“I swear, kids these days,” Roger muttered. He adjusted his suit jacket, cracked his neck, then looked back to Kelly. “I’m very sorry about that. Now, where were we? Oh, yes. There I was, talking to Marlon Brando—”
“Roger, how do you feel about kids?” She folded her arms on the table and met his gaze while silently fuming over his outburst. It hadn’t only been embarrassing. It had been highly uncalled for and downright rude.
He cleared his throat. “Children should be seen and not heard. No child of mine will ever be out of line like that.”
She frowned.
He waved his hand. “Kids these days think they run the world. They don’t listen to their parents.” He snorted. “But, then again, most parents nowadays are completely underqualified. I think that people should have to pass a test for a license before they can have children. I tried to get a bill to pass in Congress, but it never did.”
She arched an eyebrow. Was he serious?
“When I have children, I will put them in boarding school as soon as I can. That way they grow up learning valuable things instead of filling their heads with nonsense.”
She nodded. “I do agree on the not filling their heads with nonsense thing. Nowadays, parents just sit their kids in front of a TV and let it be a babysitter.”
He frowned. “Well, I don’t see anything wrong with that. At least if they’re in front of the TV, they aren’t running around like wild Indians.”
She blinked. “You don’t think children should play? You don’t think they should get outside and exercise their creativity?” She couldn’t believe his line of logic.
He snorted. “Definitely not. Children spend too much time being fanciful, and then they grow up to be ridiculous adults who leech off society. Children should only be allowed to do practical and useful things. Daydreaming and playing around are not useful or productive.”
Highly insulted, Kelly opened her mouth to protest, but she didn’t get a chance to get any words out. Garren was obviously fuming. He reached out and knocked Roger’s glass of wine over, sending the red liquid pouring over the table cloth and onto the man’s lap.
Roger jumped back with a shout, and Garren stood casually, making his way behind the angry man. He grabbed hold of his tie and wrapped it around Roger’s neck, which caused his eyes to bulge as he gasped for air and grabbed at his tie.
Kelly’s eyes widened, and she watched in fascinated horror as Garren let him panic for a moment, then flung him to the ground, where he gasped and flopped around like a fish out of water. Several waiters and waitresses ran over, and the other patrons were staring in shock at Roger’s display.
Roger pushed away the waiters who were trying to help him and stood with as much dignity as he could muster. He shooed everyone away and, red and flustered, glanced back at Kelly.
“Are you all right?” Kelly asked out of courtesy.
He cleared his throat. “That was the strangest thing.” He dabbed at his wine covered pants with his napkin. I swear someone was choking me.” He shook his head.
Kelly slid her glance to Garren and gave him a sly smile. “But no one is here.”
Garren’s lips quirked, but it was obvious that he was still very much upset with Roger. He was sitting with his arms folded and a black scowl on his face.
Roger cleared his throat again. “Yes, well, Kelly, I find that I’ve lost my appetite. Allow me to escort you home?”
She looked down at her uneaten pasta. “Yeah, just let me get a to-go box. Are you sure you’re all right?” His color had gone from red to ashen.
“I’m fine. Just a little uneasy, that’s all.”
Kelly called a waitress over and got her food put in a box. Then they paid their ticket and headed back outside, where it was raining like crazy. Roger swore as his expensive, dry clean only suit got soaked almost instantly, and he continued to mutter as he tramped up the street to where he had parked his car.
“Did he forget you are here?” Garren grumbled, his voice holding more than a little bite to it. “What kind of gentleman takes off and lets his lady get soaking wet?”
She sighed. “Garren, I don’t see any gentlemen here.”
He gave her a dark frown, and his wings erupted from his shoulders with a burst that caused her to jump back and gasp. “I beg to differ,” he all but snarled, positioning one ebony wing over her head to protect her from the torrential downpour.
Kelly met his violet eyes, now fiery from his temper, and found it difficult to catch her breath. Power resonated off Garren, and she moved closer to the warmth of him. She felt safer and more protected under the feather canopy he provided than anywhere else in the world.
