Page 14 of Smoke and Flame

Chapter Four

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Aodh gestured for herto move toward the bed.She was sure he didn’t intend to pounce on her right then, but she made a beeline toward a chair sitting in the corner by the window.The chair, like everything else in the room, was oversized.She balanced on the edge and was thankful the cushion was firm.When she was in school, she had listened to her teacher read an old fantasy book about a boy who tried to care for himself and his mother by climbing up a stalk and ending up in the land of giants above the clouds.It was how she felt, exactly.

She glanced over her shoulder and looked outside.The landing beyond the window kept her from seeing anything on the ground.The sky was a weird lilac blue over the treetops, signaling the sun would rise soon.How many hours had she been with Aodh?She lost all track of time while trying to get care for her sister.

“Kai.”Aodh’s voice drew her.

She shifted to look at him.He claimed a seat at the side of the bed closest to her.He was so big that their knees practically touched across the space.That same heat she always felt when Aodh was near was affecting her.She knew if she were standing, her knees would have gone weak with the rush of desire that crawled up her thighs and centered low in her belly.Getting her bearings, she took a deep breath through her mouth.She was not risking inhaling his sweet, roasted-cinnamon scent on her frayed senses.

“You wanted to talk,” she reminded him as she tried not to get lost in the bizarre colors of his turquoise-opal eyes.

He leaned on his forearms, but thankfully, he gazed at the smooth, stone floor between his feet, his broad shoulders hunched as if a weight pressed on them.

She breathed easier.

“What do you understand about my thunder...people?”He glanced up at her.

Her chest tightened, and her heart pounded.She took another mouth breath.“Well.I’ve only seen two of you so far, but they’re massive unless you and your brother are exceptions.Maybe seven feet, if not taller.”

“And?”His body was still as he watched her.

She thought about the things she’d seen since meeting this man.“You move fast, way too silent for your bulk and size.You should be lumbering instead of the smooth, powerful gait you have.”

What she didn’t say was that the way the man’s back seemed to roll at the lower part of his spine, causing his shoulders to tip in a fluid motion, was both mesmerizing and nipple tightening.

Aodh’s gaze flashed sapphire rather than red.

But she didn’t think he could somehow read her thoughts.She rushed on, “Your people must be illusionists or magicians—David Blaine scholars—the way you made smoke appear in the room and started the fire.”

A dark, sable brow arched high, getting lost in the thick hair that fell over her forehead.Aodh’s hair was tapered in the back and longer in the front, semi-conservative, compared to his brother’s shoulder length.

“Anything else?”

She glanced around the wide-open space.“You all require a hell of a lot of space.You are big guys, but if the Olympics ever returned, they could run a four-hundred-meter race from the front door to the bedroom.”Tipping her head up, she pointed to the ceiling.“I wonder if they used to store planes here before the Great Catastrophe.”

“We never needed planes.This expanse belongs to my people.My thunder built this and more while your people lived underground.”

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