Page 7 of Tempered By Flames

Ethan kind of hated that Liam was so wary of him, but he’d been the one to cause that. He’d kept Liam at a distance the other evening, and he’d refused to go to dinner. He’d put that space between them, and it was a good thing. He needed that space to be there. He needed to be sure that Liam wouldn’t create problems with his friends and the people he considered his family when he found out what Ethan was.

“I can take a look if you want,” he offered.

Liam blinked at him, clearly surprised. “Yeah? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“Why would I be uncomfortable? It’s my job.”

“Right. Of course. Well, if you have a few minutes to spare, I’d love it if you could take a look at the scar and tell me whether or not I can get it tattooed.”

Ethan got up and gestured for Liam to follow him. “I’ll take you to one of the back rooms.”

Liam was silent as he followed Ethan. For some reason, it didn’t feel like him to be silent. He was told that Liam was much more like Austin, who never seemed to stop talking, than West, who was the silent and strong type. There was a bounce in Liam’s step, though, and it reassured Ethan. Maybe he hadn’t ruined everything, after all.

He was glad, but at the same time, he wondered if it mattered. All of this might not work out, anyway. He wouldn’t be sure until he told Liam what he was, though, and he wasn’t ready to do that.

So instead, he guided Liam to a chair and had him sit. He stared at Liam’s covered shoulder for a moment, quietly snorting to himself. “Right, well,” he said. “I’m going to need you to take your shirt off.”

Liam looked over his shoulder with a grin before whipping off his t-shirt as if it was nothing special. Maybe for him, it wasn’t. Working as a firefighter, he probably saw plenty of nudity when he and the others showered after a call or at the gym. That wasn’t something Ethan was going to think about, though. Thinking about Liam naked in the shower was a bad idea, but adding Austin and West to it was even worse. Ethan couldn’t deny that both of them were hot, but that was where his interest stopped.

Liam bundled his t-shirt and turned back to face the wall. Ethan had a job to do, so he squinted and leaned closer, curious to see what scar they were talking about.

He was surprised when he realized it looked like a burn scar. Liam was a dragon. He shouldn’t be burned. Dragons were immune to fire. It was what made Austin and West such formidable firefighters. They were more easily hurt when they were young, though, so Ethan wondered if this had happened to Liam when he was a child. The thought made him sad, even though Liam had clearly healed from it. The scar was extensive but not too bad, so he was positive he’d be able to tattoo on top of it. “I can work with this,” he told Liam.

Liam glanced over his shoulder, still grinning. “Yeah?”

“Well, it depends on what you want. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

“I’d love to work with you on a design.”

Ethan hoped he wasn’t going to regret this. “You have time now? Because I don’t have any other customers for a bit.”

* * * *

LIAM HADN’T EXPECTED Ethan to want to do this right away. In fact, he hadn’t expected Ethan to want to do this at all. He wasn’t about to say no to Ethan’s offer, though. “Yeah, I have time now.”

Ethan nodded. “All right. What do you have in mind?”

“I’m not really sure. I wasn’t sure whether or not you’d be able to cover it, so I didn’t think too much about it.”

Ethan narrowed his eyes. “You came for a consultation without thinking about what you want?”

“Well, no. I was thinking some trees, like a forest.”

“A forest.” Ethan was talking to Liam as if he thought Liam was an idiot, and maybe he wasn’t wrong. He didn’t understand what this forest meant to Liam. Ethan didn’t have to tell him, but part of him wanted to. “The forest is the place where I escaped when I was younger,” he murmured.

There was a beat before Ethan reacted. “I see. You don’t have to tell me anything.”

“It’s fine. It’s not a bad story or anything. When I say escape, I don’t mean that I was escaping from a bad situation. It was just suffocating.”

Liam knew that Ethan was a shifter, but he still couldn’t place what kind of shifter he was. Ethan smelled of dragon, but at the same time, it wasn’t the right scent. If he’d been a dragon shifter, Liam would have recognized it, just like he’d recognized Austin and West. No, there was something to Ethan’s scent that told Liam that dragon wasn’t quite right, but at the same time, he couldn’t ignore it. It was confusing.

That wouldn’t stop him from talking to Ethan. “I grew up in a loving family and a loving clan; they’re just very small and isolated.”

“It doesn’t look like it affected you,” Ethan commented. He was drawing something on his sketchpad. Liam wanted to know what that something was, but he didn’t dare ask. He suspected he’d see soon enough, anyway.

“Me and the other kids were all homeschooled,” Liam explained. “The clan is made up of a few families, and they’re quite traditional, although not badly so. The moms stay at home with the kids, and the fathers go to work. Going to the academy was the first thing I decided for myself, and while the clan and my family were supportive, they were also scared. They live in their own little world, and they don’t know what to expect when it comes to the outside world.”

“And now, you’re in it.”