“We need to talk.” His features rigid, the male ushered Ely out of the workshop. No doubt to warn her about the blackhearted demon lusting after her. Nate snorted.
Yeah, he wouldn’t be wrong.
* * *
“Reynner, would you stop with the threatening looks,” Ely grumbled the moment they stopped a short distance from the workshop entrance.
He folded his arms over his chest, the weak winter sun casting a gold glint in his silvery pale hair. “You are my sister. Get used to it.”
Vae. Ely shook her head, trying to find her center of calm, one she’d perfected over the millennia, and failed. All of it was Nate’s darn fault, with those caressing stares. But she wasn’t going to bringthatup with her brother currently looking like he’d gut Nate.
“Reyn, you helped my best friend, gave her peace of mind, and for that, I’m eternally grateful. And yes…” She rolled her eyes. “I know he’s a demon, but he’s like a father to Shadow—”
“It’s not the older demon who concerns me,” he muttered. “But the other one.”
Urias. Ely bit back a groan. “Trust me when I tell you nothing will happen there.” Allhewanted was a quick fuck, which still pissed her off.
Reynner searched her face with narrowed eyes as if seeking out the truth, then he gave a terse nod. “Very well. I need to get back to my mate. I’ll see you soon, right?”
“Yep. Or out on the street during patrol,” she teased.
“Don’t remind me,” he grumbled.
She laughed and gave him a quick hug. He was her big brother, and she loved him. The stars knew she’d missed him for all those millennia he’d been gone from Empyrea.
Reynner stepped back and dematerialized with barely a stir of the late noon air.
Ely wandered into the silent workshop and slowed her steps. Nate was alone, working under the popped hood of the SUV.
Exhaling softly, trying not to be aware of him, she walked past.
Warm, calloused fingers snagged her wrist, stopping her, and her heart leaped to her throat as those flame-like topaz eyes met hers. “What?”
“Thanks.”
Well! He could have knocked her over with a feather. She didn’t think the word featured in his lexicon. “I did it for Shadow.”
“I know.”
“Is there something else?” It was an effort to keep her voice even as his thumb stroked her inner wrist.
“Aren’t you going to ask me if I’m healed, and I don’t mean my wrist?”
Heat scorched her cheeks. “You’re standing, fixing an automobile. I assume you’re fine.”
“Stubborn.” A hint of a smile now. His gaze shifted to her head. “Why do you hide your hair?”
“What?”
Before her mind could grasp the change in conversation, he removed her beanie with his free hand. Her bun trembled free, escaping the hairgrip, and her hair cascaded down her back.
“What are you doing?” she rasped as he pocketed her things.
He snagged a ribbon of her hair and gently wrapped the long length around his finger. “They’re like rays of moonbeams…shouldn’t be hidden.”
With a soft sigh seemingly dragged from the depths of him, he lowered his head and trailed his nose along her jaw like he did on the rooftop, breathing her in and stirring her fickle body to hyperawareness. “The way you smell makes me lose my mind—”
“Then stop touching and sniffing me.”
