They didn’t need telepathy after spending days reading each other’s every movement, watching for clues, depending on each other. That was as frightening as the ornamental bronze medallions she stroked with her thumb.
“Yes,” she said quietly “We’re getting this, too.”
He moved behind her and curled warm, broad palms on her shoulders. “You’ll be beautiful wearing this, Kavya. I’ll be proud to stand by your side when you do.”
—
They finished shopping, during which Kavya had concluded the long-winded process of haggling for every item. She and the vendors spoke so quickly in some local tongue, maybe Hindi. Tallis hadn’t been able to keep up. That she came away with a nod and a small smile told him of her satisfaction with an exchange. That he’d walked away from each encounter with a few extras tucked in his pack—old habits died hard.
The process was repeated at a few stalls containing foodstuffs and hand-milled soaps. They even found him a relatively new leather jacket, this one lightweight yet durable. He might actually feel like a man again, rather than a wild animal that had crawled down from the mountains. Those weren’t his mountains, and the animal was firmly set on its target. He would have Kavya alone.
In
“We’re out of money,” she said. “We can’t afford to stay there.”
“We can’t afford to, but we’re staying.”
He took her hand and practically dragged her to the back of the building. An ancient fire escape was an obvious choice for breaking in, but he eyed the metal. It was rusted and pitted with holes at the hinges. Either it wouldn’t hold them, or it would make hell’s own noise as he pulled down the bottom set of steps. Yet as a man who’d spent twenty years without a home, he wasn’t out of options. He liked to think he never was, but he glanced back at Kavya and knew better. She was another wild mountain creature, blazing with fire and an unknowable darkness that had overtaken her in the market.
She was alive with a vitality he wanted to suck into his bones. His bones felt old.
A thought that felt ancient jumped to the forefront of his mind. He’d fallen in love with the vision in his dream. How could he not? Whoever had been invading his mind for the last twenty years knew triggers to elicit that response. Kavya was different. She was stubborn and sometimes too naive for her own good, just as she was brilliant and so optimistic that he couldn’t help but be drawn to her. She was a genuine person, with all of the complexities of a sentient being. Her perseverance was a magnet, drawing him closer, becoming the true north he’d thought altered beyond rediscovery. Apparently he was standing in a city called Jaipur, somewhere in India, but he didn’t feel lost.
Reconciling his difference in feeling between his dreams of the Sun and Kavya . . . it was a useless exercise. One had been uncomplicated and fake, while what he was beginning to feel for Kavya was very complicated.
“This way,” he said gruffly, shoving aside thought in favor of action. It was always better that way.
She was obviously reluctant, but took a deep breath and followed. Only her eyes shot sparks of warning.
Tallis searched the base of the building until he found a service door. It was partially hidden, probably intentionally, behind a large round metal canister of rubbish and abandoned junk. It was as rusted as the fire escape. The monsoon season must wreak havoc on everything.
“In we go,” he said.
“You and what crowbar?” Her expression was dubious, with a hint of the quality he kept mocking her about—a goddess reluctant to stoop. Considering what they’d endured over the last few days, he was happy to see her disdain alive in force. She still maintained a touch of stuck-up arrogance that said she was in charge. That she wasn’t at all times didn’t matter. The attitude suited her a lot better than making choices based on fear.
He couldn’t afford her panic. Not only did he need her to help out with his visions, he wanted more. More than sex. More than he could picture, let alone name.
“Do you think this is my first time sneaking in? Have a little faith.”
“Said the heretic to the goddess.”
Grinning, he knelt by the small service door and dug away the refuse and dirt that suggested the little entry was practically forgotten. “Hand me the pack.”
Although she remained obviously dubious—which was beginning to irk Tallis—she tossed him the roughed- up knapsack. It was in sorry need of a wash. From it he withdrew a small metal case that contained tiny tools. The lock on the door was rusted, almost impossible to open, but he managed after twenty minutes of patient prodding. He’d never encountered a lock he couldn’t pick, nor a hotel he couldn’t shimmy into for a solid night’s rest. In bigger places, he found it useful to walk in at midday, make his way to the employees’ areas, and begin working. No one looked twice. A pilfered key or security card meant open access to any of the rooms he found empty after dark, when few additional guests would check in.
This place was large enough to remain anonymous, but with probably twenty rooms. They would be noticed if they weren’t careful. The advantage was less technologically advanced security.
Such as an unattended service door.
He shoved his foot against the door when it wouldn’t budge by hand. A massive creak and the scattering of some internal debris gave him pause. He waited a moment. Then he was inside, feet first, stomach toward the inner wall. He lowered himself using the strength of his arms and the toes of his boots. Kavya threw down the pack without the need for prompting, before repeating his backward entrance. Only, she wasn’t as strong.
Tallis wedged his fingers in the fold between her thigh and the curve of her ass. “Let go. Push away from the wall.”
Kavya paused a few seconds. “Right.”
Using her hands and the momentum of her fall, she propelled backward. Tallis caught her with his arms under her knees and across her upper back. “That wasn’t so hard.”
She shook her head. “You have a funny sense of perspective on things like that.”
“It must be funny.” He set her gently down, but she winced when her soles touched the pitted concrete floor. “Because you’re smiling.”
“Are all Pendray a little touched in the head?”
Tallis shrugged. “It’s been a little while since I’ve been back. Who knows what twenty years will do to a people. Probably not as much as I fear. Besides, none of us are as bat-shit as your people.”
Rather than take offense, Kavya chuckled quietly. “Can’t really argue there. Where to?”
They poked around the underground storage until they found a hose and utility sink. “This will have to do.”
“Oh no. Not again.”
“We can’t be too picky. If we go upstairs looking like vagabonds, they’ll throw us out on the street. Trust me.”
“You’ve looked like a vagabond before, Tallis? Don’t disillusion me.”
“You don’t know—”
Another huffing laugh revealed her sarcasm, which made him feel a fool for getting his back up so easily, and equally impressed that she’d accumulated a quick knack for his quiet humor.
She pointed to a plain door on the far side of the tight, moldy basement. Some writing adorned it. “The laundry,” she said with a note of triumph.
They were inside with the door shut and locked within seconds. Again, Tallis felt an off sense of having reluctantly met his match and satisfaction at having done so. He’d been on his own so long.
The laundry was barely functional, but at least its utility sink offered warm water. He began to strip.
“What, no tease this time?” Kavya was watching him, her pale brown eyes avaricious.
“You think I have the energy to try seducing you again, goddess?”
“No energy?” She made a noise as if contemplating the situation. “You seemed rather . . . vigorous in the cornfield.”
Leaving him stunned and likely marked for life, Tallis watched as Kavya unwound the maroon cloth of her sari and unfastened the bodice, all without ceremony.
She stood naked before him.
After what he’d dreamed and what he’d already discovered of her flesh, he was revealed as a fool for
