“My name’s Evalle. Not Eve.”Evemeant “life” in Hebrew. What a crock, since everybody who mattered thoughtAlterantmeant “death” in any language. Crossing her arms, she told him, “Fine. If you’re not going to tell me what’s not right, then don’t expect my help later on.”
She turned to leave.
“Wait.” He hooked his fingers around her arm, turning her back to him, then pulled her hands up to his lips and kissed her fingers. “Nothing went wrong with the majik. You have to know by now that I would never harm you.”
She wanted to think her heart beat like a jungle drum because he’d annoyed her with being evasive and not from a crazy vibration of current that jolted her when his lips touched her skin. He still had explaining to do. “So why did you say, ‘That shouldn’t have happened’?”
His gaze swept over her head and around her shoulders. “The majik affected your aura.”
She didn’t see auras because her DNA had failed to offer that option, but she’d recently been told that hers was silver. She hadn’t realized Storm could see hers. “What? Is it brighter or something?”
“Bright would be a fair description.” He gritted his teeth as if he suffered a moment of pain.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He drew a sharp breath that made her think he’d hurt himself somehow. He gritted out, “You need to get moving.”
But now she’d have to walk into the Tribunal meeting shining like a chromed-out Harley. “How long will this shiny stuff last?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll try to have an answer when I see you again.”
That could be never. “Don’t you meanifyou see me again?” No matter how exceptional Storm was at tracking, she couldn’t bank on anyone saving her.
Storm’s thumb stopped stroking her knuckles and his fingers tightened on her hand. “Iwillcome for you.”
“I got it. You need help tracking thisimportantwoman.”
A woman he’d risk his life to find again.
What woman could have been close enough to Storm to have held that kind of power over him in the past and drive him to this point now? A past lover?
And why did knowing that he only wanted to find Evalle for that one reason feel like a paper cut doused with lemon juice?
Because her brain had wandered off into Stupid Land. That had to be the only explanation for this ridiculous feeling of aggravation about what this woman meant to him.
Evalle would thump herself if her hands were free.
She wasn’t dating Storm.
She didn’t date anyone.
He smiled at her. “There is one more reason I have to find you.”
She gave him an incredulous look. “Do I look like one-stop shopping for solving your problems? I’m running out of patience faster than time, so this better be good. Whatelsedo you need me to do?”
He let go of her hands, then cupped her face and lowered his head. “This.”
Then he kissed her. He didn’t touch her anywhere else except her face and with those amazing lips.
She’d thought yesterday’s kiss had been pretty spectacular. This one topped that one hands down. And she had a strange feeling he could move into another level that would melt her where she stood. Her thoughts scattered under a deluge of emotion from surprise to hunger to happy. She’d keep happy.
Kissing Storm made her feel like a weed that had never known anything but drought and his lips were a summer rain, flooding her with a life energy that pushed her to grow.
He made her want more, made her want to feel more.
His mouth took her places she’d never visited with a man. She had little to compare kissing him to, but this man could probably win a trophy with his lips.
Hunger for something she didn’t want to name crept through her. He held her mouth captive, her lips unwilling to escape.
