Burning for Love (Kindred Tales)

He didn’t have time to worry about that now, he decided. Right now he just had to get her into the cold bath before she combusted.

When she was naked except for the damn wire, he gripped it in his right hand and, using the electrodes in his enhancement, shorted it out with a single dampening burst.

“Oh!” Rissa gasped at the loud crackling pop. “Oh, what did you do, James?”

“Took care of the problem,” he growled. He would have liked to rip the wire off her and ball it up or tear it to bits, but he realized that she would need it later to at least keep up appearances.

“Here, let’s get this damn thing off of you,” he muttered. The locking mechanism wasn’t at all difficult for his enhancements to unlock. Soon enough, he had the wire off of her and Ka’rissa was standing there, completely naked and red-hot all over.

“James,” she said faintly. “How did you—?”

And then her eyes rolled up in her head and the smell of burning sugar got so strong, James was certain she was catching fire right that instant.

Scooping her up in his arms, he deposited her into the half-full tub of icy water. A cloud of steam rose around them as her hot skin made contact with the water, nearly obscuring his vision. James ignored it.

Making sure to keep one hand under her head to keep it above the water line, he began splashing the cold water over her supine form, praying silently—though he hardly knew what deity he was directing his prayers to—that it would work.

At first he was afraid that the heat would consume her anyway. Her cheeks were red and she was panting steadily, her breathing light and shallow. The water kept steaming away to nothing as it touched her skin and he was afraid she would die from heat exhaustion, even if she didn’t go up in flames.

But finally the icy cold water seemed to be having some effect. The steam stopped rising and Ka’rissa’s respiration slowed down. She came back to consciousness and looked up at him with glassy, feverish eyes.

“Oh, James,” she whispered weakly. “What am I going to do?”

And then she burst into tears.

19

“It’s all right, Princess—everything is going to be all right,” James murmured soothingly as he stroked her flushed cheeks with his large, cool hands.

“No, it’s not,” Rissa protested. Burning hot tears were slipping from under her lids, leaving boiling tracks down her cheeks, but she hardly noticed them. “The Duke is right—I’ll have to dance with him at every ball and dine beside him at every state dinner.”

“But only for a solar month,” James said, his deep voice calm and soothing. “You only have to endure that fool for a month.”

“But I don’t have a month! Just look at me!” Rissa gestured to the tub, where she was still submerged in icy water. “If you hadn’t gotten off my Chastity Wire and plunked me in the tub when you did, I would have burned to ashes, just like my dear Mama did! The Duke is right—I will have to marry him and let him slake my Heat. There’s no way around it.”

“Yes, there is—there has to be,” James objected, frowning. “Though I have no emotions, I don’t like the idea of that bastard putting his hands on you,” he growled fiercely. “There must be a way to control your Heat Cycle, Princess.”

“If there is, I have no idea what it might be,” Rissa said weakly. She felt so tired—all wrung out—as she always did after her Heat Cycle peaked.

“Well then, we have to find out. Where can we get information about your family—the Very First Family, as you call them?” James asked.

Rissa shivered.

“In the Royal Library, I suppose. But that is where I was attacked,” she whispered, remembering the awful moment when the man in black had grabbed her and put a knife to her throat.

“You won’t be in danger as long as I’m with you,” James promised firmly. “We need to go, as soon as you’re able, and do some research.”

“But we can’t just go to the Royal Librarian and ask for information about controlling my Heat Cycle!” Rissa exclaimed. “Such knowledge is forbidden and Lord Bookish is a terrible gossip—the whole thing will be all over the Court in no time!”

“Then we won’t say that we’re looking for information on your Heat Cycle—we’ll say you’re researching your family for some kind of Royal event,” James suggested.

“Well…the End of Summer Gala is coming up at the end of this month,” Rissa said, frowning. “I suppose I could say that I wanted to make a speech about my ancestors and the Very First Family’s long, noble lineage.”

“That’s perfect.” James nodded decisively. “If there is any knowledge to be had about your ‘Fire Blood,’ it should be in the records of your ancestors.”