House of Royale (Secret Keepers #4)(36)

There was a long pause before he said, “Firstly, if you found a human that you wanted to marry, you could give them some of our food. This could extend their life many hundreds of years, if eaten regularly.”

Say what? That information should have made me feel a lot better, but it didn’t.

“And secondly, why are you stressing about this right now? You just told me you don’t want to settle down. You’re all in for this casual partnership.” Xander almost sounded like he was angry. “The physical without the emotional.”

“I am all in,” I said, trying not to get upset at his tone. I was sharing something real with him and he was acting like his old dickish self. “But I’m only eighteen. Eventually I’ll want more. I will want to have it all.”

I didn’t think he was going to answer, and I was about to push myself away from him when he spoke, resigned, “Humans aren’t your only option. Most Royales might not, in general, form long-term bonded relationships … but we are starting to change. So, never say never on that front. Or, as you said, there are the other houses. There’s usually no cross-mated relationships between the houses, but if that’s something you need to be happy, I will make sure no one questions you.”

He was the one to break away and rise to the surface, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why my chest hurt when he did. When I surfaced next to him, I spun so I could see his face. A neutral expression met mine.

“Sorry if I upset you,” I said slowly. “I shouldn’t have unloaded my personal stuff on you.”

He shook his head, water droplets flying off him. “It’s fine. It’s good to make sure we’re on the same page still. For now, you and I are doing this no-strings-attached thing. The only stipulation from me is that you’re not with any other Daelighters or humans while we’re together. Royales are possessive during the time we’re together.”

I nodded. “I can agree to that, as long as you also don’t stray.”

“Deal.” The heaviness of his expression lifted, and he drifted back to rest against the side of the massive bath. I followed, but instead of moving to sit right by him, like I might have when we first entered, I dropped back on the opposite side.

Xander looked amused. “They’re going to come looking for us soon,” he said. “This was a nice little interlude. I have a feeling life is going to get very hectic for the next few days.”

I nodded. “I’m thinking the same thing. I can feel this … energy almost, running along my skin. Something big is about to happen. It’s like being in the ocean just before the huge storms. I can feel the electricity in the air. I always know when the storm is coming.”

Xander nodded. “It’s one of the things I love the most about Hawaii, when the storm clouds roll across the sky. We don’t have clouds here. Our water is from beneath the land.”

“I’d miss never seeing a storm again,” I told him. “So maybe living under the water isn’t quite everything I want in life.”

Xander chuckled. “Sometimes the water isn’t greener on the other side. Earth has a lot of wonders that Daelighters dream of experiencing, but very few of us make it through the transporter. The ones that do, most of them return home.”

From what I’d seen, it seemed like there were tons of Daelighters moving between the two worlds, but in reality it was probably only a small percentage of their total numbers.

“Can anyone cross to Earth?” I asked, wondering if there were rules about it.

Xander shook his head as he leaned back further, his long arms resting across the top of the bath on either side of him. “No, you need to receive permission from your overlord. There are long wait lists, some longer than others depending if you want to go for a vacation or to live. We closely monitor all Daelighters on Earth, which is something your government insisted on. There’s also a limit to the numbers of us allowed to cross. Lots of rules and red tape involved.”

It made sense. If an alien race was trying to set up shop in my world, I’d want to know what they were up to as well. “I’m still surprised that my government is so compliant with you all crossing to Earth,” I said honestly. “The stone must be something seriously important to the human race.”

“It is,” he said. “Before the stone, you were heading for a cataclysmic event. Nature was set to wipe you out.”

Before the true horror of that could sink in, there was a loud knock on the bedroom door. Xander’s head fell back and he groaned. “For a moment there, reality was far away,” he murmured.

It didn’t sound like he was talking to me, so I didn’t reply. I stood, sending a silent goodbye to the water as it trailed down me. Xander’s head snapped forward again, his eyes locked on me. The blue darkened—a sign I already recognized.

“No time, Romeo,” I teased him, taking my time as I walked up the steps and out of the bath. I didn’t feel one ounce of unease at being naked in front of him like this, which was really unexpected. Maybe it was the simple fact that I didn’t have to try and impress him. We’d already established the rules of this relationship, and now we were just enjoying it.

As I reached for a neatly folded towel in a set of dark gray shelves near the entrance to the tiled bathroom, hands landed on my hips. I hadn’t even heard him move, but I sure as hell felt him when he spun me around, his lips capturing mine.