by Julia Mills
“Whatever you have will be fine,” he reassured her.
She decided she needed to make sure that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she thought his whole ‘taking a nap to heal’ thing was a bunch of crap. She put her hands on her hips and squared her shoulders. “I also want to make sure that you understand that I do not agree with or believe your claims that ‘resting’ will heal you. I also know for a fact that you should not go to sleep with a head injury but I’m giving you these three hours, on the off chance that you know what the hell you are doing.” She tried to convey just exactly how much faith she was giving him and hoped he realized she didn’t do so lightly.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Rayne wished he had the luxury of explaining everything to Kyndel right now as he watched a myriad of emotions flit across her expressive face. He could tell she was working hard to not freak out, to give him what he needed and to understand her uncharacteristic responses to him. He would take all the time she needed to make sure she completely understood, just as soon as woke from his healing sleep. He needed to get laid down before he collapsed on her floor because he knew that if he collapsed, she would have an ambulance there to get him before he could change her mind yet again. So their standoff came to an end with him heading towards the room she had indicated which meant walking straight towards the object of his desire. He stopped just a few inches in front of her, feeling the pull of his mate like a magnet to steel. She jerked her head up and once again an immediate spark arced between them, a force willing them together. He could get lost in those beautiful emerald pools of desire. The picture of entwined bodies, hot and sweaty, spent from hours of enjoying each other flashed in his mind.
Her pupils dilated for what seemed like the tenth time since he had laid eyes upon her, followed by a look of confusion. Her reactions to him were causing more questions within what he was quickly learning was her intelligently suspicious mind. He needed to get to sleep so he could heal and clear up any confusion his mate had. She cleared her throat, turned on her heel and headed to the guest bath. He admired the hypnotic sway of her hips and the way her crimson hair caressed her back as she moved away from him. He had to remind his body that now was not the time for anything but a healing sleep.
Such a pity he thought. He could tell from the slight flaring of her nostrils and the look in her eyes when she turned those spectacular emerald orbs on him that she felt everything he did. Then there was the unmistakable sweet scent of her desire. There was no denying they were in the beginning stages of the mating call. He shook his head, clearing what cobwebs he could. He reiterated for the umpteenth time, to himself and his wayward thoughts, that he had to get his butt into that bed, sink into the healing sleep for a few hours so that he could explain everything to Kyndel before he was unable to keep himself from taking her despite his condition.
She turned towards the hall bathroom and took a step over the threshold. Just before she closed the door he called out to her, “Kyndel, please don’t leave the apartment or answer the door while I’m asleep. There are people out there that want to hurt me and you, by association. Please just give me the few hours you promised and I will explain everything.”
Kyndel answered without thinking, “OK, you have three hours and then I want some answers, Rayne.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. He had used most of what little magical stores he had left to place wards around her home to make sure they would remain undetected by the hunters. Even if the ones who searched for him did catch his scent through the wards he had woven, they would not be able to enter without his or her consent. As long as she followed his requests, she would be safe while he slept and he was sure from her quick response that she would do as he had asked, even if she didn’t understand why. The dragon shifter mating call was a powerful, magical thing that once initiated was impossible to break unless the female denounced her mate. One of the most amazing attributes of their bond was that one mate would never knowingly endanger the other; protection of the most important person in their world was complete and total. Neither man nor beast or their mate would ever endanger the other. He had put just a little extra push in his command to ensure her compliance and she had responded immediately. Things were progressing quickly for them and it pleased him as nothing else ever had. Now all he had to do was sleep and heal so he that he could claim his mate.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Did that insufferable yet irresistible man just order her not to answer her own door? She thought back over the conversation and almost yelled out, yes he did. The damndest thing was, she agreed without a second thought? Once again she wondered about her own sanity. Her night just kept getting weirder and weirder. At least she felt better now that she was in her home and out of those damn office clothes. Looking in the mirror, she realized her hair looked like a rat’s nest from her time spent outside with the breeze whipping her curls around. She also noted the dark circles under her eyes which made it look like she had missed more than a few nights sleep.
