“Yeah. Okay. And I’ll pay you back for the clothes and stuff.”
“No worries,” her brother said. “It’s the least I can do.”
She followed him out of the garage, scuffing her feet as she considered what he’d said. And what it meant for her. She wasn’t looking where she was going so she nearly bumped into Kyan, who was juggling three cups of coffee. Mike got his mug with a smile. Ruby got hers with a scowl that made her toes curl—and not in a good way this time.
“Thanks.” She took a sip. It was strong but drinkable. He learned quickly.
“Why are you so eager to be rid of me, Ruby?” Kyan’s generous mouth thinned.
Oh shit. He’d obviously overheard her cunning little plan. Worse, he wasn’t at all enthused by it. “Um—”
“Does the way I look displease you, Ruby?”
“I… um…. No? I mean, you’re very good looking, Kyan. As I’m sure you know. But that’s not the point. I—”
“Then why do you want to give me to this Caroline?”
Yikes. He was really pissed off. His eyes were all scrunched up and narrowed, and his lips had thinned to white, bloodless lines.
Ruby couldn’t figure out his deal. Surely he’d be pleased to get shod of her. All he needed to do was to crook his little finger and he could have women flocking to him. He could have any woman he wanted. So why fixate on her?
Ah. Now she got it. And wasn’t clarity a bitch? “You’re pissed off because although you’re stuck with me ’cause of this life-mate thing, you think I don’t want you. That’s it, isn’t it, Kyan? You’re used to having women fall all over you, eager to do anything at all to get you to notice them. But I’m not your typical groupie. That’s it, isn’t it?”
Crimson slashed his cheeks. “Nay. You are wrong. I—”
She rounded on him, prodding him in the chest with her finger. “You’re having a tantrum because you think I should be gagging for you, just thrilled to have someone as gorgeous-looking and built as you are, paying me some attention.”
“That is not true. I—`”
“I’ve got news for you, buster, and it’s all bad. I’ve spent my whole life being jeered at by the so-called beautiful people. And you know what, Kyan? Looks don’t matter to me anymore. God knows, if I dwelled too much on how I looked, I’d fucking slit my wrists and put myself out of my misery tomorrow. So if you think I should just throw myself at your feet and whimper with gratitude because I’m lucky enough to have been chosen as your life-mate, you can just think again. I have more class than that. And I deserve more, too. Much more!”
He stood there, no doubt rendered speechless by her masterful tirade. She’d expressed herself rather well, she thought—really gotten her point across. Pity most of it was complete bollocks. Because in truth, she really was lusting after him in the worst way, and in truth she’d give her right arm to be a tiny bit thinner. But he didn’t have to know that.
“So, you vain bastard, what do you think about that?” She jutted her chin in challenge.
He took a deep breath, and she tried not to ogle his chest. “I too, have been teased for my looks. As a child, as a trainee warrior, and by my tehun, my troupe. ’Tis not a pleasant experience.” He paused, cocking his head to one side. “Do you truly not believe that you are pretty, Ruby?”
“Huh?”
“Your face is exquisite,” he said. “And your eyes are beautiful.”
She glared at him suspiciously. “You’re pulling my leg, right?”
He scratched his head, frowning.
“It means, you’re joking,” she said. Geez. It was impossible to have a decent argument with someone who didn’t understand a lot of what she was saying.
“I am not joking.”
He didn’t sound like he was joking. And from the intent, serious expression on his face, he didn’t look like he was joking, either. “Oh. Gee. Thanks.” And then, dammit, she blushed.
She stared at him. He stared back. The silence deepened, and so did Ruby’s blush.
Mike chugged his coffee, and she could have kissed him when he broke the tension. “C’mon, Kyan. Let’s go buy you some comfortable clothes. And afterward, I’ll take you out for a beer.”
“My clothes are very comfortable.”
“Not as comfortable as the ones I’m gonna buy you. Trust me.” He relieved Kyan of his mug and handed both mugs to Ruby. Then he grabbed Kyan’s arm and propelled him towards the car.
