Page 53 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

Ra didn’t seem to be bothered by her abrupt question. “Twenty.”

“You seem quite mature for twenty.”

His eyes filled with amusement. “Do you know many twenty-year-old men?”

Okay, so that was a valid question considering she’d just made a collective statement about the whole of the twenty-year-old male population. “You’re pretty much it. And Elias, I guess … but I don’tknowhim, only that he has the hots for my best friend.”

“I think you will find elementalist males aren’t like human males.”

“Aren’t you human?”

He shrugged. “Yes, but we are a little more…”

“You mean like Tara?” she asked.

He nodded. “Exactly. Those of us who have been gifted with the magic of the elementals are still human, but we are much more, too.”

Shelly turned to face him. She pulled one leg up on the couch, bending it at the knee. There was a magnetic quality to Ra that made her want to get closer, but she forced herself not to climb into his lap because that would be weird. Right? She nodded. Yes, most definitely weird.

“Why are you nodding?” Ra asked.

She wanted to smack herself or kick her own ass for being a little crazy. Maybe she was more like Harley Quinn than she had admitted. “Because I often answer my own thoughts with words or motions that others won’t understand at all. It’s probably why I don’t have many friends.” She paused and then amended. “Okay, that's why I only have one friend. And I only have her because I kind of forced her to be my friend.”

Ra frowned. “I did not get the feeling that Tara was forced into your friendship. She cares deeply for you. She is very worried about you.”

“That’s just the way Tara is. She comes across as a hard ass, but inside, she’s just a squishy bear. If you tell her I said that, I might get stabby.”

He chuckled. “You are not what I expected.”

She tilted her head as she looked at him. “What do you mean?”

He seemed to think for a moment and then answered. “Any male who understands the value of a woman at his side dreams of the day when he will meet the female destined for him.” He paused, but Shelly couldn’t see the look on his face. The moment he started talking about destiny and having a woman at his side, she’d dropped her eyes.

She didn’t want to hear how shewasn’this destiny because there was no way that she was meant for this man. He was handsome, confident, refined in a way she never would be, and important. She was just an eighteen-year-old girl from a podunk little town in Kentucky. She had nothing to offer him. He was powerful, magical in the real sense of the word. Her gut clenched as she began to understand just how much she wasn’t worthy of him.

Shelly felt something touch her chin, and then her head was raised. Ra’s fingers forced her face up to his. But he can’t grab my eyes and makethemraise, she thought.

“Little warrior,” he murmured. “Why do you keep refusing to look at me?”

Did he seriously just call her a warrior? And little? She wasn’t overweight, but she was tall. She never thought of herself as little, that was for sure.

“I want to see your eyes,” he said in a firmer tone.

And dammit-all if she didn’t react to that tone. Shelly wasnotgoing to touchthatwith a fifty-foot pole. There were enough odd things about her. She didn’t need to add that she was attracted to a man who ordered her around. She was freaky enough without that. She jumped when she felt his thumb run across her bottom lip. Her eyes rose to his, and a satisfied smirk settled on his handsome face.

“Tell me why you keep looking away from me.”

“Because you’re just so much,” she blurted out.Stupid, bossy tone. If he kept telling her what to do in that deep, soft, patient voice, she’d probably follow him around like a trained puppy. Shelly groaned out loud. Now she was picturing herself with a collar around her neck, complete with Ra holding an attached leash. Yep, she was nuts.

“I wish I could read your mind,” he said. “Your face is so full of expression.”

“If there ever comes a day that you can read my mind, I will have to jam a dagger in my eye so that all I can think about is the pain,” she said.

“What do you mean, ‘I’m so much’?”

She motioned to him, waving her hand up and down to indicate all of him. “You’re hella handsome. You’ve got a body that women pant over. You exude power as if it’s a second skin. You’re magical,literally. You have a compelling voice that I’m pretty sure women, and possibly some men, would pay to have you order them around.”

Ra’s eyes widened. “I don’t understand.”

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