Chapter 13

Laura kissed him. The most brazen thing she'd ever done in her life.

The hottest, too.

She couldn't stop thinking about the last one. How it made her lips feel and the rest of her tingle.

She could have died. Died not knowing how intense those tingles could get. Was she really going to return to a dome without having the biggest adrenaline rush of all? Sex.

A short slang word for the strangest of acts. She'd heard enough about it to be curious. To understand it wasn't some bad and dirty thing, but a wondrous pleasure.

For a moment, she wondered if she kissed him wrong; he held himself so utterly still. Then his arms wrapped around her and he lifted her off her feet, which reminded her they were high up in a tree and she squeaked.

He held her close. "As if I'd let you fall. I think I promised you a bath."

"Where will you find a bath in a forest?"

"By bathing right at the source."