Part 2 (1/2)

”They won't sack me.” His expression became distracted as the sash came undone. ”I'm too good a fireman, and they know it.”

He slipped a hand underneath the silky material and traced a line along the length of my hip with one heated finger, skimming the scars as tenderly as the rest of me. My breathing hitched a little and the pulse of excitement grew. But as much as I wanted to give in, I didn't. Not only because he actually liked this job, but because he also liked the people he worked with, and it was the first time in the four years since Jody-his human fiancee-died that he'd actually cared about anything or anyone beyond those in our immediate circle. Despite his current nonchalance, I knew it would hit him hard if he was fired.

So I ignored those deliciously trailing fingertips and slapped his arm. ”Enough. Go take a shower. A very cold shower.”

His gaze rose to mine, and a reluctant grin stretched his kissable lips. ”You, my darling girl, are going to be the death of me.”

”Actually,” I said primly, ”I believe I already have been. Two lifetimes ago, in fact.”

”Three,” he muttered; then, with a groan, he released me and climbed off the bed. ”Fair warning, sweet Emberly. I intend to pick up where I left off once I get home tonight.”

”And I shall be naked and waiting.” I watched him walk into his en suite. Rory and I had been friends and lovers ever since we'd been teenagers, which was so many centuries ago now I could barely even remember them. He was my life partner, the spirit I was fated to be with forever, and the only man I could ever have children with. But we were not, and never had been, in love.

It was said that at the very beginning of time, a phoenix spurned the affections of a witch after taking her virginity. In her anger and shame, she cursed us with the inability to love one another, forcing us to forever seek-but never find-emotional completion outside our own race, thus ensuring that we would forever be left with little more than love's bitter ashes, as she had been. I'm not sure I believed the whole witch-curse thing, but it certainly held more than a few grains of truth when it came to phoenixes and love.

As the shower came on, I bounced out of Rory's bed and headed into the kitchen to make us both breakfast. He walked in ten minutes later, dropped a kiss on the back of my neck, then swept up one of the plates of pancakes and headed for the table.

”So, did you manage to save your soul last night?”

I glanced at him sharply, and he gave me a lopsided smile. ”If I can't read the signs by now, Em, something is seriously wrong. So who was it this time?”

Sam's warning shot through my thoughts as I picked up the two steaming mugs and the other plate of pancakes and joined Rory at the table. ”No one important. And yes, I did.”

His expression indicated he didn't believe the lie, but he let it slide, asking instead, ”What's on your agenda for today, then?”

”I don't exactly know.” I pushed one of the mugs across to him. ”Mark mentioned something about discovering a critical amino acid in the molecules he was studying yesterday, so I daresay he'll be in the lab all day and I'll be transcribing his notes all night.”

”Ah, the exciting life of a research a.s.sistant,” he said, voice dry.

I resisted the urge to point out I wasn't actually a research a.s.sistant, even if that was what they'd cla.s.sified me as. Mark hated interference of any kind, even if it came in the form of help to set up and monitor experiments. After he'd gone through more than a dozen qualified a.s.sistants in less than two months, the powers that be at the Chase Medical Research Inst.i.tute had given up and resorted to employing what amounted to a secretary. Meaning I transcribed his notes and generally ran around after him but otherwise didn't interfere in whatever it was he was doing.

And Rory was right-it wasn't exciting. But I'd done the whole exciting bit the last time around. Right now, all I wanted was something easy.

Besides, this lifetime was supposedly his turn to do the dangerous stuff, not mine. Not that that had ever stopped me from getting into trouble in previous lifetimes.

”You've never done well coping with a staid and boring life,” he added, obviously guessing my thoughts. ”And I'm betting you won't last much longer working for that crazy old man.”

”They're paying me d.a.m.n good money to run after that crazy old man, and that makes up for the boring. Besides, for an old guy, he's not bad scenery-he has nice legs and an eminently watchable a.s.s.”

”So have you,” he said dryly. ”He made a play for it yet?”

I snorted softly. ”He's old, remember? Besides, I seriously doubt he notices anything not connected to his microscope or his books. Not everyone in this world is as randy as you.”

”That he's in his sixties doesn't make him dead from the waist down-a fact we've both proven over our many years together.” He glanced at his watch, then gulped down his coffee and pushed away from the table. ”Five minutes to go. I'd better run.”

So had I. If I didn't hurry, I'd miss the train. Mark was a man who meticulously planned every minute of his day, and my being late would not only upset his timetable, but turn him into an unreasonable grump for the rest of the day. Although his somewhat unpredictable temper wasn't the only reason I was getting higher pay; he believed I should be available to work whenever he wanted me, be that day or night.

