Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel by Liz Long Page B

imply anything but the
truth.” He looked down at me and raised his eyebrow again. It was like Spock
how often he did it. I bit back a laugh at that last thought because of how
nerdy I sounded.
    “You agree with me?” he said.
Damn, he had caught that.
    “No. I was comparing you to a
Star Trek character.”
    “Wow. You are a nerd.”
    “But now that I think of it, you
were being a jerk.”
    “How so? They were trying to
talk you up to get information out of me about my own gift. I deflected their
attention away from me.”
    “Nice defense mechanism. Maybe
they were being nice since you wandered up and joined the table without
asking.”
    “I asked. You said Delia
wouldn’t mind. Despite your defense mechanism, I saw another chair and thought
she could have that one just as easily.” He brushed against me; my skin tingled
where our arms touched. I ignored it and focused on my annoyance.
    “What logic does that even make?
Maybe you should’ve sat in the empty chair since everyone was comfortable.”
    “Maybe I wanted to sit next to
someone interesting.”
    “We’re all interesting, I think. But I feel the same way they do—why
would I want to talk about my personal life with someone who isn’t willing to
put his out on the table, too?”
    “We just met. You don’t need to
know my entire life story.” He leaned casually against the bar, those clear
blue eyes looking down at me. I wasn’t the type of girl to swoon, but I
certainly would’ve admired his good looks had I not been sputtering my irritation.
    “I don’t…gah, I only mean that
if you don’t volunteer information about yourself, it’s hard for people to
trust you. That and you need to not bait people into making them angry.
Especially not the first time you really meet them.”
    “Is this because of Nikolas?”
    I was now so confused in this
conversation that I stopped my rant dead cold. “I—what? Nikolas? No, this
isn’t about Nikolas being rude.”
    “Oh, good. I thought it was
about you wanting to sit next to Nikolas.”
    “What are you even talking
about? I have no interest in him, if that’s what you’re inferring. It’s about
Nikolas being rude because you were
being an ass.”
    “That’s where I disagree. I
wanted to have a seat and not talk about myself. People always want to talk
about themselves. I’d rather hear about everyone else.”
    This conversation was going
nowhere. I felt a headache coming on from Gabriel’s verbal puzzles. If I didn’t
know better, I’d think he enjoyed it. I thought I saw amusement in his eyes and
I huffed.
    “Then you could ask questions
and be pleasant, as opposed to starting a competition between the
Firestarters,” I responded. “Or doubt my abilities because I’m female.”
    “I never said that. I don’t
really care how talented you are; you aren’t here because you’re terrible.
Sheffield refuses to take in anyone with just average talents. Even I know that
much.”
    “Then what about you? Why are
you here if you won’t even talk about your gift?”
    “I said I don’t use it very
often. I didn’t say I wasn’t good at it. You’re assuming things.”
    “You just don’t want to talk
about whatever gift you’re hiding and good
lord how long does it take to get a beer in this place?” I exclaimed,
turning around to the old men who were now ordering their rounds.
    The one who leered earlier
turned around. “Wh-, whassa-matta, sweetheart?”
    I knew my mistake immediately. I
could feel them mentally undressing me. It gave me the heebie-jeebies.
    “Sorry,” I muttered. “I’m just
impatient.”
    “You’re a fiery little thing,”
another creeper friend said.
    “You have no idea,” Gabriel
muttered under his breath.
    Now more than a couple men were
a part of this, perhaps three others turned to look at me. Officially ready to
get back to my table, I looked past them to find the bartender. He had served a
few of them and moved onto the other end of the bar.
    “Can