roasted vegetables were provided and he put a few on each plate. Grabbing the eating utensils, he started walking toward the balcony with both plates.
“Are we eating outside?”
Kieran turned his head to see Annika walking into the kitchen. “If that’s okay with you. I’ve made you up a plate. How about grabbing those two wine glasses there on the counter.”
Annika picked up the stemware. “Sounds good. Lead the way.”
***
Annika watched Kieran walk out to the balcony and started following. He had caught her by surprise when he had come into the kitchen a bit ago. She was so lost in her thoughts she had not heard him walk in. She was worried about Mary, worried about recovering The Scepter and worried about the confusing array of emotions she was feeling. And then when she saw Kieran standing in the kitchen, all thoughts fled from her head. She smiled to herself when she thought of the one word that popped in her head. Yummy! How was it that a man wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and a t-shirt could be about the sexiest thing there was.
It’s not that Annika had a problem with thinking about Kieran in a sexual way. She had been replaying their night of passion over and over in her head. Then she had been fantasizing about new nights of passion with him. Then she would mentally slap herself in the face and tell herself to get a grip. Kieran wasn’t the focus of her problems right now. He would provide nothing more than a nice diversion from those problems.
So, now that she thought about it…what was wrong with having a diversion? Annika had no qualms with casual sex. It was in following with the mores of her people. She knew for a fact that Kieran didn’t have a problem with that. Ava had given Annika an earful about Kieran’s conquests as she was showing her around Clairmont.
And why was that? Was Ava trying to make Annika jealous? Was she trying to warn her off from Kieran? If either of those were on her agenda, she was wasting her time. She didn’t get jealous and there was nothing to be scared of when it came to Kieran. Again, nice diversion but that’s all he would ever be. Annika didn’t open up to her lovers and she didn’t keep them around long term.
Annika was brought out of those thoughts by Kieran holding out a chair for her. She gracefully sat down and waited for Kieran to take his seat.
“It’s a lovely night,” Kieran mentioned. “I love the Vyronas moon.”
Annika looked up at it. It was swollen and hung low in the sky. Unlike the moon in The First Dimension, the Vyronasian moon was pale pink like their sun and was probably twice as big. It cast off so much incandescent light that you could see fairly well on a cloudless night. The moon bathed the balcony in a shimmery glow, and had there been two romantic people sitting at that table, it would have been the perfect, enchanting evening. Instead, Annika and Kieran probably only appreciated the beauty of their setting for the fact that they could see the food on their plate.
Opening up the wine, Kieran held the bottle up to Annika to see if she wanted a glass. She nodded and reached for it after he poured. Taking a sip, she let the flavor set on her tongue briefly before swallowing in grateful appreciation. It had been a long time since she had tasted the honey wine of Vyronas but it was heavenly and she let out a small moan.
Looking up at Kieran, she saw he was watching her with what looked like carnal hunger in his eyes. “Try not to make sexy little moans like that, Annika. There is only so much a man can handle.”
Annika tucked her head down over her plate, trying to cover the little smile on her face. So, Kieran was not immune to her. It was good to know because since the kiss they shared on this very balcony this afternoon, she was trying to figure out the depth of his attraction for her. The kiss told a lot, but yet told little. It was smoking hot, but all too short. He was the one that pulled away. What did that mean?
Well, it didn’t really matter. If Annika decided she wanted Kieran for a nice diversion on this mission, she would have him. And she was 99.9% sure that