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She was right. She wasn’t my wife. She was a completely different being with very different mannerisms. My wife would never have acted the way Sirena had, never would have confronted me like that.
And yet, they both possessed the same indomitable spirit, the same desire to stand up for what they believed in and to hell what anyone else thought.
It made me smile.
So similar and yet so different.
I shuffled closer and wrapped my arms around her, enveloping her and gently nuzzling her neck. She smelled so good.
She murmured under her breath as she came awake. She peered over her shoulder at me and smiled. It was thick with sleep and she yawned wide.
“Did I wake you?” I said.
“Not really,” she said with a yawn. “I should get up and return to my room. We wouldn’t want everyone to know what we got up to last night, would we?”
“Why not?”
She frowned.
“I didn’t think you would want them to know about us,” she said.
She rolled over so her face was no more than a few inches from mine. She lay there, her breasts exposed and her leg rubbing against me.
“I would be proud to take you to any event, any party, anywhere,” I said. “I would be proud to have the most beautiful female on my arm.”
“Woman.”
“What?”
“I’m a woman, not a female. Well, I am, but woman is better.”
“Okay. My woman.”
I kissed her exposed shoulder.
“You don’t need to fear,” I said. “I’ll let them know. I’ll let the whole empire know. I never want you to leave me. Not ever.”
My hand was moving before I knew what it was doing. It formed a fist in front of my chest. It was the salute I usually shared with the guards.
I was telling her my heart belonged to her.
It took her a moment to recall the gesture and what it meant between a male and a female.
She performed the same motion back to me. She even remembered to lower her head as she did it.
I held her hands in mine and kissed the tips of her fingers.
“I pledge my life and soul to you, my love,” I said. “Everything I am belongs to you.”
She smiled at the words. She blinked and tears shimmered in her eyes. She turned to bury her face in the pillow.
“I finally understand what you meant when you said it was better to live without honor than to die with it,” I said. “I would not give you up, not for all the honor in the empire. So long as you feel honor for me, it’s enough.”
Her smile grew broader and it dislodged the tears that pooled in her eyes.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” she said. “But I’m afraid of what might happen if I do.”
She was upset about something. But what?
