Grace swallowed and wet her lips. In that instant, Torr knew he was too late. Moving away was impossible now. She was going to kiss him, and there wasn’t a being in the universe powerful enough to make him move away now and miss it.

His body clenched in anticipation. He remained completely still, letting her come to him. He desperately wanted to move in and take over, but he had to know this was her idea—what she really wanted. It was the only way he would be able to live with himself.

The first touch of her lips on his was butterfly soft, but potent enough to steal his breath. He couldn’t believe this was happening, that she was real, safe and in his arms. He hadn’t lived a good enough life to deserve this kind of reward, and he prayed that God wouldn’t figure that out before Grace was done with him.

She pressed her lips to his and let out a long, sweet sigh.

Torr drank it in, his body rejoicing at the contact. He wanted to let her go at her own pace, explore, but his good intentions burned away in the face of so much longing. He’d wanted this for too long not to take over and lead the way.

Grace was human. Not his kind. He shouldn’t have been so drawn to her, but he couldn’t help it. She was so beautiful, both inside and out. Kind, selfless, brave. Human or not, she was everything he’d ever wanted in a mate, and if all he ever got with her was this one, single kiss, then he would still count himself lucky to have had that much of her.

Her hands tightened on his shoulders, her fingers grazing his luceria. His muscles clenched as his instincts roared at him to force her to take the necklace. He knew it wasn’t possible, but that didn’t change the need pounding inside him to claim her as he would his Theronai mate.

He couldn’t bind her soul to his, but he could claim her body as his own personal playground, taking her over and over until even the idea of touching another man was an impossible concept for her.

Torr rolled her onto her back, ready to take control of her tentative kiss. His knee spread her thighs wider to make room for him to settle between them. He was hard. She was wet. He’d spent forever imagining this, longing for it. He was done waiting.

He shifted his weight to angle their bodies together, and she let out a sharp cry of pain.

Torr pushed off of her, holding his weight up so he wouldn’t crush her. Tight lines creased her forehead, and the hot flush of pleasure evaporated, leaving her pale.

“What’s wrong?”

She arched her back and reached behind her. “The disk. Hard ground. Bad combo.”

Her words made sense, but any meaning was lost the second he caught sight of her breasts thrust toward him. Full, round, tipped with the most delectable nipples he’d ever seen. Had he known that such beauty had been pressed against his bare skin, he would have come without so much as touching her.

Torr shut his eyes and rolled away, giving her his back. Her wet clothes lay in a soggy heap near the fire. He tossed them toward her without looking. “You should get dressed.”

If he caught sight of her again before she was dressed, he knew he was going to finish what they’d started, rock-hard ground or not. He would put her astride him, riding his cock, and not think twice about the reasons why he shouldn’t.

Of which there were many.

She was human. She deserved a full, human life with a husband and children and a job that didn’t involve hunting monsters every night. She deserved a man who would grow old with her, who wouldn’t make her feel like her life was a fleeting blip of time. She deserved safety, and that was one thing he knew for sure she’d never have at his side.

So many good reasons to find a way to let her live her own life, and yet not one of them could compete with the one reason he had to hold on tight and never let go: he loved her.

Torr pulled on his wet jeans, glad of the chill he needed to get his dick to calm the hell down. The last thing he wanted was for her to see his erection and give him that hungry look again, like she wouldn’t be able to pull in her next breath if he didn’t give her what she wanted.

Because he knew that, in the end, he wouldn’t be able to deny her anything, even if he knew she’d regret it. That made him less of a man, but it was the truth and one he had to accept if he was going to protect her.

“I’m going to patrol the area,” he told her. “Stay here, and yell if you see anything you don’t like.”

“Um, okay. Sure.”

He didn’t look her way as he stalked off, but he didn’t need to see her face to hear in her tone that he’d done the very last thing he ever wanted to do.

He’d hurt her.

If anyone else had done that to her, he would have beat them to a bloody pulp, but since he couldn’t do that to himself and still keep her safe, he put as much distance between them as he dared and prayed he would find a way not to hurt her again. No matter how much she wanted him.

Chapter 16

Torr had been gone for hours when Grace finally gave up and let herself drift off to sleep. Nearly freezing to death left a layer of lethargy over her that she couldn’t seem to fight. It also gave her strange, sad dreams in which he was weak and helpless and she was his only hope.

She couldn’t imagine a man being less helpless than Torr. His body was so casually strong and solid. She’d felt that strength up close and on an intimate level she could only have dreamed about.

Even now, with the suns rising and the night animals growing quiet, she could still remember just how nice it had felt to have his sleek, hot strength caging her in.

He’d held her like he couldn’t stand the thought of letting her go, like he’d been dying to hold her for years. A feeling like that had a way of going to a girl’s head, making her forget what was real and what was fantasy.

As she opened her eyes, she saw that Torr was both. He crouched at the farthest edge of the opening away from her, watching her. He was real, solid and so intense it almost hurt her eyes to stare at him. Definitely the stuff of fantasy, with his good looks and that whole gentle-warrior vibe.

If it hadn’t been for the hard disk digging into her spine, she could have had him last night. She wasn’t sure exactly what she’d do with that much man once she got him, but it would have been fun to enjoy him as her own for as long as it lasted.

“Hungry?” he asked, his bright amber gaze unblinking.

She was, but not in the way he meant. She’d heard some of the women talk about men, after visiting Earth to make their babies. They’d talked about need and hunger, about desire and want, like they were living, breathing things that consumed a woman and made her lose control. The women had sighed and laughed, sharing stories of conquest over who’d found the best father for her progeny, or at least the best lover.