Read Online Central by Raine Thomas - Free Book Online Page A

males and females seeing each other as, at best, friends. We appreciate each other’s forms, but do not generally attach emotion to those observations.” And here, he turned to face her. “But you touch me, and I find emotion attached to it. You reach out and touch me when you are happy or nervous or humored.”
    When he paused and just looked at her, she lowered her gaze to the ground. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think—”
    “Do not apologize. I am not censuring you. I am thanking you.”
    Surprise flashed over her features as she again looked up.
    “You are teaching me, and very patiently so. I would like to touch you.”
    Her breath caught in her throat. “James…I think you should understand that humans don’t touch each other just to touch. We touch each other to express ourselves.”
    “I realize that.”
    “Oh.” She blinked, appearing flustered. “Well…okay.”
    As soon as she gave her permission, he lifted his right hand and placed it on top of her head, the pad of his thumb touching the middle of her forehead, then the side of her face as he stroked his hand downwards. Her skin was remarkably soft. She tilted her head into his touch when he rubbed the backs of his fingers along her cheek. Then he moved closer and lifted his other hand, allowing all of his fingers to weave into her hair. The silky strands felt incredible against his calloused palms. The moonlight seemed to sparkle on every curl.
    She shivered. He sensed that it wasn’t from the cool evening air. Moving his hands from her hair along her shoulders and then around to her back, he gently pulled her up against him. He had wanted to do this for a week, ever since she had hugged him so fiercely the day she learned to fly. When she seemed to melt against him and pressed her right cheek to his chest as her arms went around his waist, he leaned down and inhaled deeply. She smelled vibrant and ridiculously alluring to him. Her scent seemed to pervade him. He suddenly thought he would be content to stand there with her for the rest of his days. Closing his eyes, he rested his chin on the top of her head.
    “Thank you, Olivia.” he said. “I truly understand now.”
     

Chapter Six
     
    “That makes two new additions this month, my lord. One Scultresti and one Waresti.”
    Grolkinei, eldest of the Mercesti class, looked at his head of intelligence and nodded. “That is acceptable, Cesaro. You know adding too many to our numbers at once would draw too much attention. We have had patience for more than eighteen years now. We can wait a bit longer.”
    They sat together on the porch of Grolkinei’s gorgeous lakeside home. Glasses of amber-colored liquid sat on the table between their two chairs. The remainder of Grolkinei’s commanders was in the process of training their newest recruits. Their numbers were beginning to swell, something that made his dark heart swell right along with it. Soon—very soon—they would have the army necessary to take control of the Estilorian plane.
    The Mercesti had not always been at odds with the other classes. Before the creation of the Estilorian plane when Estilorians and humans lived in supposed accord, the Mercesti had been relied upon by all Estilorians for their skills in strategy and innovation. It was only after the creation of the new plane, when Grolkinei and like-minded Mercesti realized that their elder and class leader, Volarius, had permanently removed them from the human realm, that their class morphed into something much darker and incongruous with the rest of Estilorian society.
    Killing Volarius had been Grolkinei’s greatest triumph. The weak old fool.
    Grolkinei believed Estilorians belonged on the human plane. Humans should have been made subservient to the Estilorians millennia ago. The weak, whining, short-lived creatures whose wars between each other had prompted the nine Estilorian elders to create the new plane didn’t deserve the display of power it had taken to do it. Had