He understood now why she feared the intimacy. Why she had likely kept herself innocent of the demands of human passion and pleasure. With passion such as this, it would be tough not to lose sight of who she was. Not to sacrifice herself the way her father had—giving up his life beneath the ocean for Nali’s mother, an act that had brought him great joy but also immense sadness. Victor had seen that melancholy in her father when he had first met him, and now he knew the reasons for it. Yet he had also seen the joy when Saila had spoken of both his wife and his daughter. He suspected the old man would not have given up that happiness for anything in the world. That was a lesson Nali would one day have to learn. He just hoped he would be the man she chose to teach her that joy. He lay down beside her and splayed his hand across her sculpted midsection, which shivered beneath his touch as she recovered from the aftermath of their loving.
