“Let me see that.” Clay took my hand, studying the wound and frowning. “It looks deep. Should we have Syd look at it?”
Syd Franklin, the healer assigned to the academy, was one of only a few light elementals on the island. He was a nice enough guy and would be happy to examine my hand, but I didn’t want to bother him with something as minute as a cut. He had bigger things on his plate—like healing elementals when their calls got the better of them. And, ever since he’d started dating Bryan’s mom, he didn’t have any spare time.
“I’m fine.” I slipped my hand from his. He took it back and kissed my palm. When he winked, my insides did a little shimmy.
His smile, coupled with the way he studied me knowingly, like he already knew the truth but let me believe whatever I wanted, held my attention. I stared into those endless green eyes, utterly lost, breaking the contact only when it grew too intense.
He hooked his knuckle under my chin, lifting my head to pull my focus back to him. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” I dropped my gaze again.
“That. You’re the first to look away whenever we make eye contact. Don’t like what you see?” He waggled his eyebrows.
I laughed softly. “That’s not it at all.”
I loved what I saw every time I looked at him. It was more than his wild brown hair and soft beard, more than his brilliant emerald gaze and dazzling smile. Or his high cheekbones and ridiculously fit physique. Although all those physical traits had attracted me to him originally, it was what I saw when I looked at him, now that I knew him so well, that overwhelmed my senses.
His sense of humor. The fact that if he didn’t make the group laugh together at least twice in a twenty-four-hour period, he considered the day a total loss. How he always carried my book bag without hesitation, never asking if I wanted him to, just taking on the burden for me. His fierce loyalty to the quad squad and to me. His willingness to fight anyone stupid enough to threaten his family.
Above all that, it was his vulnerability that pulled at my heart the most. He was tough on the surface, blew off any level of seriousness with the crack of a wildly inappropriate joke, and pushed people away by purposely annoying them. But I knew the truth. He didn’t want to alienate himself and had found a band of brothers who wouldn’t allow him to detach from the group.
Clay Williams was scared of failure.
Scared he’d fail his genius parents even though he had an IQ of 192 and was a genius in his own right. Scared he’d fail the quad squad by letting them down on an extraction or anything else they’d do together. Scared he’d fail to protect me when I’d need him most.
“Then what is it?” he asked, drawing my attention back to his endless pools of green.
“Why did the four of you make a pact to be with me?” I’d never asked the question, and, deep down, I really didn’t care. The fact remained, they were with me, and that was all that mattered. But pushing him to answer something he didn’t want to took the heat off me.
“Why do you think? Do you want me to list the reasons? We all have a thing for redheads.” He released my ginger locks from the messy ponytail holding them off my face, setting the waves free to fall past my shoulders. “We love the way you challenge us in everything we do. And I do mean everything.” He winked and kissed the tip of my nose. “Or maybe it’s the fact we have a thing for girls who don’t take any shit from anyone, including us. You’re the whole package, Montana. That’s why.”
Flattery would get him everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. I leaned toward him, resting our foreheads together. “While I love everything you just said, I call bullshit. You guys didn’t know me when you made the pact. You agreed to be with the same girl long before you met me.”
“So? We knew you were out there somewhere and made the pact that, once we found you, we’d be all in. It took Bry a bit to come around, but he made the right choice dumping that ice bitch. We all made sacrifices.”
That surprised me. Bryan breaking up with Vanessa had been the only sacrifice I knew of. “Such as?”
“You already know Bry’s sacrifice, though not having to be stuck with Vanessa Graves wasn’t much of a sacrifice, if you ask me. Rob cut all ties with the girls in his little black book.” Clay tilted his head and hit me with a serious look. “Yes, he had a little black book. No lie. Leo’s sacrifice was bigger after we met you. He broke every one of his rules for you.”
“He did?”
“Oh, sure. He teleported for you. He did magic for you. He covered it up for you. Should I go on?”
I shook my head. “What about you? What was your sacrifice?”
He laughed, the sound soft and melodic. “You make me want to grow up,” he said in all seriousness.
I lost what little smile I had as his words sank in. Was that a bad thing? Or good thing? I didn’t know. “I don’t understand.”
“Maybe I should show you.” He leaned in, capturing my lips with his. His kiss sank into me as our elements found each other, bonding us together so much more than just in a physical sense. He laid me down on the prickly grass. I wanted to call earth and soften the makeshift bed, but couldn’t while touching Clay without hurting him, since he couldn’t control that element.
So I endured the sharp blades of grass
