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I recalled how I got up from the bed a couple times and then went right back to sleep, thinking it was done during the span of one night. "You should’ve woken me."
"Didn’t you just hint you didn’t want me to come in?"
I served back at his teasing. "You could’ve knocked on the door or shouted. Anything besides letting me sleep away a day and a half."
"The rest did you good. I could tell you were tired."
"I could’ve been doing something to help you instead of snoring away."
"You don’t snore." He gave me a familiar look. "Even when you’re curled up in the dirt under a rickety lean-to."
His familiarity with my sleeping habits made me shy. "I’ve got work to do." I went and dug through the knapsack on the table.
He stood behind me. His body heat felt nice against the coolness of the cavern. My mind immediately went to when we were together in the shower, with the warm water running between our bodies. I shook my head as though I could lose the sexy thought like pouring out a handful of salt.
"You seem frustrated."
"I am." I found my laptop and a dog-eared notebook in my pack. "I could’ve been working on contacting the Fleet."
"Communications are down all over the planet. Isath took the equipment."
I dropped a set of portable power banks on the floor by accident. "The whole planet? You’ve got to be kidding."
"I wish I were. What better way to control his opposition than by taking away their means to talk to each other?"
"And get help." What was I going to do to get in touch with HQ now?
Varus picked up the chargers I dropped and set them next to my laptop on the table. "Even if I’d known you preferred to be stressed out and sleep-deprived, I still wouldn’t have awakened you."
"Let’s get something straight." It was then I realized just how close he stood. I had less than an arm’s length between us. If I wanted to reach out and let my hand graze the solid wall of his chest, there was no stopping me. "You don’t get to make decisions for me."
He adjusted my shirt where it slipped down my shoulder again. "You’re not on Earth anymore. You won’t impress me by pretending humans are just as strong as people here."
"Is this your way of getting me to relax, by insulting my planet and the people on it?" I shot him a glare. "Of all the arrogant—"
"It’s the truth." Humor left his face. His mouth formed a stern line. "You’re not used to this planet, and you need to rest. I’ll look out for everyone here, especially you."
"You act like I'm going to break. I don’t need you to treat me like fragile glass." I folded my arms over my chest, matching his stance. I raised my chin high. "Besides, you don’t want to annoy the others when they see you try to baby me."
"They know what you mean to me." A note of vulnerability presented itself in his tone.
I had this urge to be closer to him, and it went deeper than the physical attraction. Was I feeling vulnerable, too?
He put his hands on my shoulders. "I haven’t told this to anyone yet, but you’re the person I saw in my visions."
I unfolded my arms. The shock of what he said plunged over me as an unexpected wave. "You had visions of me?"
"Nearly every night before I met you. It’s been a year since they started."
It was the same timeframe I began seeing him in my dreams. The fact we shared the experience was overwhelming. "I need to sit down." I didn’t bother to move the knapsack from the chair. I perched on the edge.
The light cast gold in Varus’s hair, making it look like the heart of a flame. "I hear your pulse ticking away. You’re deciding if you want to speak."
If he could read my physiological cues, what else could he pick up on? "I saw you, too."
My voice was so soft. If I didn’t know about the extraordinary senses of Javorians, I would’ve doubted he heard me. He crouched in front of me, meeting me at eye level. "Tell me."
"It was in dreams." I reached, hand trembling slightly, and traced the plane of his cheek. My fingers brushed the ridge of his jaw. "You looked exactly like this."
