Ignite (Legacy) by Rebecca Yarros Read Free Book Online Page A

on the cheek. “Don’t hurt your brain, sis. Catch you later?”
    “Yeah.”
    A couple I-love-yous later, I left her at Mandy’s for the sleepover. My thoughts raced as I drove. What would it even take to bring her with me? If you go. I couldn’t leave Adeline. I could barely process the thought of leaving Dad. It didn’t matter how far he’d sunk, he was still my dad.
    I would have given anything for five minutes with Mom. What would happen if I left here, lost him, and had that same regret?
    I’d parked in front of River’s house before I even realized I was headed there. I meant to go home, but I guessed my subconscious knew what I really needed.
    Zeus didn’t bark as I approached the door, so I knew he wasn’t inside. That meant he was out for a run with River. My hand paused on the door handle. Was I allowed to just walk in anymore? I still had a key, of course, but we’d done some really weird transitioning, and I didn’t know where we stood.
    Keys for best friends? No big deal.
    A key for your girlfriend? Huge. Like iceberg and Titanic huge.
    Like moving to Colorado huge.
    I opted for the three o’clock sun, which hung directly above me, and stretched my legs out on the steps that led to the porch. Peace seeped into me in the quiet, filling more of my chest with each breath, spreading through me in the way only being near River—or even just his house—could.
    Gravel crunched nearby, and my breath caught as I opened my eyes. Holy. Shit. River ran with Zeus unleashed at his side, his strides eating up the ground as he came closer.
    He was shirtless, all of that gorgeous, bronzed skin basking in the sunlight. I’d always known he was hot. I wasn’t blind to the girls who flocked to him, or my own attraction. But my need to check my own drool level was new. The tribal tattoo that stretched across his chest rippled with his movements, and as he came toward me, I made out the tiny rivulets of sweat that slipped down the cut lines of his torso to his carved abs.
    The man was a walking advertisement for sex.
    I shifted my legs under me as he slowed, a smile spreading across his face. “Hey, you,” he said, breathing heavily but not over-exerted.
    “Hi,” I said, suddenly shy. The last time we’d spoken had been right after he’d pulled his tongue out of my mouth.
    The way he looked at me—blatant hunger in those brown eyes—made me feel like he was thinking the same exact thing.
    “What are you doing out here?” he asked as Zeus licked my face.
    “Waiting for you.”
    His forehead puckered, but he pulled me to my feet easily. “Good answer, want to come in?”
    I nodded, and he led us inside, heading straight for the kitchen. He pulled two bottles of water out of the fridge and offered one to me. “No thank you,” I said, scared that if I drank the water it would come right back up in a second.
    “Okay,” he said, then chugged the water.
    Damn, even the muscles of his throat were sexy.
    “So why were you sitting on my porch like some kind of stranger? You have a key,” he said as he put the empty bottle into the recycling bin.
    “I feel like that key just became complicated,” I said, dragging my eyes up the muscles of his back as he turned away to grab the other bottle. I knew Bishop pushed him at the gym, but damn. Just… damn. In the past, he’d always thrown a shirt on around me unless we were at the lake, and to be honest, I hadn’t looked.
    No point wanting what you knew you couldn’t have.
    But now I could have him. It was like seven years of pent-up sexual frustration were hitting me all at once, hitting the walls of my defenses with a battering ram made out of pure steel…kind of like his body.
    “Uncomplicate it. You have a key, so use it.”
    He hit me with those eyes, and I nearly melted. Was this the charm the other girls at the bar raved about? Had he simply never used it on me before?
    “You gave it to me…you know…before.”
    “Before what?” he asked.
    I blew