She nudged me with her knee. “So. How’s Mr. I’m So Gorgeous but Might Kill You?” She smirked. “He looks at you like he’s about to eat you alive. Bears are more polite after hibernation.”
“Stop.”
“Never. It’s all I have for fun. And honestly, I’d kill for thatkind of heat. You could bottle that tension between you and set a city on fire. You know who else can’t stop staring?”
I rolled my eyes. “Ire. That man really needs to get laid.”
“No. His Fiery Hotness.”
“Auron?” I blinked. “I thought he might be a good match for you.”
She laughed. “Please. I asked him if he were a color, which one he’d be. He said”—she imitated Auron’s precise voice—“ ‘But I am not a color. I am a fire siren.’ ”
We both collapsed in peals of laughter.
Calla stretched out beside me with a sigh, then peeked at me sideways. “But really, if you ever want to talk, I’m here.”
I didn’t see Blake after our dinner meal, and it worried me. We’d barely had time to speak, and it wasn’t that anything felt strained. But there was a sense of loss, that something was missing.
I laid out my bedroll in my tent, still feeling overheated with anxiety or something else entirely—I wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was just the way Ire had been looming over me today; the ill effect of being on his land was stronger than I would have thought. My body felt hot even to my own touch, so I dressed in something light and airy for sleep.
—
A shadow slid across theflap of my tent, cutting through the faint firelight. Every muscle in my body went still.
The fabric slipped back and a cloaked male figure appeared.
I moved without thinking, driven by fear and instinct. I lunged forward, pushing him away from my tent, grabbing the edge of his cloak and yanking hard. I drove my knee toward the intruder’s side, caught only fabric, then twisted and struck again.
He grunted, dodging, but I followed, swinging for his head.
We crashed, my back slamming into the ground as we tumbled, all tangled limbs.
I clawed for control, but he was already on top of me, pinning me down, his body pressing into mine in a way that sent the wrong kind of heat curling through my stomach.
The hood slipped back, revealing a mane of bronze hair and those bright blue eyes.
Blake.
“By the gods,” he growled, his voice rough and low as he pinned my body to the cold ground. “When are you going to get some appropriate sleepwear?”
“You’re here.” I sounded breathless, my blade still arched against his throat.
“Easy, songbird.” He smirked, eyes glinting from the distant firelight. His gaze took in the weapon in my hand, and his smile expanded. “Always sleep in a handkerchief with a blade in your hand?”
“I’m never unarmed,” I said, the corners of my mouth twitching.
That devastating dimple in his cheek appeared as he gently took my hand in his and lowered the weapon. “Let’s get inside.”
Putting the blade away, I stepped back into my tent and opened the flap for Blake to follow.
The space was small, but enough for us to sit comfortably on my bedroll. In the quiet dark of the tent, my anxiety for what lay ahead returned. I wanted to hold tomorrow at bay just a little longer. It seemed Blake felt the same because he curled a hand around my hips and pushed me back against the cushion.
We grappled with one another. We both needed to channel our pent-up energy.
That energy crackled in the space between us. He looked almost feral.
“Need you,” he rumbled, breathing the words into my neck.
