Page 48 of The Interdimensional Lord's Earthly Delight
“When the warlorddied in battle with the next Thorkon galaxy over, I took his place. I finished his war and decided to come home.”
“I can’t imagine the castle’s lord at the time was happy to have an army camped on his doorstep.”
“On his dais, actually.” Tynan smirked. “I told him I still needed a servant, but he declined and took his household to the more civilized estate planet.” His grin faded. “I loved ithere. Until the goddesses came.”
She set aside the carafe to squeeze his knee. “That’s over and done.”
He gazed at her, her kindness and her forgiveness piercing him more deeply than the goddesses had. “Now I have someone else’s past haunting me.”
“I’ll explain to Raz that you’re telling the truth about who you aren’t. And who you are.” She jerked one thumb toward the castle behind them. “Godof Beloveds.”
He crinkled his eyes doubtfully. “Neither the duke nor his enforcer seem particularly devout.”
“Not really,” she admitted. “But Raz is the Avatar of the God of Oaths. Doesn’t that mean he has some way to verify if you swear it’s true?”
“Maybe if he was actually a god.”
“Now don’t get all pompous and proud.”
“I’m not,” he protested. “Not when the plumbing’s only good for one,maybe two more flushes.”
“Good thing we still have the shuttle,” she said.
He watched her closely when he said, “I should take you back, shouldn’t I?”
“I don’t need to pee yet,” she said.
“Back to the station,” he clarified.
She stilled.
In the warm, dewy light filtering through the wet jungle, her dark eyes were mysterious. Instead of the night robe she’d been wearing in her suite (whenhe’d abducted her; he winced at that truth) she’d swapped for a lightweight sampler of the sort Thorkon girls used to weave for their dowries. It was an antique that she’d found under the throne, protected from the elements in a plasilk bag. She’d wrapped it around herself in a simple style that crisscrossed over her breasts—one side in the brilliant yellow with crimson threads of a lamanya flower,the other in a perfect blue—and tied behind her neck. With her headscarf confining her curls in an upswept column, she looked like a goddess of bold color.
And she looked like she was thinking of smiting him.
He did not have good luck with goddesses…
“Back to the station?” For all the tropical warmth around them, her tone was frosty. “So you bring me to your stronghold, bone me on your throne,and now want to send me on my way. What, so you can summon ninety-nine more lovers to be your lady?”
He recoiled. “No! Why would you think—?”
“You have a history here, don’t you?” She rose to her feet, which she’d left bare. Framed against the vibrant lines of the forest behind her, she widened her stance. “But you’re right. What was I thinking?”
When she spun away from him, he stared afterher, confused. How was he supposed to know what she was thinking? He might be a god, but he couldn’t know the female mind.
All he knew was he couldn’t hope to hold her when his future was as hazy as the morning fog and the past everyone believed was his left him mired in darkness. She might believe that because she hadn’t fought she’d never find her happiness, but if the goddesses had taughthim anything, he knew everyone deserved to be loved.
He shoved upright and jolted after her. “Lishelle. Wait.”
She strode toward the path to the landing pad, her heels flipping up the hem of her improvised skirt. “Don’t worry. I’ll still vouch for you to the duke. I can swear, cross my heart and hope to die, you aren’t Blackworm since at leasthewas trying to win back his true love.”
“True…?”True love? Wait wait wait. Was she saying that she wanted to be his—?
While he’d dithered, she’d hurried a short distance ahead, lost around the curve of the path. He raced after her, his heart seemingly one step ahead of him. “Lishelle! Just—”
“Take me back,” she called. “Actually, you know what, I’ll just get the EVA suit and spacewalk back. You can stay here. Since you’re home now.”
Histhroat tightened. Yes, he was home, unlike her. But…it wasn’t like what he’d remembered.Hewasn’t what he’d been.