Page 25 of Dark Fire Kiss

“I can’t feed from you.”

“And yet you cannae starve, either, can you?” His gaze dipped to my mouth again. “I know you want a taste, lass, but I’m afraid the Fergus buffet is only available poolside.”

I stared as his absurd ultimatum swirled in my head. His accented swirled, too, that oddly appealing afreed lifting the fine hairs on my arms. It shouldn’t have affected me, but for some reason his trills and rumbles made a thousand butterflies take up residence in my stomach.

“Same rule as before,” he added softly. “I won’t touch you unless you ask me to.” He went to the door and retrieved his jeans—and the spectacle of him stepping into them and then easing them over his hips made the butterflies beat their wings just a little bit faster.

I couldn’t go with him… Could I?

He swept his arm toward the hall in a courtly gesture that made me wonder just how old he was.

In fact, I wondered a lot of things about Fergus Devlin, I realized with a start.

His eyes twinkled. “Shall we?”

* * *

Ten minutes later, I had to clench my jaw to keep it from dropping open. The castle didn’t just have an indoor pool. It had an indoor pool under a ceiling made entirely of glass. The night sky stretched overhead, its inky black dotted with stars that reflected in the water. The airy space was blanketed in moonlight, giving everything a peaceful, dreamy look.

“A bonnie sight, isn’t it?” Fergus said beside me.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. “There’s nothing like this in Krovnosta.”

He tipped his head toward a set of steps that descended into the water. “Come on in. It’s heated.”

I pursed my lips. “Another one of your conditions for giving me blood?”

“No, lass. I only wanted to show you something beyond your bedroom.” He put a hand over his chest. “I made a vow and I won’t be forsworn.”

I’d been around enough ancients to know they took vows seriously. “How old are you?”

He went to the steps. “Come in and I’ll tell you.”

I drew a sharp breath as I remembered using a similar line the night he captured me.

He winked and descended the steps in his jeans. Just walked right into the pool like he did that sort of thing all the time. Maybe he did. I was beginning to think this was perfectly normal behavior for him. The water rose to his waist and lapped around his impressive abs.

Which I was not staring at.

“Are you afraid of water, Halina?” Afreed.

“More so who’s in it.”

His soft laughter mingled with the sound of splashing water as he waded farther in.

And, strangely enough, both sounds soothed me. I felt my shoulders relax, and the knife’s edge of hunger faded.

The gentle waves beckoned to me. His body under the surface was indistinct and wavy, and I couldn’t help wondering what the caress of all that water felt like.

He spread his arms out and moved his hands back and forth like he was petting the current. More soft splashing sounds echoed through the cavernous space. He looked upward, and his eyes seemed to catch the light. “It’s almost a full moon.”

I followed the direction of his gaze, remembering suddenly that he and Bram were half werewolf. In the whirlwind of the past few days, I’d pushed that knowledge to the back of my mind. But now curiosity tugged at me. “Does it effect you?” Full-blooded werewolves couldn’t control themselves when the moon was full. Their beasts took over, driving them to mate and hunt. The packs made a ritual of it.

“Not like you’re thinking,” he said. “We can’t take lupine form, but we feel the moon’s pull.” His expression turned thoughtful. “It’s like an itch you have to scratch. We could withstand the pull if we had to, but it’s a lot more satisfying to give in to the shift. I hunted with some other wolf halflings when I trained to fight as a lad. Then I met Bram and he didn’t have anyone, so now I hunt with him during a full moon.” He smiled. “I guess you could call us a pack of two.”

I drifted closer to the steps. “He didn’t have anyone?”

Fergus’s smile faded. “Ah, no. His mother died birthing him, and his fathers followed quickly after. It’s the only way a dragon can die, really. Losing a mate. We love deeply, lass, and we can succumb to heartbreak.”

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