As she walked out of the bathroom in her comfy clothes and headed towards the kitchen to get their drinks, she thought back to all the noises she was now knew she had heard tonight. Rayne hadn’t hit himself on the head, a wound that wicked had come from someone else; that she knew for sure. There had been more going on out there than she knew and as soon as that sexy man in her bedroom was done with “his rest” she was going to get to the bottom of all the weirdness. He had promised and she meant to hold him to it.
With a glass of fruit juice in each hand, she headed back down the hall to her bedroom. She walked through the door and there sprawled face down across her bed was Rayne. Even battered and beaten, he looked like that was right where he belonged. A shiver ran down her spine as she noted not only blood congealed in his beautiful mane of chocolate brown hair but the mass of injuries to his back. There was barely more than a square inch of his beautiful skin not covered in a cut, a scrape or a puncture wound not to mention blood and dirt. The abuse ran from his shoulders to his waist. Now, there was no doubt something horrible had happened to him in that park, not that she had ever really doubted it after seeing him unconscious on the sidewalk but for whatever reason, she felt better with the confirmation. She felt guilty for the time she had wasted worrying about herself when he was being beaten and bloodied. She once again mused at the complete disregard her internal alarms displayed where this man was concerned.
Kyndel’s heart hurt as she looked at the damaged back of the beautiful stranger that was making her doubt her sanity. It had to hurt…really hurt. He had lain on that sidewalk for what seemed like a really long time while they discussed whether he should have medical attention or not and he hadn’t complained at all. He had to have been in so much pain. Pain that she knew she could help him with and that was exactly what she planned to do. She had some of the liniment her granny had taught her to make when she was a girl on the farm. Granny’s ‘Magic Potion’ would soothe everything from a paper cut to a third degree burn. She had used it for absolutely everything and now Kyndel did the same thing. Her granny’s favorite saying was ‘you can take the girl out the country but you can never take the country out of the girl’. That awesome woman had taught her all about medicinal herbs and helped her understand why helping others seemed to be a calling of all Mastersons. She taught her what would cure a headache or indigestion and most importantly how to make her special liniment and teas. Granny said their kin had always been blessed in the way of healing.
She remembered the time she had offered to help a new ‘friend’ when she first arrived at school. The girls in her dorm, except Grace, had laughed at her saying that in the big city they had doctors for that type of thing. So Kyndel never offered again. She kept a small herb garden in the window of her dorm room and told anyone that asked it was her way to feel close to home. The ‘city folk’ bought it and everyone was happy. Now that she had her own place, even though she rented it, she had almost every available inch of her yard filled with herb
s and plants that she could use for Granny’s teas or liniments. She always had beautiful fresh flowers to brighten her day and loved watching the butterflies and birds flitter by her kitchen window. She figured Granny must have been right about their family having a green thumb because no matter what it was, she could grow it. Not to mention, having her hands in the dirt just grounded her, helped her think. It filled her with happiness and kept the sadness of being the only one of the Masterson family left at bay. When she was working with her plants she felt close to her ancestors, something most people would scoff at if she was the type to share.
Kyndel set their juice glasses on the bedside table and went to the bathroom to get towels, a basin of warm water and her jar of liniment. Once again she marveled at Rayne’s incredible strength. How had he not been unconscious or at least whining about his pain? Yea, he had dropped off a couple of times but she had a sneaky suspicion he had never been completely out. His reactions were sharper than hers had ever been even with his injuries. Then he had walked the four blocks to her home without a complaint. He hadn’t even stumbled or slowed at all but kept pace right beside her. It was almost as if he was used to pain or somehow immune to its overwhelming effects. It hurt her heart to think that he’d had a hard life or had suffered at all. Maybe he was some kind of policeman or in the armed service, perhaps a bodyguard of some kind. Whatever he did, he definitely possessed an iron will. She reminded herself that she would get all her questions answered as soon as he woke up, of that she would make sure, but first she had to help him. It was a compulsion from deep within that could not be denied. If there was a way to make him hurt less, she had to do it.
