Read Online The Choosing (The Pruxnae Book 1) by Lucy Varna - Free Book Online Page B

treasured member
of his family, not a woman he’d stolen off of an unfamiliar world.
    She sighed and
settled into his embrace, content to remain surrounded by his warmth for a
while longer. The ship’s air was still a little too cool for her thinner blood.
She tugged the covers up over her shoulder, closing her eyes against the lights
gradually brightening in a passable simulation of morning breaking.
    Ryn’s arm
tightened around her. His hand had crept under her shirt during the night and
rested now against the underside of her left breast. It slid down and splayed
across her stomach, and his hips pressed into her bottom, rubbing his erect
manhood along her body through the barrier of their undergarments.
    She held as still
as she could. Would this be the morning he forced himself on her? Would this be
the morning he violated her, as she often feared he would?
    “Ziri, mmm,” he
said, his voice a husky rumble. He buried his nose in her nape and breathed
deeply. “Myengen dun arig, yarinska.”
    “Myen…” Her
voice broke and stuttered to a halt. She swallowed past the fear clogging her
throat and tried again. “Myengen dun arig, Ryn.”
    His hand drifted
to her shoulder, tugging and shifting, turning her completely over, putting
them chest to chest. He pulled her knees up into the cradle of his body and
skimmed gentle fingers over her cheek and jaw. Their faces were so close their noses
almost touched. She folded her hands into her own chest, away from the bare
expanse of his, and watched him carefully, hoping to divine his intent from the
expressions flickering over the stark beauty of his features.
    He was studying
her, his dark eyes nearly black in the dimly lit room.
    “What?” she
asked.
    He captured one
of her hands and brought it close to his chest, then brushed his fingers over
her sternum through her nightgown.
    Onu’s breath. He
wanted her to touch him.
    She closed her
eyes and shook her head, cringing into herself, waiting for him to force her or
hurt her for disobeying. His hand fell gently on her cheek, and she flinched,
more because he’d startled her. It hadn’t hurt.
    The mattress
shifted under Ryn’s weight. Ziri risked peeping at him through one barely open
eye. He rolled away from her and sat on the edge of the bed, head in hands,
shoulders slumped. The scars crisscrossing his back rippled as he stood,
grabbed his clothing, and stalked out of the bedchamber without looking back.
    He’d seemed so
lost, so dejected. She’d rejected him and all he’d done was walk away. He
hadn’t hit her, hadn’t forced her. Other than kidnapping her, he’d treated her
with an unwavering gentleness, and she’d flinched away from him the first time
he’d tried to tell her he wanted her to treat him the same way.
    She hid under
the covers for a long time after, pondering the sick ache gathering in her
stomach and the memory of his proud head bowing under the weight of her refusal.
     
    * * *
     
    It took Ziri
nearly a full sun’s pace to gather her courage and track Ryn down.
    She dawdled in
his bedchamber, straightening the bed covers, readying herself for the day, and
generally found every excuse she could to avoid facing him. Yes, he’d kidnapped
her and taken her away from her home, yes, he’d chained her so she wouldn’t
escape, but he’d never so much as raised his voice to her. And he’d let her go,
hadn’t he? He’d filled her belly when she was hungry, clothed her in his own
clothes.
    A sigh ripped
out of her throat. She wanted to go home. The yearning existed as a fierce ache
lodged deep in her heart, ready to burst out on the flimsiest excuse. She
wanted him to take her back to Tersi, yes, but that was no excuse for treating
him poorly while they were stuck together. Where was that trust the Tersii were
so famous for now? Couldn’t she extend a little to Ryn, at least as long as he
earned it?
    Her rumbling
belly forced her out of the room into the ship at large. She stopped by