Page 28 of The Sea-Ogre's Eager Bride

I bite my lip. This is an easy explanation, and yet it doesn’t feel like the right one. “Ranan,” I gentle my voice in advance of my words, so he will realize the delicacy of the situation. “You are a man in the prime of your life. You are richer than any man I have ever met. You are good looking and strong. More than that, you are kind. You could have any woman, human or otherwise. Why get the first slave that volunteers and make her your wife?”

His eyes harden, and for a moment I think he’s going to avoid answering me. That he hates my questioning and wants me to be silent. But then his shoulders slump, just a little. He runs a hand down his broad, strange face. “I am…not good with people.”

My heart squeezes a bit. Is this why he picked me? Because I volunteered and he knew he would be awkward? That he’s lonely by himself on Akara’s back and wants company? I reach out and put my hand over one of his. “You’re good with me.”

Ranan shakes his head again, dismissing what I’ve said. “I’m not good with words.”

“Words aren’t everything.” I give him an encouraging smile. This is the closest I’ve been to him since our last swimming lesson, and I wonder if he feels anything for me. If he truly is as shy as he claims to be, it’s going to be impossible to tell.

I’ll be the one that has to make all the moves.

So I shift my weight, moving a little closer to him. “Aren’t you curious about kissing me?”

His eyes widen and he stares at me for a long moment. His strange, flat ears twitch, the muscles laying flat against his head. Ranan’s gaze dips to my mouth and then back to my eyes again. “I have considered it,” he says slowly. “But we are new to each other. You are seeking to anchor your place at my side by pleasing me. It is not the best environment in which to ask for a kiss.”

“You’re wrong. The asking is the important part.” I slide my fingers up his arm, exploring his skin. “Like now. I’m touching you. If I ask to touch you more, and you say no, that’s the end of it, right?”

“It is…different.” There’s a rasp to his voice, his gaze locked on me.

I wonder if anyone ever touches him. I wonder if he needs it. I have had days in the past where I have felt so achingly lonely that I’ve sought out a lover just to feel something. Yet I imagine Ranan lives like a monk out here on the waves.

“How is it different?” I ask, my finger dancing along the inside of one arm. “Would you like for me to stop?”

His nostrils flare. “No.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” I smile at him and run my fingers along his skin. It has a slightly different texture than mine that I find fascinating. Is it because he’s in the water somuch? Because his body is hairless? Whatever it is, I like the feel of it.

“It is different, because I hold all the power,” Ranan replies. “You will not tell me no simply because you want to please me. You will let me do whatever I want to you and you will not complain a word, because you are afraid of offending me.”

I still, because he’s not wrong. It’s how a slave survives. If the master’s happy, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. I can’t just simply change the way I think because he promises he will be kind to me. But I suspect he’s been avoiding me, and this is no way for us to build upon our marriage. We cannot be strangers forever, and the longer we leave distance between us, the more difficult it will be for us to conquer later.

I consider all of this as I study him. In the end, all we have are words and deeds. For now, I will have to accept his words. “Ranan, are you going to put me aside? Or send me back to the human settlements? Or make me a slave again?”

His lip curls as if I have offended him. “Of course not.”

Words are easy, though. I need more than that. “Swear it. Swear it upon the gods. Swear it upon Lord Vor.”

Ranan grabs my chin, our eyes meeting. “I swear it by Lord Vor and all the gods in the heavens.”

“That might not be many of them, given that there’s an Anticipation going on,” I tease, pulling free from his grip.

“You know what I mean,” he all but growls at me.

“I do.” I reach up and tap a finger on his nose, because when I’m comfortable, I like to be playful with my partner, and I want to see how he responds. He recoils in shock, rubbing the tip of his nose. “Very well then, I shall believe you. I will tell you no if I don’t feel like kissing you or touching you. And you should tell me no if I do something that makes you uncomfortable, like me touching your nose.”

He continues to rub the end of his nose, his face drawn in lines of disapproval. “I am not uncomfortable.”

I want to laugh because his words say one thing and his expression another. I am going to have to go by his words, then, and assume that Ranan’s scowls are just normal for him and not to be taken that he is in a poor mood. I reach for him again. “So I can tap your nose as much as I want?”

He snags my hand before I can do so. “I did not say that.”

There’s a teasing note in his voice that I like. It makes me a little bolder. “I know right now, I’m not at my best, but I would like to kiss you at some point. Just so we can see what it is like between us. It will be a strange marriage if we have no spark, after all.”

“And do you think that will happen? That there will be no spark?”

I give him a sly smile. “No. I’m good at making sparks.”

His ears go back against his head again, and I wonder if that’s the Ranan version of a blush. “I would like to kiss.”

---