Free Only Human by Candace Blevins Page B

need to figure it out, but later, and in person.
    “He owns The Diamond Club, so there’s reason to believe he’s a bit twisted, though I don’t know for sure yet. But, you know I finally admitted to myself I’ll never be okay with vanilla, and now I always find out by the third date.”
    “The Diamond Club? Please tell me you aren’t talking about Abbott Hamilton.”
    “You know him? Doesn’t sound like you’re a fan.”
    “I need to speak carefully here, Kirsten. He’s a nice enough guy, and in fact someone I consider a good friend. However, his world is…complicated, and under certain circumstances I’d have a hard time protecting you. If you’re going to get involved with him then I need to jump into action tonight to lay the groundwork to keep you safe.” He took a breath and added, “I can’t say anything else at the moment, so don’t start asking questions and please don’t try to figure it out. If you get close it could put you in danger.”
    “Aaron, I trust you with my life and I’ll take your advice. If you tell me to stay away from him I will, but I don’t think it’s that easy. Let me just say I need to speak carefully as well, but it appears he’s intrigued by me, he’s pretty intent on romancing me, and isn’t likely to take no for an answer. He’s a large contributor to my daughter’s theater, and apparently intends on being around quite a bit when I’m there.”
    There was a long pause and I finally asked, “Aery, are you there?”
    “Yes, Bug, I’m just wondering how you manage to get yourself into these situations. Tell me this — are you attracted to him?”
    “Yeah, but I could also walk away and not look back, at this point. Though as I said, I don’t think he’s going to let me just walk away with no more contact.”
    “Does he know what you’re capable of?”
    I took a moment to consider how to answer, and finally said, “Not everything, though he certainly knows I have some pretty good shields.” Technically, I’d probably said too much, because by saying he knew I had shields, I was telling someone Abbott was likely supernatural. I figured it was within the boundaries, though probably not by much.
    “You’re doing a good job of getting me the information I need. Let me make a few phone calls. Sit tight until I call you back.”
    “Are you sure, Aaron? I don’t want to get you involved in something messy. I don’t know what kinds of politics might be involved but I’m guessing you’re about to dive elbow deep into something smelly.”
    “Don’t worry about me; I need a little excitement in my life anyway. Just sit tight until I call you back.”
    “Aery?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I wish things could have worked out between us. I still feel like our hearts are somehow connected, and it makes me sad that the whole couple thing didn’t work, but I’m really glad we’re such good friends.”
    “I know, Bug. It’s okay. I’m glad you’re my friend, too. I’ll talk to you later. Don’t speak with Abbott until I speak with you again.” And he hung up.
    Maybe I shouldn’t have said that last bit, but I had to. I was sad things hadn’t worked between us, and I wanted him to know. One of the most magical nights of my life had been when he’d transformed into a beautiful dragon and flown me around the night sky. We landed on a mountaintop, he shifted back to human form, stretched his cloak out on the ground, and we had what would’ve probably been great vanilla sex if I were into that sort of thing.
    The sex would’ve been great as an appetizer; I was incredibly stimulated by it, but there was this tiny orgasm at the end. Ten seconds, tops — and there was only one. I usually can’t orgasm at all during vanilla sex, so the fact I did spoke to how special it was. But, I can’t live with that being the most I can experience, and it wouldn’t have been fair to either of us, anyway. I had dozens of orgasms with James a few hours ago, and the longest