YOU HAVE ME ~ JAKE SULLY

7

If you haven't caught on yet, there's different POV's throughout the book. Most of them will be Nessa's POV or third person, but Jake's POV will definitely be sprinkled in.

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We finally sat around the dinner table. Mian as the head of the table, which he offered to me but I refused. It seems as though he feels he needs to treat me as a higher or equal rank to himself. But, he was an Olo'eykatn and he deserved to be treated as one. Ninat sat to his right and Nessa sat to his left. I was sitting next to Nessa as Mo'at sat next to Ninat.

Mo'at was speaking to Ninat about Tsahik training, seeing as Ninat newly moved into her role as the upper forest's Tsahik and needed guidance. Mian was tuned into their conversation. Leaving Nessa and I sitting next to each other in silence.

My eyes would glance down at her from time to time, while she kept her eyes cast downwards, picking at the food on her plate and occasionally eating a bite. Every so often, definitely less often than me, she would look up to me but always quickly diverted her gaze when I caught her eye.

No matter how often she caught me staring, my eyes always stayed glued to her. Maybe it was because I loved seeing her nervously shift under my gaze. Or maybe it was because I loved to see her eyes looking back into mine... It was probably a mix of both.

But Ness always looked away immediately. Almost as if she was scorning herself for even allowing herself to look. Little does she know, I always feel her eyes on me when I'm not looking. Just because I chose not to stare back, doesn't mean I was oblivious to it. It was often that I decided not to look back when I felt her gaze shift to me, I knew she would look away if I did, and well... I wanted her eyes on me.

I finally became sick of the silence between the two of us while the other three were engaged in conversation. I lifted my hand from my lap and used the back of my pointer finger to lightly tap on her thigh underneath the table, leaning down slightly to whisper to her, "For someone who was so talkative the first night, you sure are quiet."

I could feel her body tense below my finger, a small glimpse of how nervous I made her before she put her tough mask back on, rolling her eyes at me and slightly scoffing. "Please, I wouldn't have to be so talkative if you weren't so ignorant." She responded, taking a small bite of her food before turning her head to glance at me with a small smile on her lips.

"Oh, me? Ignorant? I could never, I'm too observational."

"You think very highly of yourself Mr. Toruk Makto."

I shrugged, "That little nickname alone commands confidence in myself. You should try it sometime." I tilted my head at her, knowing that comment would drive her crazy.

She scoffed yet again, "Please, my confidence could run yours over and crush it into a pulp. You don't seem like the man to like a woman with confidence." She had crossed one leg over the other, almost fully facing me now with her fork still in her right hand.

I smirked, "On the contrary, I love a woman with confidence." I said, slightly looking her up and down as I saw her tough mask falter for a small moment while she became nervous under my eyes.

I would give anything to just...

"So," She said, pulling me out of my thought and changing the subject, "Training starts tomorrow, hows everything coming along." She asked me, although I knew this conversation was leading elsewhere.

"Its going well, we have a plan set up and we're almost done setting up the actual base for everything."

She nodded her head, looking back down to pick at her food a little bit more. It seemed common that she picked at her food while she was in thought.