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I sighed softly. “My real name is Polaris. It’s another name for a star we can pretty much always see on Earth, called the North Star. Hence my nickname.”
“Polaris,” Priel mused.
There was a slight tingle at the base of my spine when the word left his lips.
I changed the subject again, not wanting to get emotional if the topic began to revolve around my parents. “Let’s make something to eat. I’m hungry.”
Priel was standing when I opened the door between us. He offered me a hand, but I didn’t take it, stepping past him.
A low chuckle escaped him, and he caught my arm with a smooth palm that wrapped around my wimpy bicep.
“Like it or not, female, you’re mine now,” he murmured to me. “And I’m going to make you so damn happy about that, you won’t even know what to do with yourself.”
I shot him a raised eyebrow. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
His response was a scorching grin that had me fighting a wave of said happiness.
Nine
January and Lianwere already cooking when we stepped out of my room, so when they invited us to wait and eat with everyone else, we headed to the couch on the far side of the room. Mare was reading close by, and Sunny and Dots were watching a chick flick I knew they had seen a hundred times already. Priel’s intrigued gaze followed the screen as we passed it.
It occurred to me that the man probably had no idea how human relationships worked. It was probably going to be a long shot, trying to help him understand that I wanted to get to know him a little first instead of just jumping into the gloriously-hot sex I’d seen us having. But sex would mate us permanently, and despite what I’d seen and felt thus far, I wanted us to be on the same page about most things before we took that step.
“Hey,” Mare murmured, as I sat down near her. Priel sat on my other side, his arm wrapping around my waist. His fingers dug into my hip, and my face heated when I realized I hadn’t put my long-sleeved shirt and pants on.
“Hey,” I mirrored her greeting, though I focused on the movie for a few minutes.
When I saw her start moving a little, I glanced over and saw her wiping her eyes a bit. They looked like they’d been watering—but why was she crying?
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“Oh, nothing.” She flashed me a small, watery smile. “I’m just reading poetry. From what I’ve gathered, this book came from another world that’s connected to Earth, and some of the poems are really emotional. I’ve never read anything like them before. This is my seventh or eighth read-through, but they still get me.”
It didn’t surprise me that there were other worlds connected to Earth, given where we currently were.
“I’ll have to read them sometime,” I said, and the smile she flashed me grew wider.
Maybe talking about books was the key to Mare’s heart.
Soon after theconversation about the poems, the food was ready, and we all gathered and ate together. It was strange, having a family dinner of sorts, but in a way that made my heart happier than I knew how to deal with at that point.
After we’d eaten, cleaned up, and chatted for a bit, Priel scooped me up into his arms as he stood smoothly. I yelped as my feet left the ground, and scowled at him when he grinned at me and started moving. He stopped at the bookshelf to grab the poetry book Mare and I had been talking about—which she’d finished reading through again during the movie—then carried me back to my room.
“What are you doing?” I grumbled at him.
“Reading poems from another world while spending time holding my woman.” He shut the door behind him. “My portals have never taken me anywhere other than Earth, as far as I’ve been able to tell. I’m curious about their poetry.”
That was an understandable sort of curiosity, I supposed.
Priel set me down in the middle of my mattress. There was a burned spot on one of the blankets, thanks to me, but he had flipped it around so the burn was near our feet. The book hit the mattress beside me, and then the fae was sliding into the bed, pulling my blankets over us.
“I need some of those fireproof plants in here,” I mumbled, as he rolled me up onto my side and tucked his front up against my back.
“I’ll get some as soon as I can,” he agreed.
I tried not to let him notice the way I sucked in a breath when his thick arm wrapped around my abdomen.
He was propped up a little awkwardly on one arm—and opened the book with the hand connected to that arm—but when he buried his nose in my neck, he growled in approval.
