Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(37)

Stubborn man that he was, Rome chased after me.

I continued to scramble away until my back hit the bed, and the flames leaped onto it. No. No, no, no.

Calm down, I had to calm down. Passion and anger were both volatile emotions and ignited my body like matches (literally). But never, not even when I first underwent the change from human to superhuman and my abilities had been horribly unstable, had I experienced this.

"I don't know what to do," I cried. Was this happening because of the blood Reese had taken or the fact that Rome wasn't filtering for me as he'd done in the past? Probably the latter. I was a mess without him, our passion as out of control as the fire.

"Don't move," Rome said. I still couldn't see him, but I heard the pound of his footsteps amid the chaos inside my head.

I was too frightened to move, yet that fear failed to produce ice. What. The. Hell. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Happy thoughts might work, I thought. Or hoped. 'Cause I couldn't think of anything else that had worked in the past. Happy thoughts were hard to conjure, though, when I was a freaking human BBQ. Try. Try, try, try. Kissing Rome - that had been nice. And sexy. Shit! A flame shot from the top of my head, making sparks fall in every direction.

No thoughts of the kiss. That only inflamed me - on every level.

My heart drummed erratically in my chest, visions of agents catching fire and burning to death, their screams in my ears, filling my brain. If only Rome could remember how to filter for me! He could take the hottest thrums of my emotions and cage them inside himself, calming me inside and out.

Happy thoughts,my mind screamed. My dad. Sherridan. Tanner. My mom, when she'd been alive. Not that I remembered her. I felt a wisp of sadness stir inside me, felt a raindrop land on top my head, the fire crackling, and realized I was going about this the wrong way. Ice might be beyond me at the moment, but rain wasn't. Besides, happy thoughts might stop the fire from blazing from my body, but they wouldn't stop it from spreading throughout the room - and the building - and the city.

I needed more rain. Which meant I needed more sadness.

Before I could work up a good reason to cry, though, another round of footsteps echoed. Ice-cold foam was suddenly sprayed at me, dousing me completely. I closed my eyes and pressed my lips together, even stopped breathing so I wouldn't inhale the frigid stuff. Since employing me, John had made sure a fire extinguisher waited in every hallway.

When the spray stopped, several moments ticked by in silence.

"It's okay," Rome said, panting. "The fire's out."

Slowly I cracked open my eyes. I had to wipe my face with my hand to clear my line of vision. Rome hovered in front of me, his face concerned.

"You're covered in soot and your clothing has holes," I told him, shivering as the cold seeped into my bones. And I had done that to him. Me. I had placed him in danger. Hurt him. Could have killed him.

"I'm sorry. So sorry."

"Well, you're naked." There was no anger in his tone, no accusation about what I'd done. He was genuinely amused. "Nothing to be sorry about. I like the end result." Still. Tears burned my eyes as I surveyed the damage to myself. I gasped. My gown had indeed burned away. The only thing that saved me from a complete, full-body flash was the white foam. I looked like a snow queen, covered as I was with it.

Rome scooped me up, and I yelped in surprise. "I've got you." He latched onto the blanket before settling back on the chair with me on his lap and draping the material over me. "You okay?"

"Yes." Embarrassed to my soul, but fine physically.

"Does that kind of thing happen - "

"Belle Jamison. Want to tell me why - " John, who'd charged into the room, stopped abruptly. His expression didn't change when he spotted me sprawled on Rome's lap, but his voice did calm. "I don't even want to know what kind of kinky sex games the two of you have been playing this time, but it's nice to have you and your memories back, Rome. I'll want an EEG, of course, to compare your brain waves then and now."

Rome lost his air of relaxation. "My memories haven't returned." John's gaze flew to me, confusion registering. "Oh. Then why...Never mind." My cheeks heated and I scrambled off Rome and back onto the bed, taking the blanket with me. I covered myself as best I could. Cold as I was, I couldn't hide the two little pearls saluting anyone who glanced my way.

"Fine. I have to know. Something happened between the two of you." Both of John's brows arched, and he sighed. "What?"

"You already know, you pervert," I snapped.

He didn't back down. "Reese says the components that make your blood different from the average human's increase every time he tests you. This time, they were off the charts." I'd suspected that before, that the bloodletting was making my powers wonky, but had decided that was wrong. I still thought so. Being without my filter was the issue. Had to be. Because every time Rome left me, I had problems. I didn't tell that to John, however. Not now. He might try to find me another filter, someone who didn't mind being with me, and that wouldn't do. Not when the only person I wanted that close to me was Rome.

"Well, something's off," I said, which wasn't a lie. "I managed to set myself on fire." John's eyes widened and he looked to Rome for confirmation.

Rome gave an ominous nod.