“Cirrus.” He looked back down at her and gave one of her curls a playful tweak. “We’re back to your hair again. Cirus means ‘tendril’ or ‘curl’. They’re soft and wispy and delicate.”
His cool fingers brushed her jaw as he pushed the stray curl behind her ear with such devastating casualness that Livvy sucked in a breath. Her body flashed hot then cold.
“They’re usually the first indication that something’s about to change. That a storm is coming,” he murmured.
His words seemed to take on a double meaning as he looked down at her, and her heart began to pound. Were things about to change between them? She certainly felt stormy inside. All swirling and volatile.
She parted her lips, turning to face him more fully, praying he’d lean down and kiss her. His gaze flicked to her mouth, and the moment of stillness stretched taut . . . but he dropped his hand and stepped back.
She swallowed a groan of disappointment.
He looked up again, deliberately avoiding her eye. “And the last kind is the nimbus. They’re the rain clouds.”
“They’re the ones that make thunderstorms?”
“Almost. Howard’s system allows for combinations of the different types, so you can have cumulonimbus—layered rain clouds. They’re the ones to watch for. They’re tall, dark, towering clouds.”
“The Lord Byron of clouds,” Livvy joked, although the description perfectly suited Dev himself, too. “Brooding and dangerous. Got it.”
He snorted, amused. “Indeed. They’re the ones responsible for all the drama; hail, lightning, thunder. They’re dark at the base and have a wide, anvil-shaped top high above.”
“I don’t see any of those today,” she said. “I think we’re safe from storms.”Of the meteorological kind, at least.“Did you ever play that game when you were younger, where you find shapes in the clouds? Dragons and eagles and crocodiles and such?”
“I did. Damien was brilliant at it. He always managed to find the most inappropriate ones, shaped like breasts, or phalluses, or pigs with giant testicles.”
“What a useful skill,” Livvy said dryly.
“He had to haveone,” Dev drawled, with typical brotherly disdain. “God knows, he’s useless at everything else.”
The four Hamilton siblings were always insulting one other, and it had taken Livvy quite some time to realize that far from being cruel, it was their perverse way of showing their affection. They might mock and scorn on a regular basis, but when ittrulymattered, they’d close ranks and support each other without question.
She’d never had a brother or a sister, and she’d always longed for someone to share such teasing with, for someone who’d fight in her corner, whatever the odds.
Dev huffed out a deep breath and grabbed his gloves from the bench, then indicated for her to precede him out of the door. “That’s all I needed to do here. Let’s go back via the lake.”
Livvy turned in the narrow space, acutely aware of the woody scent of his cologne and the heat of his body behind her. She was tempted to stop and pretend to tie her shoelace, just so he’d bump into her, then chided herself for being so silly. God, he made her feel like an eighteen-year-old, full of ridiculous schemes to get his attention.
He’d already said she could have his attention. And more. But was she brave enough to ask?
Chapter Nine
They crossed a section of formal garden, with topiary bushes trimmed into odd shapes and soil borders that were probably a riot of colorful flowers in summer but now looked bleak and bare.
Livvy pulled the edges of her cloak around her, glad of its warmth, and together they stopped on the edge of the lake. “You were right, only the edges are frozen.”
Dev picked up a small stone and sent it skipping across the ice. It made an odd, echoing sound as it slid over the frozen surface, then plopped into the dark hole of unfrozen water in the center.
“Go on, have a go,” he said, handing her a pebble. “Pretend the stone’s something that’s troubling you and just throw it away.”
Livvy pulled back her arm and managed a creditable distance. The rock cracked the ice and fell through with a satisfying splash.
“What was that?” Dev asked.
“My father’s stupid debts,” she said with a wry smile.
“Should have used a bigger stone,” he grinned, lobbing another rock.
“What was that?”
