Druidess Found (Druidess Trilogy Book 1) Machelle Hanleigh (best ebook reader under 100 .TXT) 📖

to do that, but it would show her resolve to put distance between them. "I need to breathe."

He frowned and then cursed. Moto leaned close to her ear. "We will finish this later."

Kaily frowned. What was there to finish? She opened her mouth to say as much, but before she said anything, he dove under the water and swam to the far edge. He pulled himself out of the pool and grabbed his clothes from where he discarded them. He turned back to face her. "I trust you won't drown yourself?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. Kaily could tell from the look on his face that he was trying to be funny, which only annoyed her. She turned around so that her back was to him. When she glanced back over her shoulder, he was already dressed and heading up the path back to the cave. She turned around and rested her chin on her hands. She let go of all the emotions she held back as the tears fell. Damn him! She wanted him. It scared her to know how tempted she was to say, screw it all, and just give herself to him in whatever manner he wanted. She hated that she would even consider that. She had not once in all of her 23 years of life been attracted to anyone like she was him. It wasn't fair!

She wiped away her tears. He wasn't worth it, she told herself. She would keep telling herself that until she believed it, even if it took an eternity. She pulled herself up onto the ledge. The rock was warm and felt good against her skin. She lay back and let the warmth seep into her body. She would let her underclothes dry and then find the courage to face him and continue to endure until she convinced him to take her back home. She didn't know how she was going to accomplish that, but she would, somehow. For some reason she couldn't understand, Moto seemed reluctant to take her back home, not that they talked about it. She couldn't shake the feeling that something changed inside him, and she didn't think it had to do with the ceremony between him and Sari. Somehow, she would convince him to take her back home. It was the best course of action for both of them.

***

Kaily startled awake when she heard a splash in the water. She sat up and turned in the direction of the splash expecting to see Moto. Instead, it was Sari swimming towards her position. She glanced around, but there was nowhere to go to make her escape. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to Sari. She genuinely liked Sari, and it wasn't Sari that had done anything wrong. It was Moto! She just couldn't face her when she was so conflicted inside about her own feelings where Moto was concerned. She couldn't make an escape without it being obvious and rude. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried to plaster a smile on her face when Sari joined her on the ledge.

Sari frowned at her. "Moto said he talked to you about the bonding ceremony, but you don't look like you're feeling the way I would expect you to feel." Sari was clearly puzzled by the emotions visible on Kaily's face despite her best efforts to hide them.

Kaily dropped the fake smile. "How should I feel, Sari?" She asked. "From my perspective, you two are married, and Moto," she glanced at the path that led to the caves where she knew he was. She didn't know how she knew, only that she knew it. "Well, he is being," she shook her head. What could she say to Sari? Kaily took a deep breath. "It may not be a big deal here; this bonding thing between you two, but where I'm from, marriage is a big deal despite Moto's inaccurate notion about how my world views that kind of thing." She assumed Moto's idea of what marriage on her word was inaccurate considering his obvious overtures towards her.

Sari's frown deepened, while at the same time a smile spread across her features and amusement reached the depths of her eyes. She raised an eyebrow. "Um, marriage as you call it, is a big deal here. A Kahoali bonding is for life and only with one person, ever. There is no other once the bonding begins and only deepens when the final ritual of the bonding is completed. The bonding between two individuals cannot be undone."

"I don't understand." Oh god! She thought. It was worse than she thought. Marriage was a serious decision, but it was not something that couldn't be undone if the two so decided.

"I know you don't." Sari let out an exasperated sigh. "Moto was supposed to talk to you before the ceremony took place to advise you that there would be a ceremony and that for all intense purposes it was to convince everyone that he and I were committed as bonded mates. I know that he didn't talk to you about it before the ceremony, but he said that he talked to you about it today. What did he say to you?"

Kaily shook her head and shrugged. "Something about it not mattering," she would have explained further but Sari was laughing at her.

"My apologies, I'm not laughing at you, Kaily. I should have known that Moto wouldn't explain it right."

"Neither have you." Kaily said. "Are you two married, bonded or whatever you call it or not?" She couldn't help the frustration in her tone or body language.

"Not," Sari said, "we are not. Our agreement to be bonded, the ceremony, all of it was done to appear that Moto and I were bonded, and that Moto was no longer available to anyone else as a bonded mate."

"Why?" Kaily didn't see how that made any difference.

"So, he could have time and freedom to work through his issues about you. That