They had been walking a fine line the last couple of weeks, with shy glances and innocent touches. But he didn’t do “innocent” very well.
He scratched at his short beard and gritted his teeth. They were both exhausted, and he knew not much good could come from a visit this late in the evening.
Then again, sometimes that was when the best moments in life happened.
He reached out to knock on the door when it suddenly flew open.
“I was wondering when you’d get the nerve to come in,” Kai said, his favorite sparkle shining in her eyes.
Aidan blinked away his surprise and grinned as he strode forward. “Can’t get anything past you.” He took in her temporary room, almost identical to his own down the hall. There was a large bed with gray and white threadbare blankets, a short table with an oil lamp next to it, and a small wooden dresser. A door led to the washroom, hints of the inn’s lavender soap filling the air. Kai’s still-damp hair flowed in long waves down one side of her blue robe.
Atop the bedside table were two empty glasses and a bottle of wine. “Is this for me?” He gestured to the unopened bottle.
“No, it’s for my last late-night caller. You just missed him,” Kai said with a coy smile.
What he wouldn’t do for that smile.
“Careful,” he rumbled. “Wouldn’t want to get in trouble with me, sweetheart.” He grabbed the bottle and opened it with apop, pouring each of them a healthy portion of the red wine.
“We should talk about today,” she said after they sat on the bed and had taken a few sips. He was transfixed by the cool, clear glass against her pink lips, the way her fingers twisted the stem back and forth, how those fingers had been around his neck only hours ago…
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Maybe we should take the bottle away already,” she said, smirking. “I said we need to talk about what happened today.”
“I’d much rather do something else.” Aidan grabbed her glass and put it on the table beside his own, then pulled her to him so she was almost sitting in his lap. Her robe dropped below her right shoulder, revealing her delicate tattoo of an upside-down triangle. The perfect opposite of the one on his back.
She playfully flicked his arm but didn’t move. “Down, boy. I just want totalk.”
“How about you talk, and I’ll listen.” He leaned forward into the curve of her neck and slowly kissed along her collarbone, her sweet citrus and lavender scent filling him.
Kai laughed as her hand came up to grip the back of his neck, but she didn’t push him away. “As much as I’ve missed this,” she said a little breathlessly, “we have to work through some things.”
He stopped kissing her and groaned, resting his head on her shoulder. “Yes, yes, I know you’re right.” He looked down at her long, tan legs, splayed across his lap. “But I’m going to need you to stand far over there.”
She smiled and shook her head in amusement as she lifted herself off him and scooted further down the bed.
“Alright. You have my undivided attention,” he said.
Kai readjusted her robe before speaking. “What happened in the cave was…unexpected. Not a mistake, just not something I planned on.”
“That’s usually how those things go.”
She shot him a look. “These past couple of weeks with you have started to feel like the old days again. I got carried away and shouldn’t have let it go as far as it did. But Aidan,” she said, putting her hands in her lap, “we can’t pretend like those last few years on Iona never happened. It’s hard for me to—to go back to the way things were before.”
Aidan ran his tongue over the tips of his teeth. He’d known this was coming.
He had become a different person in those last years—even he recognized that. He’d been careless with the lives of humans, egged on by the fire in his veins, the hidden wrath in his heart. He’d picked fights with the other elementals, even Kai, and had worked so hard to turn them against him without even knowing what he was doing. And for what? His pride? The taste of power and domination that bred in times of war? It was all so meaningless to him now.
“I know I made mistakes.” He shook his head. They’d had conversations similar to this back on Iona, but this time he had to make her understand. “Wealldid. I see how wrong I was, and I should’ve never let my emotions and everything happening around us take over. But, sweetheart—I left that behind on Iona. I can control the fire and anger better. Surely you can tell I’ve changed, that I’m back to my old self. All I want is to be with you again.”
“I want that, too, but it’s not that easy. It’s been, what, a couple of weeks since we woke up? That’s not even a speck in our lifetime. And it’s not nearly long enough to prove that you—oranyof us—can keep our elements in check.” Kai took a deep breath. “I need more time. I have to learn to trust you again, Aidan. I need to know that in another hundred years, you won’t be sucked back into some conflict or become too angry toliveand shut me out again. Or worse.”
He stiffened. He wasn’t sure she truly knew the worst of it.
Aidan stood from the bed and turned away. Shame licked at his insides, but also a hint of resentment. If she knew she’d felt this way, why had she allowed him to touch her in the cave? And tonight, with the wine and her flirtatious smiles—he thought she’d forgiven him, that she was letting him back in. He’d been in love with her for millennia; he would do anything for her, and it was like she was letting a handful of years, a small blip in their path, ruin everything they’d had. What did she want from him?
“Hmm, what a problem,” an unfamiliar voice whispered in his ear.
