“One for two ain’t bad,” she said.“But he?—”
Before she could distract me, I cut in.“Interesting that we started talking about your gift and somehow got off track.You never answered my question about how far you can see into the future.Do you still have visions?”
“Well, the last vision I had was of that thing with the teeth.”
“The Netharat.”
“Yeah, and the Sin Garu guy.That vision was pretty powerful.”
“Yes, but that was something else, an insight into the present.What about the future?What have you seen?”I continued to prod, wanting to see more of the sensual dream she’d had of me, the one that every now and then appeared in her mind’s eye.
She blushed scarlet, and I knew I had her, but her inner shields blocked me from seeing it in its entirety.
Samantha took a sip of water then cleared her throat.“There was one dream I had shortly after meeting you.”
An image of my face, tense and hungry as I neared hers, flashed through her mind, linking into me.I saw my red eyes and naked chest, which she seemed to linger on before shutting me out again.
“Looks nice,” I murmured, unable to look away from her eyes.
“Yes, well,” she fumbled and concentrated on her food.“I was on a celibacy streak and then I met you.”She sounded irritated before she glanced up at me, no longer abashed.“In the dream, just as you were making love to me, you called me ‘affai.’”
I searched inwardly for some clever reply but could only come up with, “Really?”
“Really.”She stared at me, quiet while the waiter cleared our plates and brought the main course, two steaming hot dishes of broiled shrimp and crisp, colorful vegetables.“Funny how you and your brothers clam up at mention of the word.Affai.Whatever can it mean?”
Funny, but the more she said it, the better I imagined her appearing by my side in the Royal House.Dismay at the thought of marriage faded under the strengthening bond between us.My entire being throbbed with the need to join her once more.Yet I wouldn’t trade this conversation for anything, basking in her intelligence, in her charm and wit.She didn’t bow to me, as so many others had.
“You don’t care at all that I’m a prince, do you?”
She started.“Is this another way to distract me from my question?I asked what ‘affai’ means.And don’t tell me it’s a term of affection.Cadmus almost swallowed his tongue, and I thought Marcus was going to suffer a fit of apoplexy when I asked what it meant.”
“You’re not impressed with royalty?”I persisted.
“No.”Her gaze cooled, disdain frosting he eyes into a muted forest-green.“I’m not.Just because you come from money or royalty or whatever” —she flailed her hands in the air— “doesn’t make you better than me, or better than the rest of us.”
Good answer.No, make that,greatanswer.
“Now are you going to tell me what affai means, or do I have to beat it out of you?”
Would her tendency toward impatience complement me or serve as a handicap in our joint rule?I pondered how best to answer.
“Darius,” she growled.
Hell.“Fine.But don’t blame me if it’s not what you want to hear.”
She didn’t so much as blink.I hadn’t meant to approach the future this way, but she was forcing the issue.I just wished explaining the word wouldn’t make me look like a stupid, heartsick ass.
“Affai means many things.”I tried to keep my cheeks from overheating.Young princes didn’t clamor on about feelings, but Samantha wouldn’t be deterred.“It means heart mate, the other half of my soul.Beloved.Happy now?”
By the Light.I hadn’t blushed this much since my fourteenth year, when I’d accidentally walked in on a neighboring princess in a state of undress.
Samantha stared at me in bemusement, her mouth wide open, and my nerves flared.The sudden attack of alarm scared me—that I could feel such fear over a woman’s acceptance, and that I might lose control over my elemental powers as a result.
Staring at her continued shock, my mouth grew dry, and I stifled the urge to smash something.
My reactions made no sense.She was just a foreign woman from an alien world with no magic.She should hold no power over Tanselm’s Prince of Fire.
She licked her lips, and I swore my temperature rose a few degrees.
