Saving Verakko: The Clecanian Series Book 3 Victoria Aveline (best book club books .TXT) 📖

Lily stilled and pressed her cheek to his bicep, the muscles jumping at her touch. “Never? You didn’t even learn about it in that school?”

“Kissing on the mouth isn’t often done on this planet.” Verakko smirked, then pulled a section of leaf from between them, forcing her to lie on her side once again. She felt heat rise on her cheeks. He was cleaning up after himself, she realized.

He wrapped an arm around her waist from behind and tugged her snuggly against his chest. She stretched, curling into him, and just about melted. His warmth enveloped her, and the odd purr still rumbling through his chest soothed her even more. The scent of cedar smoke clung to their bodies.

Verakko swept the hair from her neck and inhaled deeply. She felt the slightest trace of his fangs over the sensitive flesh. “Do you ever… Never mind.”

“Do I ever what?” he crooned, gripping her more firmly around the waist.

Lily bit her lip. Did she really want to know? “Do you ever bite people?”

She felt a chuckle rumble through him. “Still worried I’m going to eat you?”

She brushed her fingers up and down the forearms resting on her waist. Hairless? How weird. The vibration against her back increased. He must’ve liked that. “You keep looking at my neck and licking your chops. What else am I supposed to think?”

He grunted, and his hot breath fanned over the skin below her ear. Goosebumps erupted on her arms, and she burrowed deeper into the warmth of his chest. “We do. During marriages. Or with mates.” She jumped when he playfully snapped his teeth together at her ear and rasped, “Or enemies.”

Lily shivered. “Does it hurt?”

Verakko settled behind her and released a contented exhale. “Only if you’re an enemy.”

Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask. “Verakko?”

“Hmm?” he murmured into her hair.

“You’re touching me and…and we kissed. Isn’t that breaking the rules?”

She felt him stiffen and cursed herself for ruining the moment.

He let out a defeated sigh and relaxed against her again. “It is, but I couldn’t help it. I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first time I saw you. And the rest of this touching? Well…” He gently rocked his hips into her ass. She gasped at the semi-firm erection trapped between their bodies. “This is for survival. No way around it.”

“Oh really?” she chuckled, arching her bottom toward him and making him hiss. “I think our clothes might be dry by now.”

His arm around her waist tightened. “Definitely not.”

Lily giggled and gazed into the crackling flames. An old memory played through her mind again, and she smiled. “When I was younger,” she began, stroking his arm, “my family went on a trek through Turkey. I met a boy on our way. He was my first kiss.”

Verakko’s other arm, crossed in front of her shoulders, pulling her against his chest even more. “Why are you telling me this?” His voice was almost a growl.

Lily flushed at the thought he might be jealous. “In that part of Turkey, a lot of the wood you use for campfires is cedar. The one and only time we kissed, I remember it felt like every part of my body was tied in a knot. I couldn’t catch my breath or slow down my heartbeat. My stomach was hollow and full at the same time. It was wonderful. I’d never felt so alive or nervous or excited.” Verakko’s muscles tensed under her hands. If she listened closely, she thought she might even hear his molars being ground into dust, but he remained silent. “And the one thing I remember from that night,” she continued, “other than the kiss itself—which was terrible by the way—was the smell of burning cedar. Whenever I smell that scent, I instantly remember how I felt that night. It makes me happy and nervous in the best way.”

Lily turned her upper body so she could look at Verakko. His lips were thinned, and his jaw was set in a harsh clench.

She took a chance and leaned in. To her delight, he didn’t move away. She pressed a soft kiss to his firm lips. “That’s what you smell like to me. Cedar.”

Verakko’s eyes widened for a moment, the bright green irises darkening until they almost looked black. The corner of his mouth slowly lifted, the tension in his body evaporating. He kissed her again, and a sudden purr vibrated through his lips, tickling her.

Heat rose on her cheeks at the intimacy of the moment. She rolled to her side, grinning privately. She’d never told another living soul about that night or about how she’d been searching for that feeling every day of her life since. “I just thought you should know.”

“Thank you for telling me, mivassi.”

Lily frowned as the word rang through her translator again. He’d said it earlier as well, but she’d been distracted to say the least. It was one of the words that didn’t have a direct translation, which meant the voice that echoed in her ear stuttered its closest approximation, out of time with the speaker.

Mivassi. My alternative.

Chapter 12

Alternative? Alternative. Freaking alternative! The word kept replaying in Lily’s mind over and over like a broken record. What did it mean?

She’d attempted to cool the immediate hurt and anger she’d felt when the meaning of Verakko’s pet name had settled in her mind. After lying awake for hours, sour and confused, she’d finally drifted to sleep, only to have one unpleasant dream after another rouse her.

A dream of Verakko marrying someone else while she watched from the sidelines had been first. Then had come a dream of her on her knees, begging a faceless, statuesque woman for a marriage contract. The woman had cackled in Lily’s face for what seemed like hours before Verakko