Page 67 of Solivagant

“Woah, easy there!”

He tilted my head back, getting a good look up my nose as if he could spot the problem.

Why was I letting him?

Wet warmth filled my nostril.

“No!” I shoved at him, but he barely budged as his long tongue continued its mission of trying to get inside my nose. “Gross!”

I grabbed it instead, and Tusks growled at me, his tongue continuing to travel through my fingers to wrap around my wrist.

Christ, how long was that thing? And he had such control over its movements, just like his tail. I shivered, letting my fingers loosen around it as it continued to slither down my wrist, tasting my skin as his eyes locked on mine with a new heat.

My mouth ran dry. My stomach flipped.

Absolutely not.

“Let me go,” I demanded.

He huffed at me, but obeyed. That tongue slowly withdrew into his mouth again as his hold on me loosened.

“And the tail,” I ordered, but my voice wasn’t nearly as firm as I wanted it to be.

He huffed again, those eyes still filled with so much heat as the tail slowly released me. Very slowly. Until it only circled my ankle and I could have stepped away from him easily. I didn’t.

I swallowed.

If he really was the same Tusks from my dream… then what we’d had, at least in the dreams, was definitely… romantic in nature.

I stepped closer. His eyes stayed on mine.

His body was so large, and clearly all muscle beneath all that thick fur. My fingers twitched before I raised them, slowly reaching for his arm. When he didn’t stop me, I let them run through the fur on his bicep. I remembered the dream from nights ago, the injuries that Tusks had on his biceps and the red jagged lines he had afterward.

I parted the fur to see the skin beneath. Black. I lowered my hand and parted the fur again. Red.

It was him. Why was he so different now?

Whatever had happened here, whatever it was that kept bringing me back to this place and to him, it hadn’t happened to me alone.

“What happened to you?” I asked. Soft. Uncertain.

He exhaled heavily.

“Did it have to do with me?”

My eyes met his again. They looked so sad.

His head tilted, only slightly, and only once, but it was a nod.

My chest ached. “Did I…” I swallowed. “Did I cause it?”

He whined, his hands finding me again at my hip and over my arm. He shook his head.

That was a relief.

“But… something happened here. A long time ago. It had something to do with you?”

Another nod.