He laughed again.
“You’re messy!” she called, turning the water as cold as it would go and swiping at her legs. She grinned to herself. “Are you joining me?”
“How cold is the water?”
She pouted and turned the temperature up to something she knew he would tolerate. “You’re no fun.”
The Paran appeared in the doorway, teeth flashing. “After four days of this, I know your tricks.”
She stuck out her lower lip at him and bent to wash her hair. He entered the spray and scooped up a handful of soap to lather her back, rumbling a chuckle. Her fingers caught in a tangle, and she muttered an imprecation. “
Why
do I have to grow my hair? I hate it long.”
“Only outcastes cut their hair.” His foamy hands slicked downward.
“Oi. I came in here to clean off, not make more of a mess.”
“I came in here to make more of a mess.”
She looked into his face with as sweet an expression as she could conjure... and slapped the temperature control all the way down. He yelped, laughing, and spun out of the frigid water. As the delicious cold streamed down her body, she struck a pose, one hand cocked high over her head, the other on her hip. “Come and get me.” She winked. “If you can.”
He shook his head. “You cannot remain there indefinitely.” He grabbed a cloth to towel off. “I can still hear your stomach.”
“I never would have believed the sovereign ruler of Parania could be such a sissy about a little cold water.”
“Have you noted that Parania lies on the equator?”
“Equator? When you’re in
my
bed, you’re at the center of the universe!”
The cloth landed in her face.
“I think I shall eat,” he announced, his voice receding through the sleeping room. “I smell the soup you liked so much yesterday!”
Her stomach voiced a loud protest. “You don’t fight fair!” She turned off the water.
“I fight to win,” he called from the sitting room.
She dashed through the rooms between them, dripping from head to toe with icy water, and wrapped herself around her naked bond-partner.
“Laura!”
She hung onto him and grinned. “Gotcha!”
They lost their balance and fell into a divan, Laura shrieking, the Paran laughing.
“You made a miscalculation,” he said.
“What’s that?” She struggled to get loose.
“I am stronger than you.”
“No fair! Let me up!”
“What do the humans say? ‘All is fair in love and war’?” He sported a crooked grin. “Do I win?”
“No!”
“Very well. I can keep you here for some time.”
“OI!”
“You need only admit defeat.”
“Never!”
“Very well then.” She struggled, but she couldn’t break his gentle grip. “Would you like to talk while we wait for hunger to defeat you?”
“Defeat is optional.”
“In what way?”
“This!” She flipped her wet, icy hair in his face.
Surprise loosened his grip just enough. She wriggled out of his arms and ran to the other side of the low table on which the servants had placed the food.
“I win!” With a smug smile, she grabbed a piece of fruit and bit into it with hungry enthusiasm.
He threw back his head and laughed. “Well played.”
“Thank you!” She curtseyed and went back to devouring the fruit.
“What a hungry bond-partner I have,” he said, pushing himself upright and reaching for some food.
Laura went back to the divan and slid into it beside him. “I’m always hungry,” she said. “And I’m always hot.”
“You
feel
like the Jorann.”
“Marianne told me that too. And Cena—the Sural’s apothecary, that is. And… the Sural. And Storaas, his chief advisor.”
“She is the most powerful one of us all. I found her… impossibly old and impossibly wise.”
She lifted her chin. “Are you saying I’m old?”
His arms tightened around her, and he brushed a kiss on her temple. “We are all her children,” he said, “but no one has ever equaled her sensitivity.”
“
All
of you are descended from her? Every one of you?”
He nodded.
“So that’s why you all revere her.”
“Indeed.”
“And she’s the only one left of the original settlers.”
“Yes.”
“That’s amazing.”
“You may be the first among us to rival her abilities. You can even read the Sural.”
“It still surprises me he admitted that to you.”
He shrugged. “It would not have escaped my notice long in any case. Not once we bonded. He knew that.”
She lowered her head onto his shoulder. “Did everyone know we would bond?” she asked. Her eyelids drooped. “Beloved?”
He murmured something incoherent.
“I’m sleepy.”
