What Fire Dragons Treasure - Cristina Rayne Page 0,35
cheeks seemingly burst into flames. Was he insinuating that he could smell her attraction to him?
“Oh.”
Amber mentally cringed. That was certainly a lame response, but how the hell was she supposed to respond to something so crazy? To something so—fantastic.
She stepped forward and let her forehead fall onto his chest with a sigh. God, she really was hopeless, wasn’t she?
Amber lifted her head and smiled shyly. “Another kiss. That really is quite the incentive.”
“Good.”
She reluctantly stepped away from his warmth and then turned on her heel without another word, afraid that she wouldn’t be able to leave if she looked at him for a second longer.
The walk through the weeds quickly robbed her of the pleasant tingling on her lips Raphek’s kiss had left her only to replace that unexpected bit of pleasantness with what felt like a cold rock full of sharp edges in the pit of her stomach. It didn’t help her nerves that the whole time, Amber could clearly see the illuminated convenience store like a bright monster that was way closer than she would have liked.
She forced herself not to drag her feet. The sooner you get there, the sooner you can hopefully find someone to lend you a phone, and the sooner you and Raphek can fly back to Elysia South and Matty.
Amber refused to think about the promised kiss.
A white pickup truck was the only vehicle to pass her before Amber crossed the road directly to the gravel road that curved around the right side of the store to the paved parking lot in the front. Her heart twisted painfully with more nerves when she rounded the corner and immediately saw two vehicles parked out front, a black sedan and a pickup truck so dusty that you almost couldn’t tell it was white.
Remember, the more people who see my face, the better.
Taking one last deep breath to steady herself, Amber squared her shoulders and marched into the store as casually as she could manage. A quick glance around the inside revealed a middle-aged woman perusing the drink selections in the coolers at the back and what looked like a teenaged boy grabbing a bag of chips. The only other person was the fifty-something man at the register.
Amber made a beeline to the register. “Hi. I’m traveling, and I think my son left my cell phone in a restaurant bathroom a few towns back. I just heard the most absurd news about us on the radio, so could I please borrow your cell phone to call down to Houston?”
“On the radio, you say?” the clerk asked, his eyes curious.
“Yeah. My father-in-law is a jerk of a senator who needs to stay out of my marriage,” Amber rushed out, real irritation easily creeping into her tone. Talking about Henry always had left a bad taste in her mouth.
The man’s eyes suddenly sharpened. “What a minute—there was some brouhaha about a missing woman from Texas on the six o’clock news.”
Amber made an angry noise. “Yeah, that was about me. What do you think?” She rolled her eyes. “Do I look like I’m missing?”
The clerk barked a laugh and felt some of her rising tension melt away. He reached into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a phone. “Take as long as you need, Miss,” he said with a wide grin as he offered her the phone.
“Thank you so much, Sir.”
Amber turned on her heel to step away and allow the others in line behind her to check out. She was frightfully startled when she unexpectedly met the hard gaze of a middle-aged, blond-haired man dressed in jeans with what looked like oil stains and a standard, button-up uniform shirt that was equally stained. A mechanic, probably. She hadn’t heard anyone else come into the store. Had he been in the bathroom? Dammit, she really needed to pay closer attention to her surroundings!
Amber swallowed thickly and nodded politely to the man even though every instinct within her urged her to run for the hills. “Excuse me.”
She could feel his eyes on her as she stepped farther away to the side and a bit into the open section that allowed the employees to step behind the counter, but she dared not check. Amber hurriedly pulled out the slip of paper with the phone number to the Houston PD scribbled on it she had stuffed into one of her front pockets.
With the way her heart was pounding relentlessly, Amber suddenly remembered Raphek’s boast about being able to