Goddess's Gift (Get Your Rocks Off #4) - Sam Hall Page 0,1

a little at my inspection, as if he read my mind and found it amusing. It was a secret smile, a cat’s smile, inviting me to learn more.

But it was Johnno who grabbed my attention and held it.

He looked like he’d been run through the ringer, his hair long and shaggy, stubble thick on his jaw, but those golden eyes held mine steadily.

“We fucked up,” he said flatly.

Yeah, you did.

“I always fucking hated Liam’s plan. So did Lucas, obviously.”

“We all did,” Billy said, but he didn’t look happy about it, staring at the bed.

“If we’re going to start something new, we need to talk. Get on an even footing. Stop fucking shit up,” Johnno said, and it was all so tempting.

That was the thing about him, with his ruffled boy next door charm and all that wonderful earnestness. The others conjured a dazzling array of scenarios, from sadistic to falling into an endless sensual darkness I could just drown in, but him? Despite his destroyed expression and the lines on his face, he offered the most dangerous thing of all—hope.

“Can we do that, Kira? Can we sit and talk shit out?”

Metaphorically, his hand was outstretched, ready and waiting to take mine and find a way out of this together. All I had to do was make that leap. And for a few heartbeats, I considered it.

I shook my head, looking away when I saw the pain compounded on my former preceptor’s face.

“At some point, yes.” My voice was cool and measured. I even reached out and took his hand to press home the message, fighting the urge to shiver when my thumb trailed over those familiar calluses. “There was a time when I would have given anything I had for that.” My voice was low, quiet, but I felt them hang on my every word. “I wanted it so much when I was on that bus with you.”

Those long, mobile fingers squeezed mine.

“But I’m not falling into bed or kinky scenes with any of you anymore. I’ve started a war with Rutherglen, I need to find out what these bloody trials are, what being a consort is, if Jen’s OK. That’s my focus, not The Changelings.”

I let Johnno’s hand go, his fingers dropping limply from my grasp, while Lucas got to his feet and strolled over to the door.

“Good girl,” he murmured as he dropped his head down to mine, placing a kiss on my temple and pulling away before I could snarl at him, but he had the right of it. I pulled myself free of the mess I’d made and walked to the door out of here, striding out into Aragide, not looking to see if they followed.

Chapter 2

“Kira! I was just about to send someone to find you.”

I bowed to Ashanti and the people she had clustered around the huge ring of a meeting table, because that seemed to be the polite thing to do, but my eyes were drawn to where Jen sat, curled against Vervain’s side.

“Please, sit, eat. I was just filling the rest of the council in on the new developments.”

Jen’s eyes found mine, so I took a seat on the other side of her, smiling when someone passed me down a plate. I put it before me and looked up, meeting everyone’s eyes.

“Kira is our avatar. She has taken six consorts and opened Aragide and will need to start training with them for the trials—”

“And one of them is the avatar of the sky god?” a curvy black woman with a halo of hair asked. “How is that possible?”

“Lucas is one of the many avatars of the sky father—”

“What the hell is he doing here? And in Aragide? Are we in the practise of opening the door wide to admit our enemies now?”

Voices clamoured, but a small pale hand crept out from where Jen kept them tightly bundled and reached over and took mine. I breathed deep, the arguing, the gesture all tugging at me. Calm things down, explain, settle Jen, make sure she’s OK. I felt the mounting weight of all my responsibilities so acutely, but when I turned to face my friend, I saw something I hadn’t expected to see there—compassion.

“Are you all right?” she hissed, like we were at school and I’d just found out I’d gotten my period or something.

I nodded. “Are you?”

“I am…we are now, thanks to you.” My thumb began to stroke the back of her hand restively as I saw the tears begin to form, like