Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Bah,” I say, irritated. She is right, but she has completely overlooked me and my mate. “F’lor and I will join you, then.”
“Um.” D’see bites her lip again and glances at O’jek.
O’jek chops with great determination, not looking in my direction. “It is just…you both are resonating right now. Very hard.”
“So?”
“So it might be distracting for you both,” O’jek continues. “D’see and I know how it feels.”
D’see looks over at her mate again, her expression soft with adoration. “We’ve finished resonating and I still want to throw him down in the furs several times a day. This stuff takes a while to settle down.”
O’jek gives his female a heated look, and I grow distinctly uncomfortable at just how very interested they are in one another. I have no desire to see O’jek claim his female while we are trying to have a conversation. “F’lor can handle it. She is very strong and capable.”
“What about you?” O’jek asks, amused. “Can you handle it?”
“Bah. I am fine. I am not weak with hunger for my mate. We will go with you and we will see what the ancestors said about baahts in their caves. When do we leave?”
D’see looks to O’jek, who shrugs. “In the morning? If you say you are not troubled by resonance…we will pack our things tonight and ready for the journey.”
I nod. “It is decided, then. I will pack and let F’lor know we leave with you.”
FLOR
I wait for Tia to seek me out and get everything off her chest. I’m sure she will. She has to be feeling a lot of things right now. Hell, I’m feeling a lot of things right now. I try to put myself in her position, though. I try to imagine what it’d be like if R’jaal had resonated to her and it was just me and I’rec left, unresonated. But every time I think of it, I think of I’rec and his smug smile that makes me crazy and how he touches me. How it feels to have him deep inside me when we have sex, and how he watches me with that intense gaze, as if he wants to devour me whole. As if he can’t get enough of me.
So I’m having a hard time picturing anything but our resonance, and I guess that makes me feel vaguely guilty, too.
Despite I’rec’s distractions, I was able to catch a pair of fat, nice-looking fish. I’m going to cook them as if I’m preparing a feast, and then offer them to the ocean as an apology in case I’ve offended any unseen spirits here in this world. My mother was both Catholic and a huge believer in the old ways, so I’ve been taught to pray to a saint on one hand and make an offering on the other. I think of her now as I gut and scale the fish.
Sure enough, the flap to my hut opens, and Tia storms in without asking for permission. It’s the height of rudeness, but I ignore it, because I’m guessing she’s too worked up to be polite right now. She immediately glares around my hut, her gaze landing on the extra-large pile of furs that make up our joined bedding. “I’m told I’rec’s living with you now,” she says in a tight voice. “And I get his empty hut.”
“Sounds about right,” I say calmly. It’s on the tip of my tongue to apologize, but I’m not sure that I have anything to apologize for. Sorry about my biology? Sorry my khui didn’t pay attention to yours? Sorry we’re being showered in bad luck that’s making this mess happen? “Look, Tia—”
She closes her eyes and raises a hand in the air. “Don’t. Don’t even bother to tell me you tried to fight it off, because we both know you didn’t.”
“We didn’t,” I admit. “Resonance is impossible to ignore. I can’t imagine holding out when it hits you. It’s like your entire brain gets rewired and all you can think about is fucking.”
“So you fucked my boyfriend,” she says flatly.
“Was he yours? He wasn’t sure.” I tried to be polite about this, but now I’m bristling. She makes it sound like I’m a home wrecker. “Because I’rec had me read your letters to him over and over again, to the point that I practically memorized them. And I can tell you that there was never anything in any of them that would have given him hope that you two were a couple. You never told him you loved him or that you missed him. All you talked about were herbs and what you were up to. You never asked about him. Do you know how many times I watched him hope for some sort of personal note from you? Something? And each time I watched how disappointed he was when there wasn’t one? So you can say I’rec is a lot of things, but he isn’t a cheater, and he damn sure isn’t your fucking boyfriend.”