âMirandaâ¦â he hesitated for a while after my name, âyou can come in here whenever you like and wake me, no matter what. Thatâs why Iâve put you in the adjoining room. I wanted you as close to me as possible while you settle in.â
His words gave me mental images of us âas close as possibleâ on his bed.
âOh. Okay.â I forced my eyes away from his sexy, sleep-hooded ones, the pupils dilated so that his eyes seemed dark, bottomless pools.
I needed to get out of there before I flung myself at him. He hadnât yet indicated that he still felt the same way about me. Perhaps he still caredâbut just not in that way.He still needed me, after all, for Marin; even if he didnât want me.
The more I thought about it the more it made sense. He would have told me on the beach, when weâd reunited for the first time, that he still wanted me in that way. He would have demonstrated it physically, somehow, like in a passionate kiss. But he hadnât. He had probably just turned up at the beach out of politeness, because of his promise; a chaperone to an underwater city and nothing more. Orâand I didnât want to entertain this thought but I had to be realisticâhis reasons for showing up were more than likely to do with Marinâs lack of an heir.
âWhy are you staring at me like that?â Marko ran a hand through his mussed hair and smiled in a way that made my heart melt. âDo I have sleep creases on my face or something?â
âOhâ¦itâs nothing. I think Iâve got ocean-lag, butâ¦Iâm finally feeling sleepy.â
Marko nodded and eyed me thoughtfully. âYouâd let me know if you were feeling ill or if anything was wrong? Iâd like to think that weâre friends enough for you to trust me.â
And there it wasâ friends. Oh God. Iâd been friend-zoned by the guy I was in love with.
âI do trust you.â My throat tightened and my eyes stung. A dark feeling spread through my chest, as though a great hollow had opened up and sucked my heart into oblivion. I felt stupid to have hung my hopes so high on the idea of Marko and I being together after a year apart.
âOkayâ¦so, goodnight.â I waved, like an idiot, before scurrying out of his room.
Closing the door behind me, I leant against it, catching my breath. In a bid to stem the impending tears I sank myteeth into my bottom lip and counted to ten, then twenty, then thirty, until a strange calm passed over me.
In a sense, knowing that Marko only saw me as a friend gave me some kind of clarity. Instead of focusing on flirting and guessing his feelings towards me I could concentrate on the other reason I came down to Marin: to make certain the city and Marko were safe, and to find out once and for all if Sylvia was as true as Marko believed.
I ended up reading into the early hours. It wasnât until halfway through the book before my eyes became heavy and I finally fell asleep.
While sleeping, I dreamed Marko came into my room. Bare-chested, and looking like some kind of dark-haired angel, he knelt down beside the bed and pressed his wine-stained lips, feather-light, against my own, before disappearing into the blackness of sleep.
CHAPTER SIX
T HE NEXT MORNING , remembering Markoâs promise of a visit to the gardens, I dragged myself out of bed, forcing the memory of last nightâs depressing conversation out of my head, and opened the wardrobe, pulling on a pair of blue jeans and a fitted black-and-white striped stretch top. The temperature in Marin was controlled into seasons by their source of energy, the light crystals. If I remembered correctly, it was the end of their summer and the beginning of autumn. I eyeballed Markoâs door and debated knocking on it to see if he was awake, when I noticed that it was slightly ajar. Certain that Iâd closed it last night, I wondered if maybe I hadnât dreamed