Karim might have done all these amazing things for me today, contrary to his kind’s customs, but it must be because he needed me.Once my task here was done, I’d be back in the gardens.By chatting him up, I was only postponing the inevitable all the while testing his patience and allowing myself to get attached.
He was like a sundew: irresistibly beautiful but deadly.And the more time I’d spend in his heady presence, the more he’d draw me in.Making me forget that he was a dangerous being and I, one helpless human who was way over her head.
“Shall we go to your garden?”I broke the charged silence.I slowly pushed myself into a sitting position, thankful that no dizziness assaulted me this time.
Karim was suddenly next to me.In the blink of an eye, I was off the moss and in his arms, bridal style.
“Karim!You don’t need to–”
“I’ve got you.”He was looking straight ahead, avoiding eye contact.
I could feel the tension radiating off him, and yet he held me as close to his body as physically possible.Why wasn’t he trying tominimize the contact?
“Thank you.But shouldn’t I start practicing walking?Once the edelweiss is planted and I’m back in the gardens, I’ll have to–”
“We live in the present, not the future.”His tone was firm while he maneuvered us with ease through the flower-decorated door.
“Uh, yeah.”No talking about the future, got it.I didn’t want to think about it, anyway.Better to enjoy my time with Karim while it lasted.“I’ll focus on the replanting and keep silent.”
He stopped amid the corridor.“Nai, Jasmine.Continue speaking freely.I… enjoy conversing with you.”
He resumed walking after that, so he missed my ears darkening.My heart did a little somersault.
Unable to find the right words to reply, I ended up asking, “Do you think Deidre would speak to me again?After the moss versus sofa issue?”
The corners of his lips lifted ever so slightly.“I believe so.She won’t be able to resist your sense of humor.”
As we turned right to pass through another plant-decorated door, I realized I didn’t want Karim to put me down.His hands had taken the lives of who knew how many humans, yet I craved them on me.Before the world went to hell, people would probably call this a case of the Stockholm Syndrome.
But did it matter what people used to say before the apocalypses?This was a brave new world we lived in; why adhere to old standards?
I nestled against Karim’s warm chest and let myself enjoy the guilty pleasure of his touch.
– 12 –
Pampered
When my short but exhilarating ride ended less than a minute later, my disappointment eased at the view.Karim’s garden was a botanist’s dream.
“Holy freaking moly!This is all yours?And inside your home?Ah, I wish I were a plant so I could live here!”
The place wasn’t large, but it boasted a staggering variety of flowers and other plants, some of which I had never seen before.All species looked to be thriving under Karim’s care; the lack of sunlight didn’t seem to be a problem.Even the vine covering the ceiling in delicate pink flowers looked happy despite its root system coming out of a rock.
When I took my gaze off my new surroundings and refocused on Karim, I caught him watching me, a pleased look in his eyes.
He placed me ever so gently on the soft earth at the left side of the garden.I had so many questions about this place, but if I started asking them, we would never get to the task I was here for.So I stayed silent and watched Karim.
He brought the container with the edelweiss and some gardening tools, then filled a jar from a small pool, fed by a spring trickling from the nearby wall.“Is this all you need?”he asked as he sat on his heels beside me.
I examined the crystal-made tools, all expertly crafted, mysterious symbols etched into the pale-white surface.Nothing like the ordinary metal trowels and forks we were given in the gardens.“These are perfect.I still might need some assistance, though, because of my forearm.”
“Anything you need.”
Well, I needed his arms back around me, but he wasn’t offering that.
“Show me the spot you’ve chosen.”My voice grew steadier as I felt back in my element again.
He nodded.Using his long, well-shaped fingers, he outlined a square patch of soil at an arm’s length from me.“Will this work?”He sounded so serious, just like when we’d been uprooting the edelweiss in the forest.
