Page 86 of My Tiny Giant

“Don’t die.” He leaned closer, giving each of my breasts a tender kiss. The touch of his lips fluttered like butterfly wings along my skin—soft and soothing. “This is just the beginning. I’ll make love to you for as long as...” His eyebrows twitched, inching together, and his throat moved with a swallow. “For as long as I shall live.”

Which might not be that long at all...

The true meaning of his words sounded in my head, resonating through my chest with an ache.

Even if the tomorrow’s mission was a success, there was nothing but uncertainty in Agan’s future.

“Will you stay with me for that long, Emma?” he suddenly asked. “For the end of my days?”

I hadn’t allowed myself to think far into the future, because I knew we wouldn’t be allowed to have one together. I forbade myself to dream, taking each moment as it came, instead.

However, when I tried to imagine my life without Agan, now, I couldn’t. It felt empty, incomplete, and devastatingly lonely.

“I have nothing to offer you, Emma, but myself, and even that’s not much,” he said with a short laugh. “A better man would’ve let you go back to your safe, peaceful life on your planet.” He pinned me with his stare, his expression hardening. “But I’m an asshole. I need you more than the air I breathe, and I selfishly want to keep you, no matter what. Stay with me, Emma.”

I breathed harder, my chest rising and falling under him.

“We can’t...”

General Hicrai’s words rose in my mind once again, ‘You have no right...’

“There’re no agreements between our planets,” I said.

“Forget about the agreements or the planets.” Agan shook his head. “Forget about this whole damn world. Tell me what you think. How do you feel about me, Emma?”

His eyes searched mine, his expression pensive, as if his life depended on what I said next.

I searched deep inside me for the truth. Because he deserved the most honest answer.

“I didn’t expect to have any feelings for you at all, Agan. At first, you irritated me. You made me really mad on a couple of occasions. Something about you, however, always drew me to you, even then. The more I got to know you, the more I liked you. And now...” I placed my hands on his thighs, and he grabbed on to my thumbs. “Now, the thought of leaving you hurts,” I said around a tightness forming in my throat.

Fuck General Hicrai. Leaving Agan would be agonizingly painful. Impossible.

I blinked, feeling the upcoming tears swell behind my eyelids.

“Dammit, Agan.” I sat up, making him slide backwards and into my lap. “I can’t imagine leaving you.” I rubbed my forehead. “I don’t want to think about it. This...” I waved my hand between us, “I used to believe I could have a simple holiday romance with you. Light and easy, with no strings attached...”

What I hadn’t taken into account was him, Agan himself. I hadn’t expected him to be capable of deeper feelings. I hadn’t thought my own feelings for him would grow so much.

“Strings ? What strings?” He touched his hand to the back of his head where translators were normally implanted. “This didn’t translate very well into Ravil. What do you mean?”

“It’s a term for a casual relationship, with no attachments, no connection between people but physical.” I exhaled a slow, shaky breath, whispering, “Just sex. No strings.”

He reclined against my bent legs, like in a lounger, and folded his arms across his chest.

“Oh but there are strings, my sweet number eleven.” He narrowed his eyes at me, as if it was entirely my fault the strings had formed. “Not just strings, but thick, metal cables, the size of my arm.” He glanced down at his bicep. “Well, the size it used to be, anyway,” he muttered, then moved his gaze back to me. “Don’t you feel the connection? It’s happened, there is nothing you or I can do about that now.”

“The ropes as thick as your arm will be very hard to break when I move away.” My voice came out too soft, weighted down by sadness. “It will hurt. A lot.”

“There’d be no breaking them,” he said firmly. “I need you in my life. Had I been my normal size, I would’ve hugged you, and held you, and never let you go. As it is...” He rolled back his shoulders. “I can only beg.” He held my eyes with his gaze, keeping me in place firmer than any embrace. “Stay with me.”

Oh, how I wished to say yes, more than anything in the world.

“If I do, it would be a desertion, Agan. I’d be hunted, captured, and prosecuted...”

His jaw moved, his mouth pressed into a firm line.

“Then, take me with you.”