Free Steam by Lynn Tyler Page B

maybe, just maybe, you can fool everyone.
    Faking it didn’t help the pain though. It never did. And for some reason, Sloan’s rejection hurt worse than anything else had in recent memory. Maybe it was because of the actual conversation they’d had on the way down to breakfast, when he hadn’t been a dick. Or maybe it was the way her magic responded to him.
    That had to be it. She had come to realize her magic was almost like a living thing existing inside her. It wanted Sloan’s magic badly, and it still roiled around in her veins, trying desperately to connect again with the man sitting next to her.
    How could he leave her like this? It made her physically uncomfortable not to be touching him.
    But he’d made his intentions to stay away from her more than clear.
    She took a deep breath and hardened her heart against Sloan. Why would she set herself up for more heartache than she was already feeling?
    Finally, she pushed her plate away and stood up. “When do you want to start, Anna?”
    Anna gestured to her glass of juice. “As soon as I finish my drink, we can get started.”
    Sunny nodded. It would give her a little time to pull herself together. “I’m going to change into something more comfortable.”
    Without waiting for an answer, she hightailed it out of the dining room and found her way to the stairs. She bounded up them but stopped when she realized she had no idea how to get back to her room.
    Cursing herself for not paying more attention when she’d gone downstairs, she peered up and down the hall, hoping that at least one way would look familiar. Of course, both ways looked the same.
    Why had she thought living in a castle was a good thing?
    “Lost?”
    The voice was the last one she wanted to hear. Why couldn’t it have been Matthew who found her?
    “Can you show me the way back to my room, or are you too much of a jerk?” she snapped.
    Sloan drew even with her and tilted his head. “Not so sunny, Sunny? And to think, you had everyone thinking your personality matched your name.”
    She propped her hands on her hips and leveled a glare at him. She was so damn sick of hearing that joke. “Didn’t you know? The sun can burn you too.”
    “Oh,” said Sloan, motioning for her to follow him as he started down the hall. “So you’re also a little fireball? Fitting.”
    “Listen here, you,” she just about shouted. “What the hell is your problem? First thing this morning, you were all smiles, and now you’re the most sarcastic bastard in Scotland.”
    “You know many men in Scotland?” he said.
    Something about the way he said it, the possessive way he looked at her, made her grit her teeth.
    Without even stopping to think about the consequence, Sunny raised her finger and poked him in the exact center of his chest.
    Whatever she had been about to say flew out of her mind the second she touched him. Her power rose and seemed to latch on to Sloan. She couldn’t have pulled her finger away, even if she wanted to. The feeling was entirely sexual and she desperately wanted Sloan to bend her over the nearest flat surface and slide into her.
    It was Sloan who broke the contact when he stepped back and pushed her hand back to her side. There was no expression on his face at all. “Did you really not feel that?” she asked.
    Sloan’s mouth tipped up in a slight sneer, but she didn’t miss the way his eyes focused on her face for a moment. “What I felt was similar to what I feel whenever I accidentally touch Anna, or another handler.”
    “Liar,” she said. “At the table, you said it wasn’t like anything you’d ever encountered before.”
    “It did feel like that at first,” he admitted. “But the feeling has faded.”
    She didn’t believe a word of what he said, but she didn’t have a chance to accuse him of lying again. Anna came up behind them and squeezed in between them. She shook her head at Sloan and took Sunny by the elbow. “Come on, Sunny. I’ll show you the way back