest as she remembered her friend—the one who’d fled to the other side of the world so she wouldn’t have to deal with a dying friend. “Naj.”

“If it was Naj, I’d feel bad about it, but I wouldn’t interfere. Mother is right; if humans knew we could cure anything and let them live thousands of years, the population would surge into the trillions. But it was you, and I couldn’t live in a world without you in it.”

Thousands of… “What the fuck?”

He frowned. “You said the f-word. You’re so cute. I love you.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss on her lips.

“You’re damned right I did. Okay, so what are we talking about, exactly? Your doctors did some thingymajiggy and cured my cancer. Explain.”

“They used nanotechnology. It went after all the cancer cells and eliminated them.”

“All of them? How can they be sure?”

“They’re sure.”

“But how—”

“Babe.” He shook his head and spread his hands wide. “Remember that alien technology that made your people’s look like caveman stuff? The cancer will never come back.”

Relief like liquid nitrogen exploded through her veins. “Thank you!” she said and again threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder.

“You’re shaking,” he said, patting her back awkwardly.

“I still can’t believe it!” Any minute she would wake up, a PICC line in her chest. But a mosquito landed on the back of her hand. Mosquitos didn’t invade dreams, did they?

Never again would she complain about the coming of the Krinar.

“Okay, now?” he asked softly.

Eden released her death hold on him. Resting back on her knees, she nodded. Biting her lip, she peeked up at him through her lashes. “It’s a dream come true, being with you. The only thing I don’t get is this charl thing. What exactly are we to each other—I mean, exactly? Exactly, Darak!”

“First, you can’t tell anyone about this. Do you understand? Not your best friend, not your parents—anyone. It’s forbidden.”

“Quit stalling, Mr. Question Avoider.”

“When I took you to Krina I took an oath, and we both underwent a medical procedure that’s, well, kind of complicated. Especially yours. I can’t be more specific because no one I know ever did this. Basically, we are bound together and we can’t ever—what do you call it? Break up.”

He didn’t look happy about it, and her chest shriveled. “What do I tell my parents?”

“You’ll tell them you’re at a facility in Switzerland. My parents had connections and got you in, and your white blood cell count is already rising.”

“What if they want to come see me?”

“It’s very experimental and only a very select few have been admitted. It went against all kinds of protocol to get you in and they need to stay away and keep this secret—I mean, on the down low.” He smiled as though pleased he’d gotten the idiom right.

“Okaaaayyyy…”

“Say you’ll text them every day. Tell them you’ll—what is that thing? Skype them.”

“From Krina?” she asked doubtfully.

“We’re not on Krina. We’re back on Earth.”

“I know, Darak. I’m not blind. We have to live there though.”

“Only if my parents had taken the bargain. They didn’t, so to hell with them. I took you to a medical facility and made you my charl. We’ll live the way we want to, you and me.”

She felt an unexpected surge of weightlessness. Freedom! “Thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to me.”

“I know what it means to me.” He shrugged awkwardly. “I love you, Adventure Girl. I’d give you the stars if I could.”

Leaning in, she rested her forehead against his. “Don’t you remember? You already did.”

And then she kissed him.

He embraced her, lightly at first, as though she might break. He’d said he loved her, but she needed more than words from him. She lifted her shirt over her head and tossed it aside.

Hunger lit his expression.

“Do you really love me?” she asked breathlessly.

“Yes,” he said, brushing his fingertips along the sides of her bra.

“Show me.”

* * *

“Did you bite me?” Eden asked, rubbing her neck. They lay beside each other on the soft grass, naked and sweaty and exhausted after a long, athletic mating.

“Um…” Darak puckered his lips.

She shifted onto her side. “Seriously, all those times I thought I felt something, but there was never a mark. What the heck, Darak?”

He ducked his head. “I kind of can’t help it.”

“Wait a minute. You’re a vampire? I thought that was just a rumor.” She sat up, clutching the covers to her chest. “What’s that all about?”

“It turns me on,” he said miserably. “When I taste your hemoglobin, it’s this huge rush. I totally get off. I’m sorry.”

“Oh.” She furrowed her brow. “I think I, sort of, like it? I don’t know why.”

He scrunched his face and eyed her like he was begging her to understand, to not hate him. “There’s an enzyme in our saliva that acts like a drug to your kind.”

She arched her brows. “Us feeble little humans, you mean?”

He snorted. “There’s nothing feeble about you.”

“Darn straight. I’m invincible. I’m also boss, so if there are any more secrets, you’d better tell me now. And then tell me again that you love me.”

