She picked up her fork and began to eat. “You’re not going to answer that, are you?”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Honestly? I do not want to think about it. Not now. Not when things are still so uncertain.”
She allowed the subject to drop, certain she could dig no more out of him. As before, he’d hinted that there could be much more for them, but he refused to be pinned down.
In any case, it occurred to her presently that they would probably go down to the pool to bathe as they had the night before and her appetite for food vanished. He didn’t disappoint her--on any level.
When she’d finished and set the tray aside, he rose and escorted her to the pool. Unlike the night before, however, he removed the manacles and, as she undressed, he stripped his own clothing off. Anticipation tightened in her belly as she moved down to the pool with her bathing supplies.
She quickly discovered, however, that Reuel was anything but predictable. She’d no sooner stepped gingerly into the edge of the pool than he sailed past her, landing in the middle of the pool so hard he created a twenty-foot blast radius of displaced water, drenching her abruptly from head to toe. Gasping from surprise, Dalia pushed the soaked hair from her eyes and whirled to look at him.
He was floating on his back, a grin of pure mischief lighting his eyes and his face in a way that made her heart stutter to a halt almost painfully in her chest. She felt an answering smile curl her own lips, despite her disappointment over the fact that he did not, apparently, intend to assault her--not sexually anyway. “You ... asshole!” she said, half laughing, half in irritation. “I’m soaking wet!”
He didn’t look the least put out by the insult. Instead, he chuckled. “That is the general idea when you bathe in water.”
Glaring at him, she slapped the water with her hand, sending a light spray into his face. His grin vanished as he mopped the water from his face, but his eyes still gleamed with amusement. “This means war, woman,” he growled, getting to his feet and advancing on her.
Dalia gaped at him for several moments before finally, with a shriek, she whirled to flee. He caught her around the waist, snatching her off her feet and spun with her in a tight circle that made her head swim. Her stomach went weightless. When he set her abruptly on her feet once more, she staggered dizzily and fell back against him, knocking him off balance. He landed on his butt, sending up another geyser of water, and Dalia landed on his lap.
She was laughing when she turned to look at him. “I haven’t done that since I....” Her amusement vanished. A sense of terrible loss replaced it. “I’ve never done that, have I?”
Reuel’s amusement died. His gaze flickered over her face searchingly. Finally, he cupped her face in his hands, carefully smoothing the wet tendrils of hair from her cheeks. “The memories you give our child will be real--from now on,allof your memories will be yours.”
Dalia nodded, finally, completely, understanding what he’d been trying to tell her for the past several weeks. He wasn’t asking her to give up something she had for a dream that might never materialize. He was telling her she had never had it to begin with, that she couldn’t lose what had never been hers, but she had a great deal to gain if she was strong enough and determined enough to reach for it.
Understanding didn’t make the hurt go away, however, and she couldn’t prevent tears from filling her eyes. She felt as if she’d just learned of the deaths of her parents all over again, the same wrenching pain of loss, even though she knew they had never been her parents at all. The memories of her happy childhood with them had buoyed her spirits even when she missed them. Now, she didn’t even have that.
She had what Reuel had--nothing, only a moment of awakening.
Oddly enough, that realization dulled the hurt as nothing else. “You didn’t even have the illusion.”
He shrugged, withdrawing both physically and emotionally. “Illusions bring no comfort.”
She watched him as he waded to the edge of the pool and gathered the soap and cloths, knowing he was wrong. Her mind might tell her that everything Reuel said about her programming was true, that nothing she believed she remembered had been real, but her heart still believed. Her heart would always believe as long as it remained in her memory, and she would draw sustenance from it.
Where had he found the strength to open his heart to feeling?
If she had awakened to the world that he had, she didn’t think she could have handled it. She would have gone mad as, in fact, some of them had.
She was sorry to see his playfulness vanish. It was a side of him that she would never have expected. And, as handsome as he was to her at any time, he had never looked more handsome than when laughter lit his face. The urge to summon that carefree expression once more was strong, but she could think of nothing to do or say that might bring it to the surface once more.
Sighing, she finished her bath and climbed out to dry off. Reuel was so quick to follow her that she was left in no doubt that his trust in her was virtually nil, regardless of what had passed between them.
Up until that moment, she hadn’t cared. It had exasperated her, but she’d accepted that it was warranted. It hadn’t wounded her. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know why it did now.
Without a word, she extended her arms for the manacles when they’d finished dressing. He seemed disinclined to talk, and she wasn’t feeling particularly talkative herself.
She was certain she’d also lost all desire for sex, as well, until Reuel closed the door behind them, stripped, and proceeded to torment her until she was mindless with need and begging him to take her.
Apparently unconvinced that he’d thoroughly satisfied her, he made love to her twice more before they both dropped into the sleep of the truly sated and exhausted.
It was still dark when someone began banging on the door.
Reuel sat up abruptly. “What is it?”
“They are coming.”
“Is everything ready?”
