Night Unbound(34)

I am in so much trouble here, Lisette thought. Reaching up, she caressed his face, delighting in the rasp of his stubble against her fingertips and palm.
He stiffened.
“Is this okay?” she asked, wondering if he had gone so still because she was hurting him.
“I’m not accustomed to being touched,” he whispered.
That surprised her . . . and didn’t. Zach was so incredibly handsome. One would think women would throw themselves at him everywhere he went.
At the same time, though, he really did remind her of Roland. So untrusting. So solitary. So apart from everything and everyone. Who knew how long Roland had gone without a woman’s touch before Sarah had come into his life. Perhaps it had been the same for Zach.
“I touched you in my dream,” she said.
“That was different.”
“How so?”
“It wasn’t real.”
In the dream, he had reached up and held her hand to his cheek. He had kissed her. Touched her breast. Set her body aflame.
He did none of that now, though he looked as though he wanted to.
“Should I stop?” she asked, filled with uncertainty. She didn’t want to stop.
He nodded.
Hurt pricked her. Did he not like her touch?
“The water is boiling,” he said, never taking his eyes from hers.
Oh. She hadn’t even noticed.
Lowering her hand, she turned and headed back to the stove. Her long hair trailed through his fingers, then slipped free.
“Have a seat,” she encouraged once more, trying to get her pulse back under control.
Finally, Zach relaxed enough to sit down.
Lisette didn’t hear him move. She just glanced over and found him sitting sideways in a chair at the table, one arm resting on the chair back and the other on the table, the tips of his wings brushing the floor behind him.
 

 

“How are your wings?”
Zach watched Lisette move around the kitchen as she prepared their meal. “Better.” He flexed his wings the tiniest bit. Pain arced through him like an electric current, but he bore it in silence. “They’ll be healed soon.”
“Good.”
His heart still raced from her nearness.
Her hand had been small and warm against his jaw, her touch tender. So many feelings had inundated him, all new and unfamiliar, that it had been a struggle to speak.
“Is tea all right?” She removed a large pitcher from the refrigerator.
He nodded.
His skin still tingled. His thoughts raced.
No wonder, an inner voice spoke with awe. No wonder Seth left us. No wonder he abandoned the cold, sterile existence of the Others and sought the companionship of humans.
When Seth had first seen the human woman he had taken as his wife thousands of years ago, had he—like Zach—been instantly fascinated? Had his life changed course that very day? Or had Seth, like Zach, spent weeks or months watching her until he became willing to risk all just to speak to her? Hiding his fixation from the Others. Shielding his actions and whereabouts so none of them would guess.
And none of them had guessed. Zach had been as shocked as the rest of them.
Lisette approached—he loved to watch her move—and set a tall glass of tea on the table beside him.
Zach curled his fingers around the cold glass to keep himself from reaching for her. “Thank you.”
She smiled.
Trebly rock music filled the kitchen.
Zach cursed whoever was calling when Lisette backed away and drew her cell phone from a back pocket.
“Excuse me, please. Oui?”
“Hi. It’s me,” he heard her Second say.
Lisette glanced at Zach. “Hi. Are you still at David’s?”
“Yeah. How’d tonight’s hunt go?”
“It went well. Ethan joined me, and we took out four vamps.”
“Cool. I’m pretty bushed from training with Darnell. Is it okay if I bunk here again today?”
“Sure.”
“Okay. Call me if you need anything.”
“I will. Sleep well.”
“You too.”
Lisette ended the call and returned the phone to her pocket. Turning away, she drew a metal colander from a lower cabinet, placed it in the sink, and drained the water from the pasta. “Don’t worry. She knows I want some time alone, but she doesn’t know anything about this, so Seth and David won’t see you in her thoughts.”
He watched Lisette heap two plates full of pasta and top it with the aromatic sauce. “Doesn’t she mind your keeping secrets from her?”
“Probably. But she understands the necessity of it. She’s been around telepaths long enough to know that any secret I want to keep from Étienne, I must keep from her. Once his curiosity is aroused, he’ll peek into any brain he has to, to find the information he wants.”
“I would’ve thought an Immortal Guardian would suffer twinges of conscience over breeching another’s privacy in such a way.” Weren’t Immortal Guardians supposed to be the boy scouts of the preternatural world?