Ruby waved the mugs at him. “Hey, thanks! Why don’t I wash these up for you, because obviously I’ve got nothing better to do!”
Mike backed the car out of the driveway and took off down the road in a helluva hurry. But not before she glimpsed an all-too-familiar smug smirk on his face.
Bastard. Her life was a soap-opera-worthy disaster right now. What was there to smirk about? She reached for the phone to order a pizza.
~~~
By nine o’clock, when Kyan and Mike still hadn’t arrived home, Ruby gave up waiting and went to bed. She was tired, stressed, and very, very confused. And if she was going to get up at a sparrow’s fart tomorrow to get in a bike ride before she went to work, she needed an early night.
Mike and Kyan were grown men. They could just sort out their own sleeping arrangements. Plus, there was the added bonus that if she was already in bed when they got home, she wouldn’t have to put up with her brother’s smirks. Or talk to Kyan again.
The last thing she needed was to be obsessing over Kyan. Or what he’d said.
So of course, the instant her head hit the pillow and she closed her eyes, she obsessed over Kyan.
It was sort of okay having him around while Mike was staying. But what about next week, when she was left alone with Kyan without her brother to run interference?
And, had he really meant what he said? Did he really think she was pretty?
Gah. This was freaking ridiculous. It was all too much to think about right now. She yawned, and assumed the sleeping position. But no matter what she forced herself to think about, images of Kyan intruded.
Bugger this for a joke! She tried counting sheep, which, since New Zealand has about fifty million of the woolly jumpers, should have kept her busy for quite some time. Except, by the time she reached a hundred, she wasn’t counting sheep, she was counting the number of Kyans hurdling the fence. And admiring each Kyan’s athleticism, and the marvelous play of his muscles when he jumped. And the way his cock bobbed when he—
Oh, God. She was imagining him naked?
She groaned, grabbed a pillow, and pulled it over her face.
And maybe the lack of oxygen helped, for the next thing she knew, she was yanked from sleep by something prodding her back.
She wriggled.
It sort of pulsated.
She tried to edge away but the arms that were wrapped around her tightened, and refused to budge. Her sleep-fuddled brain made a half-hearted attempt to form a coherent thought, but gave up. It was too much effort. Especially when she was warm and comfortable and content.
Something throbbed against her spine again. It sure was awake—whatever it was.
Ruby yawned and tried to roll over onto her back. No joy there. The arms cuddled her closer. Mmmm. It was nice to be held….
Bloody hell!
She choked on a gasp, shocked to full consciousness by the knowledge someone had crawled into bed with her. Her t-shirt had ridden up her back in the night and by the feel of the hard rod of flesh probing her back, that someone was definitely male, definitely naked, and definitely well-endowed. In fact, it was a wonder he had any blood left to circulate in his brain.
She inhaled deeply, her senses awash with the heady scent of warm male skin. Kyan’s skin. Her heart thudded in her chest. Surely, he had to feel it racing.
What should she do? Pretend to be asleep? Ignore that he was naked and obviously aroused?
And that was the other puzzling thing. In bed with her and aroused? Was this guy desperate or what?
T
he tense darkness of the room resounded with Kyan’s whisper. “Are you awake, Ruby?”
She managed to disguise her reaction to the sexy huskiness of his lowered voice by turning her squeak into a loud, unladylike snort. And if anything should have put him off and sent him slinking back to the couch where he belonged, that should have done it. Sure enough, the mattress dipped as his weight shifted and he pulled away from her.
Ruby locked her pain away so she wouldn’t resort to doing what she so desperately wanted to do: bury her face in her pillow and sob. How typical of a man to seek the most comfortable bed. And how typical that now he was confronted with the stark reality of waking up to her, he was making tracks. But what else had she expected?
She shouldn’t feel this hurt, this devastated, that he’d snuck into her bed, cozied up to her, then skulked off the moment his brain won dominion over his dick. She shouldn’t have felt anything at all because she’d learned better. She’d learned to stick to the rules of the dating game for not-so-slim women.
