marriage?” She took a step back, her legs bumping the window seat. Humiliation crawled up her neck in red splotches. “You took advantage of me when I was what? Eighteen?”
Heat crawled up his neck at being accused of something so disgusting. “No. It was consensual. You were an adult.”
“Why didn’t we marry then?”
“I told you. Our fathers screwed up or we would have been married by now.”
She challenged, “We couldn’t have married somehow? What if I’d been pregnant?”
“Then we would have married.”
“But only if I was pregnant?”
“What? No.” Tzader took a step forward and reached to calm her, but the room spun out of focus and his step ended up on dirt and rocks outside the mountain headquarters of VIPER.
He roared in fury.
Chapter 9
Two hours before daylight, Evalle quietly opened the door to her dark apartment. She slipped inside ahead of Storm, who made no sound as he followed. They tiptoed past the futon Lanna had requested for her bed, where she was currently crashed out, dead to the world.
Feenix slept next to Lanna, curled up on his beanbag chair with his little wings tucked in and clutching his favorite alligator stuffed toy.
Evalle smiled at the peaceful scene. It gave her hope that this living arrangement would be fine after all. Lanna wasn’t staying forever and Feenix would get used to Storm being here. Her little gargoyle had just been frightened the first night.
Squawking, screeching and flapping wildly for the best part of an hour as he wrecked everything he ran into.
Lanna had tried to help by making Feenix’s toys fly, but that had turned the place into even more of a circus.
Evalle didn’t want to think about that right now.
She’d spent this past week dwelling on it every waking minute, which had been pretty much the whole time since she couldn’t remember the last solid sleep she’d had. Not when she suffered nightmares of Storm changing his mind about living with her. She’d come up with a plan. That’s what Quinn and Tzader, her best-friends-slash-surrogate-brothers, had taught her.
Tackle a problem by coming up with a strategy.
Their advice always sounded good on paper, but once she waded into trouble up to her neck, she generally just started killing everything until she could walk away.
Not exactly a strategy for sorting out a personal crisis that was probably all just in her mind.
Probably.
Moving in stealth mode down the hall, she stepped inside her bedroom and left all the lights off except the fused-glass night-light Feenix loved. It threw a kaleidoscope of color over the room.
Storm shut the door and started shedding clothes.
She’d begun doing the same, but paused to admire the view of the hottest man alive.
Cut muscle wrapped him from neck to ankles and the man was entirely at ease nude, but who wouldn’t be with an Adonis body like his? He had beautiful teak-colored skin covering a powerful physique. Reaching up, he flicked the leather thong away that had held his black hair, letting it fall past his shoulders.
He smiled without looking her way.
He’d caught her ogling him and clearly liked it.
Evidently she was taking too long to undress, because the next thing she knew he was in front of her, unzipping her jeans and pulling them down.
She laughed, happy for the first time in a week, and stepped out of the jeans, which he tossed aside. She couldn’t recall Storm being so messy.
He caught her face with his big hands and stared deep into her eyes. “I like the sound of you happy.”
“You’re the cause of it.”
“I like that too.” He kissed her, using his mouth with the precision of a maestro, tuning her body to a fever pitch that would sing the minute he plucked a few choice cords. She ran her hands up his chest and marveled at the fact that he was hers.
His hands touched and explored. Every part of him
Heat crawled up his neck at being accused of something so disgusting. “No. It was consensual. You were an adult.”
“Why didn’t we marry then?”
“I told you. Our fathers screwed up or we would have been married by now.”
She challenged, “We couldn’t have married somehow? What if I’d been pregnant?”
“Then we would have married.”
“But only if I was pregnant?”
“What? No.” Tzader took a step forward and reached to calm her, but the room spun out of focus and his step ended up on dirt and rocks outside the mountain headquarters of VIPER.
He roared in fury.
Chapter 9
Two hours before daylight, Evalle quietly opened the door to her dark apartment. She slipped inside ahead of Storm, who made no sound as he followed. They tiptoed past the futon Lanna had requested for her bed, where she was currently crashed out, dead to the world.
Feenix slept next to Lanna, curled up on his beanbag chair with his little wings tucked in and clutching his favorite alligator stuffed toy.
Evalle smiled at the peaceful scene. It gave her hope that this living arrangement would be fine after all. Lanna wasn’t staying forever and Feenix would get used to Storm being here. Her little gargoyle had just been frightened the first night.
Squawking, screeching and flapping wildly for the best part of an hour as he wrecked everything he ran into.
Lanna had tried to help by making Feenix’s toys fly, but that had turned the place into even more of a circus.
Evalle didn’t want to think about that right now.
She’d spent this past week dwelling on it every waking minute, which had been pretty much the whole time since she couldn’t remember the last solid sleep she’d had. Not when she suffered nightmares of Storm changing his mind about living with her. She’d come up with a plan. That’s what Quinn and Tzader, her best-friends-slash-surrogate-brothers, had taught her.
Tackle a problem by coming up with a strategy.
Their advice always sounded good on paper, but once she waded into trouble up to her neck, she generally just started killing everything until she could walk away.
Not exactly a strategy for sorting out a personal crisis that was probably all just in her mind.
Probably.
Moving in stealth mode down the hall, she stepped inside her bedroom and left all the lights off except the fused-glass night-light Feenix loved. It threw a kaleidoscope of color over the room.
Storm shut the door and started shedding clothes.
She’d begun doing the same, but paused to admire the view of the hottest man alive.
Cut muscle wrapped him from neck to ankles and the man was entirely at ease nude, but who wouldn’t be with an Adonis body like his? He had beautiful teak-colored skin covering a powerful physique. Reaching up, he flicked the leather thong away that had held his black hair, letting it fall past his shoulders.
He smiled without looking her way.
He’d caught her ogling him and clearly liked it.
Evidently she was taking too long to undress, because the next thing she knew he was in front of her, unzipping her jeans and pulling them down.
She laughed, happy for the first time in a week, and stepped out of the jeans, which he tossed aside. She couldn’t recall Storm being so messy.
He caught her face with his big hands and stared deep into her eyes. “I like the sound of you happy.”
“You’re the cause of it.”
“I like that too.” He kissed her, using his mouth with the precision of a maestro, tuning her body to a fever pitch that would sing the minute he plucked a few choice cords. She ran her hands up his chest and marveled at the fact that he was hers.
His hands touched and explored. Every part of him
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