Starcrossed by Susan Krinard

Author:Susan Krinard [Krinard, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-57401-5
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-04-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“It happened the first time we touched.”

Ariane stretched on the bunk, easing a cramp in her bare leg, and entwined it with Rook’s. The mental contact had faded now; she could no longer sense his thoughts, breach the barrier around his mind so effortlessly. But she could feel him, more deeply than ever before—on an emotional level that needed no words. Through a bond forged between their minds by the act of love.

Rook turned his head. The slight distance in his eyes didn’t alarm her; he had much to accept. With a sigh she laid her cheek against his chest.

“I promised not to speak of the past, but if I’m to explain—to understand everything that’s happened—”

His jaw cupped over her forehead. “The past can’t touch us now,” he said. There was a sadness in his voice, but she would not search his heart for the source. It was enough that she was no longer his enemy. Enough that they were lovers.

Enough that she loved him.

“Years ago,” she said hesitantly, “when I came to the Warren and met you there—” She paused, waiting for a reaction.

“Go on,” he said evenly, rubbing his cheek against her hair.

Ariane swallowed. “I came to the Warren, following Jacques—but that night, before he’d ever left the mansion, I was feeling something I couldn’t explain.” She shifted, remembering. “Now that I look back on it, I know I’d been feeling things like that all my life, and dismissing them—as hunches, or imagination. Little things.” She smiled sadly, Finch’s face before her. “Mostly it was with Finch, sometimes when I went down into Espérance. A sense of emotions not my own.”

“The Sharing,” Rook said. Ariane looked up, reading emotions so tangled that she could make no sense of them at all.

“I’d heard,” she continued softly, “that Kalians had some mental powers. No one seemed to know quite what they were, and Finch never spoke of them. Another reason to hate and fear the aliens.” Sighing, she nestled against Rook’s chest again and savored his nearness. “The night of the riots, I couldn’t sleep. I felt—angry, restless, afraid—and when I saw Jacques leave, and you go after him, I knew I had to follow.”

Rook’s breath caught, and Ariane felt a spiral of pain twist in that part of her where Rook resided. “I never understood why you’d come,” he said.

“There was another reason.” Ariane’s voice grew muffled as she hid her face. “I’d seen you when you returned from Tolstoy, training with the other educated Kalians, walking in the park.” Heat rose to her cheeks, and she knew Rook would feel the warmth on his skin. “I was a child then, and it seemed safe and romantic to want someone I could never have. So I fell in love with you.”

Muscles went tense under her and relaxed again. “Loved me?” he echoed.

“I was very foolish—then,” she whispered. “And proud, and uncertain. And you were handsome, strong, exotic. Nothing like the Elite men I knew. You were part of a world—a future—I knew I could never have.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.