Page 51 of Start With A Slap

“How do you explain this?” He pointed at the drop of water sliding down his cheek.

“I don’t know,” she said, aware now that it was, in fact, starting to rain. “Chamberpot fallout? Sadness?”

“This is not a tear, nor nineteenth century piss. It’s a raindrop.”

“Says you.”

“Taste it,” Aidan suggested. “That’ll settle things.”

“Ohh no no no,” she said, backing away. “I can’t touch him. I’m not allowed.”

“Why? What happens if you do?”

Her eyes met Sever’s. “Apocalypse.”

Sever’s mouth curled up at the corners. “Revelations.”

“So? What’s the problem?” When Aidan didn’t get an answer, he slid his finger over Sever’s jaw and held it up to Ivy. “You can touchme, can’t you?”

“Touch, yes. Lick, that’s where I generally draw the line.”

“Fine then. Your loss.” He grabbed Sever’s face, licked his cheek, smacked his lips, and looked disappointed. “Rain.” He cocked his head. “Y flamenco.”

“It’s raining flamingoes?”

“No, sweet Ivy. It’s raining,” he slung an arm around her, the other already around Sever, and pointed at a hole in the wall with a Spanish name, “and flamenco will be our shelter.”

As Aidan placed a hand on her shoulder, she felt a spark of electric tension. It wasn’t him — it was the bridge he’d formed between them. Aidan had become an unwitting lightning rod, one that allowed Sever to affect her by proxy.

“You’re shivering, love,” Aidan observed, rubbing her shoulder paternally, not realizing it was causing the shiver. “Need some warm spirits in ye.”

CHAPTER 16

Flamenco

The bar was thick with smoke and bodies and raucous noise. “Just one more,” Ivy said, “and that’s it for the night.”

“Let’s go out with a bang, then,” Aidan said. “Ever try the green devil?”

“You mean absinthe? Doesn’t that give you hallucinations?”

“Rubbish. It only makes you see what’s already there.”

“Don’t listen to a word this man tells you,” Sever said, still caressing her via lightning rod. “You thinkI’mevil...”

“He learnt from the evillest,” Aidan said with a wink.

“I’ll try it,” Ivy said, partly to be contrary, partly to say she had, but mostly to get the tingle-inducing touching to stop.

“That’s a girl.” Aidan patted her on the back and hailed the bartender.

Their connection mercifully broken, Ivy peered at Sever, who was giving her a cryptic smile, and told him, “It’s just a little shot. Don’t get excited.”

“I wouldn’t dare,” Sever said.

She wondered what was going on in his head. He hadn’t made a single move across the chessboard all night, and it wasalmost one in the morning. What kind of blitz was he planning to unleash, and when?

He couldn’t possibly believe that she would cave on her own. That would be a little audacious of him. Andwrong.

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