Kyan dropped his bike it to the curb and raced to her side. He tossed her bike aside, then lifted her as though she barely weighed anything at all to cradle her in his lap. “What is wrong, Ruby? Are you hurt?”
She stared up at him, noting that his face was screwed up with concern. And the way he held her—so tenderly, like she was fragile. The first tear dripped down her cheek. And before she could figure out why she felt so heartbroken, it was too late to hold it all inside and she began to cry in earnest.
He pulled her close, tucking her in to his chest while he rubbed her back.
It wasn’t fair. This completely gorgeous man was holding her like he cared. Looking at her as though he cared. But she knew he couldn’t possibly care about someone like her. He was just being kind. She could never have someone like Kyan for her own. Not really. Not without the benefit of a magic spell.
As though he’d read her thoughts, he lifted her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. Then he unclasped her helmet and placed it on the ground, smoothed back the tangled hair from her face and kissed her.
It was a gentle kiss. His lips barely brushed hers before he climbed to his feet, yanking her up with him. He stared down at her for a moment, puzzled, as though he couldn’t quite understand what had just occurred. Then his face blanked into that perfect emptiness of expression again and he released her hands. He picked up her bike and wheeled it to Mike’s car.
Ruby stood there, still dazed from the emotions his kiss had aroused in her. How could a mere brushing of lips have such a devastating effect? Her limbs felt languid. Her skin tingled as though she’d just spent an hour wallowing in a hot bubble bath.
She flexed her toes experimentally. She’d almost swear the pudgy little digits had curled. She’d read about that phenomenon in books but believed it an exaggeration for effect—writers getting carried away with the scene when the hero plants one on the heroine, and all that.
Evidently not.
“You okay, Rubes?” Mike waved a hand in front of her face. “Earth to Ruby. Anyone home?”
She snapped back to the present. “Oh. Mike. Hi. I’m okay. Just a scrape on my leg.”
He took her elbow to help her to his car.
“What the hell just happened, Mike?”
He shrugged. “It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah.” She risked a glance at him before she climbed up into the back seat of the car. He sported another one of those secretive smirks on his face. Great.
She slumped back against the seat and closed her eyes. She wished she knew what the hell Mike was so pleased about. And why Kyan had suddenly distanced himself from her.
~~~
Kyan climbed into the car—a wondrous invention to be sure. One that should have commanded his full attention. He should have been eager to quiz Mike about its intricacies—just as he should have been determined to glean as much information as he could about this strange new world. Instead, he couldn’t focus on anything but a woman.
Ruby.
What was it about this woman that so disturbed his equilibrium?
No female had ever bedeviled both his cock and his mind before. Rationally, Kyan knew the Crystal Guardian’s sorcery must play a substantial role in the attraction she held for him. But no matter how much he told himself that very pertinent fact he could not stop thinking about her. Wanting her. Caring about her.
He’d known her scant hours. And yet she’d burrowed into his heart and become dear to him just the same.
Seeing the terror in her eyes when Mike had told her of the steep track he expected her to negotiate, and the grim determination to attempt it regardless…. Kyan had felt a burgeoning pride for her achievement. Even his mother, who had filled his ears with tales of her physical prowess, might have balked at such a feat.
The mate the old sorcerer had chosen for him was no fragile female who wilted when confronted with a challenge. She was a woman with a warrior’s spirit. She’d confronted her fears, crowed with joy as she conquered them. And even though her physical fitness proved not quite up to the task she’d been set, she’d soldiered on to the point of exhaustion, refusing to give in.
Kyan recognized that brand of gutsy determination, and sensed a kindred spirit. He, too, knew what it was like to push himself beyond his physical capabilities to the point of collapse, only stubbornness and an unwillingness to quit driving him onward.
When she’d faltered at the end of the ride, and collapsed, Kyan’s heart had skipped a beat. And then, as he’d held her tight, tried to soothe her hurts, kissed her, all his carefully laid plans had gone awry.
