Through the Fire (Daughter of Fire, #1)(13)

“You are so beautiful,” he murmured.

I opened my eyes and came undone at the way he looked at me. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over me as I succumbed to a sensation wilder and more wanton than anything I’d ever experienced.

Panting and completely spent, I tipped my head back and fell into the support of his embrace. With one arm secured around my waist, he held me upright and kissed my exposed neck.

“So goddamn beautiful,” he whispered between kisses as I trembled in his embrace.





OVER THE last week, I’d returned to his warehouse every day, and we’d spent a precious few hours together. Each day when I arrived to see Clay, he’d had a different date set up in the tiny space. Regardless of how the room was arranged, most of the dates ended up the same way, with both of us using every inch of self-control we had not to constantly maul each other with kisses—or more. Each day it was that much harder to leave when the time came.

“What do you want to do with your life when you get older?” Clay asked.

At some point during our latest daylong date, he’d packed away the table and chairs and unfolded the sleeping bag. He’d asked whether I could stay until sunset and then pulled down one corner of the tarp so that we could lie and watch it together. I had quickly settled between the bicep and shoulder of one of his strong arms, with my cheek resting over his heart. The hand of the arm that he’d wrapped around me was pressed against one of my palms, and I tenderly played with each of his fingers with my own. Resting in that perfect spot, it was easy to forget the danger outside the walls, and I couldn’t think of a place in the world I’d rather be.

“I haven’t really given it much thought,” I admitted. I turned in place to glance at his profile. He always seemed to be able to surprise me with his questions.

He tilted his head toward me, and our faces were so close that we were breathing the same air. “How do normal people do this?” he asked. “How do they decide what to do with themselves?”

“You’re asking me that?” I snorted.

He chuckled. “I guess you’re in the same boat as me. The rest of my life is stretching in front of me, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with it.”

“How do you plan for the rest of your life when you don’t even know that you’ll live beyond tomorrow?”

“I’m so selfish,” he groaned as he squeezed me tighter. He twisted his head to look at me, leaving his mouth just inches from mine. “Here I am wondering about how to navigate the future without the path that was laid out for me years ago. I never even thought how it must be for you.”

“Constant death threats and running do tend to put a dampener on life dreams,” I joked. It was a false bravado because the truth was this topic of conversation hit close to home. Too close. “What’s the time?” I asked as the thought of home reminded me of my responsibilities and promises to my father. When I’d agreed to stay for the sunset, I’d known I’d have to leave partway through. I’d become lost in the moment though.

Clay showed me his watch.

“Crap, I’m late,” I cried, dragging myself to my feet. “Dad is going to flip.”

“Surely you’re old enough now to be let off the leash a little?”

“It’s not about control, it’s about trust. I told him I was going to work. I need to go home, right now. He’s bound to be so worried.”

“It’s okay, Evie,” Clay said, moving to stand beside me and holding my hands in his own. “I’m sure he’ll understand.”

I wasn’t so sure. Although Dad had relaxed visibly since I’d learned the truth, he was still on constant high alert for threats to my safety. If he found out I’d been deliberately lying to him, to meet up with someone from the Rain no less, well . . . I wasn’t sure I could fix the wounds that would create.

Maybe I should have told him the truth sooner?

I’d wanted to wait until I could introduce Clay properly first. I’d hoped that maybe then, Dad could see why I cared for Clay the way I did. I could explain the near-certainty I had that Clay wouldn’t be a danger to me. The longer I waited, the harder it would become to convince him that lying was the best option under the circumstances—and arriving home hours later than expected, long after it was dark, wouldn’t help win Dad over to our side.

Who am I kidding? Dad won’t understand what I’m doing, even if I am home on time. Not yet anyway. As that thought ran through my head, I considered the perfect week that I’d shared with Clay and how much easier things might be if Dad knew the truth.

I took a deep breath, allowing it to collect around the guilt within me before blowing it out with a shaky exhalation as I made up my mind.

I need to tell him.

It was earlier than I’d hoped, I still didn’t know where Clay and I were really at, but I couldn’t delay it any longer.

“Will you come to see me tomorrow?” I asked Clay, knowing that if he said yes, he would be declaring his willingness to keep moving whatever this thing was that we shared onto the next level. That he might even consider leaving with us when the time came for us to uproot from Charlotte. The smaller details, like how to explain to Dad that Clay used to be part of the Rain but wasn't any longer, would just have to come later.