Page 80 of Dark Island: Rescue
Drova laughed. "That sounds promising. You must have liked it a lot."
Arezoo set down the drying cloth and walked over to the pantry, where she could close the door and have privacy. "It was educational."
"I knew it!" Drova sounded giddy. "So, what happened? Did you jump Ruvon's bones, or did you play with yourself all night?"
"Drova!"
"What? It's a legitimate question. You've been engaged for weeks and are moving slower than the continental drift." Drova paused. "I'm proud of myself. I actually remembered that from when I was still trying to study for the high school equivalency test."
Arezoo shook her head. "That's not where you remember it from. It was in that movie about the Titans you were obsessed with."
"Oh, right." Drova sounded a little deflated, but not for long. "Enough about me. I want to hear about you and how you used your newly acquired education in practice."
Arezoo smiled. "I went to Ruvon's place last night with containers of food as an excuse."
"Smooth. And?"
"And we talked. And kissed. And did some other things." Arezoo pressed her free hand to her burning cheek. "Nothing too scandalous, but more than we'd done before."
"Define 'other things.'"
"I'm not giving you details!"
"Why not? I was the catalyst. I sent you the book. I deserve details." Drova's tone was matter of fact. "Did you at least get naked with him?"
"Oh, my God, you can't just ask me that."
"Why not? There is nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, it's more embarrassing that you two have done so little with each other."
"You know that I want to wait for marriage."
"That's an excuse, and we both know it. You are just scared of having sex."
Arezoo closed her eyes. "Do you have to be so blunt?"
"That's what it's called, Arezoo. Sex or intercourse. Making love, if you want to use nice words. What else would you call it?"
This was why talking to Drova was both refreshing and mortifying. The Kra-ell had no filter whatsoever and saw no reason to be coy about anything.
"We didn't go that far," Arezoo admitted. "But we diddiscuss it. And we're setting a wedding date. Three months from now."
Drova was quiet for a long moment. "Didn't you want to wait a few years to get married?"
"I did, but then you sent me this book, and suddenly I became impatient, but I still wanted to be married before we, you know, had sex," Arezoo whispered the last word. "Reading it made me realize that what I have with Ruvon, or rather what I can have with him, is nothing like what happened to me in that cell."
"Of course it isn't. That Doomer was a sadistic asshole who deserved worse than he got." Drova's voice was hard. "Ruvon loves and respects you."
"I know that intellectually. But knowing it and feeling it are different things." Arezoo wrapped her arm around herself. "The book helped bridge that gap. It showed me what healthy intimacy is like. What it's supposed to feel like. It got me excited."
"Good. The fact that you got horny from reading means that the asshole didn't break you. You still got it. My question is, why wait if you are not scared anymore?"
"We're waiting because it's what I want. I know that it doesn't make sense to you because you didn't grow up imagining a beautiful wedding and a white dress that symbolizes purity. It's not even about tradition or religion or any of the shackles that held me down. I want to believe that I've gotten free of them. It's just that I'm only going to have one first time, and I want to do it right."
"That actually makes sense. I mean for you. It's just that I'm a little disappointed. I hoped that the bookwould push you over the edge, but frankly, I was afraid that you'd yell at me for sending you such smut."
"It was a little smutty," Arezoo admitted. "Some of those scenes were over the top, but the more I read, the more I realized that it didn't scare me. The opposite. It showed me how making love could be tender and sweet and exciting at the same time. That it was all about the intimacy and connection."
"That's precisely what I was trying to show you." Drova sounded pleased. "It was a little tame for me, or a lot, but I have to admit that I enjoyed reading about the tender moments even though I would never be caught dead saying some of the stupid things people say to each other in these books. Some of it actually made me gag." She punctuated her statement with gagging noises.
