Storm Born Page 0,12

shirt over a black bra in my haste. Oops. "That's a lot of honesty."

"Should I fuck off now?"

I played with the rim of the bottle. I took a deep breath. "No. Not yet."

He smiled and ordered us another round.

Introductions seemed like the next logical step, and when his turn came, he told me his name was Kiyo.

"Kiyo," I repeated. "Neat."

He watched me, and after a moment, a smile danced over his mouth. A really nice mouth too. "You're trying to figure me out."

"Figure you out how?"

"What I am. Race. Ethnic group. Whatever."

"Of course not," I protested, even though I'd been trying to do exactly that.

"My mother is Japanese, and my father is Latino. Kiyo is short for Kiyotaka."

I scrutinized him, now understanding the large dark eyes and the tanned skin. Human genes were exquisite. I loved the way they blended.

How cool, I thought, to have such a solid grip on your ancestry. I knew my mother had a lot of Greek and Welsh, but there was a mix of all sorts of other things there too. And as for my deadbeat father...well, I knew no more about his heritage than I knew anything else about him. For all intents and purposes, I was very much the mongrel the keres had called me earlier.

I realized then I'd been staring at Kiyo too long. "I like the results," I finally said, which made him laugh again.

He asked about my job, and I told him I worked in Web design. It wasn't entirely a lie. I'd majored in it and in French. Both areas had turned out to be completely irrelevant to my job, though Lara swore having a Web site would drive up our business. We mostly relied on word of mouth now.

When he told me he was a veterinarian, I said, "No, you aren't."

Those smoldering eyes widened in surprise. "Why do you say that?"

"Because...because you can't be. I just can't see it." Nor could I imagine telling Lara tomorrow: So I was in a bar last night and met this sexy veterinarian... No, those concepts somehow didn't go together. Veterinarians looked like Wil Delaney.

"It's God's truth," Kiyo swore, stirring his margarita. "I even take my work home with me. I have five cats and two dogs."

"Oh, dear Lord."

"Hey, I like animals. It goes back to the honesty thing. Animals don't lie about how they feel. They want to eat, fight, and reproduce. If they like you, they show it. If they don't, they don't. They don't play games. Well, except maybe the cats. They're tricky sometimes."

"Yeah? What'd you name all those cats?"

"Death, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Mr. Whiskers."

"You named your cats after the riders of the apocal - wait. Mr. Whiskers?"

"Well, there are only four horsemen."

We talked for a while after that about whatever else came to mind. Some was serious, some humorous. He told me he was in town from Phoenix, which kind of disappointed me. Not local. We also talked about the people around us, our jobs, life, the universe, etc., etc. All the while I kept wondering how this had happened. Hadn't I just been noting how I lived outside of society? Yet, here I was, talking to a guy I'd just met like I'd known him for years. I barely recognized the words coming out of my own mouth. I didn't even recognize my body language: leaning into him as we talked, legs touching. He wore no cologne but smelled like he looked: darkness and sex and heat. And promises. Promises that said, Oh, baby, I can give you everything you've ever wanted if you'll just give me the chance....

At one point, I leaned toward the bar to slide an empty bottle across it. As I did, I suddenly felt Kiyo's fingers brush my lower back where my shirt had ridden up. I flinched as electricity crackled through me at that slight, casual touch.

"Here's more honesty," he said in a low voice. "I like this tattoo. A lot. Violets again?"

I nodded and sat back in my chair, but he didn't remove his hand. That tattoo was a chain of violets and leaves that spread across my lower back. A larger cluster of the flowers sat on my tailbone, and then smaller tendrils extended outward on both sides, almost to my hips.

"Violets have sort have become my patron flower," I explained, "because of my eyes."

He leaned forward, and I almost stopped breathing at how close his mouth was to mine. "Wow. You're right. I've never seen eyes that