The Sweetest Taste

Chapter 26 - The Window Ledge

The hours slipped slowly by.

In the darkness of Din's room, Lysa lay there alone, staring up at the ceiling above.

Having stripped off her boots, she was lying on top of cool sheets, her chest rising and falling hard beneath the bodice of her pale tunic dress.

She had been tossing and turning for hours, desperate to drift off, and yet she couldn't. The evening's events playing through her mind like a looping transmission.

If only her aim had been better...

She wouldn't now be fretting about what would happen if Crix was still alive out there. About what would happen if he came back, angry and looking for revenge.

But despite this, Lysa tried to keep reminding herself that she was free.

Free from the clutches of a monster like Crix.

She could still feel the ghosts of bruises over her ribs. Still feel the place where his fingers had closed around her throat.

She swallowed now, trying to push thoughts like this from her mind.

Lysa knew she was safe with Din just outside the door, keeping watch.

She felt safer with him that had ever done in her life.

Protected.

His strong arms wrapped around her earlier this evening, stirring feelings inside her she had tried at first to bury.

But as the minutes and hours slid by, here alone in the sleeper, all Lysa could think about was him.

Yearning for his closeness.

Here lying on top of his bedsheets and his flat pillow, she could smell his musky scent.

Like starship fuel, ocean water, and burning driftwood. A cool, salty, heady scent that seemed to envelope Lysa as she lay there.

Desperate for him...

She swallowed again, breathing hard.

Din's bed was large. Large enough for two.

She wondered now if he had ever shared it with another?

A bitter sting of jealousy tugging at her stomach as she thought on Din being with another woman.

It must have happened of course. But even so, Lysa tried to push these painful thoughts away. Shaking herself.

She needed to stop this.

But propping herself up onto her elbows, Lysa stared at the door just a few feet away.

Din was out there now- she knew that, keeping watch for any sign of Crix.

She wondered now where he was sat. What he was thinking on, as he sat out there alone.

Wanting nothing more than to see him now.

And so making up her mind before she could second guess herself, Lysa sat up and slipped from the bed, padding to the door on bare feet.

.....

Din was sat up on the wide cushioned window ledge, back against the wall, one leg bent, his free arm leaning against his knee. As he kept a watch out of the wide window.

In his other hand, was his trusted Amban pulse-wave sniper rifle, which he raised every few minutes, checking the long-range scope for any movement.

It was his second of these weapons since his first had been destroyed along with the Razorcrest. Near to the perfect weapon for keeping a look out.