Once the muffins were ready, I pulled them from the oven and set them on the counter to cool.
The air in the room stirred. Hummed with electricity, as though the lightning streaking across the stormy sky beyond the window had found its way through the glass.
“I hope I’m not intruding,” a smooth voice said from the doorway.
“Of course not, milord.” Fane bowed. “I was preparing your afternoon tea.”
“Later,” Lord Onyx gently told him before his red eyes shifted to me. “Might we have a word? In private.”
“Oh. Um.” Heat washed over my face and body. “Sure.”
The last time he and I were alone together, he’d pushed me up against the kitchen counter and spoke low in my ear, sending my pulse into overdrive. It was the moment I realized the truth. That he was one of my fated mates.
Well, I was like ninety-nine percent sure anyway. The clues added up. My body reacted when he was near, heating and tingling. With anticipation. With the desire to be closer. And there was also the scent that came with him; like cedar and woodsmoke.
“Come with me,” he said before turning and leaving the kitchen.
I sprang into step and caught up to him once we passed through the doorway. “Where are we going?”
He didn’t speak as we moved along the corridor, but I caught a curve to his lips.
The strong, silent types were nothing new for me. Maddox had been that way in the beginning. He still was sometimes, depending on his mood. But Onyx was different. His silence seemed to stem from an impish curiosity, as though intentionally dragging out the anticipation to gage my reaction.
“Here we are,” he finally said, leading me through a set of double doors.
Multiple senses were triggered at once. Sights, smells, and the shift in temperature—a touch warmer than the cooler air of the corridor. Though the sky was overcast, light spilled in through the dome glass ceiling and wall of windows. The gray hues of the rainy day emphasized the vibrant colors of the surrounding plants and flowers; bursts of green, purple, red, and yellow leaves.
“A greenhouse?” I asked.
“Yes.” Onyx veered to the left, guiding me along with him down a stone path lined with various florae and small trees. Water trickled from nearby. “I find it peaceful here.”
“Then you shouldn’t have brought me,” I said with an upward hitch in my breathing. “I’m loud and clumsy.”
“Oh?”
“Yep.” I sharply nodded. “I also have this condition where I ramble when I’m nervous or overly excited. My mouth goes on and on, flapping about pointless things. Sometimes, my thoughts fire off too fast for my mouth to follow and, instead of giving them time to form cohesively, I rattle them off as they come.”
“Like you are now?”
“Uh.” I chewed my bottom lip. “Yeah, basically.”
“You said you do it when nervous or excited.” His red eyes lowered to my mouth, then trailed back up my face. “Which are you now?”
I swallowed the sudden tightness in my throat. “A bit of both, I think.”
“Fair enough.” A smile touched his lips. “Though I wonder which is strongest.” With long, deft fingers, he reached for my wrist and gently pulled me closer, bringing our bodies flush.
The warmth of his body caused mine to tingle. He had the potential to either burn me up or turn me to ash.
“Your heart’s beating so quickly,” he said. He ghosted his fingers over my jaw, leaving behind a tickle of cool air. “Like a hummingbird’s wings.”
Any response stuck in my throat. My thoughts jumbled, as though the nervous tugs in my belly had shot upward and wrapped around the gears that made it work, bringing them to a screeching halt. Being around him did strange things to me. One shared look and I unraveled like an Evan-shaped bow.
“Demon got your tongue?” Amusement glinted in his eyes. They reminded me of rubies basked in firelight, a rich crimson with notes of amber.
“Something like that.” My voice shook, much like the rest of me.
As we stood on the path, surrounded by the prettiest flowers, a sizzling sensation rippled through my veins. One that shot to the tips of my fingers, as though reaching for him.