“Kelly!”
She jumped at Roger’s sudden exclamation, and she turned her attention back to him.
“You plan on standing in the rain all night?”
He was scowling, clearly displeased, and she huffed in irritation as she moved over to his car.
“What kind of lunatic likes standing in the rain?” he grumbled as she got in and shut the door.
She watched Garren lift his wings and take to the sky outside and knew she would see him back at her apartment. She fixed Roger with an icy glare. “One of the lunatics who entertained her creative fantasy as a child,” she said with barely concealed malice. “You know, someone who did useless and nonproductive things while running around like a wild Indian.”
He frowned as he turned the key in the ignition. “Where did that come from?”
She gritted her teeth. “Roger, did Rachel tell you anything about me? I know she told you I was a bestselling novelist. How did you think I got to be that? How could I possibly have made a career for myself if I didn’t have a ‘useless’ imagination?” She shook her head. “Why did you even want to go out with me?”
He still looked confused. “Kelly, you are a beautiful woman, and Rachel told me you needed a real man in your life. Someone with stability and a good head on his shoulders to bring you back down to Earth. She said you wanted that.”
Kelly thought up several ways to torture and then kill her sister. “Rachel is full of crap,” she spat. “I am perfectly happy with my head up in the clouds, and if all I have to look forward to down on Earth is men like you, I’d rather just stay in the clouds. Pull over.” She had absolutely had it with this guy.
“What?”
“Did I stutter? Pull over!”
He obliged and she opened her door and climbed out. She didn’t care that it was raining. The drops would most likely evaporate on contact with her skin anyway considering how pissed she was.
“Kelly! Get back in the car! Are you insane?”
“No, I am not insane! Maybe you should ask yourself that question, Mr. Rational-and-Productive, considering you were the one being choked by the Invisible Man at dinner!” She slammed the car door, pivoted on her heel, and strode up the street with more than enough energy to burn off. Okay, technically, Roger had been choked by the Invisible Man, but she was not about to tell him that and ruin a perfectly good insult.
It only took Roger a few minutes to discard her and go blazing past her on the road, sending a spray of water right at her. She gasped as the cold, muddy water splattered all over her green dress, as well as the bare arm and leg on her left side. Unbridled rage filled her, but then mixed with profound sadness and she didn’t know what to feel. She was angry over Roger, but saddened that someone could be such a heinous jerk. And knowing that Rachel had been the cause of it didn’t help. Was Roger really Rachel’s idea of a real man? Did she honestly think that was the kind of person Kelly needed in her life? Why did she always end up getting stepped on, walked over and…doused? Doused in crap. She was sick of it.
“Kelly!” Garren landed in front of her, looking concerned. “Look at you, you’re soaking!” He glared down the now-empty street. “I could kill that man for what he did.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, Garren.”
“It does matter!” His voice snapped like th
e lightning that lit up the sky. “No one should treat you in such a manner! No one!”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he didn’t give her a chance. He reached out and pulled her to him, then bent and lifted her into his arms as he took to the sky. She squeezed her eyes shut, and her stomach dropped at their quick ascent. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck, loving how warm he was.
She almost instantly felt soothed and comforted. She was aware of the storm as they flew, and marveled over how close they were to it, but the lightning didn’t frighten her, and the thunder sounded beautiful to her ears. It was like Garren wrapped her in a protective bubble where nothing could touch her. I’m not scared. Garren will always protect me. She smiled and looked up at him. His jaw was clenched and he was still scowling. His defense over her warmed her heart in the best kind of way. She reached one hand up and caressed his cheek. She ran her fingers along and down his jawline, hoping to ease some of the tension. It worked. The harsh lines of his face softened and he met her gaze, his eyes holding a wealth of emotion that she couldn’t decipher.
He landed on the roof of her apartment building and made sure she was shielded from the rain until they reached the stairwell. Only then did he retract his wings. He was silent as they made their way to her apartment, and when Kelly looked at him, he seemed deep in thought.
