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Luke looked at Rhett. Luke was not smiling. In fact, Luke took several steadying, deep breaths.
“Luke, come on. It was nothing. I was fine.Really,” I reassured him when his foreboding aspect did not lessen. “I found Rhettslightlymore attractive than I normally do,” I said. I saw no reason to sugarcoat it.
Rhett pretended to be affronted.
“But that was it. I didn’t dissolve into a puddle of giggles or anything,” I said, looking at Luke.
“Alarie, you really do look ravishing with a tan. I swear, it’s almost like you are glowing with the same light as Luke,” Rhett said.
Really? I thought, now hardly seemed like the best time for Rhett’s flirtatious teasing.
Rhett looked at his best friend, a smug smile on his face. Luke returned his friend’s smile with something close to a glare.
“Come on, what’s going on with you two? Spill it,” I demanded.
“Al, have you thought through the possibilities that allow you to be around me giggle-free when I’m not holding my abilities back and Luke’s not shielding you?” Rhett asked.
I gave him a small shake of my head. I really hadn’t thought about it at all.
“There are three,” Rhett said definitively. “The first one: you’re in love with someone right now and that protects you from my power.”
I had no doubt that I loved Luke. Butin love? I didn’t know if I would ever allow myself to be that vulnerable again. Not after Jay. I avoided making eye contact with Luke as I shook my head once from left to right, indicating I didn’t think that was it. I waited for Rhett to continue.
“And you claim not to have any of your own powers, correct? So you aren’t doing anything to block my powers?” he asked.
I shook my head, giving him anotherno.
Rhett went silent for a moment. I looked between Rhett’s and Luke’s handsome faces, waiting for them to explain the final option.
“Al, the only other answer is that—”
“You’re his mate,” Luke breathed out.
I stared at my two best friends in disbelief, the waves behind us growing louder as they churned into something less peaceful as the day wore on.
Rhett could only have one mate. He had one shot at true, eternal happiness. And Luke thought that Rhett’s one chance was with me?
“Geez, who died?” James asked jokingly, walking out onto the veranda. “I know I’m the life of the party, but you guys really should be able to get on for a few hours without me,” she teased, totally oblivious to what she walked into.
James was the kind of woman who should be Rhett’s mate, not me. She was groomed from the day she was born to be the wife of a high lord. She moved with the graceful confidence of a woman who knew her beauty, knew her worth, and would settle for nothing short of the very best.
Rhett broke into a smile, the fact that he was showing a little more of his white teeth than normal was the only indication that something was slightly off.
“Theymay be able to get by without you for a few hours, but you are asking entirely too much from me. You have been gone too long for my taste,” Rhett quipped, pulling James up and toward the house before she could get settled on the sofa next to him.
* * * *
I dressed in the silver and white colors of House Bellamy since I was Luke’s guest for the Summer Ball. My gown was nearly to the floor and was made out a white gossamer fabric so light that even the warm summer breeze coming off the Azure Ocean caused a chill to rise on my skin. Luke came behind me, kissing the top of my exposed shoulder so gently that the chill that had just left my skin returned threefold.
“Oh, sorry about that,” he chuckled, trying to rub away the goosebumps on my arms with his calloused hands.
A warmth radiated from his palms, and it felt like sunlight on my skin. I felt like I was lying on the beach again, the sunlight kissing my skin under a refreshingly light breeze.
“I love that feeling,” I said, looking over my shoulder up at him.
He wasbreathtaking. He wore a light gray suit cross-stitched with fine, white detailing, and a thin silver necktie. The suit was made of a lighter material than the suits he normally wore at the High Court, and the fabric pulled across his sculpted chest and boulder shoulders just the right amount to accentuate the muscular nature of his body, but not so tight that it stretched or gaped. His silver cufflinks, made of little silver rope knots, gleamed in the moonlight.
“Quit staring at me like that, or we are going to be late to the Gala,” he warned.
