Chapter 26
Raj sensed that Helen was a little confused about what had just happened. And if he were being honest, he was as well. Never before had a sexual experience been that…good. No, good wasn’t strong enough. He was awed by the intensity. What had changed?
He wasn’t sure, but he felt Helen pulling away from him. Yes, she was still soft in his arms. And no, she wasn’t trying to run away. Not physically, anyway. But there was a stillness to her that warned him that she was overthinking this. She was trying to rationalize what they’d just experienced, and that might not be a positive thing.
That’s when he remembered his goal of trying to connect with Helen on a non-sexual level. Mentally, he berated himself for not maintaining control. They shouldn’t be in bed together yet. He’d wanted to get her to trust him on a non-sexual level, to convince her that they could be together long term.
Raj needed to get Helen to talk to him. About something non-sexual. They needed connections of a different sort so that he could eventually convince her to come back to Lativa with him. Forever!
“Tell me about your previous job,” he requested, which he considered to be a very non-sexual subject.
For the next half hour, they stayed like that, talking about their lives and her job, his job and his family. Helen didn’t have any family. Her father had died of cancer when she was in elementary school and her mother had passed away from a car accident about ten years ago.
Raj couldn’t imagine being so alone. His brothers had become such an integral part of his life. Now he had two sisters-in-law, plus Marianna, his half-sister, who was so damn smart, it was scary.
So, he started telling Helen about them. Slowly, at first. He didn’t want to scare her, but he wanted her to know them, know what they were like and their struggles before she met them in person. His oldest brother, Khal, could be intimidating when one first met him. He was a giant brute of a man who’d thought he needed to carry all of the responsibility of running the country on his shoulders.
Until five years ago. That had been a turning point in so many ways.
He held off on telling her about the reasons he’d disappeared five years ago. He wanted them to be dressed when he explained his error. Plus, he needed to be looking into Helen’s eyes as he explained.
Eventually, they fell asleep, still wrapped in each other’s arms. Every time she moved, Raj unconsciously pulled her closer, comforted by the feeling of her pressed against him in their sleep.