Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 135784 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135784 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
I lean forward and press my brow against hers. "It's not freedom if I'm missing you. I wouldn't ever ask you to stay if you wanted to go, but…if you stayed, it'd make me the happiest male in the universe."
She giggles. "That title might already be taken by Kivian's tailor."
I chuckle at that. "Second happiest, then." I kiss her again, unable to believe my good luck. She's not running away. She's not making excuses as to why she needs to go. She's smiling at me, in my arms. It feels like a dream. "I love you. Just being with you makes me happy, and I never thought I'd deserve happiness."
Sophie shakes her head. "You deserve everything, Jerrok. I know we started off rocky, but you've been so kind to me. No one's ever been so good to me." She leans in and presses another kiss to my lips, her eyes full of emotion. "You're sure I won't be a problem?"
"Never."
She bites her lip, clearly thinking.
"I'm positive," I reassure her. "I want you to stay."
"I want to stay with you," Sophie agrees, her fingers tracing along my jaw. "But…would you go with me?"
"Go?"
"With the Jabberwock," she says, that look of worry still on her face. "If they need more help. They're going to retrieve the Little Sister, and they might need more hands. Zoey might not be able to help out much and she'll need Sentorr, and Fran's got a new baby, and…"
"You want to go with them? What about Sleipnir?" I'm surprised. I thought she was incredibly uncomfortable around the others. I know she thrives when it's just the two of us, so she must feel very strongly about this.
"He'd have to come with. I won't go if you don't go with me, Jerrok, but…I felt like we should at least offer." She bites her lip again. "I'd want someone to marshal the troops if I went missing."
Didn't I want the same thing back in the day? When I was captured behind enemy lines and no one ever, ever came for me because I wasn't important? The va Sithai brothers have family waiting for them. They don't deserve what I went through; no one does. So I nod. "I'll float the idea past Kivian, see what he thinks." I pull her closer. "But you and I stay together, no matter what. We don't separate for anything. Anything at all."
She shakes her head. "No separating. You're stuck with me."
As if that's a hardship. I pull her closer, hardly daring to believe that she's mine. "You absolutely sure you want to be stuck with someone like me?"
Sophie traces her fingers over my jaw, her gaze moving over my face. Her fingertips move up and trace the scars around my replacement eye. "Not stuck," she whispers. "Never stuck. I'd happily spend every day for the rest of my life here with you, scrapping and eating noodles. You make me feel safe. And happy. And special."
"You won't get lonely?"
Her fingers continue to move over my face in the softest touch, as if she's memorizing me with her fingertips. "How can I get lonely when I'm with you?"
"And Sleipnir," I add, though part of me wants to keep her praise all to myself.
Her smile fades just a little, sadness creeping in. "Sleipnir has to come with us because he's worth a fortune."
"And because he'll chew a hole through the station wall if left unattended for long?"
She shakes her head. "No, he has to come with us because he's expensive. He's the only bargaining chip we have if someone's holding the va Sithai for ransom."
The thought didn't even occur to me, but she's right. "You'd give him up?"
Sophie shrugs, but I can tell the question bothers her. "How could I not? There's no right answer. It would kill me to have to give him to someone else, but…he's not truly mine. He belongs to the va Sithai. I can't hold him if selling him could bring them home."
I hold her close to me, hating the melancholy in her tone. "I'm going to do my best to make sure that doesn't happen."
65
SOPHIE
It's late into the night before Jerrok finishes his work on the flight logs. Some of them are corrupted, which means he has to painstakingly rebuild the records from scratch, typing away, and all I can do is watch and be quietly supportive, my cheek on his arm as he works, my seat pulled up next to his. I tried to sit farther away, but he just pulled me back to his side, telling me he preferred me right next to him, and his tail curls around my waist.
It's still hard to believe that this man is mine. Good things never happen in my life. I springboard from a rough childhood into sexual slavery. It's difficult for me to imagine a future of happiness, of waking up every morning and looking into Jerrok's handsome face. The thought makes me so full of joy that it's utterly terrifying. It's far easier to think of all the ways it could go wrong, but I try to push those thoughts aside. I don't want to give them space in my head any longer. To reassure myself, I stroke my hand over his tail.