With her arms full of supplies she walked back over to the bed and looked down at the huge man laid across her bed. He had gotten some blood and dirt on her comforter. Oh well, nothing that wouldn’t wash out. Maybe she would use it as an excuse to buy the white comforter set with pink and lavender hyacinths she had seen in the Anthology catalog this month. She would have to think about that later. All she could focus on in that moment was getting her pleasantly round ass on that bed so she could tend to her patient.
She snorted to herself, “pleasantly round ass…” She really was turning into a goofball.
“OK, big guy, I am going to wash the dirt and blood off your back then get some of this liniment on you. It’ll fix you right up. We also need to get that grossness out of your pretty hair.” Was it wrong to call a man’s hair pretty she wondered? Oh who gave a crap anyway? Not like he could hear her.
She wondered if she really had lost her mind. Was it not enough she had a stranger in her home, who was hurt, spread across her bed but she was talking to his unconscious ass too. He was completely dead to the world and she was carrying on a conversation with him. She snorted at her poor choice of words.
He most definitely was not dead and she had threatened him within an inch of his life to make sure he did not die, especially while in her home. She stared at her hands. They were shaking and sweaty, something that rarely happened to her, along with the butterflies that had just taken up residence in her tummy. What in the world was the matter with her? He was injured and needed her help. She was not getting ready to date him. There was no reason for her jittery nerves, at least none she could come up with. She had never been the type of person to get nervous about anything. The longer she thought about it, the more she realized it really didn’t feel like nerves. It felt more like anticipation, like once she laid her hands on him nothing would ever be the same again. This night just kept getting weirder and weirder. After all, Rayne was just a guy, albeit a mouth wateringly gorgeous guy, but still a guy that had gotten hurt and needed her help, nothing more. No sooner had that thought flitted across her mind than it was followed with the words, ‘so much more’. Sure she was losing her mind; she decided to give her best Scarlett O’Hare impression and ‘Think about it tomorrow’.
With her mind made up, Kyndel placed the basin of warm water next to Rayne’s shoulder then scooted herself forward until she was sitting Indian style next to his hip. She dipped one of the washcloths into the warm water she had mixed with her own special recipe of herbal bath oil. The oil along with the liniment would ease at least some of his soreness after he woke up. She gently wiped across his shoulders and rinsed the washcloth in the basin. She repeated the process until the water in the basin was murky and dirty. She slid off the bed, grabbed the basin and headed back to the bathroom for clean water and more clean cloths.
When she returned she couldn’t help but notice his wounds looked less harsh, almost like they were already closing and healing. Either her herbs were super hyped today or he had some kind of kicked up healing power. She simply refused to believe “resting” was healing him like he had claimed. Once again she positioned the basin next to his head and sat Indian style next to his hip. She continued to wipe the gross blood and dirt mixture from his back. When she looked at the basin something seemed to sparkle on the surface of the water. It was like there were flecks of glitter mixed with the muck coming off his back. What the hell would glitter be doing on his back? “Maybe some fairy dust”, she chuckled under her breath. Question number one hundred and fifty two to get answered when Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome Rayne Whatever his last name was woke up.
When Rayne’s back was completely clean, Kyndel threw the dirty rags in the laundry basket and dumped the last of the water she had used to clean his back down the drain. She grabbed a few gauze pads and the butterfly strips from her first aid kit for the deeper wounds and headed back over to her bed.
This time she sat on her knees by his waist, unscrewed the lid on her jar of liniment and breathed in the wonderful scent of healing herbs. She loved that smell. It was fresh and clean and reminded her of Granny. Just the smell relieved some of her tension and loosened her tired muscles. She scooped some of the liniment into her hand and rolled her shoulders to relieve more of the tension caused by this man’s appearance into her world and the craziness that had ensued. She looked down at his back deciding where to start and two things became evident all at once. He had lots of scars. Scars that appeared to have come from wounds that occurred at different times and what looked to be different weapons. He definitely had seen his share of fighting. Kyndel hoped he was one of the good guys.
