Page 6 of Mated in Flames

Warwick

Maybe, if I had told Dane about how oddly captivating the woman’s green eyes had been, he would have had far more misgivings over allowing me to be the one to meet her. But I didn’t tell him; it had just been a momentary spell bought on by the heat and the surprise of suddenly seeing her.

I told myself this right up until the moment she opened her front door after I knocked.

“Hello?” she asks.

I’m momentarily struck dumb. The sun is just beginning to rise up behind me, and the golden rays play on her tanned skin, making her eyes gleam. She’s not wearing a hat any longer, so I can see her hair, still down and curling softly around her ears, full and healthy. She’s taller than she had looked from a distance, and her figure was lithe and strong.

“Hello,” I finally rouse myself to say. “I live across the road. I saw you had moved in yesterday.”

“The night before, actually,” she says, shrugging, her voice dismissive. “Did you know my father?”

She was the daughter of the previous owner, then. I’m suddenly incredibly curious as to why this was the very first time I’d ever seen her in all these years.

“We were acquainted,” I reply. “We live – lived – across the road from one another. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Right.” She doesn’t seem cut up about the death, though something dark flits across her face for a moment before disappearing. “Anyway, can I help you?”

“I thought I’d just come and say hello,” I say, taken aback by her coldness; her manner could give Dane’s frostiness a run for its money. “And to see if you need any help.”

She blinks, looking surprised at the offer. I look a little closer. Beyond her beautiful looks, there was something very sad about her. Her shoulders were tense and slightly hunched, and I get the impression that she’s carrying some sort of huge burden.

And there’s something odd about her, something that draws me to her. I’m fascinated, by her appearance, about the reason she’s here, and by whatever secrets she seems to be hiding from the rest of the world. I want to know more.

She bites her lip for a moment, thinking.

“Do you know how to milk a cow?” she finally asks reluctantly. “I’ve never done it.”

Somehow, that wasn’t what I was expecting. I blink twice before grinning at her. I’m not surprised when she doesn’t smile back.

“I can show you,” I agree readily. Dane is going to absolutely kill me. “I’m Warwick, by the way.”

“I’m Luciana,” the woman says. “Let me grab my coat and we can go out.”

She slips back inside and slams the door. I fight the urge to look back toward my own house; I’ve no doubt that Dane is currently standing at the window, waiting for me to return and wondering what the hell I’m doing.

Before I can reconsider my offer, the door opens again and Luciana is standing there, now in boots, tugging her jacket over her shoulders.

“This way,” she says. “All the animals are around the back.”

“I know,” I say, hurrying to catch up to her as she starts walking. “Old Man Marty used to get me and my brother around to help him, sometimes, especially in his last months, so I’ve met them all. Do you like animals?”

“Never owned one,” she says shortly with a shrug.

I stare at her.

“Then why are you here?” I ask, confused.

She scowls at me.

“Not that it’s your business, but I inherited the property,” she says. “I came here to look at it and found the animals since dear dad couldn’t be bothered to tell me he had a damn menagerie out here, himself.”

There was a lot of bitterness in her voice. But she shakes her head and doubles her pace, forcing me to keep up with her lest I fall behind.

As we cross the fields, I can see the animals roaming around. I’ve helped care for every single one of them. Maybe I should offer to help Luciana for a little while, since I likely know these animals far better than she does.

A voice in the back of my mind that sounds very like Dane reminds me that this is an incredibly bad idea. Luciana is human and I am not. Having a connection with the old man was different, especially since he almost seemed half way to senile. But Luciana was young and strong and, to be honest, I didn’t know if she was really telling the truth about the inheritance. For all I know, she could absolutely be faking it, getting ready to stab Dane and I in our beds in the middle of the night…

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