Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Maybe it is meant to be, then.”
“As if we never were?” I return only a little sarcastically.
Her rueful gaze lands back on me as she swims to my side of the bathing pool to rest her arms along the edge and give me a full view of her breasts dripping wet when I come to stand above her. I crave the challenge that my mate gives me as much as I desire her time, affection, and attention.
Talking. Fighting. Loving.
I’ll take it all in, gobble it all down, and greedily ask for more. Whatever she gives me, I want it. Even this.
Whatever it is. Because I still haven’t quite figured that out yet.
“Zarah also asked me to join her for breakfast tomorrow but I agreed on the condition that you would be okay with it, too,” I state.
Luna blinks up at me. “Do you want to know what I admire about you the most right now?”
Doesn’t she know?
“I wish to know everything in your mind.”
Especially if it’s something about me.
She smirks a little. “I admire your ability to carry a conversation while your erection tents your clothing as if it’s … not.”
“It’s been a problem lately whenever you’re near, or should I walk into a room where I can smell you’ve been, I’m semi-hard until …” I let out a hard breath, not willing to get into how I’ve had to deal with this little issue. “Well, until I’m not. And if you’re in front of me, like now, well, there’s no holding it back, it seems.”
A problem I also had the day before when she found me training with a group of young Hallan guards in my spare time. A lot of them can remember playing with me as children, and getting to experience a proper mission with me as they serve their duty to the High Royal Army has given me a whole new fondness for the bunch.
I’d rather they not be placed between my mate and I in a situation like that, however.
“You can smell me?”
I swallow hard. “The very best parts of you. It’s become a thrill I seek out on this ship whenever I can. I spend more time thinking about the smell of you than I should.”
Her suddenly flushed chest lifts with a hard breath and I follow the bob of her breasts with the water when she drops back in before she pushes away from the edge. This time, however, she doesn’t go far enough into the bathing pool for the water to deepen around her so when she sits on her slightly spread knees, even the sliver of her sex is visible to me under the crystal clear water.
“Is that a yes to breakfast?” I ask her.
Luna nods. “That’s a yes. And …”
“Hmm?”
I am not going to risk pushing her here.
Not even a little bit.
“And I would like it if you'd return to our bunk,” she says before her gaze drops down to study whatever is so interesting about her fingernails. I like those best when they’re digging into my back. Less when they’re the main focus of her attention.
“I’ll do that. I’ll be with you the very next time you sleep,” I promise.
“To hold me?”
“If you want.”
“To watch me dream?”
Now, I smile. “Always, Zawla. Someday, you might even remember one to show me.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” she says, chuckling.
My brows furrow. “Why would I do that?”
“Oh, it’s a joke, Halun. A … turn of phrase.”
Ah, I get it.
She finally lifts her gaze again, and I can tell she wants to tell me something before the words even leave her lips just by the way she watches me.
“I was going to pick a fight with you—when I came to find you earlier, I mean.”
This puzzles me like nothing else.
“But why?”
“Because, how, after all this time, should I tell you that I just want to talk to you, Halun?”
“Just like that, as you did now, I suppose,” I say softly.
“Well, I didn’t pick the fight when I finally found you because I remembered what you asked of me, to remember to keep certain things between us discreet.” Luna’s delicate shoulders lift and drop again. “That way you said we’re supposed to feel when we’re apart?”
“Yes.”
“It’s been like that the whole time for me, too. I just … after the first little while, I got in my head about everything. Why I even felt bad for not being around you in the first place. I wanted to prove it didn’t control me, maybe.”
“How did that work out?”
She doesn’t really need to answer.
I have a feeling I’m looking at it.
“Even if I do want you—”
“And you do,” I interject.
She cocks an eyebrow at me. “Okay, so I do, Halun. I want you. But even if I do want you, and I want to spend my days with you, every single day even—”