“What?” She leaned forward and stared at me. “Leavingleaving? How? For a vacation? For work?”
There was no skirting the issue now. I mimicked her expression. “Leavingleaving.”
She raised an eyebrow but didn’t say a word.
“I’m working on a deal. A hotel deal, the kind my dad never wanted to do, but I’ve been eager to do since I took over. I’m going to Hawaii. For good.”
She stood and moved toward the railing, and I gave her the moment.
“Do you have an American lover, like your brother?” she asked, her brow furrowed.
“Come on,” I responded, “don’t do that. We may not be a thing, but I would never do something like that… Two women at once. That’s not me.”
This earned me another eyebrow raise.
Shaking my head, I said, “No, Ido nothave an American lover, but I’m also not getting involved in an arrangement like my brother and Cinder. I do enough of my mother’s bidding. Romance will not be another assignment.”
She came toward me and put her palm on my cheek. I did not expect this type of reaction from her. “So, you’ve decided to forgo your own happiness while everyone else has theirs? You’re here in Miami, resolving things for your brother, making your mom happy, and getting to know Blake. And then what? You’ll say adios and go to Hawaii, banishing yourself? Sounds similar to what you may have accused me of—”
My hand came to her waist. “Yes, I’m sorry, it does. But we know this is how this has to be.”
“No, it doesn’t.” I caught a quick glimpse of the pleading in her eyes before she schooled her expression, let go of me, and turned around.
Standing, I gathered her from behind, pulling her back to my front. “It can’t be with us…my sweet and kind and beautifully stunning Tulya. We could have had some fun at home, but now I’m expected to get serious with someone, make a life, produce bold and brazen Rubians.”
She swiveled around so fast we both almost lost our footing. “Look, I know we are doomed, never meant to be. But maybe…we could have fun now? Or I don’t know, talk to our mothers?” She yanked away and buried her forehead in her palms. “Lordy, I cannot believe I’m begging like this, carrying on like a jilted woman. We had one night.” Her long hair tangled in her face, and she swept it back with a rough hand.
I approached, smoothing a few stray strands away from her eyes. “Believe me, I want way more than this one night. I’d like to hoard them all, but it’s not in the stars for us.”
Inside my head, I screamed at myself for ever flirting with Tulya, let alone last night.
“Why?” It came out quiet and scared, unlike the brave Tulya I had come to know.
I didn’t know if she meant why not us or why did I care about whoever my mom picked for me. But I asked, “Do you know why it can’t be us?”
Her lips pursed before she responded. “I’m not daft,” she said, still tucked in my grasp. “Our mothers would never allow it. They’re too good of friends or whatever. We’ve said this a million times. They wouldn’t let us get in the middle of them.”
“This is the best part of you, Tulya. You hold such great power, yet you are so innocent. You look beyond all the inner workings of Rubia, ignoring the underground of shit swirling in the air. It’s so thick, you can almost grab it by the handful.”
“I don’t think I’m looking beyond, as you say. They are comrades in everything, those two.”
If I wasn’t thinking about Ezza and Ceci, I’d be hard. Thankfully, they were like a giant bucket of limp dick. I had a full-blown thing for strongheaded, naïve Tulya. “Not because of some silly reason, sweet Tulya.”
“Please stop with the sweet, it’s too much.”
I didn’t respond to that request, rather moved my hands to her upper arms, gently forcing our bodies to allow our eyes to meet. “Because we cancel one another out. I’m a knife and you are a salve.” She looked at me, her brow furrowed as she solved my riddle. “You take pain away. And when I want or need to, I dole it out, sometimes mercilessly. Our powers are complete opposites.”
“So? It’s not like you’re out there, sending everyone into painful fits. I don’t understand.” She stopped and then started again. “Or maybe youarecausing irreparable harm?”
Brushing my lips across her cheek like a starved lover, I wanted to give her only comfort, never pain—always. “No, I’m not making anyone suffer who didn’t earn it,” I said into her ear. “I didn’t ask for this capability.”
Her forehead came to meet my chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say you did. I didn’t either, but I don’t understand.”
I needed a long breath while taking a moment. Then I spoke. “There is the chance we could make one another powerless. Or our children, if we got that far, would be born without abilities… Our mothers won’t permit either of those scenarios to happen. That’s why they’re busy looking for matches. To alter abilities and trying to build stronger ones.”
She stepped back and stared at me. “My mother is tampering with future potential power? No! The Minister is against that sort of thing…”
“It’s true” was all I answered. She kept walking away from me as I moved toward her, reaching out. I took her arm in my palm and she steadied. I didn’t want to control her; my only thought was protection.
