Rionan turned to face her, saying nothing. He peered down at her, his light blue eyes sparkling with intrigue. Alianna blushed, but ignored the voice in her head telling her to look away. The wind ruffled her hair, sweeping it around her face. Gently, Rionan raised a hand, tucking her hair behind her ear, running the strand between his fingers. The air around them seemed to buzz with an energy that hadher feeling alive, feeling awake, feeling so interconnected with everything around her in this moment.
“What?” she eventually asked, still refusing to break his eye contact.
“I’m just thinking about how beautiful you look this evening. I’m thinking about the effort you made to bring me something, something that made me smile. I’m thinking about how easy it is for me to talk to you.”
Alianna’s heart began beating more wildly in her chest, quietly hoping that he would close the distance between them. She saw him flare his nostrils slightly, his eyes moving down to her mouth. Time seemed to slow, and she felt likethey remained in this moment for a long while. Neither of them speaking, or being the first to look away.
Finally, Rionan cleared his throat.
“Do you want to keep walking?”
Alianna hesitated. No, she did not want to keep walking. She wanted to stay here, under the archway, hidden from this world. She wanted to be reckless and foolish with a man that – if she were being honest with herself - she knew very little about, had shared a handful of hours with, but felt strangely connected to.
Almost as if he could read her thoughts, she noticed him flare his nostrils slightly again, inhaling sharply, and his eyes fixed on her mouth.
Do it.She thought to herself. There was no way she was making that first move. Yet, as they stood here, she thought about exactly what she did want to do. The way she longed to feel those lips on hers. The way he had tucked her hair behind her ear, and how she wanted him to pull her up against him. The way she wanted to run her hands through that thick, dark hair, down his back, while she hooked her leg around him…
It was the mimosas talking. It had to be. This was more forward than she had found herself being with any man for a long time. It was also the first time she’d felt confident enough to get the red dress out in a while.
She noticed his breathing had quickened, his gaze locked on hers. The air around them seemed to fill with static.
Rionan took a tentative step towards her, closing the gap between them, and gently caressed the back of her arm, sending shivers down her spine.
“Max?” she asked quietly. He seemed to freeze at the question, jarring him back into reality. He stepped back. One step. Two.
“Yes?”
Alianna had no idea what she was going to ask. Not one. And now he’d stepped away.
“Shall we get going? It’s starting to get a bit chilly.”
Rionan smiled. “Of course. Come on. We can’t stay tucked away here forever.”
12
AMoth to a Flame
Rionan stared at his hotel room ceiling as he lay on his bed, the same words he had said echoing in his mind, over and over.
Where I am from – where I, work…things have been difficult. I’m here to look for a way to resolve things. Make them better. Return things to the way they were.
I think you might already be helping me, even if you don’t know it.
She hadn’t pried. She just let him speak.
Rionan thought of the way she looked at him under that archway. He remembered what he scented on her, what he knew she wanted him to do.
He thought of the shudder that went through her when he touched her.
He thought of the way his power alighted around him when he took her in.
He thought of the way he couldn’t be honest with her about who he was, or why he was here.
He thought of his pseudonym on her lips.Max.
Rionan rolled over, his brow furrowed.
They’d left the gardens after that. If they had stayed…he would have taken things further, if she wanted him to. It wasn’t fair to her. She didn’t know who he was. Why he was there. She didn’t know that he would leave one day soon, and that he would not return to this realm in her lifetime.
