Drowning with Fire #3 ✔

Chapter 4 - Ember

The bus we got from Lake Oldoy faced several delays, so night was long fallen before we arrived in Hopecliffe.

I'd been to Hopecliffe once, but it was years ago. Even in the dark, it started to make sense to me why Halia was here.

The sea air filled up my lungs as I breathed in deep, and I could taste the salt as the summer breeze enveloped me in its caress.

We found a cheap hotel for the night, and collapsed into our beds straight away.

Theo, despite the option for him to sleep in another bed, came into mine and snuggled in close to me – our legs twining together as we took up almost all the space on the single bed.

"Did you go and see Lis and Neal whilst we were in Lake Oldoy?" I asked him softly.

"Yeah, I did." He replied, and I could hear a gentle smile forming on his face. "They're good. They've adopted another kid that needed a home. Not a supernatural this time, but a good kid who just needs a bit of guidance."

Rolling over, I smiled at him. "That's good."

"Yeah, it is." He smiled back and then we fell into a brief silence.

"Are you afraid?" I whispered; almost inaudible.

"Afraid of losing you, yes." He pressed his lips against my jawline – instantly sparking up the heat in between my legs.

Seriously? Right now, whilst we're trying to have a serious conversation?

I'd reached the point in my menstrual cycle in which I was extremely sexually alert, after having an abnormally long and heavy period. Whilst we were in Montana, it seemed to have died away almost completely – the sex drive and the long, heavy periods alike – it could've been to do with my fire being frozen out of me...

But now that my fire had returned to me, and the Phoenix was thriving – the sex drive was back. At the worst possible time.

"You don't need to be afraid of losing me." I looked deep into his hazel-blue orbs that were so extraordinarily rare and gorgeous, trying not to hyperventilate at the proximity of his body, or the fact he was only wearing a pair of boxers.

To be so attracted to someone after all this time, after everything...it's kinda impressive.

"I'm afraid of what's wrong with Kaden." I quietly confessed, facing the inner battle of my body's libido and my brain's fear.

He hesitated, and for a moment I was afraid he could sense my heightened attraction to him. "Me too." He responded, "I'm worried about him, and Halia as well."

"Theo..." I bit my lip and squeezed my eyes shut, unable to take it any longer. "I need to tell you something. Something I meant to tell you in Lake Oldoy, last year... Do you remember when we first kissed? After I lost control in the woods, right after we found Kaden?"

"I remember." He nodded, stroking the side of my face. "There was a thunderstorm, and I ran off and left you because I was scared of getting too close to you."

"Before the thunderstorm started, I told you I needed to tell you something. And I never did end up telling you." My words felt convoluted and slow as they rolled off my tongue like sticky syrup off a spoon. "I didn't tell you in Montana because it wasn't an issue."

"And now it is?" He raised an eyebrow at me, "What's wrong, Ember?"

"Basically," I took a deep breath, "I have abnormally long, heavy periods that are super irregular, and then when they finish, my sex drive goes insane and my sexual attraction is kinda switched into overdrive."