Here, she was simply Ariella.
Heavy footsteps approached, and she tilted her head to find Valrek standing over her, a wooden cup steaming in his massive hand.
“Tea,” he said, his voice rough with something that might have been affection.
She accepted the cup, wrapping her fingers around its warmth. “You didn’t have to.”
“I wanted to.”
The simple declaration made her chest ache. She sipped the tea—bitter and earthy, with an underlying sweetness she hadn’t expected—and watched him settle beside her on the furs. His shoulder brushed hers, and even that small contact sent sparks racing along her nerve endings.
Get a grip,she told herself.You’re acting like a lovesick teenager.
But that was the problem, wasn’t it? She’d never been a lovesick teenager. She’d been too busy learning to breathe underwater, too busy being prodded and measured and recorded. The feelings coursing through her now were entirely new, and she had no idea how to handle them.
He was quiet for a long moment, his gaze fixed on the horizon where the sea met the sky. When he finally spoke, his voice was very careful, like a man deliberately choosing his words.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“That’s a dangerous activity,” she said, keeping her tone deliberately light.
He shot her a look that was half-amused, half-exasperated. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. A big strong warrior like you, thinking? You might strain something.”
His lips twitched, but he didn’t let her deflection derail him. “Last night, in the pool?—”
“I remember.” Heat flooded her cheeks at the memory. “I was there.”
“Then you know what I’m going to say next.”
Did she? Her heart began to pound, a rapid staccato that she was certain he could hear with his enhanced senses.
“Valrek—”
“Stay.”
The word hung between them, simple and devastating.
“Stay here,” he continued, his golden eyes burning with an intensity that stole her breath. “With me. With Lilani. Stop going back to that lab, to a father who treats you like equipment, and stay.”
Oh, God.
She’d suspected this was coming. Had felt it building since the first time they’d touched. But hearing the words aloud…
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” she whispered.
“I know exactly what I’m asking.” He reached out and caught her hand, engulfing it in his massive palm. “I’m asking you to choose us. To be part of this family we’re building, you and me and Lilani.”
“A family.” The word tasted foreign on her tongue, longed for and impossible.
“We already are one.” His thumb stroked across her knuckles, tender and insistent. “I see how you look at my daughter. How she looks at you. This isn’t casual, Ariella. This isn’t temporary. My beast knew it from the moment we met, and now I know it too.”
She wanted to say yes.
Every cell in her modified body screamed at her to say yes, to throw herself into his arms and never look back. To build a life here in this rough-hewn cave, raising his daughter and exploring the depths of the sea and falling asleep each night wrapped in his warmth.
But she couldn’t.
