"So if I started shagging Lucian again, you wouldn't care?"
He gave me a look. One that suggested I was being silly. I grinned.
"There is a vast difference between not caring about who sees your outer layer and whether you're with Lucian."
"So, Lucian aside, you wouldn't care if I found myself another lover?"
He crossed his arms, his expression giving little away. But tiny flickers of annoyance danced both along Valdis's sides and through the outer reaches of my mind, a sure sign that he was not as calm as he appeared. "That is not your intention, so why bring it up?"
"Because it's sometimes amusing to see your very human reactions." I rose on my toes and kissed him. "And now I'll get dressed."
"And I would like to point out that the workings of your mind are sometimes incomprehensible."
"Does that mean I sometimes make sense?" I brushed past him, dumped the wet towel down the laundry chute, then headed for my wardrobe.
His gaze followed me, a caress that sent a tingly warmth skittering all the way down to my toes. It was certainly a more welcome sensation than the tiny tickles of thousands of spidery feet.
"Occasionally. Very occasionally."
I grinned again. "Just think how boring your life would be without me."
"I do." He hesitated. "Possibly more than is wise."
I shot him a glance. "So you're actually going to miss me when this assignment is over and you leave?"
He hesitated again, and my amusement died. Hesitation was not what I'd expected. Not now. Not after all that had happened between us. And yet, as Ilianna had so rightly pointed out, the future was not something I should be worrying about right now. But, at the same time, how could I not when it came to him and me? Because I didn't want him to leave. Not now, not ever.
Yet that was the one thing that was never in doubt.