Read Online Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter - Free Book Online Page B

flying backward. I landed
on my ass but swiftly jumped up. She was already on her feet. Both of us were
panting, glaring.
    “What’s
the matter? Can’t stand a little competition?” she taunted.
    “Can’t
win a man without cheating?” My fingers caught fire completely. Several of the
men decided to brave our ire and approached. I threw a fireball, causing a wall
of flames to form in front of them, keeping them away. While they scrambled for
an extinguisher, I said, “You knew this would happen to him, and yet you did
nothing. He’s suffering because of you. His life is a mess because of you.”
    She
shook her head viciously, as though she could block my words with the
back-and-forth flap of her ponytail. “I’m making things right. But you know
what? If he really loves you, he’ll pick you this go-round, too.” Her legs
widened and her hands fisted in a classic ready-for-war pose. The same one I’d
adopted twice already. “Now, enough talking. Let’s finish this.”
    Hardly
willing to obey her, I held my ground. Smoke billowed toward the ceiling,
curling, stretching fingers out to me. I coughed until the sudden tickle in my
throat eased. “If you touch him, I’ll forget killing a fellow PSI agent is a
no-no.” Truth and determination dripped from my every word. “And then, when
Rome’s memory returns, he’ll hate you for what you’ve done and ask me to kill
you all over again.”
    Her
cheeks leached of color, and a tremor worked through her. “Maybe his memory is
forever lost. Besides, hating me is not the future I see for him,” she said,
voice softening.
    Everything
inside me stilled. My lungs. My heart. My blood. Cold washed over me, ice
crystallizing on my fingers and causing every flame to sizzle, die. “What do
you see?”
    Her
mouth opened and closed, but no sound emerged.
    I
inhaled sharply, and another round of coughing ensued. “What the hell do you
see, Lexis?”
    Again,
she remained silent. To be cruel? I was in her face a heartbeat later, scared,
angry again, coughing even harder, frost and fire battling for supremacy inside
me. Wind whipped between us as I hooked my foot around her ankle and shoved.
Down, down she fell. On the mat, she used her elbows to crab-walk backward,
away from me.
    “What
the hell do you see?” The cold began to leave me, my fury eating away at it and
leaving a burning trail. Jealousy was there, images of Rome and Lexis living
happily ever after with Sunny flashing through my mind. A muddy fireball formed
in my palm. “Tell me!”
    The
agents finally doused the flames in front of them and moved around us in a
circle, probably meaning to close in until they rendered us completely
immobile. Instead, their positions aided my cause. Lexis hit a pair of boots
and stopped.
    Gasping,
she rolled to the side just as I tossed my bounty. It barely missed her,
yellow-orange flickers crackling where she’d been, smoke billowing from the
foam. The men jumped back with a collective gasp as another muddy fireball
formed. I threw it, too. Again, Lexis rolled, escaping harm, causing more of
the mat to hiss and the men to step farther away, widening the circle rather
than closing it.
    “You
really want to know?” she shouted. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But you’ll wish I’d
kept quiet. You’re going to continue to plan your wedding, but he’ll want
nothing to do with it. Another man will court you, but Rome won’t care. Do you
hear me? He won’t care! You’re going to date this other man. It’s him you’ll marry. Him. Not Rome. Him.”
    She
was lying. She had to be lying. Anything to shred my confidence, my hope.
Anything to give herself an edge. I wouldn’t, couldn’t believe otherwise. No
way I’d marry any man but Rome. No way I’d love any man but Rome. “Too bad you
won’t live long enough to find out if your predictions are true.” I advanced
toward her, stalking my prey with every intention of destroying it. I hadn’t
lied to her earlier; I no longer