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"This is good," she praised between bites.
"We could sit down," I suggested.
She reached for another pastry, "We can eat while we walk, I imagine you have a lot of things on my to do list for today."
I did, but I would have given her the time to sit down and eat like civilized people. My eyes caught the single illis flower in the middle of the table. I pulled it from the vase and handed it to her. “For you.”
With both of her hands full and her mouth in the middle of chewing, her eyes widened at the sight of the rare flower. Satisfied to have finally left her speechless—even if it was with the help of pastries—I watched her take a visible swallow while she put the pastries back down on the table.
She held her hand out and took the flower from me, “For me?”
I nodded, taken aback by the beautiful smile playing around her lips, mesmerized by the way she held the flower up to her nose and closing her eyes, took in the sweet scent. Good gods, she was the picture of a seductress and knowing she didn’t do this on purpose spread a never before experienced emotion through my chest. Care, my mind supplied, you care for her.
“It smells wonderful, thank you!” she opened her eyes and our gazes met, freezing me in place, while my cock stiffened. Astonishingly that wasn’t what I desired most though—I wouldn’t have said ney to her—but what I truly wanted was to fold her into my arms and gently kiss her.
I broke out eye contact first. “You’re welcome. I couldn’t let it stand that you had never seen or held one before.”
With a yearning expression she put the flower back into the vase, “Either way, that was… surprisingly thoughtful. Thank you.”
I noticed she wore a different outfit today, tight leather breeches with an open shirt that was tied off at her waist by a belt. Underneath it she wore the same black bathing suit I had seen her in before. Discomfort rose in me at the idea that she would wear this in front of my dragoons, that they would all see her in her nearly naked glory.
The discomfort grew into something else: possessiveness.
Nobody should see her like that, but me.
I didn't know where that thought came from, but it was there. The myriad of emotions she or the thought of her had been going through me all morning was beginning to make me dizzy.
"Are you ready?" While I had been mulling this over, she had already made her way over to the main entrance.
With a loud sigh, I grabbed the leg of some unfortunate sky critter and began chewing on it, grumbling all the way about having to eat like a barbarian, especially during my favorite mealtime of the day.
We didn’t speak another word, but I was sure I had gained a smidgen of her goodwill with my gesture. All the while I was planning on how to endear myself to her next, I purposefully kept a few steps behind her, expecting at any moment for her to turn questioningly at me to find out which hallway to take, but with an uncanny precision and memory, she kept marching right for the elevator.
Here she did flounder, since she didn't know which floor we were going to and with a smug expression, I pushed the one for the harbor level. On the other end of the elevator shaft, unknown hands set the activator in motion, large fish, that swam in a circle and wound the line to bring the elevator up. It was one of my own genius inventions and I was rather proud of it. I would have probably boasted about it right then, had her closed expressions held even a hint of invitation for talk. Which it didn't. She actually looked walled off. Well so much for having gained a smidgen of goodwill, I thought, wondering if anybody understood seffies’ moods and if they would be willing to explain them to me.
An explanation of a different kind hit me, if she thought she needed those walls as a defense, it was only because it was needed to prevent a breech. Had the seffy truly been that set against my advances, she wouldn't need them. Interesting.
She did look around though, as if trying to figure out how the mechanism worked, once or twice I caught her opening her mouth to voice her question, but both times she closed it. Determined to keep the silence between us.
I pulled the last of the meat off the drumstick I had grabbed and chucked it uncaringly into a corner. She sent a dirty look in my direction, but stayed silent.
So be it.
Daintily she brushed the crumbs from the pastry off her shirt and I gave her a pointed look for making a similar mess on the floor like I had. She widened her eyes at me, before they narrowed them, daring me to comment.
I snickered.
The elevator reached the harbor level and stopped. I opened the doors, allowing her to step out first.
The sun was already much higher on the horizon than I would have liked and by the looks of the males on the pier they had been waiting for some time for our arrival.
As soon as they noticed me, they stood to attention. "Vissigroth."
I nodded in recognition of their greeting and pointed at Niara, "This is Lady Niara, she will teach us today about some marvelous equipment the humans have invented, that will allow us to swim underwater for hours."
A curious grumble moved through the ranks of my males, as they all eyed Niara curiously.
Several tanks, surrounded by fins and goggles had already been set out, probably ordered by Kyle. They weren't as neatly stacked as I would have anticipated, leaving me to conclude that the males must have already rifled curiously through them.
