Finally, she holds his attention. It doesn’t flicker away this time, not when the sand is alive and barring them in together. It startled him at first, but it’s what she wanted – what she needed – to do. She wanted to show him how capable – how powerful – she is, but in the same regard, Nayl also exposes some vulnerability. There is a weakness in her desire, a feeble moment that rests in the way her eyes level on his, wanting him to be closer. She tries desperately to lift her chin and be that arrogant, feral Queen that he knows, but she is breaking.
A breath catches in her throat when he turns and steps closer. Had she expected him to actually oblige? The brightness in her eyes says no, but the smug grin trembling across her lips says yes.
But he doesn’t smile at her like he once had, and he doesn’t soften as the distance closes between them. He is a marble statue when the question knives the space between them. It isn’t at all what she expected him to say. He wants answers that she doesn’t have, solutions that she is blindly groping for. Her mouth opens but words fail her for a heartbeat, then another. She racks her mind, but the silence drags uncomfortably on until she inches closer to him, her head tilting to look at her earthen wall. ”Lior,” she doesn’t know why she enjoys the taste of his name so much, ”I can’t give you a definitive answer.” Because she doesn’t even know what she wants. All she has ever wanted was to be a Queen, but now she sits comfortably with a crown on her head. So, now what?
Already she has achieved so much more than mother, so does she turn her attention to something else? Does she fill the holes of her life with greater meaning?
When her chin lifts, Nayl is searching his eyes for something, anything, but they are icy much like hers often are. Her ears are pounding with the rush of blood, her heart hammering against her chest. The muscles in her body are winding tightly together. Her mind rages and storms. They are so close; his body heat fans across her, luring her closer than she has ever been before. She is afraid, and though she tries to mask it, it’s so obvious in the way her body tenses.
Until she finally lets loose.
Until finally, she caves into her wants and temptations.
Nayl blinks quickly and when her eyes open again, she finds her body nestled against his own. The velvet of her muzzle leans against his neck, her shoulder against his. Away from his sight, she smiles.
”This. This is what I want.” They’re finally touching, and it’s electrifying.
|
