Page 11 of The Phoenix Inheritance

Isobel

Of all the things that could happen… Even if Garrison had walked by at such an inopportune moment, I wouldn’t have been in quite a tizzy. Sure, it would be embarrassing. But I wouldn’t be overcome with this bone-deep sense of awareness that awakens every inch of my body, to the tips of my breasts.

At least he didn’t see my scar,I try to cheer myself up as I absently knead its location on my stomach through the fabric of my dress.

But as I face Dane who is currently sulking on a rock, I realize even that isn’t enough to ease my mortification. Now that I see him in the flesh, he seems even more breathtakingly handsome than my conjurations of him – and I sure did my best to recollect him in fine detail over the past half-month, sometimes late at night.

Real Dane is broader and more brooding than in my imagination. My heart flutters.

I’m certain plenty of beautiful women beg for his attention wherever he comes from. Perhaps he’s even bedded a few.

I frown, unhappy with the sullen direction of my thoughts. I don’t have time to waste yearning for a man with better prospects. It’s unfortunate he saw me while I was in such a state of undress, but worse things can happen.

Nearly a minute has elapsed, and Dane still hasn’t peered up at me.

“It was before that you weren’t supposed to look, silly. Not when I finally have a dress on.”

At long last his graphite eyes rest upon me. A tremor courses through my spine at the impact of those searing grey beams. I grip the shoes I hold in my hands tightly, struggling to keep my mind on track.

“I’m so, so sorry,” he stammers in a voice that’s oddly thick. “It was a mistake. I never meant to see you like that, I –”

“Just get over it,” I shoot at him with a slight smile. “I already have.”

His gaze widens and drops a little lower. It’s like he’s staring at my lips – but that can’t be it, right?

“I guess that’s for the best,” he mumbles below his breath, before consecrating himself to an intent study of the rocks at his feet.

I let a few seconds of silence go by, which Dane doesn’t fill.

“How have things been since last time?” I prompt. “Better?”

His shoe taps a jittery pattern on the stone.

“Ah, yes. They’ve been, um, pretty well.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Our stilted conversation dies down as quickly as it arose. He continues to shake his foot. It’s beginning to drive me crazy.

After a few long, wordless moments, he jerks up suddenly and scrutinizes me once again.

“Do you, by any chance…” His high cheekbones turn a hearty crimson. “You know, kiss people sometimes?”

My jaw drops, and my heart skips a beat. Just hearing the word kiss in that husky timbre does strange things to my insides.

“Are you asking if it’s in my habit to entertain random men passing by Solenz in an intimate manner?”

The horror on his ruddy face would be humorous, if I wasn’t so horrified myself.

“No!” He blurts, waving his hands frantically. “I’m not implying that you…” He takes a deep, shaky breath. “I’m just asking if occasionally, you kiss – not random men. Men like… me.”

Something inside me melts. I don’t mention that I’ve never met men like him. In my part of the world, he’s one of a kind. A flash of color as brilliant as his hair in these white and grey lands.

“Why do you want me to kiss you?”

A hint of a smile splays across his handsome face. His flint-like gaze seems to turn impossibly soft.

“Because you’re nice,” he says simply. “And I’ve never really wanted to kiss anyone else before.”

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