Trinity by Katie Blu Page B

he continued until he stood waist level in the warm pool. Tarrel joined them, helping Thrax bring her to her feet. The pool had been renewed since the previous use and an anchored, floating tray of cleansers bobbed on the surface within reach.
    “How is it different?” she wondered aloud. “I came to you. I’m here willingly. Doesn’t that complete your hope?”
    “Not in the least,” he murmured, catching her curious gaze. “Because the rest of that hope was that in seeking me out, you’d never leave. But I’m obligated to let you go once our time together is ended.”
    Her brows pulled together. “When this,” she said gesturing between them, “is over, I’ll take the antidote. I won’t be as free to express my feelings. It wouldn’t be the same.”
    “I don’t believe that. What’s being shared here is unique to you. I think that having experienced lovemaking with all the trappings of emotion, you’ll have it branded on your memory. Emotions change people. They make us better or worse in the face of our true selves.”
    “Weak,” she added.
    Tarrel gently massaged her shoulders. “Stronger,” he argued without sharpness.
    “Yes,” she agreed, covering one of his hands as she glanced at him over her shoulder. “Weakness which is strength. Such an odd paradox,” she said, returning her gaze to Thrax’s.
    “Well said,” Thrax told her. “What will you do when your full faculties are restored? Will you go home, changed but living the life you arrived with?”
    “I don’t know.”
    She leaned against Tarrel, like she’d done before. The man seemed to offer her strength on a subconscious level. He seemed almost an extension of her. For as much as they’d served together, would she be the same person separated from him?
    “Will you stay?” Thrax asked. “Take the antidote and stay with me?”
    Her expression turned troubled. “It’s not something I’d considered.”
    The possibility that she might filled his chest with hope. He watched Tarrel’s frown deepen. He wouldn’t be eager to let Neela go, even to attach herself to royalty. A kingdom had one king, though. Not two. Thrax didn’t mind sharing Neela with the other man today, perhaps because Tarrel had always been in Neela’s presence, and it seemed as though one did not exist without the other. Their bond was close.
    But could Thrax share her indefinitely? He had no interest in the man for himself. But witnessing their interaction, he knew he wouldn’t fully have Neela without Tarrel.
    Would the other man share her? Thrax couldn’t tell.
    He didn’t mean to tap into Tarrel’s head, but the aura around the other man let him know the pilot would be like a flightless bird without Neela in his life. She was as much a part of him as he was of her, despite the only recent physical bonds they’d shared. They had deeper ties. Ties that left Thrax a bit envious, and ties he respected for their strength.
    “Would you consider staying?” Thrax asked her. She started to speak. He placed a finger across her lips. “Not yet. I need to believe for a little while longer.”
    Neela’s eyes softened. Her hands slid to his shoulders, wrapping her fingers in his dreds. She rose up on her toes, pulling him down to her as their lips met. He tasted the lingering saltiness of the other man, a flavor that should have disgusted him. On her, he accepted it as part of her essence.
    She took her time kissing him without deepening the contact to something dark and sexual. This was just for him, an admission of her own that perhaps her coming to his realm under the guise of the agreement was more an excuse than a reason. He prayed that was so.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
    Neela pressed her forehead to Thrax’s jaw, surprised at the way a single kiss could make her feel. Or perhaps it was how a single kiss could express the way she was feeling. He had to know she wanted him. He had to have felt it in that kiss.
    She closed her eyes, no longer