Styxx closed his eyes and savored the sensation of her lips on his skin. He ached to sink his hand into her hair and hold her there, against him until time itself stopped moving. "I'm sorry I was so late. If you need to leave..."
"I don't. Not really." She started back toward the stream.
"Here, let me carry that for you." Styxx took the basket from her arm.
As they walked, she pulled a blanket from the basket in his hand. Once they reached her spot, she spread it out on the ground. It amazed him how she moved with such ease and grace when she couldn't see anything. How she remembered the exact place she'd been in when they'd met.
"May I ask you something personal?"
She paused. "It depends. How personal are we talking?"
He leaned the pole against a tree. "It's ... never mind. I shouldn't have mentioned it."
She arched a brow at him. "Now you have my curiosity fully tweaked. What is it?"
"I ... um..." He scratched nervously at his cheek, hoping to the gods he didn't offend her with his stupidity. "Were you born blind?"
She laughed lightly as she set out her items from the basket. "You and I have completely different definitions for the word 'personal.' No, I wasn't born blind. I had my sight at birth."
"Is that why you move so easily?"
"No. I move easily because I'm not old."
It was his turn to laugh. "That's not what I meant."
"I know what you meant and no, it's because I have overdeveloped senses that allow me to know where things are, and it's why I tend to hum or make noises as I go. Whenever I get near something, sound will echo back from it, letting me know it's in my way."
"Really?"
She nodded as she sank down on the blanket. "What about you? Were you born with your eyesight?"
He laughed again. "I was indeed. Though I have no memory of it. And sometimes it doesn't work as well as it should." He set the basket down beside her then took a seat on the opposite side of the blanket so that he could admire the way the light cut across her skin that reminded him of warm, dark honey. "You changed your hair."
"I curled it."
"I like it ... though it was nice straight, too," he quickly added.
Her sweet, beautiful smile hardened him instantly. "My poor Hector. You're really not very comfortable around women, are you?"
"Not even a little, but I have to say that you're a lot easier to talk to than most."
"How so?"
You don't deride me, for one thing.... "I think it has to do with the fact that I met you at the height of my ineptitude. I have nowhere else to go in your estimation except up." Cringing over those words, Styxx cleared his throat. He'd said too much about his stupidity and clumsiness. No need in reminding her of it when he didn't have to. "Nice weather, isn't it?"
She tsked at him. "You're changing the subject. It makes me wonder why."
He sighed wearily before he answered her original question. "Women tend to want to use or judge me."
"Use you how?"
He plucked a blade of grass and ran it through his fingertips. "They see me as a hefty purse."
"Are you?"
"No. I'm quite certain I'm human. Most days anyway. Mornings not always withstanding. Instead of a purse, I'm much more of a bear in the early hours of the day."
Her laughter washed over him like the sweetest wine and had the same intoxicating effect on him. "But do you have money?"