Page 32 of Tarnished Reign

She gives me her gaze again, and I feel as if I've won a prize. She's so shy with the eye contact, and each time I win it without having to ask for it feels precious. “You want me to act on it,” she says. You wouldn't have told me otherwise.”

“I want you in my bed. Yes. I can’t get that if you don’t even know I desire you. However, there are two things you need to know about me. One is that I don't force women. The second is that I truly believe anything worth having can take hard work.”

Her lips twitch slightly.

“In the tales of old, knights had to win the maiden’s hand, right? You’re the literary scholar, right? Maybe this is my quest, and it will win you over, oh fair maiden.” I cock an eyebrow.

“You're arrogant,” she says with a smile.

“When you come to my bed, it will be of your own free will. In fact, my Littleblue, that is what will make it so very sweet for me.”

“Yes,” she says. “Incredibly cocky. I note the use of when and not if.”

I shrug. “You're attracted to me. And we're going to be spending a lot of time together in close quarters over the next few weeks. I could also promise you that I'm not a pig.”

She snorts, and it's so unladylike and so out of keeping with her general appearance that it makes me laugh.

“That's just what a pig would say,” she replies.

“Well then, I'll just have to show you, won't I?”

She finally tastes the food, seemingly reassured by my words. Her eyes roll back, and she lets out a soft, throaty moan. And there goes my appetite. I suddenly don't want the food on my plate; I want to be eating her instead.

She swallows the food and looks at me, her eyes wide and round. “Oh my God,” she exclaims. “That's absolutely delicious. I’ve never eaten food like it. The flavors. There's something in it that I can't place, but it's so delicious. It makes me think of buttercups even though I don’t know what they taste like.”

I smile again. This woman is whimsical and charming, and if I let myself, I could find that I want more than just her body. A lot more. She’s refreshing and different, and it makes me imagine us doing silly shit together like lazy afternoons in the park with a picnic, or days wandering around art galleries. The kind of stuff I’ve never really done. I work. Eat. Fuck sometimes. Work out. Sleep. Christ, my life is dull really when you get right down to it, and Adriana is not dull. She’s intriguing and charming, and I could find myself liking her. A lot. I push that particular thought away and force myself to taste my own dish. She's right; it is delicious.

The server returns and clears it away for the next dish to be placed in front of us with a flourish. Soon we are on our fourth course, or perhaps our fifth; I’ve lost count. A different glass of wine has been brought with each one, but I've only had a few sips, and so has Adriana.

“You can drink more of the wine, you know,” I point out. “You don't have to drive.”

“I don't like being drunk,” she says. “I enjoy a small glass of wine now and again, but I don't like the feeling of being out of control. It scares me.”

“You've never gotten drunk or high?” It seems unusual for a girl who's only just out of college.

“Yes, I have, and that's exactly why I know I don't like it. I want to be in control of my faculties at all times. Especially when I'm a lamb amongst the wolves.”

“Think of me more as a guard dog than a wolf.” I smirk.

“Yeah, you’re a veritable golden retriever. You’re more like a big cat than any kind of canine.”

“What, lazy?”

She laughs, and I notice the dimples at the side of her cheeks really pop when she laughs properly.

“No, you’re more of a silent but deadly prowler. I can see you being totally quiet with your enemies until the moment you pounce, not running the length of the fence, giving them a warning.”

The server brings another plate and asks me something, but I struggle to make sense of what she said. The ringing in my ear is extra loud today, and I think it's because of the stress of this situation. “I'm sorry,” I say. “Can you repeat that, please?”

The server asks us if we would prefer a fish or a meat course for the last tasting dish before she brings the deserts out.

I pick meat, and Adriana picks fish.

Adriana is talking to me again, and I listen as I watch her mouth move. I picked up the habit of watching people’s mouths when they spoke because it is easier for me to parse their words. I'm not fully lip reading when I do so, and was never trained in it, yet watching the movements their mouths make seems to help my brain understand the sounds better. When I was injured in the blast, my leg was operated on. My side was stitched up and the bleeding stopped during my medical evacuation, but the one thing no one could fix was my fucked up hearing.

When an explosion occurs, the blast can cause severe and long-lasting hearing damage. In my case it was bad enough to get me a medical discharge and a new skill: reading lips.

Adriana is talking about how at college she was a nerd.

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