The Ruby Kiss

by Helen Scott Taylor

  “I want you any way I can get you.” He nipped her neck, drawing tantalizing scarlet beads from her milky skin.

  Ruby convulsed and moaned. “Oh, do it, Nightshade. Do it all to me.”

  The faint hint of desperation in her voice made him pause, but passion drove him on to find satisfaction. He licked her neck. The salty taste of blood and sweat and the scent of her arousal set his blood humming in his veins. She reached back and her fingers brushed his erection in light, tormenting touches. He let her guide him between her legs, then pushed forward into her wet heat. His breath rushed out at the enticing grip of her inner muscles.

  Thrusting slowly, he circled his fingers over the silky skin of her belly before moving higher to torment her nipples. He smiled against her hair when she grabbed his hand and pushed it down between her legs—his Ruby always knew what she wanted. He teased her, his fingers playing across the tops of her thighs before he meandered toward the place she really wanted him to touch.

  The tiny whimper in her breath told him she was nearly at her peak. He gripped her hip, thrusting harder. He ran his tongue along the side of her neck.

  “Do you want me to bite you?” he whispered.

  “Hmm.” She rocked her hips, encouraging him.

  He sucked at the skin over her carotid artery, waited until her expectant tension hummed, then sank his fangs into her neck. She wailed a long trembling exhalation of unbearable pleasure. The nectar of her blood filled his mouth and he closed his eyes. The rush of pleasure tugged low in his belly, and he fell into the hot mind-numbing bliss.

  He ran his tongue over the twin holes in her skin and dropped his head to the pillow as the waves of pleasure ebbed away, leaving him languorous and sated. The power of her blood streaked along his nerves, restoring strength to his weakened muscles. Although they’d finished making love, he kept his arm around her so she couldn’t move. He wanted to enjoy the sensation of being deep inside her for a few minutes more.

  How embarrassingly naive he’d been when he met Ruby, believing that mating was just to make babies. He was a different person now. He needed this love, this shared pleasure, this warm bed where he could wrap himself around Ruby’s soft body. After years of being alone, he finally knew what it meant to really belong with someone. As much as he ached inside at the thought of never having a son, he would not give her up if she were barren. He wanted Ruby, child or no child. And to make sure she understood she was more important to him than a baby, he wanted her to have his Magic Knot now.

  “Are you asleep?” He ran a finger down her cheek. She turned over to face him and nestled her head beneath his chin. He hugged her for a few minutes, enjoying the soft warmth. His hand trailed up her back to play with the fine hair at her nape. “I’ve got something to give you,” he whispered.

  His heart thumped with unfamiliar apprehension as he rolled away to snag his jeans from the floor. After his first aborted attempt to give her his Magic Knot, he hoped the exchange would go smoothly this time. Before he met Ruby, he hadn’t considered giving his Magic Knot to anyone. He didn’t completely understand the bond between male and female, but he’d witnessed the love and devotion between Niall and Rose, and Michael and Cordelia. He wanted that for himself and Ruby. Yet the thought of sharing his memories and thoughts with another person was still a little unsettling. Especially as he wasn’t proud of some of the things he’d done.

  He clasped his stones in his fist and swung back to face Ruby. She blinked up at him sleepily. He held out his hand and revealed the linked rings.

  “Oh.” Ruby’s eyes widened, and she suddenly looked wide awake. “Nightshade, are you sure? What if it turns out I really can’t have kids?”

  “I love you, Ruby,” he said. “I’ll learn to live without a son if that’s what the gods have planned.”

  Ruby looked down and chewed the inside of her cheek, and unease fluttered through Nightshade.

  “You’re not still worried about bonding with me, are you? I know Twister forced you into an unwanted bond, but it’ll be different between us. I love you,” he repeated.

  She slowly shook her head. “I love you, too. I want to bond with you, but . . .” She turned anxious eyes on him. “I love that you want me even if I can’t have kids, but what if you change your mind in a few years? Once you’ve given me your Magic Knot you’re stuck with me.”

