Page 144 of Riv's Sanctuary
Her lips closed a little before she chuckled.
“I’m not challenging you, Riv. I’m grinning. It means I’m happy.”
He frowned at her, but there was no anger in her eyes.
Perhaps he’d been reading her wrong all along.
Spreading his lips, he tried to mimic her, baring his teeth as he clenched them.
La-rehn’s grinning stopped and her eyes widened. She leaned back a little, slight alarm on her face
“Maybe you don’t try.” Her shoulders shook with mirth as she smiled instead.
For a few moments, they stayed looking at each other before she finally whispered, “I guess we have a lot to talk about.”
As he looked down at her, his gaze traveled over her features, memorizing every detail.
Pulling her close, he couldn’t think of any talking he wanted to do.
He only wanted doing.
He’d wasted enough time not doing anything at all.
Bending, he lifted La-rehn, despite her protests that she could walk, and despite the looks he got from some of the aliens around them.
As he carried her, he felt a lightness he’d never felt before.
It was a sort of relief he hadn’t been expecting. Relief from finally admitting to himself what his heart had known but what his mind had refused to acknowledge.
This human, this human cradled in his arms, was his.
He held her tight to his chest, not wanting to let her go.
He’d come too close to letting her go, and if he had…
Something constricted within him at the thought.
He’d almost lost La-rehn.
This beautiful, talkative, happy, sweet, hard-working, generous female that had come into his life unexpectedly—he’d almost lost her because of his own stubbornness, his own stupidity.
And he might lose her still.
He couldn’t force her to stay with him on the Sanctuary if she didn’t want to.
30
He’d carried her to the hovercar, kept his arms around her as he’d sped across the plain back to the Sanctuary, and now Riv was lifting her into his arms again as they headed toward his bedroom.
Grot padded in behind them and sat on his haunches by the table, as if he had a good idea they needed some private time.
And they did.
She felt like she’d just entered a new life through a new door.
While they’d traveled back from the exchange, Riv’s friend Ka’Cit had contacted him via comm link, saying he’d taken care of the guards and there was nothing to worry about.
Riv seemed to think something was strange about that but all she could feel was happiness that the guards wouldn’t be returning.