A thoughtful sound stirred at the back of her throat. ‘How oldisCallum?’
‘I have no idea. Older than me.’
‘Is there a special way to do it?’
Kyan shook his head. ‘Not that I know of.’
Suddenly she was nervous. ‘You want me to try right now?’
A slight smile pulled at his mouth, eyes glittering. ‘Sure.’
It was more than unlikely she could do it, but the tiny competitive side of her was stoked by the challenge. She looked around for something to say.
When her eyes locked back on his, they had taken on his invitation, and it sent a thrill through her blood that he seemed … affectedby it.
Her throat warmed and she lowered her chin slightly. ‘Pick up that pencil.’
Her voice developed a smooth, almost seductive quality.
She watched with fascination as his eyes dilated. Her Empyreal perked up, as interested as she was by the effect her tone had on him. Helikedit. The wall of his body, like a field of simmering heat and suppressed power, tensed. His breath halted in his strong throat.
He hadn’t heard her use her Influence before. It was the side of her that she’d often suppressed. The more confident side. The huntress who was more flirtatious, who was more powerful, whoallowedherself to use the power that she’d been taught to tamp down.
It was followed by the freeing realisation that shecouldbe this way with him. She could embrace it all.
But despite his reaction to her voice, he didn’t move.
Nicole didn’t realise she’d pursed her lips in disappointment until his turned up again.
So she leaned closer.
‘Pick it up,’ she tried again. Softly, intently.
He did nothing other than leave his watchful stare on her so the warm power beneath her skin burned hotter.
She made a noise of deliberation, then broke the attempt. ‘I guess not.’
Kyan began to rise and her head tipped back to watch him uncertainly, until his hands found her waist. She held her breath as he lifted her and set her on the desk, over the splayed printouts of paintings she’d got from the library and her notes and books on Pre-Raphaelite art and Victorian symbolism.
Right now, she didn’t care about them. There was a new kind of art that had stolen every ounce of her interest.
And he was inches away.
Kyan’s mouth, now level with her eyes, moved. ‘“Pick it up”, you said.’ His voice was rough. ‘You didn’t clarify what.’
It was dangerous territory. An offering and temptation.
Sheshouldn’t, because with these new developments and the Wake on their heels, it felt even more forbidden.
Yet desire shimmered between them like a veil between worlds.
‘You have no idea …’ he said, voice deeper as his fingers stroked through her loose, wavy hair. Her eyes fluttered. ‘… the things I thought about these last six months.’
She wanted to luxuriate in him so intensely, she felt momentarily dizzy. Oh, to know everything. To be able to chart every forbidden inch of him and have him tell her every morsel of his life in that very tone.
Her hands drifted to his waist. The muscle there flexed as she dipped a finger beneath his shirt and ran it along the skin of his hair-grazed stomach. She traced the dip in muscle at the belt of his jeans, hot to the touch, alive with proud veins that randownwards.
Just the thought of it had a sound stirring at the back of her throat and her fingers curling around the band, nails scraping very slightly.
