Page 79 of Splintered Shadow
She couldn’t stop thinking about it. The next day, she texted him and asked him to please make it absolutely clear when they went on another date.
“He made notecards with what number date we were on and bullet points of the events planned,” she explained, laughing at the absurdity of it.
Talking about Robert didn’t hurt the way she expected. She’d barely spoken his name in three years and never talked about him. Well, she never talked about the good parts. Everyone wanted to talk about how it ended. But this? Laughing and sharing stories? She felt good. Lighter. More like herself than she felt in a long time.
“What about your brother?” she asked. “Tell me about him.”
“You have met Baris,” Vekele said.
“One time in private. The banquet doesn’t count. He was beingthe kingthen.”
“That is a fair assessment.” He paused, considering his words. “Baris is overprotective. He has always been so, even when our parents were alive. More so after their deaths and we were confined to Summerhall.”
He shared stories about midnight excursions to swim in the pond. How he and Baris tried to evade the security system that kept them prisoners. Once Vekele had been confined to bed with a fever for a week and Baris read aloud all the stuffy history books that Vekele loved and Baris found tedious.
“He is kind when he can be. Firm when he must be,” Vekele said. Then, as an afterthought, “I believe you amuse him. He liked you.”
She enjoyed listening to his stories. It was a hidden side of the stern prince that no one else got to see. She loved it when he joked, delivering it so dryly that no one believed he had a sense of humor. She loved how competitive he got when playing board games. She loved how he cooked for her, despite being a novice in the kitchen, and observed her reactions as she ate. She loved his dedication to his brother. She loved his stern daddy voice, never questioning that he should be obeyed.
He was different from Robert’s goofy humor and laid-back attitude. Different, but similar in all the ways that mattered: thoughtful, loyal, and honest. New love hadn’t erased old love. They sat together in her heart, the weight of them keeping her balanced and her soul satisfied.
Her decision was already made, wasn’t it?
Sarah set the tablet aside and sat upright on the bed. “I don’t want to go back to Earth.”
“Your family—”
“I’ll miss them, yeah, and I’d love to tell them I’m okay. Wouldn’t it be wild if you could meet them? I know Baris said he would find a way to get me back to Earth—that was the bargain—but I’m not interested. I’m staying.”
“Staying?”
“Staying,” she agreed. “I mean, come on. Who was I fooling? I’m not leaving Ghost and you’re not too bad, I guess—” She rolled her eyes, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
He pushed her onto her back and leaned over her, arms planted on either side of her head. She grinned up at him.
“Not too bad?” he asked. “You speak a hundred words to talk around the one I am desperate to hear.”
“Desperate? I don’t know what you mean.” She totally knew.
“You know. Tell me.”
“I love you,” she said.
He grinned in triumph, like he claimed a prize.
Her, she realized. She was the prize.
“How fortunate, because I have decided that I love you,” he said in his most imperious tone.
“I don’t know how I got so lucky to find you, but I’m not letting you go,” she said. Now that she confessed her feelings, the words wouldn’t stop. “It’s so improbable to find love once in a lifetime, let alone twice. How could I leave?”
He pressed his forehead to hers, and his eyes fluttered shut. For a moment, sweet and lush, there was only them. No brothers held hostage. No political games to play. No vendettas. Just Vekele and Sarah, as it should be.
“That is good,” he said at last. “I had decided to chain you to my bed again rather than let you leave.”
“Wow, that is super toxic and should piss me off, but why do I find it sweet?”
“Must be the ship’s gravity. It is known to skew judgment.” His lips hovered near hers, not touching. She moved up for a kiss, but he moved away. “How fortunate that I love you. You are more than I deserve. You are everything.”
