Page 16 of Iced Heat

“Depends on if you’re hungry or not and if you need coffee or not,” Xav said, kissed the top of my head and rolled onto his back. I moved with him so I could still rest my head over his heart. “And if you need to ramble about yesterday or not.”

“One day you’re gonna tell me to shut up,” I laughed.

“Nah,” he shook his head. “It’s cute when you ramble on. Besides, it gives me more insight into what’s going on inside your head than you think and I’m curious on how yesterday went. You showed up at your dad’s ready to fly off and who was I to argue? Yesterday I took as you wanted me all to yourself or you were starting to feel the heat kicking in. This morning I realized it could be that it went horribly and you were getting out of dodge.”

I let out a long, slow breath and wondered for a second if any of my exes or one-night stands had ever spent so much time analyzing me. I hoped not because I wasn’t sure they’d like what they might’ve figured out. I didn’t mind Xav doing it, though. It made me feel less crazy when he was the only thing I could think or talk about for long stretches of time.

“I rambled a whole fucking lot,” I admitted, glancing up at him. “I hate to say it, but she could barely get a word in edgewise and all I could do was blame you and then blame her for takingme away from you. In a good way, though. I definitely get why she’d have given Rosemary whatever she wanted but on the other hand, I don’t know that I’d let you take down my mom’s stuff either.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Xav shrugged. “I travel light. Always have.”

“Because you’re elemental?” I asked him.

“We can say it’s that,” he nodded and kissed the tip of my nose.

I laughed like I was in high school again and had never kissed a boy before. I’d kissed lots of boys in lots of places back then and a lot of men all over now.

“Was she mad about you talking about me the whole time?” Xav asked, gently.

“I think she was more amused than anything else. I think that it’s like the tables have turned for her. She’s not that bad once you get to know her. Before Rosemary, I’d have said she wasn’t bad at all. We both just have a lot of growing to do to make room for you and Rosemary. After Dad went to sleep and Teddy spent more time over at Duke’s than with us, we became really co-dependent and it’s going to take a while to break those habits on both sides.”

“Do you want to?” Xav asked me.

“We have to or we’re not going to have a relationship at all and I don’t want to lose my sister,” I sighed.

“I’m glad you two were able to talk it out in between you telling her how awesome I am,” Xav smirked.

“What did you do while we were apart yesterday?” I asked.

“Pumped Teddy for all the information he had on you. Unsurprisingly, he’s a loyal brother. Wouldn’t tell me anything juicy!” Xav laughed.

“I don’t think Duke or Dal would’ve either,” I laughed.

“He told me enough, though.”

“Oh,” I said, hoping he didn’t recount all the things everyone believed from the old days. Sometimes Daliah and I didn’t know what to say to Teddy if something got him going. We didn’t know how to help him when Mom died. We didn’t know how to even help ourselves.

“He didn’t say anything bad about you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Don’t smell so nervous. I mean, I trust your brother well enough, but siblings are weird with each other. Even if he had bad mouthed you, I’d have assumed you had some rivalry going on.”

“Not like that, I don’t think,” I shook my head and let out a long breath. It was hot in here. I glanced at the thermostat on the wall but really had to focus on the digital display to see the numbers. Sometimes heat gave me tunnel vision.

“Yeah, we need to get you something to eat,” Xav said, sitting up and taking me with him.

“Huh?”

“You’re doing the heat squint.”

“Oh, really? How often have you seen that?”

“How often have other guys seen you do that?” he shot back at me.

“Touche!” I shrugged because he was right, and I had no room to speak about anyone’s body count. I had quit counting somewhere along the way. I was healthy, clean, and never pregnant. That was all anyone needed to know.

“Wait!”My dragon chimed into my thoughts as Xav and I made our way into the kitchen of the Scale B&B house.“Will he see all those guys?”

“Probably not. The magic isn’t going to think that’s the most important thing to show him, is it?”I blinked.

“Huh?” Xav glanced over his shoulder at me when I stopped in my tracks.

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