  “I don’t want anyone else. If you can’t have children, I’ll survive without them.” He paused, wishing he’d worded his reply more positively. He extended his hand again, urging her to accept his stones.

  Her hand stayed curled against the sheet between them. “I know how much you want a son, Nightshade.”

  “I’d rather have you with no babe than any other woman who can give me a son.”

  Ruby still didn’t take his stones.

  Nightshade swallowed his impatience. This was a huge decision for both of them. She already had a bond with Twister and would naturally think carefully before agreeing to another. Nausea churned in his belly every time he remembered his woman was bonded with bloody Twister, even though she couldn’t sense the Unseelie king this far from Scotland.

  Finally, she smiled. Tentatively. “Can I take a rain check until after our trip to Scotland to get my Magic Knot?”

  His heart contracted to a tight point of pain.

  Ruby ran her fingers along his jaw. “I’d love to accept your Magic Knot. It would be even better if we can exchange them together.”

  “So what happens if you recover your stones and find out you are still infertile? Will you leave me?”

  Ruby’s gaze drifted away and lost focus. She shook her head. “I don’t want to leave you. I’ve been happier these past few days than ever before. But if we bond and I can’t give you your son, you might end up resenting me.”

  “I won’t!” But even as the denial burst from his lips, a tiny worm of uncertainty bored into his heart. What if Ruby was right? What if in a few years his longing for a son grew so strong that he did regret bonding himself to a barren woman?

  * * *

  Ruby watched Apollo and Ares scamper around her house in Scotland, excited to be back after being away for nearly three weeks. The metal dog bowls rattled against the tiles in the mudroom as they searched for crumbs.

  She wandered down the hall and halted outside her moon room. She’d loathed the room and the disability that had trapped her there every full moon. Now she knew there had been nothing wrong with her. And if her father hadn’t stolen her Magic Knot, her power wouldn’t have leaked. She wouldn’t have had all the difficulties that made puberty onward a nightmare.

  Returning to the kitchen, she found Nightshade on his cell phone. He was looking out a window over the garden with a hand resting on the edge of the sink.

  “Put him on the phone,” he said. “I want to talk to him.” A few beats of silence. “Rhys. Are you being a good boy?”

  Ruby could hear the grin in Nightshade’s voice, and her heart pinched with anxiety over the future. She turned away and went upstairs. Her bed was strewn with the clothes she’d left behind when she hurriedly packed to go to Cornwall, but she plopped down on the edge of the mattress anyway.

  She knew she’d made the right decision to refuse Nightshade’s Magic Knot until she had her own back, but her stupid mind kept throwing up what-ifs. What if she couldn’t have kids? What if Troy stole Nightshade away? What if she or Nightshade died before she experienced the true bond they were always meant to have? Perhaps she should have just kept her mouth shut and bonded with him when he offered.

  She squeezed her eyes closed and banged her fists on her knees in frustration. Nightshade was a wonderful father figure to his little brother, and he would make a great dad. She would not deprive him of his chance to have a son. She prayed that when she got her Magic Knot back she would be able to have children.

  A subtle brush of awareness touched her mind, and she stilled, her mental turmoil fading. A new one took over as the leap of her heart shock
ed her. She’d missed her strange connection with him, even though he was not her favorite person. Twister?

  Golden wolf eyes gleamed in the darkness behind her closed eyelids. The Unseelie king spoke directly into her mind, surprising her. I sense your blood bond with Nightshade but nothing stronger.

  She sucked in a steadying breath. I need your help.

  Come to me. The wolf became clearer in her head as his presence invaded her; his command was loud, firm, as if he had spoken the words in her ear.

  No. She didn’t want to return to the windowless underground Bunker. And she wasn’t sure Twister would let her go again.

  You don’t trust me.

  Ruby let the things he’d done to earn her distrust flow through her mind, and the Unseelie king retreated. Twister, I want you to send a message to Kade to ask him to meet me at my home.

  I’ll come to you.

