{"id":226,"date":"2020-01-24T13:45:53","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T13:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/?page_id=226"},"modified":"2020-01-24T19:50:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T19:50:36","slug":"the-flame-excerpt","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/the-flame-excerpt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flame Excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Book 7 of Sons of Destiny<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pleased, Koranen grinned at Danau. \u201cShall we say fifth hour and thirty, tomorrow evening?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat early?\u201d she asked, her expression dubious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe performance is at seventh hour, so that will give us time to drive down to The Giggling Pear\u2014I can recommend the food, at least, since I just ate there tonight\u2014and still have plenty of time to order, eat it, and get to the performance hall. And if we skip tiffin, we\u2019ll definitely have an appetite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locked into a date with the enthusiastic man, whether she wanted it or not, Danau managed a smile. \u201cThat will be fine. Now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I may not be getting as much work done tomorrow as I\u2019d like, but I\u2019ll still need a full night\u2019s sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t take offense at her comment\u2014you know the work on the Desalinator is important, and I\u2019m sure she didn\u2019t mean it to come across resentfully. She didn\u2019t sound resentful, just matter-of-factual\u2026 Stepping back from the doorway, Koranen nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course\u2014um, you have a nice smile,\u201d he added before she could close the door between them. If I can keep complimenting her, maybe she\u2019ll warm up to me. \u201cYou should use it more often.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danau blushed, reaching for the edge of the door. \u201cThank you. Goodnight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope to see more of it, especially over dinner\u2014goodnight!\u201d he called out just before she shut the panel between them. Convincing Danau hadn\u2019t been easy, and he still wasn\u2019t sure if a single evening of courting her would be worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\u2026it\u2019s only a single night. The Gods know I really only need to hold her hand and test it with a little heat, something that would take a mere moment to test, if I wanted to risk injuring her. Spending an evening with her would be an act of kindness, and the Gods favor such deeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning away from the panel, Koranen inhaled deeply, then blew out his breath, trying to relax. He tensed in the next moment, catching a glimpse of movement through a palm-wide crack in Chana\u2019s door off to the side. The moment he shifted toward her, she closed her door. Thankfully, without slamming it. As much as he didn\u2019t want to hurt Chana\u2019s feelings by not inviting her out to dinner, he couldn\u2019t exactly court the blonde-dyed woman, either. Not if she noticed his heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if Danau notices your heat, too? The thought was depressing. Koranen couldn\u2019t shake it, though. If she does\u2026that would leave only Ama-ti. I don\u2019t want a wife with blue hair\u2026and I really don\u2019t want to be one of half a dozen husbands. I want my own wife, just her and me\u2026 Maybe I should get it over with, he thought, glancing at Ama-ti\u2019s door. Give her a kiss, see if she can or can\u2019t stand my heat\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sighing roughly a second time, he almost crossed to her door. Something stopped him. It was a very simple thing, the squeak of a floorboard. In particular, the squeaking of a board in the suite beside him. Danau\u2019s suite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, that would be smart\u2014go out on a date with one, arrange for a date with another, then go back to the first and try to kiss her, when the second one could possibly hear you knocking on the first one\u2019s door\u2026never mind the third who was watching us just now\u2026 Somehow, I don\u2019t think even Trevan ever managed to pull off something that fraught with courtship danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book 7 of Sons of Destiny Pleased, Koranen grinned at Danau. \u201cShall we say fifth hour and thirty, tomorrow evening?\u201d \u201cThat early?\u201d she asked, herRead More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-226","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/226\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanjohnson.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}