Afterward, when he’d gotten his life back and the crystalline hell was no longer held over his head like some sword of Damocles, he’d planned on treating Ruby as he treated any other woman. He’d planned to seduce her and ensure her compliance. He’d planned to stay for so long as the relationship remained amiable and uncomplicated. When—and all women expected more than he was prepared to give in the end—she became too needy, too demanding, he would leave. Alluring as his past bed-partners had been, the longest any woman had warmed his bed had been a sennight. He’d reasoned that not even a woman like Ruby—beguiling as she was—would be able to convince him to stay with her.
But the instant he’d pressed his lips to hers, felt her respond to him, experienced the depth of his own response to her—a visceral response of body and soul that had shaken him to his core—he knew he was in trouble.
And as he’d held Ruby in his arms, and comforted her the only way he knew how, Kyan could not overlook the sobering fact that if his longing for Ruby was indeed rooted in a sorcerer’s spell, then her longing for him, too, might well be false. And the thought that she might not truly desire him, that the naked yearning in her eyes was due to a spell—was not true and honest and real—pierced him like a sword-thrust to his gut.
It was almost more than he could bear.
Damn that evil old bastard to an eternity of torture in the fires of Halja for putting him through this—for putting them both through this!
Kyan had reacted in the only way he knew how—by pulling back and slipping the mask over his face, distancing himself. And in so doing, he knew he’d hurt Ruby deeply.
Apparently Mike would be kicking his arse sooner rather than later.
~~~
Chapter Seven
Ruby walked into the lounge and spotted her answer-phone message light blinking. The message was from Jules. Her tone shrieked concern. She’d left another voice message on Ruby’s mobile, and rounded it off with a Don’t make me come over there. Ring me! text message.
The sheer absurdity of this situation with Kyan crashed over her. Talk about cold hard reality check. What the heck was she going to tell her best friend?
For all of ten seconds she debated not calling Jules back until tomorrow. But that was pretty much an invitation for Jules to front up in person. And much as she loved Jules, Ruby couldn’t face her right now.
Everything was happening too fast. She needed time to come up with a plausible excuse for Kyan to be hanging round. And, given the time Jules had sent that text, Ruby reckoned she had about thirty minutes tops before Jules started bugging her in earnest.
Mike and Kyan were in the garage, making room to stow the bikes. She wandered over to the nearest window. “I’m grabbing a quick shower,” she yelled at Mike. Hopefully, wallowing under hot water might unclog her brain so she could come up with something to tell Jules. “And I’m thinking takeaways for dinner?”
“Sounds good.”
“It’s either that or toasted sandwiches.” Cooking up a storm for two large ravenous men on a Sunday night was not her idea of a relaxing evening. The canapés and snacks for last night’s party had taken hours to prepare. She reckoned she deserved a night off.
“Whatever. I’m not fussed.”
Takeaways, it was.
She showered as quickly as humanly possible, and scuttled back to her bedroom to throw on some clean clothes
. And when the phone rang out in the lounge, her brain was still struggling to concoct a story that would satisfy her inquisitive best friend.
Damn. She knew it would be Jules, and she still had nothing.
As if the thought of having to come up with a plausible lie to tell her best friend wasn’t bad enough, the reason she had to lie in the first place answered the phone.
Ruby skidded to a halt in the doorway. Please, God, cut me a break and let it not be Jules….
The one-sided conversation confirmed she was in trouble. “Hello?” Pause. “This is Kyan.” Pause. “Yes. The man who took his clothes off at the party last night.” Another pause. “Yes, I stayed here last night.” Excruciating long pause. “I will get Ruby for you now.”
He glanced up, spotted her huddling in the doorway and held out the phone. “It is your friend, Jules.”
She gulped, and walked over to him to take the call. “Hi Jules.”
“He’s still there? How come, Rubes?”
Ruby stretched out on the couch and made herself comfortable. “Oh, yes I’m fine, Jules. Fully recovered from my fainting episode last night. Thanks so much for asking.”
