“Kyan?” Jules’ squawk yanked her from a bunch of rather x-rated ruminations. “What’s he doing in the bathroom with you?”
“Evidently, he’s bringing me dinner,” Ruby said.
“Aw. How sweet. You know, I reckon he secretly has the hots for you and—”
“Gotta go. Bye.” Ruby disconnected and dropped the receiver to the bathmat. She scooted down beneath the dwindling layer of bubbles until water lapped her chin.
Kyan levered himself upright and sauntered toward the bath.
“Go away!” Her voice was a high-pitched squeak.
He hunkered down beside the bath to stare intently at her coverlet of bubbles. “I have never seen the likes of this substance before.”
“It’s bubble bath.”
“Why do you bathe in these bubbles?”
“Because, um, they smell good and, er, make my skin feel nice and soft,” she babbled, unnerved by his nearness. Having him in the bathroom, watching her as she took a bath, seemed even more intimate than sex.
“Hmmm.” He reached out, skimming his fingers through the bubbles, and then across her collarbone. Goosebumps trailed his touch.
“I think these bubbles do make your skin very soft. But just to be certain, I will have to investigate further.” He plunged his hand into the water and grabbed her ankle. She bit back a startled squeal. But she couldn’t bring herself to resist as he coaxed her leg up out of the water and ran his hand the length of her calf.
As he caressed her skin, her whole body went lax and her butt lost contact with the bottom of the bath. With a muffled shriek, she slid beneath the water. When she surfaced, ears full of water and eyes squeezed tightly shut, she vaguely heard Kyan apologizing. He tried to grab her slippery body and haul her upright, but it was an exercise in futility.
In retrospect, it was inevitable that Kyan would end up toppling into the bath on top of her just as Mike decided to investigate what all the fuss was about. “Having fun I see,” he said.
Ruby wiped bubbles from her eyes with one hand and tried to push Kyan off her with the other.
Mike’s grin was so wide it must have hurt his face. “I only asked you to bring my poor, tired sister some dinner, Kyan. I didn’t mean for you to help her wash her, ah, front.”
Ruby sat up—modesty be damned—spluttering bubbles and gagging at the soapy taste in her mouth. She glared at her brother, daring him to comment further. “You, hand me my towel and get out. And you—” She pinned Kyan, hunched in the other end of the bath looking completely astonished by this turn of events, with a ball-shriveling glare. “Close your eyes and don’t you dare bloody open them until I say so.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I’m getting out. And the bath is all yours.”
“Why doesn’t Mike have to close his eyes?”
“Because he’s my brother, and he’s seen it all before.”
He opened his mouth, but before he could announce something to the effect of “I’ve seen it all before, too” and clue Mike in on what they’d gotten up to last night, she cut him off. “I mean it, Kyan. Close your eyes. No peeking. Or else.”
She must have sounded suitably annoyed, for he did as he was told.
Wordlessly, but unfortunately still with that knowing grin plastered all over his knowing face, Mike handed her a towel and prudently vacated the room. Smart man, her brother.
Ruby wrapped the towel around her torso and padded from the room, leaving a trail of bubbly footsteps in her wake. The unaccustomed physical exertion was taking its toll. She was bone weary, and almost too tired to think.
She headed straight for her bedroom. From the corner of her eye she spotted Mike fossicking around in the hall cupboard for another towel, and felt a momentary qualm she hadn’t thought of getting one for Kyan. But then, he’d interrupted her bath and embarrassed the hell out of her, so damned if she’d feel too guilty.
Somehow she managed to work up enough energy to towel-dry her hair and change into what passed for nightwear—t-shirt and knickers. Her arm muscles shrieked protests when she tried to reach behind her back, so she didn’t bother with a bra. No one would be seeing her like this, anyway.
Famous last words.
She’d just crawled into bed when someone knocked on her bedroom door.
“’S just me.” Mike stuck his head through the doorway. “Want some dinner?”
“No thanks.” It came out as a mumble. “Too tired to eat.”
“You really should eat something after all that exercise. You need to keep your strength up for tomorrow. And the next day. And the next—”
“Not hungry,” she said. “Going to sleep now.” She closed her eyes until he took the hint and left, shutting the door behind him.
