“The doctor will not access your mind without permission.”
“Sounds like you’re the telepathic one,” I say, cradling my chin and tapping my finger against my mouth while giving him what I hope is a playful smile. “As for me seeing your feelings, I was referring to outward things, because I’m definitely not telepathic. I wish.”Boy, do I wish.“Just now, it was the glow dimming in your eyes, though that’s more of a physiological example. I see your emotions in your actions. You notice when your choice of words lands the wrong way with me and you make an effort to correct the miscommunication. After picking all the berries you need, you could’ve just left me lying here,” I gesture at the matted grass, “but you care about my safety. Caring is one of the best emotions.”
“Your observations are accurate. This emotion, caring, and some others, have become part of me, and I do not know thereason or their purpose. This sense of internal disarray is…confusing.”
“Tell me about it.”
“That is what I just did,” he says, deadpan as ever.
And it’ssoooadorable. Giggling at his confusion doesn’t seem to faze him. If he were a human man, especially my ex, my reaction would piss him off. But Amazra is nothing like Bart.
“So, ‘tell me about it’ is a human phrase that means ‘I understand and agree because I feel the same way.’ In this case, anyway. In some circumstances, it would literally be a request for information.”
“The way your species uses language is illogical.”
“Tell me about it,” I say, giving him a slow, exaggerated wink.
The corners of his lips shift upward in the tiniest hint of a smile.
That’s all it takes to send my heart galloping. “Do you have plans now, or somewhere you need to be?”
“I do not. If you are still uneasy due to my earlier comment about predatory animals, I will escort you to your residence.”
“How about we soak up some rays and talk a bit more first?”
He’s still and silent for a moment, then it’s as if someone reignited whatever it is that makes his eyes glow. “The words ‘soak up some rays’ refer to absorbing sunlight through the skin while in a stationary horizontal position.”
My smile feels as if it stretches all the way to my ears. “Bingo. Which is another human saying with multiple meanings. In this case, it means ‘you’re correct’ and has nothing to do with the game of chance that uses numbered-and-lettered cards and randomly drawn balls from a little cage.”
“I am unfamiliar with that game.”
“It’s really fun. I’ll have to ask Holly if there are any bingo nights in town,” I say as Amazra lowers his massive body to the grass beside me, then follows my example and lies back, facingthe sky. It’s a struggle not to turn my head and look at him when what I can see in my peripheral vision is so striking.
In profile, his features are even stronger. The perfectly straight line of his nose. High, almost severe cheekbones that draw the eye to his tall, sharply pointed ears. Chiseled lips and a jaw that’d make any male model envious. A protruding brow line overshadowed only by the thick ridge at the base of his long, dark-gray horns.
And then there’s the rest of him.
It’s a good thing I’m lying down or my knees might buckle from swooning.
“Do you do this often?” he asks, continuing to look at the sky.
“Every day if I can, even if it’s just for a few minutes.”
“Why?”
My knee-jerk instinct is to defend myself or retreat by belittling myself. A result of constant judgmental questions and comments from my ex. Instead, I take a breath. Let the reactiveness pass. Because it’s not Bart asking, it’s Amazra, and his question comes from a different place. Genuine curiosity. Maybe even caring.
“I was married to someone who made me very unhappy in a lot of ways. Nearly every waking moment, I lived in a state of anxiety. Sleep wasn’t much of an escape either, because stress is like fertilizer for nightmares. One day, a particularly bad day where I had some scary personal thoughts, I kind of collapsed in a secluded part of a conservation area where I’d gone to…think. Lying on the wet grass after a rain shower, staring up at the endless sky as blue replaced the gray, it was so peaceful. Ever-changing but also constant. A guarantee that something beautiful will always come, even if you have to go through a storm first. I look at the sky for that reminder. That promise.”
He remains silent after I stop talking. He doesn’t turn his head to look at me, and thank goodness for that, because I don’twant him to see the tear leaving a cool track down the side of my face. But I know he’s not ignoring me, either.
“I have never taken the time to look at the sky,” he says finally. “Thank you for sharing it with me.” He’s a hell demon. A creature who speaks very literally. Odds are his words mean exactly what he said, nothing more.
But they feel like more. It feels like they’re about me.
Seven
About a month later
