Heart Song (Forbidden Mates, #3)

by Heather Guerre

A sudden impulse to touch him—to feel him—took her by surprise. She slipped one arm from the cover of the mantle and reached for his hand. He lay perfectly still, his glittering gaze boring into hers as she gently trailed her fingertips across the smooth, warm scales on his wrist. “What are you doing?” he asked, sounding a little more hoarse than he had before. “We’re friends,” she said. Ljark friends rubbed wrists. Hadn’t he told her so? But even as she did it, she knew this was a touch that went beyond the confines of simple camaraderie. She dragged her fingernails gently up the inside of his forearm. A soft tremor ran through his entire body. “Theyma…” his voice was ragged and richly harmonic. “Can I touch you?” she asked, her own voice faint and trembling. “Other places?” “As a friend?” Rakhnar asked with a pained laugh. Theyma didn’t have an answer. “I want to feel the scales on your chest.” Rakhnar’s expression shuttered. “Why?” She stroked her fingers gently up his forearm again. “I don’t know.” “You don’t have to do this. I don’t expect—” “I want to.” And that was all there was to it. She’d never felt compelled to touch somebody like this. For such a long time, touching had been an unwanted obligation foisted upon her—an exhausting job she performed because she had no other choice. But this was different. She knew Rakhnar expected nothing, would take nothing from her. And instead of touching him to give pleasure, she experienced the inverse. The feel of him gave he...