Rory kissed my cheek, then headed for the door. Twenty minutes later I ran out of the building and headed for the train. I squeezed out at Footscray Station, then walked down to Byron Street and the big white building that housed the Chase Medical Research Inst.i.tute.

Ian Grant-the day s.h.i.+ft security guard, and a bear of a man with a close-cropped head of gray hair and very little in the way of untattooed skin-gave me a wide grin of greeting as I entered the foyer.

”Hey, Em,” he said, ”Lady Harriet's office has been trying to contact you for the last twenty minutes. You got your phone off again?”

Harriet Chase had founded the inst.i.tute some fifty years ago, and it was still one of the biggest privately funded organizations for biological and medical research in Victoria. The old dear was also something of an elitist, hence the not-so-affectionate moniker.

But I had no idea why the h.e.l.l her office would be chasing me.

I dug my phone out of my purse and, sure enough, there were seven missed calls. I glanced up at Ian. ”I gather she's been on the phone to you?”

”Well, it was Abby rather than herself, but she wanted me to get you on the phone the minute you walked in.”

Abby was Harriet's overworked but not underpaid a.s.sistant. Ian duly picked up the phone and called her, and I suddenly wondered if I was about to get sacked. I couldn't think of any other reason for Lady Harriet's office to be ringing me, especially given she or her staff rarely spoke to anyone less worthy than the heads of the vari- ous research departments. Although the security guards did at least get a smile of greeting every morning, which was more than could be said for the rest of us.

”Abby, I have Emberly Pearson here for you.” He paused for a moment, then handed the phone across to me. I cleared my throat and said, ”Sorry about the missed calls, Abby, but I was on the train and didn't hear-”

”Never mind that now,” Abby said, her voice sounding more than a little hara.s.sed. Lady Harriet had obviously been in one of her moods this morning. ”You need to get over to Professor Baltimore's place. He's due to make a presentation to some investors in half an hour, and he hasn't arrived and he's not answering his phone.”

I frowned. It wasn't like Mark to be late, so something had obviously gone wrong. But why was I being asked to fetch him? Granted, I was the one being paid danger money to be his beck-and-call girl, but if this was so urgent, why not send someone else? It wasn't like this place was lacking in research a.s.sistants. I said as much to Abby.

”We did send someone else,” she said, ”but he's not answering the door. You're keyed into his security system, aren't you?”

”Yeah, but-”

”Then go,” she cut in. ”Make sure you get him back here fast.”

She hung up before I could reply. I handed the phone back to Ian. ”Well, there goes my peaceful morning.”

Ian grinned, his teeth spectacularly white against the inked darkness of his cheeks. ”I'd run.”

I did. Thankfully, like many of the senior staff at the inst.i.tute, Mark lived nearby. It saved time traveling back and forth and allowed them to work longer hours. Nothing like being addicted to your job-which was something I could never claim. h.e.l.l, I couldn't even claim that I'd liked many of the things I'd done over the centuries Rory and I had been alive.

Mark's brown brick building came into view. It was a squat, three-story building with vinyl windows that were double-glazed and b.u.t.t-ugly. They'd been the rage about fifty years ago, and I could only thank the designer G.o.ds that the d.a.m.n things had finally gone out of fas.h.i.+on.

A man with burnished auburn hair and the most amazing pair of emerald-green eyes I'd ever seen exited the building as I approached and, with a wide smile, he held the door open.

”Thanks,” I said, even as my steps slowed and my nostrils flared. The heat radiating off him was incredible, and it was all I could do to resist the desire to siphon it away. He had to be a fire Fae. No other nonhuman had that sort of heat signature.

From what I knew of the Fae, there were four groups, with each group controlling one of nature's fundamental building blocks-earth, wind, fire, and water. This man, as a fire Fae, couldn't actually create fire, but he could shape and control it. All Fae tended to be loners, preferring the solitude of empty countryside to the concrete jungles of this world, and each of them also had a need to be near their element regularly or they would fade away, becoming little more than a sigh on the wind.

While Fae were loners at heart, they were also sensualists, existing to experience sensations both within and without their elements. Fire Fae, in particular, reputedly delighted in introducing innocents to the more seductive pleasures of this world, which was maybe why this Fae was here in Melbourne. In a city as big as this, there was a greater chance of finding innocence.

Deep in his bright eyes, recognition flared, along with curiosity. He might not know exactly what I was, but he sure as h.e.l.l recognized another being of fire.

”Do you come here often?” His voice was gravelly, s.e.xy as h.e.l.l, and sounded as if it was coming from somewhere near the vicinity of his rather large boots.

If there was one thing about the Fae that most literature over the years had gotten very wrong, it was their stature. They were neither small nor winged, and the only ones that were ethereal in any way were the air Fae.

I smiled. ”A couple of times a week, at least.”