She let go, snapped her fingers and twisted down, then rose back up. "One day, I think you're going to bust out of those hand-polished loafers and actually cut loose."
Valerius cleared his throat and tried to imagine such a thing. It wasn't possible. There had been a time once, back when he'd been human, when he might have attempted it.
But those days were long gone.
Anytime he'd ever tried to be anything other than what he was, someone else had paid a terrible price for it. So he'd learned to stay as he was and to leave everyone else alone.
It was for the best.
Tabitha watched as his face turned to stone once again. She sighed. What would it take to reach this guy? For someone who was immortal, he certainly didn't seem to enjoy life very much.
In spite of all of Kyrian's faults, she had to give him credit. The former Greek general did enjoy every breath he took. He lived his life to its fullest.
Meanwhile, Valerius just seemed to exist
"What do you do for fun?" she asked.
"I read."
"Literature?"
"Science fiction."
"Really?" she asked, surprised. "Heinlein?"
"Yes. Harry Harrison is one of my favorites, as are Jim Butcher, Gordon Dickson, and C. J. Cherryh."
"Wow," she said, amazed. "I'm impressed. Go, Dorsai."
"Actually, I rather like Dickson's The Right to Arm Bears and Wolfling novels better."
Now that she found surprising. "I don't know, Soldier, Ask Not seems more your style to me."
"It is a classic, but the other two spoke to me more."
Hmmm... Wolfling was about a man alone in an alien world with no friends or allies. That further confirmed her suspicions about his life. "Have you ever read Hammer's Slammers?"
"David Drake. Another favorite."
"Yeah, you have to love the military stuff. Burt Cole wrote a book years ago called The Quick."
"Shaman. He was quite the complex hero."
"Yeah, strangely amoral and yet moral at the same time. Never sure what side of the fence he's on. Kind of reminds me of a few friends I've had over the years."
Valerius couldn't keep from smiling. It was so nice to have someone who was familiar with his guilty secret. The only other person he knew who read science fiction was Acheron, but the two of them seldom ever talked about it.
"You're a remarkable woman, Tabitha."
She smiled up at him. "Thanks. Now, I'll let you go on to bed," she said gently. "I'm sure you could use the rest."
She ached to give him a tender, friendly kiss on the cheek, but thought better of it. Instead, she watched as he headed out of the room, up the stairs.
Valerius made his way silently back to Tabitha's room. She had such a powerful presence that he literally felt drained just from having been around her.
He removed his clothes and hung them back up so that he wouldn't wrinkle them, then returned to bed to sleep.
But sleep was something that didn't come to him. For the first time, he smelled the perfume on her sheets.