Warm fingertips trailed down Laura’s arm. Traced a winding path back up. Slid back down again. She smiled and opened her eyes. She and the Paran still nestled on the divan, her head on his shoulder, his arms around her, his contentment flowing through her soul like a deep-banked river.
He tilted his head down to look into her face. “Good morning.”
“Mm,” she said. A chuckle rumbled through his chest, too loud in her ear. She jerked her head up to lean her chin on his shoulder. “We slept.”
“Indeed.”
“I feel wonderful.” She straightened and stretched. Energy fizzed in her veins. She finished stretching and collapsed back into his arms.
“A gift of the bonding hormones,” he said. “I cannot say it has been unpleasant to see you in a state of undress for four days.”
“Hah! Not that I had a choice. My robe felt like sandpaper.”
“That, too, is a gift of the bonding hormones.”
“Some gift.” She snorted. “What time is it?”
“Midmorning.”
She straightened and stretched. “The refectory will be empty by now.”
He grinned and lifted one eyebrow. “We should bathe first.”
“Hmm? But we bathed right before we fell asleep.”
His nose flared as he sniffed loudly. “We smell.”
“Bah. I bet it’s those hormones, giving us night sweats.” That got her a one-shouldered Tolari shrug. “All right, I don’t need to be told twice that I stink.”
She had finished her shower and stood outside the spray, toweling off, when he finally stepped past her. She leaned against the wall, caught up in watching his muscles ripple as he lathered his skin. “What took you so long?”
“My daughter felt a need to regale me with status reports.”
“Already?”
“She relished assuming my duties.”
“Apparently.”
Laura enjoyed the glistening spectacle until the Paran emerged from the water and left the bathing area, toweling himself vigorously. When he picked up the robe the servants had somehow managed to lay out without attracting any notice, Laura headed into the sitting room, making for the door to the hall. At this hour, there wouldn’t be too many people in the refectory.
“Beloved.” The Paran’s voice bubbled with amusement.
She stopped and turned. He lounged in the doorway to his sleeping room, robe hanging open, arms crossed.
“Are you not forgetting something?”
She glanced around the sitting room. “What?”
“Your current state of dress.” Now he sported a wicked grin.
She looked down. Flushing from head to toe, she buried her face in one hand. “I would have walked out the door naked.”
He laughed. “Go and dress yourself. I must see to my hair.”
Laura grimaced. That would take time, and she was hungry, but the idea of walking out the door without him didn’t bear thinking. She slipped into a robe and trousers as he called for a servant. When she rejoined him in the sitting room, he sat in a chair, a black-robed servant at each shoulder, unbraiding his hair with practiced ease and brushing it out.
“Do you think your daughter did a good job while you were gone?”
His dark eyes gleamed. “Of course. She is an exceptional woman, much like my mother. She will rule Parania well in her turn.”
“You do love your daughter.” She dropped into a chair facing him and stuffed her feet into a pair of slippers.
“Raising her was almost my greatest accomplishment.”
“Oh? What’s your greatest?”
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and said, “Finding you.”
A lump rose in her throat. “Keep saying things like that and you won’t make it out of here today.”
“You tempt me.” Her stomach chirped. He laughed. “Let us feed you.” His face twitched. Some of the braids had tangled, despite the care taken to prevent it. “When they finish with me.”
* * *
Vondra appeared in the refectory doorway not moments after they had seated themselves at the high table. The Paran snorted. “Monitoring my movements, daughter?”
She offered a luminous smile as she took her usual place at her father’s right hand. “Joy of the bond, Father, Laura.”
Laura swallowed a mouthful of fruit and managed not to blush. “Thank you. Where’s Veryth?”
“With his tutor, playing camouflage games.”
The Paran’s brows went up his forehead. “You refused to camouflage for several tens of days, after you collided with that desk at the same age.”
“My son has no fear.”
“Not unlike a certain Briali.”
Vondra’s smile turned smug. “I chose well.”
Laura blinked several times. “I don’t understand what you two are talking about.”
“An old argument,” the Paran said. “Vondra made a wise choice in who to father her son.”
“Oh.” She took another bite of fruit and swallowed. “Who was it? Anyone I know?”
Vondra’s face lost expression. So did the Paran’s, and then he burst into laughter. After a moment, Vondra chuckled and shook her head.
