“I’m probably inadequate,” I said. “I want to be honest about that too. I don’t know your culture, I get your protocols wrong, and.” Andrek pressed a finger to my lips.
“Dani, listen.”
I nodded.
“You have said a great deal,” he said. “May I speak now?”
I nodded again.
“You learned,” he said. “Everything I gave you to learn, you learned, and then you went further. You asked questions I hadn’t thought to explain because they’d become habitual to me. Your questions were always the right ones, the ones that meant you understood where your knowledge lacked. You argued with me about things that were worth arguing about, and you made Pip laugh in the first week. Do you know how long it took me to make her laugh?”
I shook my head.
“Three months.”
“What?”
“I had her three months before I found the approach that worked. You did it in days, and you didn’t do it by finding the right technique. It’s obvious to anyone you care about her. She knew you saw her and wanted the best for her and if I’m honest, I knew it too. And you sing to her,” he continued. “When you think I'm not nearby. You don’t know that I can hear you.”
I felt heat crawl up my face. “I’m not good at it. I got kicked out of choir in school.”
“Pfft.” He waved his free hand. “Doesn’t matter. She feels the emotion behind it. And since we’re being honest, I’ve been drawn to you since that first day, and I didn’t permit myself to think about it for quite some time, because Pip takes priority. Do you know when I realized I fell in love with you?”
“When?”
“One morning you stood in the kitchen, arguing with the grain tea as though it had wronged you. Pip was on your shoulder trying to steal your breakfast, and you were laughing.”
“I remember that day.”
“I didn’t act on it because most humans don’t adjust well to Torzi anatomy. My size, wings, the…”
“Andrek,” I said.
“I assumed whatever warmth you felt was.”
“Andrek.”
He stopped.
I reached up and touched his face. I didn’t plan it. My hand moved, and then my palm was against his jaw, the ridged texture of it under my fingers, the warmth of his skin made me shiver. He ran warmer than I did, and I wanted to find out what it would be like to touch him all over.
I traced the ridge that ran along his cheekbone. It was a fine structure, carved like granite or marble. Now I traced it with my fingertip and felt him breathe.
“I spent the first two weeks trying not to stare at you,” I said. “Not because you frightened me. Because I couldn’t stop finding you attractive.”
“Dani,” he said, his voice rumbling.
“Beautiful,” I said. “I find you beautiful. I have for months and I didn’t say it because it seemed like the wrong direction to go in. But you’re the most striking person I’ve ever been in a room with. Every time you looked directly at me, I had to remind myself to keep track of the conversation.”
I spread my hand against his jaw and looked at his face. “I should have told you sooner.”
“I should have told you sooner.”
“Yes,” he said. “So should I.”
His hand came up and covered mine against his jaw. It was large, warm, and careful, the way he was always careful with me, as though I were something worth being careful with. His thumb moved across my knuckles, and my heart raced.
“Dani,” he whispered.