Rule Number One: don’t approach a man. Always let him come to you. And even then, be wary because he might just be trying to win a bet with his mates.
Which leads to Rule Number Two: don’t expect anything, then you won’t be disappointed. Don’t be surprised when he never calls like he promised. Don’t be hurt when he dumps you because his mates tease him and the shallow bastard cares more about what his friends think than being true to himself.
And lastly, the most important rule of all. Rule Number Three: perfect the “just friends” vibe, and never, ever let on that you’re really attracted to him.
The incredible invulnerable woman, that was her.
But not this time. This time, she was sooo kidding herself if she believed she wasn’t hurt by Kyan’s rejection.
Why this time, with this particular guy? Was she insane? He was a walking fantasy, the epitome of unattainable. What was it about Kyan that piqued her hopes and forced her to dream about the impossible coming true, laid waste to all her defenses and left her so achingly vulnerable?
A feather-light caress stroked her spine. Huh. Could be he got his jollies from tickling sleeping women until they woke, but Ruby wasn’t willing to play his silly game. She’d had enough. She rolled over onto her back, eyes still squeezed shut in faked sleep. She wished he would just go away and—
“Eep!” Her eyes flew open. Seemed he hadn’t left the bed at all, just moved right to the edge, and now he was shimmying down the mattress beneath the sheet. His hair brushed her thighs. His lips on her skin sent waves of heat and longing rushing towards certain girly parts that had been neglected for far too long. Humiliating, much?
She yanked up the sheet to peer down at him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing down there?”
“Aha.” His voice was a deep, sexy rumble against her thigh. “I knew you were awake.”
“Yeah. So it’s—” She craned her neck until she could see the alarm clock on her bedside table. “Three a.m. The middle of the night. And yes, I’m awake. Thanks for that, by the way. Especially when I’ve got to get up early tomorrow to fit in a bike ride before work.”
His response to her pointed sarcasm was to run one hand down her inner thigh while the other delved beneath the waistband of her undies. He combed his fingers through her pubic hair, then cupped her mons.
Ruby caught her breath, rendered speechless by the blatant sexual intention of that caress. Her flesh flared white-hot where he touched. His fingers parted her labia, stroking, probing gently, and she yearned to open to him, to grind herself against his hand.
Somehow she resisted the overpowering urge. To react, to show him how much she wanted this—wanted him—would unleash her carefully suppressed dreams and desires. Her longing for Kyan would romp roughshod over rationality. And that would be bad. Really bad. Because she knew how this little tryst would ultimately end and she didn’t want to open herself up to that much hurt and humiliation.
One finger pushed inside her, then two. His thumb stroked her clitoris—knowing, uneven strokes, sometimes firm, sometimes barely a tickle with his thumbnail—and despite her resolve, her body tensed in anticipation of each caress. She wanted Kyan’s cock inside her. She wanted him to make love to her. She wanted him to—
Love her.
Kyan as her life mate. Loving her… for a lifetime.
The sheer impossibility of that thought was enough to snap her from her dreamlike state. Kyan might have been cooped up in some mother of all hells for the past couple of centuries, and was desperate to get his rocks off, and she might have been secretly wishing for an end to her man-drought, but that didn’t mean she would be an easy lay. Not when she had a vibrator in her drawer, and he possessed a perfectly good hand.
She reached down and grabbed that oh-so-clever hand before it worked any more of its magic and her resolve dissolved. “Kyan, I don’t think—”
“Now is not the time for thinking, Ruby. Now is the time for feeling.”
He shook off her hand and made quick work of her undies by yanking them down her thighs.
“Hey!” Heat flooded her face and she thanked God it was relatively dark, the only illumination a shaft of moonlight peeking through a small gap in the curtains. She squirmed, trying to sit up, but he pushed her thighs apart. His tongue replaced his thumb, flicking and swirling the now swollen bud of her clit. And when his fingers began a rhythmic thrusting deep inside her, all thought of getting away from him fled. Her muscles clenched around his fingers and she sank back against the pillows as the deliciously heavy, unfamiliar pressure inside her built.
