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If it made Leah more comfortable to not be in the same room as him, though, he would keep watch by the entrance. All night long. Problem solved.
“No, no, you’re not sleeping out in the rain. I just need to…relax.” She finished another piece of stika, and was eyeing the next one, but restrained herself. “That one is going to be a midnight snack. Speaking of which, where can I have a shower?”
“Door through the left.”
She stretched her arms above her head. A common enough gesture for humans, not so much on Quillon.
It heightened every curve of her body in the most delicious way. Head tilted back, neck exposed, breasts pushed high up in the air and–Taryn inhaled sharply–her lithe arms stretched, palms clasped.
He closed his eyes for a moment, getting his energy under control. After the conversation they had, the last thing he wanted to do was for Leah to feel even a hint of his bottomless desire for her right now. He wanted her to be comfortable around him, always.
His eyes snapped open as Leah walked away. That whisper of desire floating between their energies hadn’t been his.
It was hers and hers alone.
She wanted him, too.
13
LEAH
“Get it together,” she mouthed in the steamy bathroom mirror after she’d changed into her comfy PJs. She didn’t even dare whisper it. This building was packed with Quillons and their super senses, one of them was bound to hear her trying–and mostly failing–to calm down.
With her luck, that Quillon would be Taryn, who was the last being who needed to know what was going on inside this insanely awesome bathroom. Quillon bathtubs were also embedded into the floor, and filled up by themselves with water–sorry,acva, which was blood red and kind of viscous, but not in a bad way?–and all kinds of soaps and fragrant oils.
It was the luxury like Leah had never dared to dream about–which was sad in a whole different way, but nothing a good therapist wouldn’t be able to help her with, once she could afford one.
It scared her, having everything she needed. Delicious food–even more than she could eat, imagine that–a nice, hot shower, a huge bed all to herself.
Leah’s childhood hadn’t been exactly wretched and wanting. Sure, she and Nana made sure to shop the sales and never wasted a single lettuce leaf, but she went to bed with her stomach completely full, most nights. But after Nana had gotten sick…Leah had changed.
She’d learned to survive on nothing, while funneling every resource she had into making sure Nana’s hospital bills got paid. She knew, on every level, Nana didn’t have too many years left.
Even if she would heal completely, she was an old woman.
But Leah would never forgive herself if she didn’t do everything she was capable of to make sure Nana lived another day. It was that simple.
Without her grandmother, Leah would have had nothing. Had been nobody.
She still kind of was a nobody, but Nana didn’t need to know that. And she could make a change and repay the woman who had dedicated her life to raising Leah.
But when she’d taken off from Earth, she hadn’t imagined, even for a moment, how insanely attracted she’d be to her Quillon match.
Target, Leah. Flint called him a target.
It made her want to hurl. Not only did she not want to find dirt on Taryn–she didn’t even know what it was for–but she was also bad at it. Every time she tried to get information out of him, her throat seized up.
She wanted to know everything about him. Not for the so-called mission, for herself. She felt insanely drawn to him.
But every time she wanted to ask a question, she hesitated. What if Flint found some way to access her mind? If her trip to Quillon had taught her anything, it was that technology was far more evolved than she had realized, in her small, city bubble.
Leah closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the mirror. It didn’t help jolt her out of this weird state. It was warm and comforting, like everything else on Quillon.
EspeciallyTaryn’s embrace, her traitorous mind supplied.
Okay, shereallycouldn’t think about that right now.
There were two beds in that room and if they sensed she had the slightest inkling to be wrapped up in Taryn’s arms–which was more of a need, growing with each moment that passed–he would know she wanted him.
