Page 16 of Bound By Destiny
“Do you always need to know the theory behind everything?” He asks , lips curling upwards. Damn his smiles for being so rare, because it just makes them all the more blinding.“You’d probably get along well with Aleixo.”
I cock my head, searching my memories. “Is that the phoenix who passes as a doctor? I’d love to meet him actually, especially if he’s been studying phoenixes for so long.”
“Forget about it,” Dane interrupts none too gently. When I only peer at him curiously, he gruffly adds: “Aleixo. The guy has terrible breath.”
“Oh.” I blink, taken aback. “Well even so, maybe –”
“I think we’re forgetting to talk about something much more important than Aleixo Pyrrhos.” He gestures at the alarmingly small gap between us. “Like this.”
I pull away, heart beating a mile a minute. “You started. You kissed me.”
One tawny brow shoots high on his forehead. “It takes two to tango, honey.”
I gulp, suddenly distracted by the husky timbre of his tone.
“Well short of taking a cold shower together, I don’t know what to tell you, Dane,” I snap at him, irritated by the tornado of emotions he awakens in me.
I can’t help but enjoy the sight of my tormentor turning redder than his hair, mouth forming words he never finishes.
“The lessons,” he finally breathes, though his voice is noticeably more tight than usual. “We should focus on the lessons.”
With a nod, I force myself to look everywhere but at those bulging biceps as he hoists himself up from the floor, picking up the last pieces of broken porcelain.
“Not the request for a new identity form again, I hope.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Dane’s face flushing an even deeper shade of puce. I smirk, rejoicing in his discomfort more than I should.
Ever since the Santa Catalina mountains fiasco, Dane has been avoiding exercises that involve any kind of physical contact. I’m sure he’s as well aware as I am that by the time he leaves, I’m required to know how to fly. I guess he’s just pushing the problem away for now, unwilling to address this bizarre attraction that occurs every time we’re close.
I have my reasons for pushing him away, I think to myself as I recall the wildness that overcame me the day we made love. Never again do I want to be controlled by anything else than my reason. Yet that afternoon, it was like some blind, visceral force within me took over. Thrilling, yes. But terrifying too.
I wonder what his reasons are though, the small voice in my head eggs on. I can tell Dane is just as vulnerable to the forces that pulls us together no matter how far we try to run. Because of that, because I know that the pull between us is so much more potent than plain old physical attraction, I can’t be angry at him. He’s no less a victim than I am.
But I can still wonder.
I saw the flash of turmoil that contorted his face the second I woke up from our lovemaking. Quick as a lightning bolt, but so vivid.
I also saw the emptiness in his eyes those times we flirted with disaster and nearly ended up in each other's arms again. Yesterday’s lesson, which should’ve gone by in a breeze as it merely consisted in submitting a form to the Phoenix Guild of Reinsertion and Resurrection for an identity change, turned out to be a catastrophe as neither of us could sit side-by-side without jumping each other's bones.
For me it was mostly frustrating. For Dane, there’s no missing the tortuous guilt in his gaze every time we only barey avoid a new fiasco.
What’s holding Dane back?I shake my head, discarding my interest as misled curiosity since the man’s life is none of my business if I don’t want him to be a part of mine. And I don’t. Definitely not.
But… what if it’s because he left a girlfriend back at home?
I hate the outburst of rage that fires within my chest.
“We’ll finish the identity change lesson tomorrow” he blurts, messing his hair with one irritated sweep of his arm. “Today we need to get out of this place.”
“Sounds like a great idea,” I agree heartily, glad we’ll finally escape the purgatory my apartment has become.
We’re inside my car in no time, which I suddenly realize is much too cramped when Dane is involved. Before we left I threw on a simple slip dress that usually hangs forgotten in my closet, and it’snotbecause it’s the same shade of purple as the wings he seemed so partial to. I rev up the engine, eager for a change of scenery.
It’s only when I’ve been driving a couple of minutes that I realize I have no direction to go.
“Where are we headed, by the way?”
I take a peek. It’s safe to look, as Dane’s mesmerizing crystal beams are hidden to me. All I face is the back of his mussed copper strands, already heartstopping enough a sight.
