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“We have all had a stressful few weeks. I figured ye deserve some time to relax.” Suddenly, I feel silly for thinking she would be excited about a hotel pool.
It seemed to help her mood the last time Rune and I took her out. She was at peace when she was standing at the river. I was hoping a pleasant swim would do the trick.
Josie walks along the edge of the pool.
This is one of the only places in the entire hotel not blacked out from the sun. In the daytime, the span of sun covers half the Olympic-sized swimming pool, slowly eating up the shadowed shallow end as the sun lowers.
“I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”
“There are extras in the change rooms.”
Josie turns to look where I’m pointing and is off across the tiled room in the next second. I smile to myself as the door to the change room swings shut behind her. I knew this would be a good surprise.
* * *
“I guess the feelings make sense now,” Josie says, floating by me on her back, gently kicking her legs to propel her further. “I kind of figured it was you messing with my emotions to make me like you, but it was the unity bond the whole time.”
I stare at her, hoping more than I’ve ever hoped for anything that I just heard her correctly.
“Josie, a unity bond doesn’t cloud yer emotions. It can’t make ye feel one way or the other.” I pause and let that sink in for both of us. “Sun Witches are not mates for the vampires they are bound to. It can turn into that, sure, but whatever yer feeling—those emotions are yer own.”
She seems to consider that for a while. “I suppose that explains why my mother didn’t work out for Sebastian. My grandmother always said my parents were the two most in love people she ever saw.”
I nod. “Aye, after the witches’ failed ritual, there was a lot of confusion and a great deal of hysteria. They worried that they’d be forced to be mates or prisoners or tools to be used—I don’t want that for us.”
She grins. “I believe that.”
“And I care for ye… a great deal.”
Her grin grows. “I believe that, too.”
Good. That’s good. “So, after what happened between yer mother and Sebastian, and watching him suffer for the past twenty-five years… I want more for us. Ye’ll not be our prisoner or our plaything. I don’t want ye to think yer being influenced by the unity bond or by any of the three of us.”
“Okay.”
“So, when ye mentioned yer feelings making sense… what did ye mean? What are ye feeling, exactly?”
“Don’t you know already?”
“I’d like to hear it in yer own words.”
She pauses to think, paddling over to the edge where I sit to hang my feet in the pool, kicking them back and forth in the water. “I feel you at the edge of my mind, but it’s faint.”
I understand, though I wouldn’t call it faint. Josie’s presence in my mind, the tether between us, has always been there and has solidified since the ritual.
“I want to test something. Do ye trust me?”
“That depends,” she says, a hint of a smile on her lips.
I reach down and scoop her out of the pool and into my lap. She squeals, her legs wrapping around me and holding on tight as her squeal of surprise turns into laughter.
“Was that the test?” she asks, pulling back to look at me, her eyes searching mine.
“No, this is.” I pause with our mouths inches apart, giving her the chance to pull back if she doesn’t want this. When she doesn’t, I brush my lips against hers in a tender first kiss.
It’s heaven.
To finally touch her… to show her even the slightest bit of intimate affection has my skin tingling head to toe. Yeah, she’s mine. There’s no way she’s not.