  No. You don’t need to, Ruby replied, but Twister’s presence had already faded.

  She fell back across her bed, sinking among the discarded clothes with a sigh. Twister had no romantic interest in her, she could tell, but she could also sense his fascination with their bond. He was the last person she wanted to see here.

  Nightshade appeared in the doorway. “We need to get a message to Kade to meet us here.”

  “In progress. Twister’s on his way.”

  “Oh.” A frown passed over Nightshade’s face and his jaw set.

  He walked to the window where only a few weeks ago he’d waited for her to get out of bed to make him breakfast. Ruby’s heart pinched at the memory. What would have happened to her if Nightshade hadn’t fallen into her life? The beak-noses would still have kidnapped her. Without Nightshade or Devin to stand up for her, she might still be a prisoner in the Bunker. She shivered.

  “When did Troy say he’d come?” she asked, rising and moving up beside Nightshade. Though she had once taken the beauty of the glen for granted, she wrapped an arm around his waist and admired the view with reawakened eyes.

  Nightshade put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her in return. “I’ll call him when we’re ready. You all right?”

  She rested her head against him. “I’m not sure how I feel about seeing Twister again.”

  “Can you sense him?” he asked gruffly.

  She nodded.

  “There’s nothing else between us,” she added, but even as the words passed her lips, she knew they were a lie. There was something between her and Twister: not attraction or love, but a weird empathy. Despite everything he’d done to her, she understood why he’d behaved in the way he had. She admired his personal sacrifice and steadfast determination to do what he thought was right. For his father. For a person he loved. She hoped she would be that dedicated to her loved ones. But she wasn’t sure. Guilt flashed through her and she closed her eyes. She hated to think it, but she wondered if she might have saved her mother’s life if she’d been with her the night she died. She’d gone looking for Ruby’s father as she always did, but Ruby refused to go and use her magical senses to help. That night was the last time she saw her mother alive.

  “Let’s have something to eat,” Nightshade said. “I’m famished.”

  Ruby pasted on a smile. “Nothing new there. You’re the living version of a sports car—highly tuned and thirsty.” Nightshade was always hungry. All that muscle burned up a lot of calories.

  “Do you like sports cars?” he asked.

  “I love ’em.”

  He pulled her into his arms, kissed her hard, and hugged her.

  On the far side of the valley, a gray streak of movement in the twilight caught Ruby’s eye. A wolf. She pressed her cheek against Nightshade’s chest, her gaze tracking the beast. With long loping strides the animal wove between the pine trees, disappearing from view in the thickly wooded area only to reappear a few minutes later on the edge of the loch. Instinctively, her mind sent out a tendril of awareness, felt the hot, hard pounding of Twister’s heart.

  She lost sight of him as he ran up the slope through the woodland bordering her land; then he leapt over her fence, an arc of lean muscle and elemental animal power that echoed a feeling of strength through her own unfit muscles. The wolf halted on the lawn, and his golden eyes lifted to meet her gaze. The air around the animal shimmered, and Twister stood in its place. He kept staring at her, the strange frisson of empathy flowing between them.

  She broke eye contact and pressed a kiss over Nightshade’s heart, inhaling his almond fragrance. “Twister’s here,” she whispered.

  Nightshade glanced out the window and then gave her a sideways look. “We’d better go down and let him in.”

  Ruby followed him downstairs, Twister’s presence running through her like a song she couldn’t shake from her mind. When she’d left the Bunker, she’d expected to put their unwanted bond behind her. Now she realized breaking from him wasn’t going to be that easy. She consciously pulled down a shutter around her mind to keep him out.

  Twister had let himself inside, and he stood in the hallway. As they came down the stairs, Nightshade nodded in greeting.

  “Let’s talk in the kitchen,” he said, turning through the kitchen door.

  Twister didn’t move, just stared at Ruby, his eyes glowing gold. His skin appeared unmarked, and he had the glossy perfection of an airbrushed magazine image, his dark dreadlocks somehow both clear and indistinct; the tiny skulls in his hair only visible if she really concentrated. “Don’t do that,” she said under her breath.

