Ayla didn't look at them immediately.
Then, slowly, she lifted her gaze.
It found Ryker first and held his gaze, not a glance, not an accident. She actually looked at him, really looked, the way she rarely did with any of us. For a moment the room felt like it had stopped.
Ryker went completely still.
Whatever mask he'd been holding up — the jaw set, the controlled fury, the wall he'd built between feeling something and showing it — came apart. Quietly, without drama. What was left underneath was raw and open and aching in a way I'd never seen from him before. He didn't move. Didn't speak. Didn't dare.
Ayla held his gaze a moment longer.
Then she let it go and found Kael.
She looked at him the same way, not past him, not through him. At him. She was aware of his presence and wanted
