“Aren’t you a nosey thing?” he jokes, but he continues to walk beside me.
I shrug. “Not a lot to do in a town where you’ve already done it all. Mysterious strangers on the other hand are few and far between. Color me curious.”
A few more aisles and we’re on our way to the registers.
“A specially modified design for a bow,” he finally relents.
I pause, turning to look at him in a new light. “People tend to lean more towards swords and breastplates these days. Would you even be able to get the right tension from an iron bow?”
He smiles. “An interest in weaponry?”
Vyrian steps into line behind me and I turn around while we wait for our turn at the register. “My brothers actually run the forge in this area.”
His eyes brighten with excitement. “A lady that knows her way around a weapon. Why, Ezra, if I didn’t know better I’d think you were trying to seduce me.”
I bark out a sharp laugh, starting to unload my groceries onto the conveyor belt. Vyrian steps over to help and the cashier gives him a pointed once over, no doubt sizing up the ‘competition’.
“Easy there, Charlie,” I placate the cashier, “he’s lifting a case of water, not my skirt. No need to get your panties in a twist.”
Charlie rolls his eyes. We went to school together, so I’ve known him pretty much my entire life, and he’s narked me out to my brothers more times than I can count.
“Want me to walk you to your car?” he offers, glaring at Vyrian while bagging things up.
I shake my head in exasperation. “There are six people in line behind me, Charlie. You’d leave them all waiting to escort me to my car in broad daylight for no good reason?”
“Yes,” he replies immediately and I scowl.
“No.”
I pass him an obscene amount of money, the grocery bill way higher than I anticipated, and start walking towards the exit. “Later, Vyrian. Check your receipt; I’d bet money Charlie’s going to double scan some of your shit.”
He curses as I head out to my car and leave him behind, filling up the massive trunk and most of the back seat. When I feel a hand on my shoulder, I react on instinct and my skin heats to a high enough temperature my clothes start smoking.
I turn, ready to take a swing, but Vyrian has his hands up in surrender and is apologizing profusely. “Oh fuck, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Logically, I knew it was likely either him or Charlie, but after that incident a few years ago, I get jumpy when anyone sneaks up on me.
“I wasn’t scared!” I snap.
He’s clearly fighting a smile and losing, so I punch him in the shoulder as I take the cart back to the return.
“Of course not, my mistake. I was just wondering if you’d give me directions to your brothers’ forge before taking off. I see now that was incredibly idiotic and presumptuous of me, so I’ll head out. Nice to meet you, Ezra.” He starts to walk away before turning back to me. “Also, did you know your clothes are on fire?”
I glance down at my rapidly shrinking shirt, cursing. Pros and cons of my abilities; I’m heat resistant. Yay for not being able to burn to death, but also means I can’t feel when these sort of things happen.
I pat at the embers, smothering the flames, but the damage is done. My pants are riddled with holes and my shirt is in even worse shape, but all of the important bits are still mostly covered, so small blessings.
“Here.” Vyrian whips off his shirt and passes it to me and I hesitate for a minute before slipping it on, the hem falling just beneath my ass.
“Thanks, I’ll make sure to get it back to you.”
I may not be able to feel the heat, but I’m under no illusion I must be blushing something fierce right now. Thanks to my brothers, I haven’t gotten a whole hell of a lot of practice flirting with hot guys.
“Keep it,” he winks. “It looks good on you.”
I bite my tongue in a bid to calm my racing heart. When he’s several steps away, I get control of myself, annoyed he threw me off so much.
“Turn right when you get out of the parking lot, down about a mile, and another right on Mara Avenue. Can’t miss it.”