“There are a couple of things.” Eyeing her uncertainly, he stroked his near-beard. “We’re too different, physically, to make babies.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t have anyway. The chemo took care of that. Plus, I can’t imagine taking a kid on the Yungas Road.”

Darak visibly relaxed.

“What else?” she pressed. “You said a couple of things.”

“Being my charl means you’re going to live a really long time.”

“I want to live to a hundred.”

“You don’t think very big, do you?”

She squinted at him. “Just how long should my bucket list be?”

He tackled her back against the ground. “Bigger than my dick,” he said and began tickling her.

“Bite me!” She squirmed, laughing as she fought against the onslaught. “You may have a big dick, but how long can you last?”

“Forever. Until your brain explodes.” He kissed her at the base of her neck, then shook his head. “I can’t believe I wasn’t even on your list.”

“I never said that.”

“Yes you did.”

“You’re number thirty-eight: Go to Moonies and get my first kiss from the hottest guy in the bar.”

“I guess that’s something.”

“And, of course, you’re number one-o-one.”

“You said the list was supposed to be a hundred things. What is one-o-one?”

She batted her eyelashes. “Fall in love.”

Darak leaned in and kissed her. “For that, you deserve cunnilingus.”

“Finally!”

“Wait. You need to be patient.” He sat up and smiled like he had the greatest, proudest secret ever. “I have something to show you first.”

He tossed her undies at her, but instead of catching them, she sat up and punched his arm. “No. I want sixteen oral sex orgasms. Now.”

“Sixteen?” He snorted. “Put on your clothes. You’ll understand in a minute.”

“I’m telling you, Darak, I’ll divorce you.”

But he only laughed, and she gave up.

This time, they descended the mountain with ease. The smell of pine and peat moss were more pronounced than she remembered. The spatter of the waterfall rang like tiny bells, and every detail from the bark on the trees to the scampering of wee beasties came with such clarity, it was as though she’d been experiencing the world through a filter all along. Exhilaration zinged through her as they laughed and giggled their way to the parking area. The memory of constant exhaustion faded as though it had never been.

Darak pulled her up short twenty feet before the trail ended. “Are you ready?”

“I was ready twenty minutes ago. I was ready the day I met you.”

His eyes gleamed. “Shut your eyelids, then.”

Pleasure streaked up her shoulders and into her scalp as he took her hand and drew her along behind him.

A few moments later he halted, got behind her, and placed his hands over her face. She leaned back into him. God, he felt so good.

“Okay, you can look now,” he said, freeing her.

Eden stared at the giant military green…thing.

“What is that? A garbage truck?”

“Nope,” he said, puffing up his chest and grinning like a total guy. “This is the Global XRS 7200 motorhome.”

She choked on a laugh. Seriously, it looked like something from the zombie apocalypse. “Are you planning on invading a small country? Because if you are, let me know.”

He rubbed his lips together. “We can always paint it another color. What do you want? Purple?”

“No, I like the army green. It’s badass.”

“Badass.” His brow crinkled.

“That means tough and awesome.”

His expression cleared. “I get you. I’m picking up what you’re dropping.”

She laughed outright as she circled around to the front. It looked like it was built to deflect bullets. “You mean, what I’m ‘putting down.’ Where did you get this thing?”

“Some billionaire was selling it. It’s custom built.”

“There’s a motorcycle on the back!” she exclaimed, coming around to the rear.

“Do you know how to ride?”

She clapped her hands to her chest. “Are you kidding? I’ve never even been on one! This is so exciting! It is yours, right?”

He shook his head. “It’s ours.”

Eden hopped up and down, squeeing like a thirteen-year-old, and Darak captured her around the waist and drew her up against him.

“You wanted to tour the world in an RV, didn’t you?”

“Yes!” Clutching his shoulders, she planted a kiss on his lips. “And we’re going to set up our YouTube channel, and we’re going to tell the world about all the cool things we do and see!”

“All of them?” He took the globes of her backside in his hands and squeezed.

An answering hunger awoke in her belly. “Did you put a hidey bed in there?”

“Hidey bed?” he asked, sliding his erection against her and moving his lips down her throat.

“Like in your SUV. I never could figure out where you kept it.”

“Krinar technology. The bed didn’t exist unless I told it to.”

“Ick.” It had been soft, though, so maybe…

“I like roughing it with you. There’s a real one in there, a big one.”

She shivered. “I know it’s huge. That’s why I love you. Now, let’s see that bed.”