“Ada.” He grasps my hand. Warmth flows into my fingers as his eyes claim mine, so matter-of-factly that I can’t possibly look away. “I can never thank you enough. You’ve saved my cousin….” He pauses, processing his emotion. “I could never have helped her without you.” The gentleness in his voice makes his accent more pronounced. His intensity has my heart beating fast. “I know your reasons for being at Genesis are complex, but if you tell me that you’re not planning to endanger my people, I trust you. And I swear to you, on my mother’s Ha’i, that I won’t tell anyone.”

He’s sitting so close to me, in all his fierce and perfect beauty. But I know better now.

I respond flatly, “You’ll keep quiet so I don’t tell anyone about your family’s big secret?”

“No, that’s not—” He presses his lips together in frustration, then tries again. “I trust you without any threat. And I want you to know you can trust me, too.”

“Rafe, let’s just get Hypatia home, and then we can go our separate ways.” I try to pull my hand away, but he squeezes tighter, the thrum of our unique chemistry pulsing beneath our skin.

“Ada…” His voice is raspy, the heat from his grip on my hand spreading slowly to other parts of my body. “Do our ways have to be so separate?” His question is loaded with something that I’m not ready to think about.

Though my mind is made up, my voice betrays me with the sound of hesitation as I answer, “I think that’s for the best.”

“Ada,” he whispers again. He lifts my hand and gently brushes his lips against my palm. It’s the gentlest of kisses. A gentleness that, once again, is so unfamiliar from him. “I like that you care. Even though I disagree with the lies you’ve been told, I like that you try to be good.”

The electricity that always seems to be buzzing between us comes to life, as if my Ha’i is sparking through my skin, begging to be closer to his. I swallow a gasp.

Rafe says, “This kind of connection between two Sires who have Ha’i that is uniquely compatible… It’s so rare. I’ve only ever heard about it in legends. Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss… whatever this is.”

He trails more kisses down my hand and along my wrist in a way that makes my pulse thrum erratically in my veins. I feel something awakening inside me, something I’m not interested in dealing with right now. Especially when the placement of his kisses reminds me of another wrist at his mouth, a wrist that was not mine, painted ruby red.