Page 184 of Sky’s Edge

I could tell she was unhappy, and I could sense Aleksei moving around in the room behind her, so my guess was her unhappiness centered around Aleksei making her keep a secret from her soon-to-be sister-in-law and current good friend.

I left them to it and headed to Tanyn’s chamber.

I’d changed into a nightgown and was in the bathroom cleaning my face manually (because Aleece had my spa-visor), when Tanyn strolled in.

Face wet and dripping, I looked at him in the mirror.

“Are the males settled?”

His attention shifted from the water dropping off my face to my eyes. “It always delights me when you demonstrate your very high capacity to be cute.”

Ugh.

I reached for a towel.

Tanyn pulled off his sweater before he shoved in his Denti-Clean.

I leaned a hip against the counter, crossed my arms and watched him.

When he took it out and wiped his mouth, I prompted, “Well?”

“I left Mac and Bain getting drunk. The guard is still posted, so if they get so drunk they try to do something stupid, they can’t do anything too stupid. So the answer to your question is yes…I guess.”

He then walked into the closet.

I sat on the bench to watch him change into his pajama bottoms, and while I did, I enjoyed the show.

Once he was ready for bed, I announced, “I think there’s something bigger at play here.”

“There is,” he confirmed.

But he didn’t share further.

He came to me, took my hand, pulled me up and summoned the lights to extinguish.

He then guided me into the bedroom, to my side of the bed.

While we were still standing together at the side of the bed, he beckoned for the light to extinguish there too.

“Tanyn,” I called.

Because…this was weird.

And we had a variety of things to talk about.

He didn’t respond to my call.

Not verbally.

He put his hands to either side of my head, threaded his fingers in my hair, then slid them through it, all the way down to the ends.

He did this again.

And again.

As he did, his demeanor finally hit me.

There was something…different about him.