Flame Touched

Chapter Twenty-Two - Rei

Matt left in the early morning hours before the sun even rose. Rei barely felt him leave the bed. She thought about wishing him well on his travels, giving him a good-bye kiss. After their argument last night, she chose to pretend to still be sleeping instead. If she showed him any kind of affection, Matt might have made the assumption she was trying to stall him from going to work, or something equally obscure. Or they might not fight, and it would have been a wonderful moment. Either way, she did know that she felt like nothing more than a hindrance.

With him gone, however, she also felt lost. Either way, she couldn't win. The other morning, he'd brought her breakfast. Where was she supposed to go to get it on her own? She'd yet to have a tour. The only other person she'd met was Eian's wife during her time at the wives' pool. They'd gotten along well enough. Now if she could figure out where to find her, that'd be great.

"Where does your brother live?" She directed her thoughts to Matt, hoping she did it right. Communicating through telepathy was going to take a lot for her to get used to.

Thankfully, Matt didn't wait too long to reply. He was awake and not ignoring her. "He moved outside of the castle yesterday. Why?"

"I wanted to see if his wife would get breakfast with me." Right away, she was self-conscious of how pathetic that sounded. "Or is there another place I can go to eat? I've only done it in the bedroom and at the pool."

Her husband took longer to respond this time. "Some of the women eat all of their meals at the pool. Another good place to try is the courtyard terrace. It's not far from our room. Turn right as soon as you step out the door, then left at the first hallway, and take that to the door that goes outside. There should be signs."

"Thank you. Are you doing okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know." She winced, embarrassed. "A conversation starter, I guess."

"Oh. Well, we're another hour from our destination," he said. "Not much else to talk about. I'll let you know when we are done for the day. I have some details to go over with my men before we arrive. They don't know I'm talking to you. It's considered rude to have telepathic conversations when you're with someone in person."

Rei winced again at his chastisement. "I didn't realize you were with anyone else."

"I know, I didn't mention it. My fault. I'll catch up with you soon."

"Okay. I love you."

She expected a quick reply. None came. How hard was it to say "I love you too"? He's distracted. It's okay. Don't read too much into it. And she hoped he didn't hear those thoughts too. She'd been given a few tricks on how to keep them to herself. It was either she learned, fast, or stopped thinking. The thought made her laugh. Stop thinking? Was that even possible? When Matt made the suggestion, she'd initially thought he was joking. There was a seriousness to his tone, though, and she wondered just who he learned about women—about people in general—from.

"Not like I know a lot of stuff about guys," she said out loud while she found something to wear. At the pool, she'd seen a lot of the wives, but hadn't spoken more than a handful of words to anyone besides Camila. Both of them had been petrified, so their conversations were weak. The most she got from the girl was that she came from the countryside and Eian was treating her well. Right away, Rei knew they wouldn't have much in common. Their perspectives on the entire situation were about as different as night and day. Rei sympathized with her, but she didn't see Matt taking her away from home as a curse.