“Yeah, yeah. Mike already told us it was nothing serious. Probably just a virus or the heat. So spill, Rubes. What’s the hot stripper still doing at your place, huh? And answering the phone like he lives there?”
“Um, he’s going to be staying for a month.”
“Oh, really.” Jules managed to imbue those two words with so much hot and heavy insinuation that Ruby’s face heated.
Her sluggish brain finally decided to help her out by coming up with a halfway decent explanation. “Turns out Kyan and I go way back. We’re friends from… primary school, actually. He was in my class three years running before his family upped and moved overseas. We didn’t recognize each other at first. I’ve changed quite a lot and he’s, er, grown up quite a bit since then.”
“I’ll say.” Jules snickered. “How come you didn’t recognize his name? ‘Kyan’ isn’t that common.”
Bugger, she wasn’t falling for it. Some embellishment was needed. Fast. Ruby gave a passable snort. “Oh, you’re gonna love this, Jules. He’s going by his middle name now—just like I do. When I knew him he went by Augustus. He got sick of being teased about it and decided Kyan was the lesser of the two evils.”
“Augustus? Sheesh. What were his parents thinking?”
“Yeah. Pretty dorky, huh? Not even shortening it to ‘Gus’ could save that one.”
“I’ll say. What a hoot! So you two have been catching up, huh?”
“Yep.” She tried to inflect lightness into her tone. “Been great, actually. When he first, uh, left we wrote to each other for a while—did the pen-friend bit. But eventually we lost touch. You know how it is.”
“Betcha didn’t think he’d turn out to be such a hottie.”
“I had absolutely no idea.”
“So you two are just good friends, then?”
“Yep. What else could we be?”
“Mmmm.”
“Oh come on, Jules. Don’t read anything more into this than there is, okay? Kyan just needs a place to crash for a bit so I’ve offered my couch. He and I are friends. Period. Nothing more.” She shot Kyan a glance beneath her lashes. His brows were creased and the way his arms were crossed over his chest screamed unimpressed. Crap.
“Riiight. Just friends.”
“That’s right. Just friends.” Kyan turned his back on her and stalked off toward the kitchen. Even though Ruby couldn’t see his face, his rigid spine conveyed his displeasure.
Before Jules could cast any more doubts on her supposed “relationship” with Kyan—or worse, Ruby ran after him and pleaded for forgiveness—she burbled, “He’s going to help me out with my triathlon training.” At least, she hoped he would. If he wasn’t too pissed off with her.
“So you’re still going through with the triathlon?”
“Yep.” She just had to keep telling herself that.
“Good.”
“Good? That’s a turn around. I thought you weren’t keen for me to do this?”
“I wasn’t—when I thought you’d just been pressured into it by the Stick Insect With No Soul. But because it’s your own idea, and you’re determined to see it through, then all power to ya, babe. I’ll be backing you all the way.”
“Thanks, Jules.” At least she would have one person cheering her on from the sidelines if Mike couldn’t make it up for the event.
“Hey, so you still on for this Saturday night, or you want to flag it until Kyan’s gone?”
“Of course I’m still on. Wouldn’t miss our monthly movie night for the world.” And a girls’ night out was just what she needed having all this supernatural woo-woo crap dumped in her lap.
“Mike’s here till Sunday, so he and Kyan will probably want to watch the cricket on TV and drink beer. They don’t need me for that. What do you feel like seeing?”
“Play it by ear, huh?”
“Cool. See you then.”
“Bye, Rubes.”
She’d bought the lie. The tight little knot twisting and turning in Ruby’s stomach unraveled a tiny bit. She hated lying to Jules but she didn’t have much choice. Unloading the whole story over a latté and trying to convince Jules that her best friend wasn’t completely delusional didn’t seem like much of an option.
Now all she had to do was to keep her mouth shut at work tomorrow, so that none of her workmates would know that she had a gorgeous, incredibly hot, available man staying over for the next four weeks.
Hmmm. Caroline had seemed rather keen on Kyan. Maybe, if Ruby invited her over, they’d hit it off and Caroline could bond with him.
