It's very obviously daylight. Considering it was night when we left my world, I must have been asleep for a long time. Maybe that's why my stomach is growling so hard that it feels as if it's about to start gnawing on my spleen.
A small, yellow bird lands on a nearby moss-covered boulder and watches me, tilting its head. It chirps and then hops over to my shoulder. "Oh, okay," I breathe. "We're doing this, then. Hi. Have you seen a guy named Kassam around here? Kinda big, kinda sexy? Likes to laugh and lick everything in sight?"
That selfsame laughter dances through the clearing, making my body quiver in response. My nipples prick against my T-shirt and I have to bite back a moan at my neediness. Kassam was potent in my world, but here he's downright murdering my pussy with just a sexy laugh alone. Frantic, I reach for my crystals at my neck—scaring off the bird in the process—and find that they're very much in place.
I manage to stagger to my feet as leaves rustle with Kassam's approach. "I think my crystals aren't working," I blurt out as he steps out of the shadows and into the dappled sunlight. "I think…"
The rest of my words die in my throat as the neediest whimper.
God, he is pretty.
Kassam strides forward, and he was gorgeous in my world, but here he's just…more. More sensual, more attractive, more magnetic. I can't tear my gaze away from him as he approaches me. His clothes are gone. That's the first thing I notice. He's shed his jeans and flip-flops and T-shirt and is now completely and utterly naked, save for a vine that curls up one arm and tangles into his long, wild brown hair, that seems to have grown twice as unruly and twice as long in the time that I slept. His eyes practically glow silver, his tan is deeper, and a squirrel rests on one shoulder, a crow perched atop the crown of antlers that lofts from his thick mane.
That's…new.
He stops in front of me and kneels, and I notice that he smells good—like a pine forest and flowers both—and his feet are hooves. Fucking hooves. That's new, too. "Hi," I manage to choke out. "You look…well."
I'm proud of myself for not shoving my hand down my pants at the sight of him. Really proud. He'll never know how strong the urge is right now. I'm wide-eyed as I gaze at him, wanting nothing more than to close the distance between us and just lick every inch of his golden-brown skin.
"How do you feel?" Kassam asks. He reaches out and traces a finger along my jaw, and it takes everything I have not to drop onto my back and fling my legs into the air. "Do you hurt anywhere?"
Oh, there's a part of me that's throbbing, but pain? Not really. I'm mostly ravenous and fatigued. "Tired and hungry but…I think I'm all right." I gaze up at him. "You?"
His face wreaths in a smile that's so ecstatic it makes me quiver. Kassam closes his eyes, pressing his hands to his bare chest over his heart. "Words cannot describe how full my heart is, my Carly. I have dreamed of being free again for so long that to be here…" He makes a sound of pure joy and leans over me, cupping my face. He leans in as if he's going to kiss me—
—and then stops. His brows furrow together and then he releases me. Right, because I don't want to be kissed. Why did I say that again? "Thank you," he says hoarsely. "Without you at my side, this would not be possible."
"Of course," I manage.
He smiles at me, his thumb brushing over my cheek and sending skitters of need through my body. "Well. You are hungry, yes? Shall I ask the birds to give up their lives for your meal? Or do you prefer fish?"
Oh god, that sounds weird. I blanch at the thought, my mind racing with images of cute little birds flinging themselves onto a fire to feed me. It's so much easier to not think about where food comes from when you're a child born in a world full of grocery stores. "I'm not sure I want to eat your followers."
"Plants, then? Fruit?"
My mouth waters at the thought. "Sounds amazing, thank you."
Kassam gives me a cocky grin. He gets to his feet, all wild, beautiful god, and looms over me. "Watch and I shall provide."
He stretches a hand out to the ground, and the plants surge forward, growing at incredible speed. One pair of tubers shoot up, starting to resemble celery. The leaves rustle in a tree nearby, and I watch as the flowers wither and fade, fruit springing up in its place and growing so quickly that they look as if they're inflating like balloons.