I couldn’t stop myself from snorting when the magic immediately snatched them away from him.
He heard me, naturally, and grumbled, “What is it with this place?”
“It wants us to be naked.”
That had him scoffing, “Why? What’s wrong with clothes?”
“Clothes maketh the man?” I teased.
“Yes. Exactly. What is this place anyway?” he asked, scowling around, evidently finding no beauty in the glorious pond, on the hunt only for threats.
I got the sense he was at the end of his patience, and that he needed answers about this world he suddenly found himself in.
I had to admit, his tolerance in the face of where we’d landed, and what had happened in the run up to his popping in here like he was a genie in a bottle, had been far more extensive than I’d thought him capable of.
Amused and touched and grateful, I stopped floating and righted myself so that my feet touched the bottom of the pond. There, soft pebbles greeted my toes, and I curled them around the smooth stones, anchoring myself as I kept my chin dipped in the water.
“It’s another time, another place.”
That was what Austin and I had taken to calling it.
“Another time and another place? This isn’t The Wizard of Oz, Sabina,” he said drolly, peering around as he began to unfasten his last remaining item of clothing—a shirt. Yep, he’d been walking around Risky Business style, only without the socks. “I mean, where is it?”
“I don’t know. We never found out.” I turned my head to the side a little and mused, “I never would have taken you for a fan of The Wizard of Oz.”
He stilled at that, then sighed. “I left myself open to that one, didn’t I?”
I grinned, hidden by the water line, and bounced up only to shrug and say, “Well, I mean, we have nothing else to do other than get to know one another.”
“My mother loved it. I hated it. That’s pretty much all there is to that conversation.” He arched a brow, like he was daring me to continue talking about this subject and, naturally, because I was difficult, I had to do that. Had no choice but to test him and tease him.
It hit me then, that unlike Austin, who needed me to shore him up, who needed to believe he was special to me, unique when he wasn’t in his own eyes, Eli had none of those issues.
He was self-assured to the max, and maybe with another person, he’d come across as a dick, and I guessed, even to me, he was slightly, with his habit of trying to command every situation, but I figured that was my role…to prove to him that he didn’t always have to own every moment. There was more to life than being a leader.
I wondered if he knew that. Wondered if he’d appreciate me telling him that.
After all, it wasn’t fact, could even be fiction. I had no real idea why we were here. Had no cognizance of the true reason we were brought here during the claiming.
Into my thoughts, my muddled ones, Eli muttered, “Father mentioned that when he was with mother, the claiming was surreal.”
I snorted at the understatement. “Surreal? That pretty much sums it up.”
He hummed, and that was as much of an answer as I got when he folded up his shirt and rested it on the branch, only for that to go bye-bye as well.
Sniggering a little, which made bubbles pop in the water, I watched him heave a sigh, reach up and pinch the bridge of his nose like he was trying not to lose his shit, then suck in a large breath before he began to stride over to the pool.
As he waded in once more, I appreciated him, truly appreciated his majesty.
What a treat I was in for.
His body was dusky in color. Golden, but like he had a hint of Native American in him along the way, a thought that was confirmed when I took in the smattering of hair on his chest, the way it gathered under his arms, and nowhere else. That black was so dense, it had to be native, and he was all the more beautiful to me because I hadn’t known that. His face was a pale olive, and his hair was a rich, deep onyx. His muscles were thick and roped around his body, making me long to explore them with my tongue. And how he moved, making each of them