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feel?”
    â€œHunger, my lady. Possessiveness. Tenderness.” Love. But he didn’t dare say that out loud. He’d already made that mistake with a woman. “Most of all, protective and caring.”
    Bathymaas looked down at her arms and the strange bumps that always came to her whenever he was near. “What are these?”
    â€œChills.”
    She ran her hand over his biceps. “You have them, too. Do you also want to touch me?”
    â€œI do, my lady.”
    â€œAnd yet you don’t.”
    â€œI told you I wouldn’t dishonor you. I would sooner die than cause you any harm.”
    Her vision clouded and her throat tightened as he spoke. She blinked several times, but instead of getting clearer, her vision worsened and something wet fell down her cheeks. “What is this? Am I going blind?”
    With a tender expression, he lifted his hand and gently brushed his thumb against her face. “They’re called tears.”
    â€œWhy do I have them?”
    He tenderly dried her cheeks. “Whenever something hurts inside you or something touches your heart they can manifest unexpectedly.”
    Frowning, she looked down and lifted the Egyptian amulet from between her breasts. “But my heart is here. Nothing has touched it.”
    Biting back a smile at her innocence, Aricles placed a single finger between her breasts. “No, my lady, your heart is in here.” But as he spoke the words, he realized she didn’t have a heartbeat. He scowled.
    She held her amulet out to him. “I’m not like you, Ari. When I was a child, I discovered that those who are born to mothers have hearts and heartbeats and that I do not. I asked my father about it and he gave me this amulet and said that it contains his heart that he lost to me the moment I was created. He said it holds his love for me and that even though I’d never understand what love is, that so long as I wore my amulet, I’d have a piece of him with me to keep me safe in his absence. This is my heart.” Her frown deepened at the happy expression that brightened his face. “Why do you smile like that?”
    â€œBecause you now have two hearts, my lady. Your father’s and mine.”
    She still didn’t understand what he meant. Placing her hand to his chest, she felt his heart beating. “Yours is like my father’s. Strong.”
    â€œEven so, hearts are fragile and easily broken.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œIt doesn’t take much. When you love someone, a single tear,” he wiped away another of hers, “or frown can shatter a heart. And if something happens to the one you’ve given your heart to, their loss can break it into so many pieces that it never heals again.”
    Her jaw went slack. “Then it’s a good thing you gave yours to me to keep. For I can never die or be harmed.”
    His smile widened. “I am lucky, indeed.”
    â€œAnd this physical side of love … is it important?”
    â€œNo. Love can endure without it.”
    â€œAre you sure?”
    Aricles nodded as he brushed back a piece of hair from her face. He knew that they would never be physically intimate, and while a part of him craved that experience, he loved her enough to not ask for something he knew he couldn’t have. Something he wasn’t worthy of. But at the same time, the thought of not sharing these quiet afternoons alone with her, of not having her drill him with random odd and embarrassing questions, hurt more than he could bear. “I am.”
    Suddenly, she pulled her amulet off and placed it around his neck. The stone amulet was still warm from her body temperature. “What are you doing?”
    She placed her hand over it. “You gave me your heart. It’s only fair that I give you mine.”
    He smiled at her precious and innocent sweetness that touched him all the way to his soul. “It doesn’t work like that, my lady.