The Powerful Pride of an Immortal (Immortal Supers Book 4) by Kurtis Eckstein (ebook reader for surface pro .TXT) 📗

pace. Because she undoubtedly wanted to be around, but seemed to be struggling to integrate more fully into our lives. However, on the plus side, Lexi and Heidi both truly appeared to be alright with her being around.

Lily also had her implant surgery on Monday, and because of her new regeneration capacity, she claimed that she felt like she was back to normal, as if her implants had never been gone in the first place. No cuts to heal, no scars, no itchiness.

And last night, Lily and I ended up having a mini-date as well. Because she wanted to go out into the back yard together to give her implants a test run, since if there was going to be a problem with the special silicone being able to handle her temperature, then she wanted to know about it right away.

I had a pair of black FRIL shorts I never wore – didn’t see the purpose of it previously, since they didn’t block heat – so we sat down together, and for the first time ever I held her in my arms, perfectly fine, while she was literally a bonfire. There had been too much stress and worries in our lives to try this out previously, even after discovering I could produce flames, but when Lily fully realized that she couldn’t hurt me anymore, it really made her emotional.

It probably wasn’t the most overjoyed I’d ever seen her, but it was pretty close to it.

Because there was finally someone in the world, especially someone she loved, who she didn’t have to worry about burning. And in a sense, in the same way that she alleviated a major fear for me, I was now doing the same for her.

Certainly, it helped that she knew she couldn’t accidentally kill me, but now she couldn’t even hurt me. Which was a big deal to her.

She was fireproof, and now I was too.

I also fully intended on spending time with her like that regularly, even if just for half an hour most evenings, in order to ramp up her efforts to try to control her superpower. Because now, there was no one better who could help her experiment and train. Not to mention, my own control gave her a goal to aim for, whereas previously it felt almost hopeless in her own perception.

Thus, overall, everything seemed to be going pretty well in our lives. We had a strong family – or powerful pride, as Winter liked to put it – both in the sense that there was a ton of love and commitment, as well as in terms of raw power and capacity. And we had good connections to powerful people, via Lexi and my job with the CDS, to help us resolve any potential threats that might come up in the future – including the shadow organization, once I was able to schedule a meeting to discuss what I wanted them to investigate.

Now, really the only missing piece was just waiting on Winter to feel more comfortable, and for my relationships with Heidi and Lexi to slowly develop.

Which put me in a really good spot.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever been more happy in my entire life.

Unexpectedly, Lexi spoke up, her voice cheerful. We were in her office, planning on going to lunch in about half an hour. Today she was wearing a regular black dress-shirt coupled with dark red leather pants, looking at me with an amused expression.

“What’s with that smile?” she wondered.

I looked up from the document I was reading on my work tablet. “What?”

Her grinned widened. “You were just smiling pretty big there.”

I shrugged. “Just happy, I guess. I like working with you,” I added, since that was sincerely a part of my happiness.

Lexi’s amethyst gaze became more endearing. “Me too,” she agreed. Her thin blonde eyebrows then furrowed slightly. “You know, I’ve been meaning to tell you something.”

“What’s that?” I wondered, setting the tablet down on her desk.

She hesitated, her cheeks becoming rosy. “Umm, well. You’ve been taking things really slow with Heidi, which I think is great. But I don’t really want to go slow.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “Oh.” I paused, thinking about it, realizing that usually people who had done stuff before didn’t take it slow with new relationships. “Well, I think I’m taking it slow with you mainly because of everything you’ve been through. I don’t want you to feel pressured to do anything.”

Lexi smiled. “Thank you. That does mean a lot.” She took a deep breath. “But I don’t want to be afraid anymore. Like, to me, officially being able to start a relationship with you has me excited, but I know it’s going to be hard if we try going past third base.”

I nodded, recalling what she said about being afraid to have sex.

True fear – true trauma – had a mind of its own, and wasn’t something a person could just ‘get over.’ It was why I still suffered from claustrophobia on occasion, even after all this time. And it was why I used to work on my pain tolerance every night, even after a century of losing my little girl. Some things were nearly impossible to get over, no matter how much time passed.

Lexi continued. “But the thing is. I want to get to third base. I want to be there. To hang out there regularly. And I want to start working slowly on trying to get over my fears of home base.”

Damn.

“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Well, at this point, I’m never again going to say ‘no’ to you. And, while I’d like to be romantic and take control of the situation by making all the advances, I think it might be best if you take control, if that’s what you really want. Because I’m a little nervous about going too far too quickly with you. More so than with Heidi, even.”

Lexi nodded, her expression a little somber.

I sighed. “I also think it would be best if we work on