Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Rem’eb makes a hungry sound in his throat.
Well…so much for not trying to seduce the guy. Looks like I’m doing it without realizing it. I give my fingers one last lick and then, because I can’t resist, offer him a slice, holding it up to him as I lean across the tray.
If I’m going to play with fire, I might as well get burned, right?
He grabs my wrist in his grip—gently—and takes the slice of fruit into his mouth, his lips grazing my fingers. Heat clenches through me. That’s not playing with fire. That’s walking straight into an inferno.
“You feel this between us,” he murmurs after he swallows it. He doesn’t let go of my hand, either, just lets it continue to hover near his face, his lips. “Do you not?”
There’s no sense in denying it. I nod.
“If it is not resonance yet, it will be.” And he sucks on my juice-dampened fingertips.
I gasp, pulling out of his grip. My nipples are hard and I’m breathless.
“And I am looking forward to it, Tia the Stranger.” His gaze is full of heat and promise. He’s not like anyone I flirted with in the past. There’s no bragging, no uncertainty. He knows exactly who he is and what’s going to happen. It’s that utter certainty that’s making my belly coil with want.
For the first time, I feel like someone sees me and wants me, all of me. It’s not like back on Icehome Beach, where the more I joked around and flirted, the less everyone liked me. I can flirt with Rem’eb and he’ll flirt back. He’ll eat it up like fruit and ask for more. I can be myself without being afraid that I’m too much.
The way he looks at me, I get the impression that I can do no wrong in his eyes. He could find me standing over a dead body and would ask if I need help with the knife.
The realization makes me shiver, just a little. I’ve flirted a lot in the past, especially with I’rec. But he grew annoyed with my constant teasing, as if I was disappointing him on some level. It always made me retreat. But if Rem’eb doesn’t disapprove of my teasing, and he doesn’t retreat…it’s not flirting for him. It’s a promise.
I sit back down and stare at the spread of food before me, my cheeks hot.
“Eat,” he tells me, voice gruff. “There is time for us to explore our bond later.”
Normally I’d make a sharp retort to that—or a teasing one—but I’m still throbbing with all kinds of emotions I shouldn’t have for a stranger I’ve just met. A man whose people just kidnapped me. So I shove a slice of fruit into my mouth and then pick up something that I thought was a slice of cooked game bird. It’s not. It’s got a strange, almost bouncy texture to it, and I pick it up and sniff it. Nothing. “What’s this?”
“You do not have that above? Mushroom?”
My eyes widen. “This is mushroom?” It looks like a palm-sized chunk of pale meat. “It’s huge.”
“It is a plant that grows up from the ground,” he explains to me as if I’m an idiot. “We tend them here and then harvest them. They like the darkness.”
“I know what a mushroom is,” I say grumpily. This whole language barrier is really turning into a pain in the ass. I take a nibbling bite, and it has a mild, nutty flavor to it, more pleasant than any raw mushroom I recall eating on Earth. With a pleased sound, I take another, larger bite.
“I am glad my people’s food brings you happiness.” Rem’eb sounds thrilled, as if me eating is one of his great joys in life. How often have I heard the same notes from the sa-khui males as they fed their human mates? God, I always thought that was such a corny cliché. Now, watching Rem’eb watch me stuff my face, it’s clear that feeding is a thing between mates.
Not that we’re mates.
Please don’t let it be resonance, I beg my khui silently. Please let him be unreasonably sexy and I’m about to get my period and that’s why I’m ultra horny. Resonance will screw everything up. Please just let me have an arm fetish or something.
I eat in silence, trying not to watch him too overtly. He pours water from the pitcher, and I notice a piece of fruit lands in my cup. The addition of the fruit to the water makes it lightly sweet and twice as refreshing, and I wonder why we haven’t done that back above. Too busy drinking hot teas, I suppose. I finish my drink and study him. “Are you going to hang around all day?”
Rem’eb tilts his head, regarding me. “I do not make out your words. Help me understand you. I wish to know what you are saying, more than anything.”