Sea of Stars(3)
“It would, would it?” I ask, giving him a flirty smile, trying a different tactic with him to cajole the information from him. My finger comes up to trace the buttons of his Cavar uniform. I like him in it. When he was my bodyguard at the palace, he wore plain clothes to fit in. Dressed in a gennet’s rank, with silver pins on his collar in the shape of saers—the saber-toothed tiger that are a symbol of Rafe—he looks even more formidable than normal.
“I never want to lie to you—”
“Good, because you can’t,” I interrupt.
“But,” he goes on, “I like frightening you even less, so until I understand exactly what’s going on to explain it to you, I’d rather not discuss what little I know at the moment.”
He’s been treating me like I’m breakable ever since our arrival here last night. I’ve been trying my best to act normal, but everything from our location to our hard-fought relationship is still so new. I’d spent last night with him—talking mostly, exchanging a few kisses. He had let me cry on his shoulder; he’d wiped away my tears, keeping the memories of the massacre in the palace ballroom yesterday at bay. I’d fallen asleep in his arms.
“Is it the Alameeda? Have they done something else?” I try to be nonchalant, but the shudder that runs through me belies my words. It’s beyond my control to stop it. No matter what I claim, I’m still half in shock from last night and more than terrified of them. I stabbed Kyon. Neither he, nor they, will let that go unanswered.
“Shh.” Trey’s large hand brushes my cheek. He entwines his fingers in my hair. The warmth of his body manages to calm my fears a little, if not my racing heart—that increases by the sheer nearness of him. “I missed you, Kricket. Every second of every rotation that we were apart was torture.”
My breath catches, and I have to wait a moment before I can respond. If he’s bent on distracting me from my thoughts of the Alameeda, he’s done it. “It was the same for me,” I admit, laying my hand on his hip. My touch affects him as well. He bites his bottom lip, giving me a devouring look.
Inhaling the scent of my hair, Trey’s cheek skims mine. The sensation makes my insides come alive with desire. His soft breath falls on my ear. The deep vibration of his voice sends a wave of pleasure through me again. “I promise that it’ll be you and me from this moment forward—whatever happens.”
I fall into his embrace as if he’s my home. “Things are really bad, aren’t they? What are we going to do?”
He leans down and presses his lips to mine. It elicits a soft gasp from me. My lips part, and the ache of desire he creates with his kisses clouds my thoughts. “I know what we’re not going to do, Kricket,” his sultry voice assures me. “We’re not going to allow anyone to come between us again.”
His strong hand on my back travels down me; it glides over my bottom to the back of my thighs. Trey picks me up in his arms, continuing to kiss me as he takes me over to the cushioned divan. As he sits, I sink onto his lap. Shifting in his arms, I straddle his hips; my form-fitting black slacks slide against his thighs as I settle upon them. My hands rest around the nape of his neck. Both of Trey’s hands come up to hold my face. He gently pulls away from me to look in my eyes. “I need you to do something, Kricket,” he says.
“Anything,” I murmur, shivering when his thumb traces my bottom lip. My platinum blond hair spills over his thick forearms, blanketing them.
He keeps his tone deliberately calm as he says, “I want you to try to see the future.”
He’s never asked me to do that before, my mind whispers. I tense. “I don’t know if I can—it just happens—you’ve seen it—”
He stops my stuttering by leaning forward and kissing me again. Uncertainty and fear fall away, replaced by desire. He ends our kiss to say against my lips, “I know that in the past you’ve had no control over what you see in the future or when you see it. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll have to take things as they come. But if you can use your gift of precognition, we might have an advantage and an opportunity to change the future if we need to.”
I pull back from him farther so I can read his eyes better. “You’re really worried.”
He doesn’t deny it; he just waits for my answer.
I chew on my bottom lip. “Okay. So—the future? Anything in particular you wanna see?” I smile and tease, “Like—” my eyes glance up at the ceiling as I think “—will I meet a tall, handsome stranger in my future?” My breath curls out of me in an icy plume of smoky air, choking off the rest of my teasing. I’m disoriented, but I don’t leave my body like I have in the past when I go to the future. This is different. My consciousness isn’t ripped from me.