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It would have landed in Vahn’s face had Kara not launched herself at him and knocked him flat. She landed on top of him, droplets of frog-spit spattered across her back.

“Fuck,”

she groaned.

“Kara! Vannla’s Sword, are you all right? What the drek is that stuff?”

“Take your shirt off. Right now,”

she gasped. “You have some venom on it and you don’t want it soaking through, trust me.”

“Venom? But you’re covered in it.”

“Take your bloody shirt off,”

she yelled. “The last time this happened you couldn’t stop scratching for days!”

He dragged the tunic over his head and threw it aside. Then he examined her back.

“There are red welts all over you,”

he said worriedly. “Is it poisonous?”

“No. Just very, very itchy. Goddamn it.”

She grabbed a stone and flung it at the frog-thing, which scuttled up the tree trunk and disappeared. “Damn thing only has one shot. It goes for the eyes, I’ve seen it blind other animals. Anywhere else, it’s just an irritant. But an intense one.”

She resisted the temptation to scratch. Scratching only made it worse.

“Shall I pour water over it?”

asked Vahn.

“Won’t help. See those yellow flowers? Grab some of those.”

Vahn loped through the meadow and came back bearing a handful of yellow blooms.

“Squeeze the petals until they become a paste,”

she said, wincing as the prickling on her back intensified. “Then rub it in.”

He knelt behind her and massaged the yellow paste into her skin. She sighed in relief as the burning sensation started to fade.

“Some of it got under your top,”

said Vahn. “You should take it off.”

“Um…”

“Kara, you said it yourself. If it is soaked into your clothes, it could hurt you. Take it off.”

His tone brooked no argument. She removed her top and kept her back to him while he applied the paste.

“The red marks are going,”

he said finally. “Does it feel better?”

“Yes, thank you. I think you got it in time. Do you mind washing the yellow stuff off me?”

Vahn took a canister of water and poured it over her skin, using his free hand to wipe away the petals.

“Tell me something,”

he asked. “Why did you throw yourself in front of me?”

“Because last time this happened it got under your scales and we couldn’t treat it. You cursed for three days straight.”

“So you did it to save me the ignominy of itchiness?”

“Trust me, you should be glad. I learned some of the dirtiest swear words in the Vraxian dictionary that week.”

She turned around, crossing her arms over her body to hide her breasts. “Annoyingly, I don’t have any other clothes.”

A smile tugged at his lips.

“I have seen it before you know.”

“Seen what?”

“Your mighty alien bosom.”

Her jaw fell.

“Is that a joke? Did you just make a joke?”

“You’re rubbing off on me, Kara Singh Cameron Castellian.”

Her pulse quickened. At least he was still calling her a Castellian.

“Well, I suppose I can’t stay like this all day,”

she muttered. She lowered her arms slowly. His eyes fastened to her breasts, as she knew they would. What she hadn’t expected was her own response.

Her nipples hardened under his gaze, erecting until they were achingly pointed. She sucked in her breath, wondering if he’d notice. When he finally looked up, she saw his eyes had darkened to amber.

“Kara.”

His voice was husky. “Do you ever consider that if we hadn’t both crashed on this rock, we never would have met? That it was all just blind coincidence?”

“You were the one who told me it was fate,”

she said softly. “You were the one who said it was preordained.”

“And you never thought to question it?”

“Of course I did. Over and over. When your people arrived and you chucked me in the brig. When I had to enter the shaa’baara trials. When you tried to kill me right after we were married.”

“And now? What do you think now?”

“That we were always going to find each other. And whether we were brought together by fate or by coincidence, it really doesn’t matter.”

Her voice throbbed with emotion. “I don’t regret a second of what we went through. Not a goddam second. It was worth it. I wish you could remember. It breaks my heart that you don’t.”

They held each other’s gaze, oblivious to the suns beating down on them and the multitude of insects buzzing around the flowers.

She was so sure of her feelings, he thought. So certain they were meant to be together. But he couldn’t remember all the reasons they’d fallen in love. They no longer existed as a reference point in his consciousness.

All he could focus on was the here and now. On the female in front of him. And in that moment, his decision was made.

He shook his head.

“You’re wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“The past isn’t important. How or why we fell in love – those things don’t matter.”

She swallowed.

“Don’t say that. They do matter. You have to remember, Vahn. You have to remember us.”

“No, Kara. I don’t.”

His quiet conviction made her want to turn away, to howl and scream. To curl up into a ball and bury her head in her arms. Because her worst fears were coming true.

He was giving up. He no longer cared whether he regained his memories of her. It no longer mattered to him. Her shoulders drooped.

“You promised,”

she said dully. “You swore you’d give me a chance.”

“A chance to prove that you are mine.”

He tilted her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “And you have succeeded.”

“I… I don’t understand.”

He bowed his head towards her, so close she could feel his breath feathering over her skin.

“I don’t need to remember the past to know that I must have loved you. And that whatever happens, I’ll always love you. Because despite everything I’ve done to fight against it, I’ve fallen in love with you again, my sweet kalehsha.”

Kalehsha. She registered the warmth in his voice a second before he kissed her. Softly at first, as if gauging her response. And then with a searing intensity that left her breathless.

He bent her backwards over his arm and kissed her until she was clutching at him helplessly. And somewhere in the maelstrom of emotions that swirled though her with dizzying force, she found herself kissing him back.