Aviana (MC Riders #1)

L O G U S T E L L U S

/"lO-gu-'stel-us/

noun

a person whose love of words is greater than their knowledge of words.

~🎲~

A V I A N A  A N D  Gunner were seated together on a window seat; he leaned up against the wall to the left with his legs stretched out before him and Aviana sat against the window, her legs curled up towards her chest. She had her cheek pressed to the warm window, watching Gunner with enchanted fascination as he read aloud to her.

It had been rather embarrassing for her to admit that she could only read the most basic of words. She had only been able to attend school for the first three years and although she had been an excellent student, as much as one could be at the age of five, six and seven, she wasn't able to fully comprehend the beautifully bound classics that she had found in Gunner's room. So, she had sucked up her pride and asked him to read them to her; a task he didn't hesitate to agree to.

She listened to him intently as his mouth formed such beautiful words, some she had never heard of in all of her nineteen years. "Odysseus knew the voice as that of the goddess," Gunner read, his eyes scanning the page for the next words. "he flung his cloak from him and set off to run. His servant Eurybates, a man of Ithaca, who waited on him, took charge of the cloak, whereon Odysseus went straight up to Agamemnon and received from him his ancestral, imperishable staff. With thi-"

"What does that mean?" Aviana interrupted him softly.

He glanced up at her, his lips curling into a smile. "Which one?" he asked.

She thought he would be tired of her asking him the same question time and time again, but he didn't seem to mind; replying with the same smile and sparkling eyes that he had the first time. "Imperishable," she spoke the word awkwardly. "I've never heard it before."

He looked at the wall opposite for a moment, breathing deeply as his eyes narrowed and his smile grew. He seemed to finally find the perfect way to explain the word and he turned his attention back to her as he spoke. "If something is imperishable," he explained. "It means that it can never be destroyed; never tarnished. It can endure anything."

Aviana smiled with the new knowledge, repeating the word over in her head until she was sure it would stay there forever. Until it was imperishable. Gunner watched her with a soft grin; he swore he could physically feel himself falling further for her every time she showed him another glimpse of her mind.

"Keep going," she broke him out of his trance, urging him to continue reading.

He shook his head, still smiling. "Alright," he chuckled before clearing his throat. "Odysseus went straight up to Agamemnon and received from him his ancestral, imperishable staff. With this he went about among the ships of the Achaeans. Whenever he met a king of a chieftain, he stood by him and spoke fairly."

Gunner's words began to drown out in Aviana's mind, her attention now focused more on the man before her than on the story. She had never really allowed herself to properly study his face before but now that she was so close to him, she could see every little detail that she had previously overlooked. For instance, the scar that cut through his left eyebrow; if it hadn't cut his eyebrow in half, she would have never noticed it. Nor would she have really noticed the two small moles under his left eye. 'Beauty marks' she had heard them be called. Well, he certainly was beautiful; a little rugged and rough around the edges, but beautiful nonetheless.

She didn't notice he had stopped speaking until her gaze landed on his lips and she realised that they had stopped moving and were curled up in what was slowly becoming her favourite smile. The one he reserved just for her. "Is Homer boring you?" he asked jestfully.