Was this what it was like to have someone else bring you to orgasm? None of her previous partners had succeeded—or perhaps they just hadn’t cared enough to learn the ways of her body and understand what she wanted. Not that she blamed them.
Kyan was different. He instinctively knew what she wanted—needed. And what he was currently doing aroused her to fever pitch. She writhed and bit her lips, but could not suppress a moan as the intensely pleasurable tension built and built, until she hung poised on the edge of something wondrous. The teasing flicking of his wicked tongue was replaced by his mouth and lips, devouring her, while his fingers thrust inside her.
The most intense orgasm she’d experienced took her, and her inner muscles clenched around his fingers, opening and closing, hungry for more. Hungry for him.
He withdrew from her then, fingers and mouth gliding up her sprawled body. Her skin tingled, nerve endings alive with his touch, even while she lay sated and incapable of moving.
She watched him silently as he knelt astride her. She didn’t protest as he ripped her old t-shirt down the front and laid it aside. He drew the straps of her bra down her shoulders
“Will you remove this torturous garment for me, Ruby?”
“Why?” she whispered.
“Because I want to see all of you.”
“Why?”
He seemed lost for a moment. His head drooped as though searching deep inside himself for answers. Then he looked up, gazed straight into her eyes, and she was lost. “I need to see you, Ruby. Please.”
She arched her back and reached behind to unhook the clasps. She tossed the bra to the floor, baring herself fully to him, steeling herself for disgust.
His eyes widened at the size of her breasts, and his gaze turned molten as he reached for her. He cupped the mounds in his big hands, kneading her flesh, tweaking her nipples and rolling them between his fingers. The fingers that stroked her flesh were tender, and so gentle that tears pricked her eyes. He bent forward to press his mouth to her flesh, drawing her nipple into his mouth, worshiping her breast with his lips and his tongue.
She’d never thought her breasts were overly sensitive, or that having them touched by a man would give her pleasure. Until now. With him.
“Kyan.” She averted her gaze from his face and turned her head aside, uncomfortable with the intensity of his expression.
“Mmmm?”
/>
“You don’t have to stay, you know. I mean, thanks for the… um… what you did and everything. It was amazing. But you don’t have to… you know.”
“Make love to you?”
“Yes.”
“Out of obligation?”
“Yes.” Her voice wobbled with the huge effort it took to keep her pain buried inside. She felt his hard shaft jutting against her stomach as he finished paying homage to her breasts and nibbled his way up her skin to gently lip the wildly beating pulse beneath her jaw.
“Oh, God.” She hadn’t meant to say the words aloud.
He stilled. “Look at me, Ruby.”
She couldn’t bring herself to turn her head and meet his gaze. To see the pity in his eyes.
“Ruby.”
His hand grasped her chin. Caring fingers swiped away the tears that had stolen down her cheeks—tears of longing, and wishing for what might have been if things were different.
If she were different.
She blinked them away. “Why are you doing this, Kyan? Are you that hard up for sex that you’d stoop to jumping me? Why?” The words exited her mouth as a plea, and her anguish hung in the air between them like some malevolent entity poised to strike.
He frowned, then his face cleared, lips curving in a mischievous grin. He sat back on his heels and glanced down at his ready-for-action cock. “Well, something is hard up.”
She bit back a giggle. He could say that again.
“And as for the rest, all I know is that I want you, Ruby. All of you.”
“All of me?” She glanced down at her wobbly stomach and pale, pudgy body lying spread-eagled beneath his firm, muscular, golden-skinned, godlike one.
“This?” Her voice rose, edged with disbelief. “Me?”
“You, Ruby. I find myself obsessed with you. I cannot banish thoughts of you from my head. You—” He closed his eyes, mouth working, fighting to find the right words. “You consume me. I do not know if what I feel is a result of the Crystal Guardian’s bonding spell, but you consume me.”
The Crystal Warriors Series Bundle Page 40
