Vain (The Seven Deadly 1)

“They are,” he answered.

“No,” I balked. “I mean, yeah, they’re amazing, but I was talking about you, Ian.”

“Sophie, anyone would have done what I did.”

“No, they wouldn’t have, Ian.”

He playfully rolled his eyes and shrugged off my compliment.

“Why Ian?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Because,” I offered without further explanation.

“I like it,” he said, staring out the window.

“Why?”

“‘Dingane’ makes my heart ache to hear it.”

I sat up a bit at that. “Why let them call you that then?”

“It means something to me every time they say it. It reminds me of who I am and who I never want to become again.”

“What does it translate to?”

He sat up with me and peered hard into my eyes. “Exile,” he said succinctly.

I fell back then turned to realize that the sat phone was fully charged.

We’re not done, Ian Aberdeen, I told him silently.

And he knew it. I could feel it in the intoxicating charge in the air. He knew it.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I tossed an extra two dollars on the counter as we left the restaurant and the woman waved at us emphatically in appreciation. Ian and I walked silently toward his jeep, both pondering, I guessed, about the bombshells we’d just laid on one another. It was the first time we had ever been vulnerable to one another and it felt overwhelmingly powerful.

As we walked, I suddenly felt a whoosh of air as Ian pulled me toward him violently just in time for me to avoid the bicyclist who’d lost control and was barreling toward us. Ian grabbed me by the waist, swinging me away and rushing me back onto the sidewalk and against the outer facade of the restaurant we’d just been inside of. As he pressed me against him, that same flush-inducing heat creeped up my neck and face and one of his hands traveled to the back of my neck while the other rested on my hip. My heart beat into my throat but not from the narrowly missed collision. I was losing control of my reaction and that had never happened to me. I was always methodically in command of the way I let a boy affect me and had their reactions to me checked as well. Always in control. Proximity to Ian Aberdeen was my kryptonite.

“Are you okay?” he whispered.

Far from it, I wanted to say, gazing into his breathtaking face. “I’m fine, thank you,” I said quietly instead, afraid of blemishing the moment.

We were walking a razor’s edge and my blood pulsed dangerously in my veins, pooling at the skin where his hands rested, heating me up from the inside. He backed away slowly, but the muscles in his arms bunched as he forced his hands to leave my body. I felt alone too quickly, but there was nothing I could do. In my past life, I would have dragged him back to me, but I was no longer that Sophie so I followed his very delicate lead.

We hurried to the jeep and he opened the door for me before rounding the front and settling in himself. He started the engine, but I grabbed his arm before he could put it in gear.

“Wait,” I told him.

“Yes?” he asked, breathing unusually hard and whipping his head my direction.

“I should call Pemmy for an update.”

“Oh,” he began before clearing his throat and facing the windshield, “of course.”

My heart beat rapidly at his obvious disappointment. I watched him for a second as I pretended to dial Pemmy’s number. Kiss me then, I kept ordering him silently, but he never obeyed. Instead, he gripped the steering wheel with such ferocity I believed he might bend it. I dialed Pembrook in earnest and got him on the second ring.

“Sophie!?” I heard on the other line.