The mass churned, slowly mixing until it made a slurry.
He thrust out a mug and directed the glop into it before holding it toward me. “Drink.”
“You really do want me to throw up on you.”
“Selune shells, when combined with a bit of sea mist, will cure nausea.”
“For how long?”
“Long enough to see you to shore.”
Alright. At this point, I either drank the seashell goo or rushed to the bathroom and see if my belly had anything left to deposit inside the toilet.
He wrapped his warm arm around me and helped me sit, and honestly, that felt sweet and almost kind, attributes I hadn’t thought Lore possessed. He held the mug to my lips.
“Yes, like that,” he said softly as I took a tentative sip. “I suggest you finish it all.”
It had a surprisingly refreshing taste. You’d think Lore would go out of his way to add something to make it taste bitter, if only to irk me. Instead, it was reminiscent of rain water with a hint of something salty, and smooth, almost silky. It went down easier than I’d expected, and it settled in my belly without making it churn.
He set aside the empty mug and helped me lay back down on the bed, gently tucking the blankets up to my chin. Straightening, he continued to stare at me.
“I won’t explode.” I stifled a yawn. For the first time inforever, I didn’t feel like flinging myself into the bathing area to grovel in front of the toilet.
“I know you won’t. Your resilience . . . captivates me.”
“You don’t say?” Sleepy, I couldn’t drag up enough strength to open my eyes, though his words surprised and even shocked me. “Captivate is a rather odd word choice, don’t you think?”
“Why odd?”
“Coming from you, a snarly man who can’t find a kind word for anyone.”
“You don’t know me.”
“And it’s better that I don’t.”
“Most would agree with your statement.”
“Do you?” Only now could I slice open one eye. He watched me with what looked like bitter tenderness, though how something could be bitter and tender at the same time eluded me.
“I didn’t see this coming.” With that, he pivoted and left the room.
I drifted to sleep, and if I dreamed, I didn’t remember.
But my belly stopped boiling.
8
MERRICK
“What’s she like?” I asked Lorant, watching his face, though his expression gave very little away. Perhaps only to me, but I’d quickly learned to read him if only in the nuance of his words and the way he took care to think before he spoke.
Reyla was not only in the suite across from mine, but we were also married. A whirlwind of emotions twisted inside me, excitement tangling together with apprehension, leaving me more unsettled than I’d been in years. I felt vulnerable, exposed, yet intensely alive, my body perched on the edge of something immense. My life could topple either way at the whim of this one person.
Lorant’s lips twitched, but his eyes . . . What I saw there made the world shift inside me.
“She’s gorgeous,” he finallysaid.
Jealousy I had no right to feel gouged through me. He got to meet her first, and that burned.