Once inside, she realized that she had left her pasta in Roger’s car and she sighed. It figured. One good dinner down the drain, just like her evening. She went to the linen closet and pulled out a towel, but Garren took it out of her hands. She looked up at him in confusion. He unfolded the towel, wrapped it around her, and dried off her wet arms and dripping hair.
She gave a small smile. “Garren, you’re sweet, but you don’t have to.”
“Shh.” It was a definite command, and he continued to dry her off.
Kelly watched him. His face was intent on the task at hand, and it stirred butterflies in her stomach. She couldn’t remember if any man she’d ever been with had taken such care of her. His hands were gentle and thorough, and he made sure he left no trace of mud or water on her body. The fluttery feeling in her stomach moved upward to her heart. “Garren,” she whispered.
“Why would your sister set you up with such a man?” he snapped.
A small smile touched Kelly’s lips. “I don’t know, Garren. Rachel thinks she’s helping, but she has no idea what I want or need.”
“Helping? How could she possibly think she was helping you? What has happened to the girl I remember? When did she turn her back on everything she was and become the monstrosity that was in your kitchen this morning?” He flung the towel down in the hamper and strode into the living room, obviously still more than irritated.
Kelly sighed. “I don’t know what happened to Rachel, Garren. She’s been that way for twenty years.” She shrugged. “I know she worries about me. I don’t exactly have the best luck with men. Even before David, I knew how to pick losers. She wants to help. Unfortunately, she has no idea how to do it.”
Garren whirled to face her. “She needs to listen to you. She needs to know you.”
She looked up at him, and her heart reminded her that it was still fluttering. She gave him a soft smile. “I know.”
He snorted and slashed at the air with his hands while pacing back and forth several times in agitation. “I know not how things got so out of hand in your life, but I swear to you one thing.” He turned back to her and pointed his finger at her. “No one, and I do mean no one, will ever treat you this way again.”
She blinked and raised an eyebrow. A slow smile curved her lips, and she sat down on the couch, patting the seat next to her. “Garren, come sit down before you give yourself a stroke. You can go all barbarian on me later, okay?”
He scowled and folded his arms over his chest. “I do not appreciate you making light of my concern and desire to protect you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, I guess men are all cavemen whether they’re real or not,” she muttered. “Garren, for crying out loud, come sit down.” She smacked the sofa cushion with force.
He stared at her for a second, then let out a growling sound and strode over to the couch, flopping down with about as much grace as a buffalo.
Kelly giggled and turned to face him. She studied his disgruntled appearance for a moment and found it to be the most endearing thing she had ever seen. She’d never had a man get so irate in her defense. She almost didn’t know what to do with it. It was strange, but it was also wonderful. With a smile, she moved toward him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and rested her head against his chest so she could listen to the comforting rhythm of his heart. Almost immediately, his arms went around her, and his fingers tangled in her damp strands of hair.
“I couldn’t stand sitting by and watching that man with you, Kelly,” he admitted in a whisper. “He was rude and arrogant and inconsiderate. He talked about nothing but himself the entire time you were at dinner, and what he said about children was absolutely abhorrent.”
Kelly smirked. “You didn’t like him, Garren. I got it. Neither did I. It’s okay.”
His fingers tightened in her hair. “No, it isn’t.” The words were short and clipped, and his voice rumbled with sinister malice, much like the thunder outside. She shivered in spite of herself. “It is never okay to treat a woman that way,” he continued. “And it is most definitely never okay to treat you that way.”
His voice softened on his last sentence, and she lifted her head to look at him with a curious sort of wonder.
His brow furrowed slightly. “Why do you look perplexed? Do you think that you deserve to be treated the way that abomination of a male treated you tonight?”
She swallowed and sat up. She averted her gaze and gave a small shrug. “There are a lot of men like that in my world. I’m just used to it, I guess.”
“The man you were with who left you alone in the hospital, he treated you like that?”
She snorted. “Well, no. He was nice to me for the first year, very suave and debonair. His charming act dropped into the second year and I became about as interesting to him as a piece of furniture, I guess. Year three had him cheating on me.”
