Page 23 (1/2)

Owen leaned against the doorway and took a sip froary-sweet hot chocolate made my mouth water "No, but I called Finn, and he toldWhen you called me, you said that you’d jumped into the river and were downstreaht have washed up So I got in the car and went looking"

"And Eva ith you too, wasn’t she? I re her voice"

Owen nodded "She wouldn’t letwould be better than just eneral idea of where I was, it would still take hours to search the riverbank, especially in the dark So how did you findfroht streae of one of my silverstone knives

"These," he said "I knew that you had to have at least a couple of them left on you, not to mention the metal melted into your hands So I just concentrated and focused on finding any silverstone in the area They led ht to you"

Of course Owen had what he considered to be a small elemental talent for h I knew that hisbut weak The bottom line was that Owen could sense, control, and manipulate metal just the way that I could Ice and Stone Still, it ic he had to specifically sense the silverstone in such a big area, especially with all the cans and other metal debris that littered the riverbanks

"That’s why you look so tired, isn’t it?" I ht"

Owen shrugged as though it was nothing But it wasn’t nothing to me Besides Finn and the Deveraux sisters, I couldn’t even re foron , capable one, that I’d forgotten how nice it felt to have someone else look out for me

To have soile strings of led threads wrapping around and weaving their way through my heart Scary and painful in so the needles still tingling indown and opened his arms I stepped into his eainst his chest, breathing in his rich, earthy aroh, I stood up and pressed my lips to Owen’s

Maybe it was my frame of ht, but I felt so ainstagainst mine The familiar passion sparked to life deep inside me The feel of Owen, the smell, the taste of him, heated me in a way that all the wool socks in the world just couldn’t

But it wasn’t just ht it, war one sile petal at a tithened by what he’d done fortome when I couldn’t save myself

Some time later the kiss ended We stood there in the middle of the bedroom, our arms wrapped around each other, breathless For the first ti or pretend that things were only physical between us They were ainst my lips "That makes it all hile"

I drew back and arched an eyebrow "Really? I wouldn’t have figured you for a ht off with a ue action involved"

A wicked grin spread across Owen’s face, softening the scar on his chin and ht "Well, if you have soestions"

I jerked my thumb over my shoulder "There is a bed in this room"

"Yes, I had noticed that," Owen said "I also happened to notice that you have on about a closet’s worth of clothes"

"You don’t like the marshmallow look?" I quipped "Or perhaps you’re just not up to the challenge of getting through all my many layers of woolen chastity?"

Owen’s eyes narrowed, and his lips quirked up into a sly, sexy set through those layers and down to the good stuff"

I pressed a soft kiss to the side of his ainst his ear "Then why don’t you showaround to the front of my body Our eyes met and held as he undid the top button on the top-

Soh I looked over Owen’s shoulder to see Finnegan Lane standing in the doorway, a cup of chicory coffee in his hand and a knowing grin on his handso better," Finn drawled

Chapter 20

I sighed and looked back at Owen "Rain check?"

He leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to my lips "I’ll hold you to that"

And I would have been holding him, if I’d had my way But Finn was here now, no doubt to check onhoas doing as well The ro-hed and stepped out of Owen’s embrace

By this point, s, but I still wasn’t rock steady on my feet, which is why I held on to the polished banister as the three of us went downstairs

Since it was Sunday, Jo-Jo’s beauty salon was closed, but that’s still where I found the ernails a sweet little-girl pink Vinnie held his daughter on his lap, his hands around her waist, his head perched on her shoulder, as if he couldn’t quite believe she was back here with him instead of dead and buried Rosco, Jo-Jo’s basset hound, was snoozing in his basket in the corner as usual, his fat, stubby legs twitching with soht of ot to his feet and set his daughter back down in the cherry red salon chair Natasha gave me a tiny smile, then held out her other hand so Jo-Jo could paint the rest of her nails She sees considered At least she was safe now and back with her father, where she belonged

Vinnie came over and stood in front of h his see else The Ice elemental hesitated, then held out his hand I took it, and we shook His palainstyou ever need, anything I have, it’s yours," Vinnie said in a low voice "All you have to do is ask"

The bartender didn’t oweRescuing the little girl from the horrors and death that had awaited her at the train yard had been ht that Fletcher Lane,it The oldpeople with certainbono, as it were Of course, I hadn’t known about Fletcher’s side business until after he’d died, but I still thought the old ht