Page 202 of Shadowblood Souls
“I like the whole ship. It’s incredible… I feel like I’ve stepped into a movie or a TV show.”
“Much better than underground prison cells, I’m sure,” Rollick says with a grin. “Well, you can enjoy it at your leisure for a little while. I haven’t come up with any brilliant new brainstorms quite yet.”
Riva hesitates, and I can feel her—partly in her body language, but maybe I pick up a fragment of her emotions through our connection too—weighing her options. Decidingwhether she’d rather stay here and watch the ocean life when I’m in the same room or go someplace where I’m not around.
An uncomfortable heat prickles up my neck. I open my mouth to say I’m heading back to my room, but before I can get any words out, she’s already sprung to her feet.
“Speaking of TV, I haven’t gotten to do any real channel surfing for most of my life, so I think I’ll keep catching up on that.”
She shoots another smile at the shadowkind around us, not quite aiming it at me, and slips away.
I watch her vanish through the doorway, my stomach clenching. When I tear my gaze away, Rollick is watchingme.
“It can be rather difficult to win over a woman who sees you as a villain,” he says in a mildly wry tone. “But it’s not impossible. I know from personal experience.”
Somehow I don’t think the supernaturally handsome demon in front of me has faced quite the same challenges that I have with whatever love life he carries out, but I’ll take the sympathy at face value anyway.
I exhale roughly. “It’s my own fault. I just don’t know how to make it up to her.”
I don’t know if I even can.
Rollick ambles toward the doorway. “I can’t say it’s a swift process or an easy one. You might have to reveal things about yourself that you’re used to hiding. But if it’s worth it, it’s worth it.”
As he heads off to who-knows-where, Pearl sashays over to me. “Maybe I can help! This boat haseverything. There’s got to be something around that would impress her.”
I don’t think impressing Riva is the key, but who knows? Maybe the succubus’s cheerful commentary will jostle loose some brilliant brainstorm of my own.
Relationships are her specialty, after all. Well, a certain type, at least.
“All right,” I say. “Let’s see if I’ve missed anything.”
We amble through the halls, making a circuit of the ship’s many common rooms. Pearl natters on about Riva’s eating habits—“I heard her ask if we have any extra lemons!”—and her disinterest in the library—“I don’t blame her; words are a lot more boring than being someplace.”
There’s a spa area I hadn’t stumbled on before, but I can’t see Riva letting me pamper her in any way that involves putting my hands on her body.
We step into the party room where someone has lowered a mirror ball from the ceiling, and Pearl sets her hands on her hips. “Too bad she isn’t much of a party girl.”
The comment sets off an automatic twinge of defiance in me. “Actually, she really likes music and dancing,” I say. “But that could come with some bad memories too…”
I pause, gazing at the expansive room in front of me. An image floats up in the back of my mind of Riva’s face rapt with awe like it was in the observation lounge—but years ago, tucked next of Griffin on the training-room sofa.
I feel like I’ve stepped into a movie or a TV show, she said today. And days ago, in the hotel room, she admitted to how much she loved that frothy soap opera Griffin would always arrange to put on for her.
The guys on that show were always screwing up and begging forgiveness. Maybe I can learn something from them.
The idea hits me in a bolt of inspiration, sizzling through my mind and knocking every other thought out of my head.
That could be perfect. It would be hard to pull off, and maybe it wouldn’t do the trick, but I know her. I know?—
Something inside me balks. Is that really the right direction?
If I pick something that personal, that specific to her—will she wonder if I’ve peeked inside her head with my talent? Invaded her privacy?
I swallow thickly, wavering between exhilaration and doubt.
Rollick said I might have to reveal things rather than hide them.
Riva knows I observe people all the time, that I remember all kinds of things about them. And doting on her in all the generic ways I can think of hasn’t gotten me anywhere.
