Page 147 of Seer Prophet

She held the straw to his mouth, and he took it between his lips, glad of the distraction, the excuse to look away from her. Sucking the liquid through the straw, he couldn’t help feeling the relief that flooded his system at the coolness of the water on his tongue.

He drank for probably a full minute, if not two.

He felt her eyes on his face the whole time he did, although he refused to look at her now, at least until he’d drunk his fill.

“Who are you?” she asked, as he came up for breath. “Do we know each other?”

He paused before answering, taking another short drink before another few breaths.

Fighting to think, he focused on the shape of his feet under the thin blanket. Then, giving himself more time to think about her question, he drank more, feeling his body relax deeper into the mattress the longer he did. He found himself wondering if Mika had put vitamins in the water, or some other form of sustenance.

He found himself thinking that she or one of the other seers probably had.

Eventually, though, he ran out of room in his body.

By then, the large, wide-necked container was more than half-empty.

Realizing his stomach was full, he released the straw with his lips, letting out a slow exhale as he rested his head back on the pillow.

When he looked up at her that time, her dark eyes were on his chest.

For the first time, he noticed his chest was bare, or close to it, with the sheets covering him only to the upper part of his abdomen. Somehow, he hadn’t noticed that when it had been Mika who was touching him.

He waited for the human to finish her appraisal. He reacted to her stare even when he refused to let himself stare back, either at her body or her face.

He knew he was muscular, both from extensivemuleitraining, including with the Sword, and from the training he’d been doing with Wreg and the others for the past few weeks. He’d done a lot of training purposefully. He’d wanted to ready himself for full-time field work.

Even so, her stare caught him off guard.

So did the flickers of appreciation he felt off her light.

He hadn’t really thought about how his body looked in anything but a practical sense for years.

He felt her liking his body. He felt her liking it a lot.

He wondered if she’d like all of it.

Realizing where his mind was going, he forced that out of his light, too.

“You don’t know me,” he blurted, answering her question finally, but still without looking at her. “I assuredly don’t know you. Meeting you is not something I would have forgotten,” he added, again speaking through nerves.

His feeble attempt to flirt made him wince, pretty much the instant he said it.

But she glanced up at his words, smiling at him again.

Something about that sideways smile, the knowing, almost cynical look that came to her eyes, turned him on, too. She looked like a fighter to him. She might not call herself such, or think of herself as such, but he could feel it, in her light. Her life had not been easy. She was a human who had known hardships, who had overcome them without losing herself.

He admired that. He admired it a lot.

But gods––he was staring at her again.

He did it almost without noticing that time.

“So what now?” she asked. She resettled her rear and legs on the bed next to him. “Do you want to know more about me? Or do you think you know it all already?”

Her words came out teasing.

He could hear and feel the real question there.

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