It was humbling. It scared him and delighted him and made him silently vow that he would spend the rest of his life protecting her, making her happy.
He felt like he had a new purpose in life.
Though…hadn’t she always been his purpose?
From the very first moment he’d seen her, she’d been his purpose in life.
A knock late in the afternoon interrupted them, but it was only Tavak.
When Dravka opened the door to their room, keeping it slivered so Tavak wouldn’t see Valerie in the bed, the other Keriv’i male had knowing eyes as he regarded him.
“I didn’t want to interrupt,” Tavak said in their language, “but I know Valerie needs to eat every day. I knew you probably wouldn’t want to be away from her to get her some food.”
In his hand was a brown satchel of food he must’ve purchased from a shop.
Dravka swallowed, feeling a pang of doubt spreading through him.Vauk, he’d nearly forgotten that she hadn’t eaten the food he’d brought the night before. She must be ravenous but she hadn’t said anything.
Because unlike humans, Keriv’i could go a long time without eating, though their meals tended to be very large in portion when they did break their fasts.
“Thank you, my friend,” he murmured, clasping Tavak on the wrist before taking the satchel.
Tavak nodded, embarrassed by Dravka’s gratitude.
“I purchased our seats to Nzonito,” Tavak told him next. “The transport leaves tomorrow morning. Time is strange here but I believe the bells we’ve heard track the hours. The sixth ring is when our flight departs.”
Dravka hadn’t heard any bells, so he frowned for a brief moment. Then again, he’d been so wrapped up in Valerie, in her touch, in her kiss, that the whole universe could’ve ended outside these walls and he wouldn’t have noticed.
“We’ll be ready,” he promised Tavak.
A small smirk crossed his friend’s face. “Get it all out now. The flight to Nzonito is a two-day stretch, or so the Luxirian female at the kiosk told me.”
Dravka grimaced, already feeling that thought pang in his gut. Two days without her? When they’d just begun to explore sex between them?
Unfathomable.
Tavak’s gaze strayed past him briefly and Dravka pictured Valerie on the bed, waiting for him to return.
“I’ll let you get back to her,” Tavak said. “See you in the morning.”
“Before the sixth bell,” Dravka said, inclining his head.
Tavak retreated down the dark and narrow corridor of the inn, back to his own room. Dravka wondered if it was strange for him too…to be able to leave and roam freely. The thought had occurred to Dravka last night when he’d been speaking to the shopkeeper about Valerie’s medicine. That, for the first time in ten years, he’d had free will to go wherever he wanted.
It was a strange sensation.
But one he would get used to once again. One he looked forward to getting used to again.
When Dravka had shut the door and locked it, he turned back to his mate, lounging naked on the bed, her knee drawn up, her hair fanned out across the pillow, watching him.
“What did Tavak say?” Valerie asked, her voice husky and soft. After all the screams and cries he’d wrung from her that day, he was surprised she hadn’t lost it entirely.
“He brought you food,” Dravka said, holding up the satchel for her inspection. “I’m sorry,mellkia. The thought slipped my mind. I should’ve—”
“How could I be hungry?” she started, crawling over to him at the end of the bed, going up to her knees to twine her arms around his body. “How could I be hungry when I’ve been feasting on you all day?”
A startled laugh escaped him, mingling with her own.
“Regardless,” she said sheepishly, “Iama little hungry. It was nice of him to bring something by. Did he book the seats all right?”
