Open Flame (Dragon's Fate) Read Online Free

time, don’t you think?” She frowned and skirted the edge of the table, placing the clock between them.
    He couldn’t help the laugh that erupted from his throat. Human through and through. “Skeptical, some would say. Others would say genius.” He stepped closer to her, needing to feel the heat between them. Her gaze dropped to his cheek. “You notice my cheek mark?”
    “Quite so.” Hardness flashed in her eyes, bursting to heat molten. She had darkness in her. “That red crescent is how I knew who you were.”
    Damn, how could he forget her? His throat tightened. ’Twas a pity. Her fire would never be displaced again.
    Her hand shook as she ran it along her neck and flipped her hair back over her shoulder.
    Beautiful.
    “Do you wish me to take the skeptical out of time, miss?” He wanted to show her everything. He stared back into her eyes. If only he could read her soul.
    “That is not necessary. I have been exposed to the workings of time all my life.”
    He would show her the world. “All aspects of time? Or only the human ones?” That should make her pause.
    She raised a disinterested brow. “Time is time. There is nothing so true or so false.”
    “False?” He could not help himself. The need to touch her grabbed his every nerve. He reached out and ran his middle finger across the back of her hand as she dragged her fingers along the table’s edge. Smooth. Hot. Moist. She smoldered.
    Her hand stilled beneath his touch. “There is no such thing as time.” She tilted her head to the side, then leaned across the table toward him. “We made it up,” she whispered, and her breath caressed his skin.
    His heart pounded into his ears. No. She would push him out of control. No emotion. Logic. He pulled his hand away. “Apparently.” Saliva filled his mouth. He wanted to taste her. To run his tongue along her salty skin and suck her earlobe into his mouth.
    He could not. Though he would show her his world of time. He blew out a stream of humid breath. The air between them misted.
    She.
    Full lips.
    High cheekbones.
    A pillow of soft brown hair.
    Just a moment alone to show her.
    Fire pulsed through his veins.
    The ticks of the clock in the hall slowed, then stopped.
    The humans in the room froze in motion. All except her.
    He narrowed his eyes and stared into her fire-blues. “What do you think?” The words escaped his lips in a challenge before he could restrain them.
    “Of what?” She held his gaze without wavering.
    “Look around you.”
    She tore her gaze from his eyes and looked left, then right. Her chest hitched and her chin shook. She whirled, her gaze back on his.
    He raised his eyebrows and waited for her response. He hoped she’d challenge him.
    “What do you mean?” Her plush lips thinned.
    What a delight. He fought his urge to smile. He couldn’t hold this much longer or he would be scolded by the time council that put on the event. He quickly glanced about. An otherworldly man two tables down shot him a warning glance. Another who stood in the path just beyond him did so as well.
    If only he could stop otherworldly time explorers. A gray raven swooped down to the carpet behind the miss.
    He stared at the odd-colored bird on the floor behind her. A chill raced up his spine, and the room moved again. His brother, Jordan, had mentioned the gray raven. He had said that when he’d bitten his now wife and life mate, Celeste, the bird had appeared.
    Madoc had only once bitten a woman.
    Never again. Not until the watch was perfected. He couldn’t watch as someone he cared about died.
    Yet, there sat a gray raven. No. The fowl couldn’t be the gray bird. There could be another odd-colored bird in the world.
    He tore his attention back to the pretty miss.
    The other side of the table stood empty.
    He spun about. She was nowhere.
    The bird hopped to the place where she had resided. Its gray head jerked to the side; then it pecked at the carpet.
    The stupid bird had distracted him from