Two, his wounds were definitely closing up on their own. She knew she had examined quite a few deep lacerations and puncture wounds that she was certain would require at least some bandaging, if not butterfly strips before her last trip to the bathroom and now they looked like nothing more than deep scratches. The skin around them was pink and puckering with scabs beginning to form. She was definitely intrigued by his super speedy healing powers. She wondered what made it possible but of course, he would have to be conscious for her to get the answers she so desperately wanted.
Kyndel took a deep breath rolling her shoulders one more time for good measure. She rubbed her hands together to warm the liniment and coat both hands. Leaning over his incredibly muscular back, trying hard not to disturb him, the thought of her hands causing him any pain actually caused her chest to constrict. She placed both hands on his right shoulder. The same electrical current she had experienced from their skin to skin contact before seemed super charged this time. The shock shot through her body, landing squarely in the center of her womb. She gasped as her hands flew off his back of their own volition. “What the hell was that?” she wondered out loud. Had to be that she shuffled her feet across the carpet and then shocked herself when she touched him, she tried to reason. Of course it had never happened before. Even more bizarre, she had absolutely never felt anything like that in her lady parts before. Just pretty much went along with all the other insanity that had happened recently.
She took a deep breath, gathered her courage and placed her hands on his shoulder again. The same shock she wondered if she would feel every time they touched went all the way through her again but at least this time she was prepared. The side effects were disconcer
ting but also kind of delicious. She could feel her nipples pebble and scratch against the lace of her camisole. Her skin suddenly felt overly sensitized making her clothing feel almost too heavy. She wasn’t sure why she had left her cami on; she usually couldn’t wait to get out of everything that reminded her of that blasted office but for some reason tonight she felt like she needed an extra layer of protection against the raw power this incredible man exuded. She decided she must be more tired than she realized, lending to her overactive imagination. She began rubbing the liniment into his right shoulder and down across his bruised ribs. He had taken some really serious hits before she found him, rivaled only by the scars of the past. Somehow she knew with an insane amount of certainty that he’d given better than he’d gotten. She also knew, as well as she knew her own name, that he didn’t lose a fight, ever! As she continued to rub the liniment into his broken skin, she became mesmerized by the feel of his skin under her hands. The warmth of the skin to skin contact seemed to soak into every fiber of her being. She could feel him everywhere.
The different textures of the skin along his massive shoulders that she felt as she massaged the liniment into his beautifully battered skin soothed her as much as she hoped it did him. They tickled the pads of her fingers. There were patches of skin that felt softer on the surface but firmer underneath, almost like a scar but different somehow. She imagined him as a Guardian, a Commander of warriors, someone who had seen numerous battles, so in her mind it only stood to reason that he had scars. She didn’t even question where the image of him leading men into battle had come from. It was just a belief planted firmly in her mind, the longer her hands were on his body. She molded and massaged his massive muscles, his skin becoming warmer than its already elevated temperature and some of what she believed to be scars became more predominant. They seemed to take shape right before her eyes. As she focused on a particularly intricate set of lines on his back, she swore it resembled a large wing wrapping up and over his left shoulder. As she followed the line of that powerful wing it swooped down into a large powerful body with a beautifully massive wing coming out the other side. The longer she attended to his wounds, rubbing her hands over his amazing skin, the more intrigued she became by the picture taking shape right before her eyes. It was not until she looked towards his right shoulder that she was captured by the most awe inspiringly, majestic face she had ever seen. She met the creature’s eye and for a split second felt a caress all the way to her soul, a flash of recognition just like when she locked eyes with Rayne. It felt like the melding of souls, the calling of like to like.