She was doing a fair imitation of blissful slumber when her door opened again. “Trying to sleep here, Mike!” she said, without bothering to open her eyes. Geez, he sure was persistent.
“It’s Kyan.”
“What do you want?”
“You are angry with me,” he said, and there was a wealth of hurt and confusion in the statement. “Why?”
She pried open her eyelids and stared at the ceiling. “I’m too tired for this right now, Kyan. I just want—need—some sleep. Can we talk about it tomorrow?”
“If you wish.”
Silence. He’d gone. Thank God.
“But I would prefer to know why you are angry with me now.”
Crap.
“Otherwise it will be difficult for me to sleep tonight.”
Bugger.
She groaned. Hadn’t he ever heard of sleeping on a little disagreement and letting it ferment overnight—or even days or weeks—until it was a rip-roaring huge big deal?
That’s how it is worked with her mum. She would say something that Ruby took umbrage at, and Ruby would take it on the chin, seethe quietly, and file it away with all the other slights. Until, finally, her mum would say something that really pissed Ruby off, and Ruby would hit her all at once with everything she’d been saving up. The joy of this method was that if she calculated correctly, and didn’t blow her stack too early, she had so much ammunition her mum sometimes ended up apologizing and being a reasonable human being for a month or so.
But that was her mum. And Ruby had thirty years of learning how to cope with her while still remaining emotionally unscathed. Relatively, anyway.
This was Kyan, the kind of man she had no experience in dealing with whatsoever. Somehow she didn’t think she’d be escaping from him with her heart in one piece.
She rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in a pillow. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it saved her from having to confront him.
The mattress dipped as he climbed on the bed and sat astride her hips. She tensed. Not again. She couldn’t bear for him to try and make love to her again. Not now. Not when she was bone tired and aching, and feeling so emotionally fragile that any display of tenderness from him would unleash a lifetime of suppressed hurt.
He dug his fingers into her neck and shoulders, kneading away the tension, and despite herself she loosed a sigh. It felt wonderful.
“Relax, Ruby. You are holding too much tightness in your muscles. You will awake stiff and sore if you sleep in this state.”
As Kyan’s strong hands worked their subtle magic on her body, Ruby pondered why she’d reacted the way she had when he surprised her in the bath. He’d only been bringing her dinner. It’d been a nice gesture. He hadn’t deserved to be reamed just because she was highly embarrassed about being seen naked. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t already seen her unclothed.
Her thoughts skittered over memories of making love with Kyan. And the eroticism of those memories flushed her skin and made her wet with desire. She shifted restlessly beneath his hands and they stilled mid-stroke.
She turned her face aside so she could speak without mumbling into the pillow. “I’m not angry at you, Kyan. I was just… embarrassed about you seeing me in the bath.
I’m sorry I yelled and overreacted.”
His palms rested on her shoulders, warming her skin through the thin cotton of her t-shirt. “You are not like any other woman I have known, Ruby.”
“Yeah. I’m sure.” She couldn’t think straight with him so near. She shrugged off his hands and rolled over onto her back, spilling him from his perch. He reacted instantly, in an elegant blur of motion, and ended up reclining on the mattress beside her, head resting on a couple of her pillows, looking very much as though he belonged there. She wished that she could be so felinely graceful, so in control of her movements.
“What were the women of your world like?” Silly question. Doubtless his answer would tromp all over her sub-zero self-esteem.
He lay back with his hands behind his head. “The women are as varied as desert flowers blooming in an oasis.”
Poetic, but not particularly informative. “Okay, so what about the sort of women you prefer, then?” Nothing like providing the hammer to nail shut her coffin.
“For the most part, the women I chose are delicate creatures, timid and demure, and ever willing to please. Just as women should be.” A smile tugged his lips. “Completely unlike you, my Ruby.”
“Gee, thanks. You sure know how to flatter a girl, Kyan. You’d better ask Mike to clue you in on how to chat up women or you’re not going to get much action in this world.”
He laughed. “You could never compare to the women I have previously taken as lovers, Ruby.”
Ohhhh. That hurt. Much, much more than it should have given she knew without a doubt that if not for the Crystal Guardian’s spell, she wouldn’t have a chance of attracting a man like Kyan.
