Page 23 of The Build Up

“Likewise. It was a pleasure meeting you today, Abbey, and er…”

“Tarak.” Surprisingly, my husband offers her his first name.

We both get up from our seats. Tarak’s at my side again: silent, restrained, intimidatingly protective.

“I’ll show you out. Please, follow me.” Delia leads the way, her movements brisk and purposeful.

And just like that, I’ve started something that to me, makes perfect sense.

Delia’s right about one thing.

Morality Quotient,my ass.

After all, isn’t Tarak magnificent living proof that we shouldn’t allow our past to define us?

SEVEN

TARAK

My sweet mate has changed.

Of course she has.

She’s carrying our second child. She’s suffused with the sacred glow of pregnancy.

Everything about her is sublime.

Her scent.

The swells and curves of her body, which I know better than the mapped constellations.

The ease with which she goes about business, knowing exactly what she wants, fully confident in the fact that she hasmebacking her up.

She’s changed.

She’s no longer the naive human I encountered on that dilapidated mining station. She’s no longer afraid of me or unsure of herself.

She isn’t as rash or impulsive as she once was.

She takes her time, considers all angles, and comes up with ideas I wouldn’t have conceived of in a million light-years.

That’s why Ineedher.

There’s no way I could nurture our tribe on my own.

I only know harshness, discipline, and how to be ruthless.

I need her softness, her wisdom, her quiet strength. She alone tempers me.

And that is how it should be.

As she looks out the window, momentarily quiet and lost in thought, I study her, taking in her effortless, uncontrived beauty.

Pregnancy has made her soft features a little fuller, her dewy skin accentuated with a smattering of darker pigment. She’s allowed her hair to grow longer—unbound and subtly golden, it cascades over her shoulders, partially hiding her graceful, delectable neck, which I long to plant my lips against.

She wears a long, simple garment made of soft fabric decorated with foliage and flowers in shades of green, white, and pink. The garment flows over her body, making her all the more tantalizing—a tempting package for me to unwrap.

I’m already hard.

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