The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like an excellent idea... and the best way to get her life back to normal. She rolled off the couch and scurried over to open the lounge window. “Hey, Mike! Where are you, bro?”
“In the garage,” came the faint reply. “What’s up?”
On her way out, she glanced into the kitchen and spied Kyan leaning against the bench. He’d put three mugs, the container of ground coffee and the plunger on the bench, and was frowning moodily at the electric jug.
She pointed to the power switch on the wall. “You need to push that switch down to turn the power on. Otherwise the jug won’t be able to use the electricity to boil the water.”
He flicked it down. “Thank you.”
“You right with how everything else works?”
“I believe so. Mike showed me this morning.”
“Cool.” There didn’t seem anything more to say, so she trundled out the back door and into the garage.
Mike was moving a pile of cartons to make enough room to store the bikes and still allow Ruby to park her car in garage. “What the hell is all this junk, Rubes? Don’t you ever throw anything away?”
“Considering the majority of these cartons contain your junk, I’m sure you’d be thrilled if I did that.”
He wiped his brow with the back of his hand, and sat on a carton. “My junk?”
“You know, the stuff you didn’t want to take to Christchurch with you five years ago and begged me to store for ‘just a couple of months’ until you got sorted.”
“Oh. That junk. I’ll have a good look through it all tomorrow while you’re at work and let you know what I want to keep and what you can toss.”
“Gee, how kind. Thanks sooo much. A trip to the dump is right up there with my very favorite things to do on my time off. Look, Mike, I’ve got an idea about how I can solve my little problem. How about we just throw Kyan at some attractive single female like, Caroline, for instance, and let them… bond? If they hit it off and live happily ever after, we’re all sweet. And if they don’t make it, and Kyan ends up back where he started, the Crystal Guardian will have to find him some other woman.”
Mike’s gaze turned frosty. No, frosty wasn’t the right word. He looked at her like she’d turned into something gross and
he’d accidentally stepped in it. “You’d seriously palm him off on that scrawny bitch and send him back to that place he was trapped in? Shit. I really thought better of you, Rubes.”
“Hey, that’s hardly fair. I didn’t ask to be bonded to this guy, all right? What’s wrong with passing on the bond? Caroline seems to like him. And she’s more his type than I am.”
Mike pushed the hair back from his eyes and stood to stretch the kinks out of his spine. “It’s not that easy, Rubes. Chalcedony told me once the bond is established, it’s irrevocable. And according to her mother, Crystal Warriors who don’t bond return to their crystal to be destroyed by the Guardian. Chalcedony has some doubts about that, but no proof. If it turns out to be true, do you really want to be responsible for this Guardian having a shot at murdering Kyan?”
Geez. Way to lay on the guilt. She hung her head. “No, of course not. But—”
“You’re it, Rubes. You’re Kyan’s only hope of getting out of this mess. And I’m sure the Crystal Guardian had his reasons for choosing you as Kyan’s potential life-mate.”
She glared at him. “Yeah, right. And maybe this old guy’s a few sausages short of a barbecue. I wouldn’t be surprised if having nothing to do but watch a bunch of crystals for centuries on end has addled his brain.”
“Maybe. You’ve experienced a little of what Kyan suffered when he was imprisoned in the crystal, right?”
She shuddered, unwilling to dwell even for a second on that nightmarish existence she’d briefly shared with Kyan.
Mike took that as an affirmative. “Bottom line? Are you prepared to condemn a human being to an existence like that without at least trying your utmost to prevent it? I know I couldn’t.”
Dammit, he’d got her there. And he knew it.
“Sorry, Rubes.” He patted her shoulder as he brushed past her. “Hey, listen. I’m going to take Kyan out and buy him some clothes and a pair of sneakers. I haven’t got enough spare stuff to lend him for an entire month and he can’t kick around in those heavy boots and leathers. We’ll grab something to eat while we’re out, too. Give you some space to think, so you don’t come up with any more wild schemes.”
The Crystal Warriors Series Bundle Page 39