She felt as if she were floating through the clouds. If she weren’t so brain-dead, she might have been afraid as he took her across the sky toward Luiz’s tree house. She wasn’t used to their ability to carry another being as they flew. The idea that she might be able to fly after the conversion would have been exhilarating if she weren’t so tired.
“I don’t think I can manage the conversion tonight,” she whispered, knowing it was true. “I just want to sleep. Not dream. No nightmares. Do you think you can manage that for me this one time?”
“Anything you need,” he assured.
She thought she could actually be in love with him. If not, she was on her way to falling hard. He was a good man. Steady. A rock she could always count on. She especially liked that he wasn’t a man to posture or make demands.
His soft laughter teased her hair. “I’m no saint. I will always make certain decisions regarding your safety and health without your consent, and no doubt, you won’t be happy with me.”
She made a face he couldn’t see. “I’m not into bossy, arrogant men.”
“You’re into me.”
She was. Shesowas. That made her laugh. Here he was admitting he would do something that would annoy her, and yet she found him endearing.
“I’m too tired to make sense of how I feel about you,” she said as he gained the wraparound verandah and took her straight through the house.
“You know how you feel about me.”
She wasn’t about to argue.
“Are you too tired for your bath? It’s already waiting for you.”
She’d forgotten Carpathians waved their hands and magic happened. The magic of a hot bath. She could get used to Carpathian ways. She tightened her arms around him and rubbed her face against his chest. “That sounds perfect. Thank you for thinking of it.”
She found it amazing that despite everything that had happened, he would remember her nighttime ritual of relaxing in a bathtub. It wasn’t something Carpathians did, she’d gleaned that much, yet it was important to him.
“You’re important to me,” Tomas said, nuzzling the nape of her neck as he entered the bathroom, which was set up like a spa. “I’m removing your clothes and setting you in the tub.”
She liked that he always warned her when he was about to do something different, something unfamiliar and maybe a little freaky to her but entirely normal to him. She found him thoughtful of her when she’d had it in her head after first meeting Luiz that Tomas would trample all over her.
“I shouldn’t have judged you so harshly, Tomas,” she admitted as she sank into the steaming water. The scent of lavender was soothing as it permeated the air, driving the stench of the bombs from her mind.
The moment she was settled in the tub, he had her hair in a messy knot on top of her head. “Lie back, close your eyes and relax.”
There was that voice, a mesmerizing dark velvet caress stroking over her skin. She loved his voice. The water stirred, and she lifted her lashes just enough to see that Tomas had joined her, his back resting against the sloped wall of the tub opposite her. He reached for her foot, drew it into his lap and began a mind-numbing massage that sent shivers of pleasure throughout her entire body. She hadn’t known her arches hurt so much.
“Your hands should be insured,” she murmured, allowing her lashes to drift back down.
His laughter was soft, pouring into her mind and filling her with joy. With peace. She had faced her worst nightmares with him and, in doing so, found that as she embraced her past, those memories unlocked more and more of her abilities. Tomas had given her that. He’d given her so much in the years she had corresponded with him. Now with him in person, she felt so much more empowered as a woman and partner. So much more seen.
“Sarika, I love that you believe those things of me. You have always been strong. Always intelligent. I did not give you those things. In our relationship, you will be giving up so much more than I am. My life will be forever enhanced and beautiful because you’re my lifemate, but the truth is it will remain the same. My customs. My rituals. My language. My brothers. You will have to conform to my way of life. What you give to me is beyond any price, and I will never be able to balance the scales between us.”
She could feel his sincerity. Tomas melted her heart. He’d slipped inside and was stamped deep into her bones when she hadn’t even been aware it was possible.
“People always say that a marriage or partnership should be fifty-fifty,” she murmured, not for a moment opening her eyes. The water, his hands on her and the sounds of the rainforest created a perfect peace. “It never really is. It never can be. Sometimes one person needs more than another. Sometimes they both do.”
“What do you think is a solution when both parties need seventy percent?”
“I think it’s important to communicate one’s needs and listen to what their partner needs. If you trust that your partner is always going to do their best to put you first, then, looking at any situation with that trust, you’re both going to come out better for it.”
Sarika did believe that communication was all-important. Not just listening but hearing what was said and processing it without bias and judgment.
“I think my lifemate is a very wise woman,” Tomas said and drew her other foot into his lap.
They both fell into a companionable silence that was soothing and peaceful. He continued to massage her foot and calf, adding to the beauty and magic of the night. The sound of the wind fluttering leaves in the trees. The drone of the insects. The occasional flutter of wings. It was a symphony of rainforest music lulling her to sleep while her man used his amazing skills to get out every single painful knotted muscle in her feet and calves.
As if in a dream, she had a hazy recollection of him carrying her to the bed and tucking the sheet around her. He stretched out beside her, his body warm and relaxed, as he murmured softly to her. She barely caught the words, ones of safeguards to keep away nightmares, to only have sweet dreams. To awaken when the sun went down the following rising. She went completely under, feeling encompassed with what could only be love.