“And you loved this man?” He sounded a little more than shocked.
She gave a weary sigh and glanced up at him dismally. “You can’t choose who you fall for, Garren. It just kind of happens. Don’t Lucienus fall in love?”
His eyes, which were still cold and angry, filled with sadness, and he looked down. “Yes,” he murmured. “Yes, we can fall in love.”
She frowned and reached out to touch his knee. “Were you in love? Did you have someone?”
“No, not me. I never found anyone, but I always knew that, when I did, it would be perfection. Better than anything in my world or any other.”
She cocked her head to the side. “You never had a woman in the Creative Realm? I find that hard to believe given your—” She cleared her throat. “Well, let’s face it. You’re a hottie, Garren.”
He chuckled and met her eyes. “Many of my brethren had mates. Rowan, Guardian of Rebecca, had a wife. I was not so fortunate.” He shrugged. “I had my fair share of prospects, but none of them ever caught my eye.”
She frowned. “How come?”
“They were lacking.”
She shied away from the intensity in his eyes, and her heart seemed to do somersaults. She put her hand over her chest and frowned. She couldn't figure out that reaction. What was it about Garren that made her heart act that way? Was it just because he had, in effect, come from her? This entire situation was so bizarre. She sighed and reached over to cover his hand with hers. “Do you want me to make you some dinner, Garren?”
He looked up at her and gave a gentle smile, then brought her hand to his lips, and placed a tender kiss to the back of it that made Kelly draw in a soft breath. It was so gentle, such a selfless and sweet gesture.
She smiled. “Was that a yes?”
He met her eyes and his grin was devilish. “Do you really have to ask?”
Chapter Nine
Garren marveled at the chaotic display of nature as the storm raged on. It was magnificent. Intense and wild and so beautiful. Thunderstorms didn’t happen in the Creative Realm. Not real ones, anyway. At times, if someone imagined up a storm, one could be simulated, but it wasn’t the same. There was no weather in the Creative Realm, just a never-ending sea of cloudy matter that would constantly flash brilliant colors when something was brought into existence. The flashes resembled lightning, but the comparison was weak at best.
He remembered once when he’d been with Kelly as a child. After her friends had gone home, she had remained in her yard and had continued her adventures with him. She hadn’t been ready to let him return to his world. Her parents had let her play, but after a while, dark clouds had rolled in and rain began to pour down like the very heavens had opened up. Before her parents had run out and ushered her inside, he and Kelly had a moment to stand there and marvel over the danger and fantastic power of the storm. She’d reached up, taken his hand, and murmured, “I don’t know if there’s anything more perfect than this. I wish I never had to go back inside, or go to school. I wish I could just stay here with you forever.”
He remembered her wild mane of strawberry-blonde hair and the way her green eyes looked up at him with such trust and adoration. She had made him feel so wanted. He’d had such a purpose back then, and he’d loved her. Loved her in the way a big brother would. She was all to him, his very life. He would have lay down his to save hers. It troubled him to see her the way she was now. Her eyes were still beautiful, but no longer brimming with vibrant life. They carried sorrow and weariness, defeat. The world had damaged his Kelly. Men like Roger and David, and even her own sister. They had chiseled pieces of her away. It killed him inside, stabbed like a thousand knives in his heart.
With a heavy sigh, Garren turned from the window and paced restlessly around the living room. Kelly had gone to bed a few hours earlier after she had made him spaghetti. They’d shared conversation, but he felt awkward with her and didn’t really know why. He had been trapped in isolation for so long. Experiencing the gamut of emotions and trying to deal with things Kelly viewed as everyday occurrences were difficult for him. He did not understand his own feelings. They didn’t make sense to him, and it was frustrating. Before, he had known his purpose. Protect Kelly. That had been a lot easier when she had been a small child. Now she was a grown woman. A gorgeous and independent grown woman. If he had his way, he would go everywhere with her and knock anyone who even looked at her funny to kingdom come, but that wasn’t how things operated in her world. It would offend her if he behaved that way.
Beyond Wild Imaginings Page 8