Enflame (Insight #6)(79)

I felt the heat of his skin near my neck. “If the height scares you...we could always go home.”

I swallowed nervously. “This is my surprise?”

“It is.”

“You’ve been holding out on me, Mr. Chambers.”

I heard a gasping smile against my neck before I felt his warm lips touch me, causing chills to course over every part of my body. He leaned up and reached his hand for the small of my back, guiding me to the table, pulling my chair out. I sat down slowly, looking up at him. Before taking his seat, he uncovered our plates and poured white wine into our glasses.

“I feel underdressed,” I said shyly as he sat down in front of me.

“This is our ball. We can dress any way we want. My opinion: you look breathtaking.”

I don’t know why, but I was nervous. I smiled as I began to eat the feast before us. I recognized the taste of Felicity’s cooking immediately. I could even see her creating this scene for us. I made a mental note to thank her the next time I saw her. I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect place to hide away.

I noticed Landen’s stare as we ate. His emotions were calm, but I could feel him taking in all his insights, analyzing me.

After dinner, he filled my half-empty glass and leaned back and just stared at me.

“What are you thinking about?” I finally asked, not really wanting to break the peace of the silence.

“You.”

“What about me?” I asked, daring to let a smile echo on my lips.

“Scared of heights...I should have known that,” he mused.

I tried to hold in the blushing grin, but I couldn’t. “We’ve been really busy...not really scared. Just feel uneasy up high sometimes. Not all the time.”

“What else are you scared of?”

“You’re seriously asking me that?”

“Besides the obvious,” he said, leaning forward and giving me all of his attention.

“I don’t know. I mean, ‘scared’ is a bold word. Not really a fan of deep water either,” I said, nodding to the distance.

He moved his head from side to side with an amused look on his face. “We can go.”

I felt bad for saying that. I was trying to lighten the mood, but he was being serious.

“No...nothing really scares me if you’re next to me.”

That made his eyes sparkle. “Favorite color?”

“Right now, blue. Yours?”

“Since I have been informed by my better half that black is a shade, I’ll go with blue...though I’m enjoying the emerald before me.”

“Lavender,” I said, offering him a less mushy answer.

“Favorite subject in school?” he asked.

“Does Art count?”

His stare told me no.

“Mythology.”

“Because of the art,” he said, almost to himself, which was on point. I loved the artwork used to describe forgotten stories.

“Guilty. Yours?”

“Philosophy. Close tie with Astronomy.”

“Makes sense.”

His grin grew. “Favorite flower?”

“Was roses,” I said, glancing at the petals around the floor. “Now I think it’s the ones in the fields of Chara.”

“Mine, too. Favorite flavor?”

“This is tough. Can we not just talk about the darkness?” I teased. “Um...strawberries. Yours?”

“Recently, lemon,” he said as his eyes moved to my lips, which made me blush. “In the past, honey. Favorite music?”

“Currently, Draven’s. Kinda had a thing for the emotion in the genre.” I closed my eyes, falling into the gentle sound of a piano all around us. “But right now, I’m loving this.”

I heard him glide his chair back. When I opened my eyes, he was holding his hand out. I took it and he gently pulled me up and spun me across the open room. As we danced to the sound, the rose petals began to rise and glide around us. We swayed across the open room through countless songs, letting our words fall silent. Instead, our stare would speak the volumes we wanted to. When his hand drifted down my sides, I found myself gasping in the wake of the hum his energy left behind.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shooting star. I gasped, turning him so he could see the tail end of it. A warm rush of air surrounded me, and in the next instant I was lying in the center of the swinging bed in his arms. He adjusted me in his hold, pulling me closer. A wave of his hand made the torches around us dwindle to near nothing, amplifying the stars above us.

“I was told once,” he whispered, “that the stars tell the most engaging story of all time...do you want to hear a few chapters?”

To answer, I pulled myself closer to him, laying my head on his chest, wrapping my legs around his. He began with the stories Chara had about our signs, pointing them out, then he told me how close or far away the interpretations were to other dimensions. Hours went by, and each story led us to another topic, sometimes a playful debate on what the mythology meant, what secrets the stories were really hiding.

At some point, words became more than what we wanted to speak. His lips found mine, and gently we fell into each other’s embrace. There wasn’t a time he’d ever held me before that I didn’t feel loved, but this was the first time that I felt like we were both all here, in this moment, not suffering from some emotional trauma, not stealing a moment to be alone out of obligation, not loving each other for the sole fact of making each other stronger. He made me feel like a queen, in a world of our own, among the stars, among the silence and peace of the universe.