  “What?”

  “Try to . . . impress me.”

  He lifted one shoulder and let it drop in a negligent dismissal. “You’re only seeing me without the scars.”

  She sidestepped him and followed Nightshade into the kitchen. It unnerved her that Twister was trying to attract her. She wanted to keep him at arm’s length.

  Ruby went to Nightshade, who had poured himself a glass of milk and popped some bread in the toaster. He gave her a wry grin when she glanced at the snack.

  “Temporary measure,” he said. “You can cook me dinner later.”

  She play-punched him in the belly, her fist connecting with solid ridged muscle. He caught her arm and gently turned her so that her back rested against his front; then he enfolded her in his arms.

  Twister watched them sullenly. “You said you needed my help.”

  Ruby eased away from Nightshade, and he released her immediately. She wanted to make it clear she and Nightshade were a couple, but she didn’t want to alienate Twister. “Will you send a messenger to the Seelie Court for me? I want Kade to come here to see me.”

  “You want to get your Magic Knot back,” Twister guessed.

  “Without it, my powers haven’t developed properly.”

  Twister stared at her, and she could almost see the cogs working in his brain. “I should have thought of that.” He touched his chin in a familiar gesture, rubbing an invisible scar.

  “Water under the bridge,” Ruby said.

  “What reason shall I give Kade for the meeting?”

  Ruby glanced at Nightshade. They’d discussed this with Troy and decided they didn’t need to give a reason. Kade would be eager to win her over to his side, and he was arrogant enough to believe she was no threat to him. She turned to Twister and said, “Just tell him I want to see him.”

  The Unseelie king kept his appraising gaze on her. “You’ve changed. You know what you want.”

  He was right. She didn’t want to hide or deny who she was anymore. She wanted her Magic Knot, she wanted her power, and she wanted Nightshade.

  She hadn’t noticed her guard had slipped until Twister’s emotions flooded her. She trembled at his overwhelming sense of loss and confusion.

  The purpose of my life’s been to free Fenrir, he said miserably inside her head. What do I do now? His glamour dissolved, revealing the horrendous scars on his face. The latest, inflicted during his final encounter with his father, were still pink and fresh. Grief hung around him like a shro
ud that floated out to draw her into his misery.

  Ruby’s breath sucked in and caught as he took a step closer to her, his gaze never leaving her face. “I need you to help me, Ruby—”

  “No!” Nightshade stepped between them. “No,” he repeated more softly. “She’s mine.”

  “You haven’t given her your stones,” Twister said.

  “I love her, and she loves me,” Nightshade said firmly. Then, more gently: “Find your own woman, Twister. Even if you can’t bond with her, you can still love her.”

  Ruby closed her eyes against Twister’s pain. She leaned on Nightshade’s folded wings; the velvety soft skin cushioned her, in contrast to the hardness of the rest of his muscular body. After a moment she looked at the Unseelie king again, then at the clock on the wall. It flashed its green fluorescent numbers, counting out tense seconds.

  After an uncomfortably long silence, Twister turned and walked out the door. He stopped on the lawn and shouted back, “When do you want Kade to come?”

  “Tomorrow?” Nightshade replied.

  “There should be time to send a messenger,” Twister called. “Be prepared for the unexpected.”

  As Nightshade nodded, the air shimmered around Twister and a golden eagle appeared. The bird flapped its wings and glided out and away over the valley.

  * * *

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ruby was up at six a.m. the following day. She didn’t want to leave the warm safety of Nightshade’s arms, but once she woke, she couldn’t just lie in bed wondering when Kade would arrive; she had to get up and do something.

  She was making a cup of tea when Nightshade entered the kitchen, freshly showered, his hair wet. He extended his wings over the radiator to dry them. She laughed at the scary realization that having a winged man in her kitchen seemed perfectly normal.

  “As soon as I’m dressed, you’d better call Troy,” she suggested. She hoped Kade found Troy as intimidating as she did.