That realization came with a collision of feelings and wants and things I didn’t know how to define. That realization also came with a heartbeat that pounded heat through my veins and unfroze me. I melted into his touch, wanting that kiss more than anything else.
“Y-yes?” I breathed.
His lips were almost on mine. His body bent over me, closer, closer. I thought I’d burst for want.
I held my breath and closed my eyes.
His fingers squeezed the back of my neck, gentle and possessive.
“If you make me late,” he murmured, his breath warm across my mouth, “I will throttle you.”
Wait.What?
My eyes snapped open.
He drew away so quickly a cold breeze whisked over my skin.
By the time I pulled my thoughts together, he was already out the door.
His voice floated back to me. “Move, Matilda. We’re late.”
That was it? No kiss? What was wrong with that man? He was sending off more mixed signals than a three-armed traffic cop.
I stuffed the scarf back in my duffel, zipped it tight, and tucked it under the desk.
“You know what you are, Mr. Vail?” I said, storming out after him.
“In a hurry?” he answered.
“A coward.”
“Is that so?”
He was already a set of stairs ahead of me. I pounded down them to catch up. “Yes. A man makes a move like that, he follows through.”
“And what makes you think I won’t?”
“Men like you are all talk and no tango.”
He paused in front of a metal door, his hand on the latch. “How would you know?” He yanked on the door and held it open, blocking my passage with the bulk of his body, a smug smile on his face. “You’ve never met a man like me.”
Yeah, well, he hadn’t ever met a woman like me either.
I pushed by him and stepped on his foot hard enough, he winced and sucked in a surprised breath.
Galvanized didn’t feel pain. But the galvanized that I’d touched had felt me.
That was to my advantage in this fight. Working the farm with the beasts and ferals meant I was no stranger to bruises and breaks. I was used to pain.
Abraham Seventh had been practically numb for nearly three hundred years. Maybe it was time to see if he remembered how to take the hurt.
The training hall stretched across the entire floor of the building and was beautiful in its simplicity. Light wooden floors soaked up the sunlight pouring in through the huge windows overlooking the city, while white and wood panels separated the space into smaller areas.
Oscar Gray sat on the other side of the training mat that filled a quarter of the space. John Black sat next to him, and Buck stood at his back. The white panels behind them were filled with images of very pretty, very young people, each wearing a distinct color.
The heads of the Houses. Well, seven of them, and one blank screen that held the symbol of House Gold, Money, which probably had a committee listening in.
I took a minute to gawk at faces I’d seen on only scratchy feeds, displayed here in such clear rendering, it was as if they were really in the room with us.
