Sapient Salvation 1: The Selection (Sapient Salvation Series) Read Online Free

don’t . . . um . . .”
    “So you would have stopped after we were married? Because then you wouldn’t need her anymore?” I softened my voice and gave him a completely fabricated look of hope. “You’d be completely faithful to me and never touch another woman again? You’d be with me and only me until the end of your days?”
    His mouth pulled down in a sour look before he could manage to stretch it into a too-wide smile. “Uh, yes, of course.”
    Lifting a hand, he stepped toward me. When I didn’t back away, he moved closer and brushed my cheek with the backs of his fingers.
    For a moment I felt myself weaken, felt the pull of Court’s beautiful face cloud my mind. A spark of desire lit up deep inside me.
    “I’m saving you because you’re special. You’re the best of all of them, Maya.” His voice actually trembled a little.
    Any desire I’d felt fled from my body. Of all of them? Exactly how many were there? I wanted to scream.
    Instead, I leaned toward him and looked up from under my lowered lashes. “If you really mean that, meet me here tonight after the Selection. Late, after our parents have gone to sleep,” I purred.
    He grinned broadly. “I will. I would love that.”
    He stooped for a kiss, and it was all I could do to keep my fists firmly clamped under my elbows. I sidestepped and gave him a playfully admonishing look. “Not until tonight.”
    I turned to the door and, after one last coquettish glance at Court over my shoulder, went inside.
    Lana wore a sly grin. “Whatever you have planned, he deserves it ten times over.” She tipped her head innocently toward her basket of cord dyes.
    I allowed myself a chuckle and knelt for the cobalt. Later, I’d offer Court a special glass of wine.
    My heart still ached, but a new energy surged through me. I felt as if I’d started to expand beyond my old self, as if the too-small cocoon that had encased me for as long as I could remember had suddenly become noticeably tight, and I’d begun the process of emerging, raw and tender, into something new.
    *
    The ceremony pavilion was nestled on a plateau tucked against a range of foothills at the edge of town not far from our house. Rand’s family owned a tiny rattleclap car, and Rand had given up his seat to my mother so she wouldn’t have to walk the mile or so uphill to the pavilion.
    Rand, Lana, and I walked slowly, trying not to kick up dust on the road, and the deliberate pace gave the long line of citizens and white-clad Obligate Elects a somber, processional feel.
    Lana and I strode with our elbows linked, and drew many glances. People’s eyes often seemed to want to linger on us when we were together, especially when we were dressed alike. Seeing a matched pair seemed to strike people as interesting or odd, I supposed. And for the ceremony we were a perfectly matched pair, dressed alike and made up with the same hairstyle.
    In moments like these, I almost felt as if my twin and I were of one spirit, moving through the world in separate bodies but synchronized with each other on some ethereal plane.
    Rand walked on my other side, moving nearer to me when we spotted Court and his family join the procession. Court twisted, and out of the corners of my eyes, I saw him spot me and felt his gaze linger. I turned toward Lana and mumbled something inconsequential to her, pretending I didn’t see Court’s searching look.
    With Rand close enough that the back of his wrist occasionally brushed mine, I couldn’t help comparing him to Court again. The past year and a half it could have been me and Rand getting to know each other, talking and laughing.
    But I’d had eyes only for Court.
    I looked up at Rand, waited until he turned to me, and then held his gaze. “Thank you for giving my mother your ride to the pavilion, for walking with us, and for offering to escort me tonight.”
    Thank you for always being there . . . even while I was a girlish idiot.
    The look on his face was like the sun