“What? What did I say?”
“Beloved, it is a very rude question.” Fond amusement lit his face.
“Oh!” She rubbed her temples. “I’m sorry.”
“Have no concern, Laura.” Vondra’s eyes slid sideways back to her father. After a pause, she said, “The heir to Brialar.”
“Brialar.” Laura glanced at the Paran. “Would that be the son of your boyhood friend? The Brial?”
“Indeed,” he replied.
“What did the Brial think about it?”
The Paran chuckled. “Neither he nor I had a say in the matter. Our heirs were insistent.”
“I did need Grandmother’s consent to share my genetic record with the archive in Brialar.”
“Which was my consent, as her health had begun to fail and I was ruling in her name at that time.”
“So you did have a say,” Laura said.
He eyed his daughter. “She would have given me no peace had I denied her.”
Vondra smirked.
“Oh!” Laura exclaimed. “You and the Brial’s son are…?”
“Entwined,” the Paran finished. His face went grave. “Entanglements between members of the ruling caste always end in grief, daughter.”
“Father, I know, but we have many years yet. You have only just begun your rule, and we both hope you rule long and well.”
He shook his head and patted her wrist. “I note my schedule is still clear.”
“Your apothecary suggested a light schedule after such a long bonding seclusion.”
Laura’s face warmed. The Paran took her hand, shooting Vondra a skeptical glance. “Very well then,” he said. “Perhaps Laura would enjoy a walk on the beach. Will you join me in such an adventure, beloved?”
“I’d love to.”
* * *
The Paran took Laura to a beach that turned out to have a good deal more rock than sand. An off-shore breeze caught at their robes and hair, cooling Laura and preventing the sun from overheating her. She threw her head back and spun about, arms outstretched. The Paran laughed and caught a hand, reeling her in.
A flash of reflected sunlight caught her eye. “Oh look!” she exclaimed. “Tide pools!” Extricating herself from his arms, she dashed over and knelt on the rocks near a large pool. A number of small creatures occupied it, stranded by the receding tide. Feathery spikes extended from barnacle-like lumps clinging to the rocks. Several tiny, silver, fishlike creatures swam together in a cluster, scattering and coming back together again as something resembling a flattened brownish-green crab darted after them, trying for a meal. Laura reached into the water to pick up the crab.
“They bite,” the Paran said, kneeling beside her. She jerked her arm back. “We have few carnivores on Tolar, but sand crawlers are among them. They will happily bite you if you poke them.”
“Ick.”
He chuckled. “They fear you more than you fear them.”
“That’s what Mama used to say about bees and spiders, but they still sting and bite.” She pointed at a bright green glob crawling across the rocks at the bottom of the pool. “What’s that?”
She leaned a little farther, trying to get a closer look, and lost her balance, toppling into the water with a splash. When she came up soaked and spluttering, the Paran had collapsed sideways, wiping at tears of laughter with one hand and offering help out with the other.
“Oh, that’s just not fair,” she said. She flipped onto her back and pedaled water at him until her slippers went flying. Satisfied, she climbed out of the waist-deep pool to sit in the warm sand. “Now we’re even.”
Thoroughly drenched, the Paran threw back his head and roared with laughter. He stood, bowed, and wrapped his wet hair around his shoulders like a scarf. Adopting a frown, he dropped onto his back on the sand beside her.
“You lack proper respect for your Paran,” he said, pulling her across his chest. His frown twitched.
She raised her eyebrows and said in her haughtiest voice, “
I
am not Paranian.”
His arms tightened around her. “Then I shall have to teach you.” Sudden mischief lit his face, and he rolled several times, pulling her shrieking along with him and coating them both with sand. “You provide the water, I provide the sand,” he said, when he stopped.
“Sand doesn’t belong in my hair!”
“Nor does ocean water in mine.” He flashed his teeth.
“Sand and water belong together. Oh, I know! Let’s make a sand castle!”
“A construct of sand could never endure.”
“It’s not supposed to, silly.” She pushed herself onto her knees and looked around. A patch of white sand met the water not too far down the rocky beach. She pulled at his hand. “Come on!”