Page 13 of Romancing Rem'eb

I’m worried it might be resonance after all, and that scares me. Vektal knew the moment he saw Georgie. Others say they knew before their khuis did. If that’s what this burgeoning sensation is, what does it mean for me as a captive?

Nothing good, that’s for sure.

“You must be hungry,” Rem’eb says, stepping to the side. “How thoughtless of me to forget. I have brought you food and drink, but if it is not to your liking, I will see what else I can have prepared for you.”

“Thank you,” I say again, and make the ASL sign.

He hesitantly signs it back, recognition dawning on his face. “Ah. Acknowledgment?”

“Sure, close enough.” I nod and then sit down in front of the tray set on the floor near the bedding. “I guess you guys eat down here on the ground?”

“I did not think to bring a table for you,” he says, answering my question. He watches me tuck my legs under me and adjust my short skirt. “May…I join you?”

I look up in surprise. I can’t really tell him no, since he’s my captor, but I get the impression that if I looked unhappy about it, he’d leave. Huh. I gesture at the tray. “Be my guest.”

He sits across from me, on the far side of the tray, and crosses his muscular legs, his impossibly long tail curling around one thigh. Rem’eb leans with one hand on the floor, two tucked into his lap and the other resting comfortably at his side. He watches me, making no move toward the tray.

I gesture at it. “You want some?”

“It is for you. You must be hungry.”

Strangely enough, I’m not all that hungry. I suspect anxiety is knotting up my stomach and staving off the worst of hunger. Even so, I need to eat to keep up my strength if I plan on escaping, with or without Rem’eb’s help. I eye the tray before me, worried that the foods here won’t be anything I recognize…and immediately spot some familiar bright red fruit slices.

I pick up one and arch a brow at him.

Rem’eb looks ashamed. “It is a dirty secret of our people that we raid the forbidden garden above from time to time. There has always been more than enough.”

I shake my head, wagging the fruit at him again. “But you stole all of it from above.”

It’s like he knows what I am accusing him of. “There has always been enough in the past,” he amends. “One of my father’s men noticed your people had been taking more and more and they grew upset and plucked all from the vines. It will come back again.”

“Mmhmm.” I let my tone show my disapproval even as I take a bite. It’s juicy and fresh, unlike the last bits of fruit that I had that were dried. The flesh is so soft and delicious that the juice dribbles down my fingers and I automatically lick them, not wanting to waste a bite.

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.

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