Page 120 of A Touch of Stars and Stones
“You did it on purpose?” I ask as I take him in, propped up on his side, his arm under his head, resting on his bicep. Lords above, he looks divine. His eyes are darker than I’ve ever seen, but now, promise delicious things and not just comfort.
“I did. And you need to stop looking at me like that, Little Siren.”
“Sorry. I’m a, going to just go, err to wash up.” I scramble off the bed, my legs suddenly chilled from the air as I vanish into the adjoining room. Not to hide. Or escape. But I need the space.
As reality comes back into focus, the memories of everything we’ve done today do, too. The good and the bad.
I needed to do… something.
“Do you want a bedtime story? Because, ironically, we just did exactly what I was teasing you with, so you should be more than ready for sleep,” he calls.
“I’m not sure I can sleep now. My head is buzzing.” I exit the washroom and sit on the edge of the bed, keeping a safe distance with no danger of touching.
“In a good way?” There was doubt in his words.
“Yes.” I take a sip of water. “Have you, um, done that before?” I ask.
Ten rolls onto his back and cradles his head with his hands, looking up at the ceiling.
“Shared visions or thoughts with someone, so intimately, so detailed that for all intents and purposes, we are having sex in our minds? No.”
Heat blazes my cheeks at his words, but I don’t stop my next question. “But the other thing?” My voice is soft, betraying the ugly feeling unfurling in my stomach.
“Have you?”
I look away, neither of us seemingly wanting to look each other in the eye. “No. Only by myself. I’ve not been with anyone else.”
He doesn’t say anything else, and after a moment, I look back over to him and see he’s sitting up on the bed now. Gone is the carefree Ten I just had to myself.
“The chair, your mind, what you were asking of me, and you’ve not slept with anyone?” His voice is strangled as he trips over the words.
“I lived in the middle of nowhere, and Lyle barely let me out of her sight. There weren’t a lot of options, even if I did wish for it.”
“Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just… might have been… I don’t know. But…”
“Is it a problem?” I ask, mortification ruining the high I was on a few moments ago, and I stand to put distance between us. “Because I seem to remember neither of us had a problem up until now.”
“It’s not a problem. Trust me,” he tacks on. “I made an assumption, and it was wrong given the situation we started in,” he nods towards the chair, “and I came very close to doing everything webothwanted to do. That might have looked slightly different if I had known. There hasn’t been a single thing wrong with anything that’s happened between us. Believe me.” His eyes are on me. I can feel him.“Ever. Everything between us tonight happened much quicker than I anticipated, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I wanted it. And more.”
I don’t know why the words seem to mean more when they sound inside my mind, maybe because they can only ever be for me this way.
“Do you still want me to stay?” Ten switches to speaking.
I nod and bring the books that he delivered onto the bed. “Will you help me with these?”
“Sure.”
I finally dare to look him in the eye, but I can’t really read what he’s thinking and knowing that I can venture into his mind makes me careful now. I don’t want to take his thoughts away. Somehow, after tonight, I didn’t think it would be a problem toslip into his emotions, his thoughts, like we’ve opened a mental connection, one that won’t simply close.
I start to flick through the pages, but I’m not in the mood to research. I want to settle the ruffles between us.
“Can I trust you?” I ask, even though I already trust him more than anyone else here.
“Of course.”
