Page 14 of Bound By Fire and Magic
“Mm hm,” she managed, though with him so close, she felt exactly like that girl. Her heart thrummed, and her throat went dry. She was his mate, his chosen. His earlier words swirled through her, physically pulling her toward him.
His head lowered, and his mouth parted slightly. She saw the same ache in his eyes that she felt in her body.
“Kirin,” she whispered, trying to make herself step back, to at least tell him to stop looking at her like he was going to kiss her.
He brushed the back of his hand against her cheek. “Elle.” Kirin said her name softly, lovingly. He drew his hand down her neck, a touch so light and so overwhelming all at once.
She’d experienced this before, the world melting away to leave only them. “Kirin, I…I can’t do this.” She finally gathered the strength to move away. “Things are too complicated.”
“It’s not that complicated, what’s between us.”
“You couldn’t be more wrong.”
He paused, as though readying another argument. Maybe he saw her stubbornness on the subject, because he pushed back from the counter. “I’m going to take a shower.” He started to unbutton his shirt as he turned toward the doorway.
“Tell me the truth.” Her words stopped him. “Do you think your father did something to harm my mom? My father obviously believed that, if he’s done this.”
Kirin appeared to consider the question. “Stein could be an ass, and he had a temper, but he would never have hurt a woman.”
“But if they were having an affair?—”
“My father wasn’t in love with your mother.”
“How can you be so sure?”
He continued unbuttoning his shirt. “When you’re in love with someone, you have a glow, a streak of happiness. Even when you told me your rule against dating a fellow employee, it didn’t change how I felt when I was around you, didn’t stop me from thinking about you every second.” He dropped his hands, his shirt now hanging open. “In the time before Tara disappeared, Pop wasn’t unusually happy. Nor was he angry, like she’d broken things off.”
She had to push past his words about how he’d felt back then. “So, if they weren’t having an affair, what was in that journal that made my father so angry at Stein?” She wanted—no, needed—Stein to be culpable in some way to justify her father’s rash actions. Still, creating a tulpa was so abhorrent that nothing could justify it. “I’m sorry my father set this thing in motion.”
“We aren’t responsible for the sins of our fathers.”
“I never blamed you for anything your father might have done. I just want you to know that.”
He nodded, a somber expression on his face. “I know, Elle.”
She heard his footfalls up the stairs and waited for the door to close. She probably had a good thirty minutes, if he still liked long, hot showers. After writing a quick note, she set the pad on the counter where he’d see it and turned to leave.
“Oh!”
Kirin was leaning in the doorway, shirt off, top button on his jeans undone, wearing the expression of a parent catching his kid grabbing a candy bar from the forbidden stash. “You’re going to sneak off to the factory and approach this Goron, aren’t you?”
“Oh. My. God. You are… Fine. How did you figure that out?”
He pushed away from the frame and walked closer. “I know you, Elle. A warning isn’t going to stop you from doing what you’ve set your mind on.”
Her gaze slid over his broad shoulders and down the beautiful red Dragon across his chest. It ran its tongue across its lips, breaking her out of her perusal.
He strolled past and picked up the notepad. “Dearest Kirin, I am still the maddening girl you fell in love with years ago, still running away from you, and still denying that I need you.”
She snatched the note and, for a really dumb second, checked to see if she had actually written such a thing. Oh, was he messing with her head! She balled up the note. “If my father did something to your father, I need to figure it out. I want to find them both.”
“On your own.”
She shook the note at him. “Well, obviously. That thing wants to kill you, not me. Going without you seemed safer, and I wasn’t going to be there long. I just need a few answers.”
“If it were that easy, Roz wouldn’t have warned you against it.”
“P’shaw.” One of Nana’s words.
