Page 22 of Awakening Storm

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“Would you like a tourof the place? Aidan asked Rhianna.

She looked into Aidan’s hazel eyes, which held deep green and gold tones.Tiger eyes. “Yes. That would be nice.”

Plus, she might discover the ins and outs of the place for when she left. While he may have come to her aid in regards to the sorceress, Rhia had no delusions that she wouldn’t eventually have to find her way back to camp and contact the TV crew.

Takeshi jumped up and put himself in front of Aidan. She laughed. “Looks like someone would like to come along.”

Aidan moved his hand forward, signaling the dog to come along. “This is the living area,” he started. “As you can see, it’s kind of just one big room but there are separate designated spots for the kitchen, living room, and bar.”

She nodded, then looked up the center of the space to a stained glass skylight window far above them. The hues of red, gold, green, and blue reflected off the walls. “What’s up there?”

“A library. It’s the only room that’s situated aboveground and has a window.”

With a sweeping glance, she noticed a fairly new TV and a stack of movies sitting on a table. It occurred to her then that lights were on. “You have electricity?”

“Yes,” he said. “It’s generated on the island and stored in large battery cells.”

“Interesting. How does it work?”

He smiled. “I’ll show you when we get to that area. Since I live here alone, I do everything myself. I have nothing but time, and I love to tinker with things.”

They kept walking. “The sleeping and bathing quarters are down that hall.” He pointed to the right but continued forward.

Next they came to a large area where the floor was cut away, revealing a lower level. She peered over the railing. A circular staircase wound down to the next floor. The space around the stairs was filled with stuff sitting on tables, and chairs, and on the floor. An easel with paints and brushes was set up, and there was a workbench with pieces of metal, nuts, bolts, and other tools, including a ban saw and table.

“My goodness. How did you get all that in here?” she asked. “And . . . well, where did it all come from?”

“You’d be surprised what washes ashore. Some of it came from abandoned ships, too, and other things came from Amazon.”

She jerked her head around to stare at him. “Really?” Given where and how he lived, she had assumed he didn’t have modern access to things, especially the Internet. It was a quite naive guess on her part. “Can I go down there?”

He held out his palm. “Be my guest.”

Together they tromped to the bottom of the deep room. She looked around, taking everything in. “The room looks as if it’s carved out of the stone.”

“You’re very observant. That’s exactly how it was formed. A little at a time, over several centuries. As my collection grew, so did the room.”

She walked around, noting the antiques intermingled with present-day items, including several examples of assembly line machines on timers. Her jaw dropped, and then she snapped her mouth closed. She’d never seen anything like it in her entire life.

“Wow, this is . . . just wow!” she said. “How did you learn how to make all this?”

He shrugged. “I read a lot of books.”

“I can’t wait to see your library, then,” she said on a laugh.

They leaned toward each other, and their eyes met. A warmth swept over her, and she looked away, a thought occurring to her. “Has anyone ever seen this before?”

“No.”

The straightforward answer made her nervous—he wasn’t used to being with people. Wild...the word flitted through her head. Like the wild dog she’d first thought Takeshi was. She eased as nonchalantly as she could to the other end of a counter filled with metal parts. Here she was, alone with ashape-shifter. She couldn’t believe she was even using that word. Why wasn’t she huddled in a corner shaking in her shoes?

Because he’d been nothing but kind to her. And his voice was quiet and soothing and sexy.

She blinked at that last part.

“Come this way and I’ll show you where the electricity is generated,” he suggested.