by Avery Rae
"I like this surprise," I said, my voice muffled against his chest, "you should do this more often."
He pulled back to look down at me, his smile growing. "No, I don't think I'll be doing it anymore."
"Is this you breaking up with me?" I asked dryly, fighting back a smile.
Talys arched a brow. "Yes, I find getting naked and passing out in a woman's bed to be the best way to go about that sort of thing. It's a flawless plan when you think about it."
I snickered and wound my arms around him. "You're practically naked all the time anyway. Not like it changes anything because you took off one strip of fabric."
"It's my culture. I don't make fun of you for all of this." He pointedly plucked at my blazer, my blouse, then my pants. "And it's far more ridiculous."
"You make fun of my clothes all the time."
"True, but in my defense, you look much better without them."
"You're biased."
"Very much so."
I rolled my eyes. "So, what were you actually talking about? In regards to never surprising me again?"
"I'll continue to surprise you, just not with random visits," Talys replied breezily. "In other, more direct words, I'm a new resident of Nexion 6. Blessedly, this means Artos will stop complaining about how infrequently we visit." He frowned. "Hopefully I'll be able to claw him away from Roxa's grip long enough each day to still have an assistant."
"Yeah, I'm happy for Artos too, but let's back that up a few sentences." I scrambled out of his arms and sat up on my knees, staring down at him with wide eyes. "You're moving to Nexion?!"
He settled back, arms crossed behind his head, and nodded, clearly pleased with himself. "You heard correctly."
"But why?"
Talys gave me a flat look. "Because I love you and want to be with you?"
"You know what I mean." I batted him on his bare leg. "Are you not an ambassador anymore, or . . .?"
"I still am. Korystus has decided that it's time to set up proper embassies, and I jumped at the opportunity to head the one here on Nexion."
Although I was excited, a sudden thought made me wrinkle my nose. "Ambassador Elyos isn't going to work here, is he?"
Talys chuckled. "I think he's too embarrassed to even travel to Nexion 6 anymore."
In the past year, I'd only run into Elyos once, and it'd been painfully awkward. I eventually found out through Talys and Ulyr that apparently Elyos wasn't as brave as he'd seemed to me back then. He chickened out the day he was meant to take me to Nexion and left early without telling Ulyr. So, Talys had been wrong about Elyos's ship being behind his that day. It was long gone by the time I went inside the spaceport.
"Oh, by the way," Talys said, a hand slowly sneaking inside my blazer, "I might've also been the one to suggest we establish an embassy here in the first place, so if you want to congratulate me, preferably with that luscious body of yours—"
He didn't have to ask twice. I cut him off by jumping forward and crashing my lips against his in a gleeful kiss. I'd thought that things couldn't get any more perfect than they already were. As Talys slid his arms around me and sank me back against the bed, whispering about all the wonderful things he would do now that he had me to himself every day—I was happy to be wrong.
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