“Well, for the record, I hate that,” I tell him, grabbing the bottle of booze and pouring myself another drink. I don’t stop until the glass is nearly spilling from its brim.
Raf’ere frowns at me as I down nearly the whole thing in a single go.
“Don’t you think you should slow down a bit?” he asks cautiously. He’s learned I don’t like being told what to do in our short time together.
Well, outside the bedroom.
“There’s lots of things we both should do, wouldn’t you agree?” I finish off the rest of my drink.
“Marta, I’m telling you to slow down. You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep drinking like that.” His voice deepens.
“What, like you’re going to stop me?” I grab his own glass out of his hands and put it up to my lips.
I barely get a sip in before his hand snatches the cup from my grip, while his other hand flies to my neck and applies a firm pressure.
“You’re not allowed to hurt yourself,” he growls.
Fuck.
Suddenly I see the Raf’ere from when I first woke up. Angry, primal, and absolutely in fucking charge.
“Areyougoing to hurt me, then?” I mock, unable to help myself from getting in the last word.
His jaw sets, and he clears the table with the arm not on my throat. Expensive looking alien dishware and cocktail glasses go flying against the wall. They shatter in a symphony of destruction, the pieces clinking against the floor.
Raf’ere moves his hands to my waist and pulls me from my chair, before standing me in front of the door to the ballroom.
“What would happen if I opened these doors?” His voice is gruff as his anger with me is barely contained.
“I…I don’t know,” I lie.
“You know exactly what would happen. You would see the ocean through the biofilm windows, panic, and completely shut down.” He turns me to him, putting my face between his hands. “I’m trying to help you, I’m trying to protect you! Just because you can tread water doesn’t mean you’re ready for the ocean, Marta.” He’s talking fast and loud, and I’m not entirely sure he’s talkingto meso much asat me.“When you hurt yourself, you hurt me. I don’t want to tell you no…I don’t like to tell you no! For f’tee’s sake, what if they took you from me? What if I am found undeserving?”
His anger shifts, and I can see the deep sadness he tries to keep buried flash through his mask.
“No one’s going to take me away, Raf’ere…” I whisper.
“You don’t know that.You don’t know anything about this world,” he says bitterly.
“Because you won’t tell me! You can’t just keep me in the dark to protect me. That’s what my father did and look how it turned out! I got fucking kidnapped by aliens right out of a wine bar, and now I’ll never see him again!”
“That’s different. I promise this won’t be forever.” He softens his tone slightly.
“Then why are you bothering teaching me to swim?”
“What? That doesn’t have anything to do with this,” he sulks.
“Bullshit, it’s how you’re protecting me from drowning—you’re teaching me, you’re giving me information I need toprotect myself.Don’t pretend there are no risks with that! You promised you would trust me, Raf’ere! Don’t break your promise because you’re scared.” I grab his hand and put it over my heart.
“Teach me,” I beg him.
His eyes go wide before they soften.
“The palace,” he grits out, “is the home of my cousin, the king. He has a…refugee camp nearby. That’s why I should have taken you there.”
“Okay, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” I reassure him, but I don’t think he agrees. “Why didn’t you take me there? It would have been easier for you, wouldn’t it?”
“No, it wouldn’t have.”
