Embrace the Heat by Cassandra Lawson Page A

size but
never tried to make her feel weak. She also really liked Rand’s
wife, Norah. Norah had really helped Layla adjust to life in the
vampire settlement. Having grown up believing that all vampires
were evil, it had taken a lot to adjust to her new home. After six
months, she was still having a hard time with some of the changes,
but she’d made several vampire friends.
    Rand inhaled deeply when she walked into the
room, and his brow furrowed. “Good morning, Layla. How are you
today?” There was a strange quality to his voice which led her to
the conclusion that he wasn’t happy with the way she smelled
either.
    “Well, apparently I stink today,” she
grumbled.
    Danny walked over and sniffed her. “You’ve
just got the same old Layla stink as far as I can tell.”
    She punched him lightly in the belly and
laughed when he moaned liked he’d been stabbed.
    “It might be best if you didn’t spend too
much time around the other vampires until we figure out what’s
causing the new smell,” Rand suggested.
    “So, I do stink,” she said.
    “It’s just . . .” Rand
struggled to find the right word.
    “Disturbing,” Mitchell suggested.
    “Yes,” Rand agreed with a nod. “That word
will do as well as any other.”
    “Great,” Layla muttered under her breath. “My
life wasn’t weird enough without having a disturbing smell. Can we
just get on with training so I can go home and shower again? It’s
got to be this new girly soap I used today.” Thankfully she’d found
another bar of her old soap in the back of the cupboard after
showering. This was the last day she smelled like a flower
garden.
    “We’re waiting on Simon,” Rand explained.
    “I’m pretty sure he’s going to be too tired
to train today,” Layla said quietly. Of course, vampires also had
great hearing so all three of the ones around her heard what she
said, including Simon who had just walked into the training
room.
    “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”
Simon asked. His nostrils flared, and he closed his eyes. His body
shuddered. “What is that smell?”
    “I get it!” Layla snapped. “I smell disturbing to vampires. If I disturb you so much, maybe you
should leave.”
    Simon let out a humorless laugh. “You’re
disturbing me, but I think I’ll have Rand leave. I don’t think his
wife would appreciate him being disturbed by a cute little
pixie.”
    Simon refused to let go of the pixie thing.
While she usually got a little annoyed about it, they teased each
other all the time, so it didn’t bother her too much. Today, she
wanted to smack the hell out of him. “Fuck off,” Layla
muttered.
     
    Simon had no idea what was up with Layla.
While he hadn’t been a big fan of Raven’s humans at first, Layla
had always been an exception. Now, he kind of liked the humans,
especially Layla. She was funny and fought dirty. While he didn’t
usually train the humans, because he didn’t think they should
fight, he’d sparred with Layla a couple of times. Sparring with her
wasn’t too much of a challenge. The little human’s head came up to
his chest, and he was much stronger than her. Still, she’d taken
him down a time or two. Today she looked like she wanted to stab
him in the balls. Worse, he felt aggressive too. Part of his
aggression had to do with his annoyance at himself for letting
Narissa back into his bed. That had been a really stupid move, and
he hated that Layla knew about it. There was more to his annoyance
though.
    What the hell was that smell coming from
Layla? Why was it making him so hard that thinking was difficult?
After his activities the night before, he shouldn’t be able to get
it up at all. While he didn’t know what it was, he could tell it
was arousing every other vampire in the room. Simon inhaled again
because he couldn’t stop himself. The desire to lean in closer to
Layla just to drown in that smell was almost overwhelming.
    “Rand,” he said, “go home and take Mitchell
with