Page 48 of Born in Fire

“No.” Despite my body’s protests, I push myself up on my elbows. “Tell me what’s going on. Right now.”

His expression shutters; the wall coming down between us is almost visible.

“Dammit, Dorian! I deserve the truth.” I pull the throw blanket around myself, creating a small barrier between us.“After Tyler, I promised myself I’d never again accept half-truths from someone I’m intimate with.”

Pain flashes across his face at the comparison. “I’m not like him.”

“Then prove it. Tell me what the hell is going on with your eyes, with your body heat, with whatever I just saw happen to your face.”

Dorian stands, pacing the small confines of my room. He’s magnificent in his nakedness, his body sculpted like a classical statue come to life. The dragons on his chest and arms seem to shift in the dim light, almost alive against his skin.

Suddenly, that seems significant.

“I can’t tell you,” he says finally, turning to face me. “Not yet. There are… rules. Laws older than this country.”

“Then tell me what you can.”

He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, a muscle in his jaw tightening. When he opens them again, the glow has dimmed but not disappeared entirely.

“I can’t,” he finally says. “Not now. Not like this.”

“I think…” I take a deep breath, steadying myself against the conflicting desires to throw him out and pull him back into my bed. “I think you should go.”

“Juno—”

“Now!” I say more firmly, though it costs me to do it. “I need… I need to think. And I can’t do that with you here, with whatever this is between us clouding my judgment.”

He nods, standing to gather his clothes. As he dresses, I watch him with new eyes, noting the fluid grace of his movements, the subtle signs I’d attributed to charisma that now seem signs of something not quite human.

Not human? Don’t be nuts, Juno.

At the door, he turns back to me, hesitation evident in every line of his body.

“Tyler won’t bother you tonight. But if you need me—for any reason—call. I’ll be here instantly.”

“How instantly?” I challenge. “Like how you appeared out of nowhere tonight? Like how you moved faster than should be possible?”

His expression tightens. “Yes. Exactly like that.”

“Goodbye, Dorian,” I say, though the words feel wrong in my mouth.

He pauses for a moment, then speaks. “What happened between us—what’s happening—it’s real, Juno. More real than anything I’ve experienced in my lifetime.”

I pull in a shuddering breath. “I don’t want to feel afraid of the people I bring into my world, Dorian.”

“Fear is wisdom in the face of danger,” he says softly. “But sometimes the greatest danger is missing something extraordinary because we’re afraid to believe in it.”

With that, he’s gone, leaving me alone with questions that would have seemed insane just hours ago.

As his footsteps fade, I scramble from the bed and secure the door behind him—all three locks, the security chain—then stand in the center of my apartment, feeling the lingering heat of his presence like a ghost on my skin.

As crazy as it seems, I’m certain that whatever Dorian Craven is, he isn’t human. At least, not entirely.

And despite everything that just happened—or perhaps because of it—I’m not sure I want him to be.

Which is just freaking insane.

Chapter 14

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