She squeezed her eyelids shut to block out his smiling, painfully handsome face. She wished she could shut out his voice as easily. She wanted to curl into a tight ball, howl her misery and self-loathing to the world. Pride kept her lying rigidly beside him, jaw clenched against the angry, loathsome words she wanted to throw at him… if only she could think of something pithy and cutting to say.
“My ideal woman was reluctant to bring attention upon herself by causing offence,” Kyan said, his tone conversational, obviously unaware of the pain he’d inflicted. “She was passive, and took pains to act in a proper manner in public. But in private, she was skilled at pleasing a warrior in every way he might desire.” He paused in his recitation. “Look at me, Ruby. I want you to know the truth of what I am telling you. You are not like that… not like the women I have previously chosen in any way, shape or form.”
Ruby blinked her tear-stung eyelids and willed herself not to cry. He waited, still and silent, and she wondered what she’d done to provoke this awful comparison. He obviously wanted to make it clear how he felt. He was honest, she’d give him that. Which was far more than she was being with him.
He grasped her chin, turning her face to his and gazing deep into her eyes. “The women I chose were never outspoken and ready to stand up for themselves and their actions, like you, my Ruby. They were never feisty and courageous like you. They were beautiful of face and figure, yes. But they were pale, insipid creatures compared with you.
“This body and this face have been both curse and blessing. And I admit, I have learned to use them to my advantage. I have been with countless women, Ruby. But making love to them, honoring the Mother of our gods, now seems little more than an unmemorable meshing of bodies merely for sake of relieving my own needs—” his voice dropped to a whisper and he leaned closer to press his lips to the corner of her mouth “—compared to making love with you. What spell have you cast upon me, my little sorceress?”
Ruby lay stunned and motionless until she had fully processed his words. Then her heart soared. He’d heaped compliments upon her, not humiliations as she’d expected. Beautiful compliments that warmed her soul, thawing the hurt that had lodged there. Banishing it….
At least for now.
Inevitably, typically, she extracted something he’d said and twisted it into a self-deprecating comment. It was instinctive—a reaction she couldn’t suppress. “Little sorceress? Little? Not hardly!”
He kissed her again and she started to giggle.
He drew back, perplexed. “What is so funny?
“Me? Little? You really should get your eyes checked.”
He rose to his knees, surveying her through narrowed eyes while she burbled with laughter. Then he yanked down the covers, scooped her into his arms and tossed her into the air. She squealed as he caught her and tossed her up again.
“Kyan! What are you doing? You’ll give yourself a hernia!”
“You are little compared to me, woman,” he said, disdaining to catch her this time, and letting her bounce onto the mattress in a sprawling heap. Before she could catch her breath, he covered her body with his. “A delicious little dumpling.” He nuzzled her neck and mouthed her pulse.
She wriggled. “Yeah, in height maybe. Bet I’d come close to you weight-wise. Wanna hop on those sadly neglected scales over there in the corner and see what you weigh?”
“You are speaking nonsense,” he said. “And there is only one way to stop a woman like you from spouting nonsense.”
“What’s that?” she said, smiling up at him.
His eyes darkened and he lowered his head to capture her mouth with his. Delicately he teased her lips, but there was nothing delicate about the hard shaft of his cock pressing against her groin through his trousers. Heat flooded her body and pure lust zinged her nerve-endings. Her lips parted in a moan of want and need and longing.
He licked her upper lip and then thrust his tongue into her mouth, coaxing her to respond in kind.
He cleared his throat. Huh? No. It wasn’t Kyan who’d cleared his throat.
Kyan raised his upper body and rested on his elbows so that he could glance over his shoulder. He tensed. And then he went completely still.
Ruby craned her neck to see over him. Through desire-hazed eyes, she glimpsed her brother, lounging in the doorway.
Obviously Kyan hadn’t shut the door behind him.
She should have felt horrified Mike had caught her rolling ’round on her bed with a man she’d just met. She should have been burning with embarrassment, humiliated by what her brother must surely be thinking of her. But she was too dazed by the emotions Kyan had coaxed from her to care about making a spectacle of herself in front of the brother she adored.
“Mike,” Kyan said.
“Kyan.” Mike’s expression was as devoid of emotion as his tone. And that careful tone was like a slap in the face for Ruby.
What was she doing letting Kyan seduce her again? Was she really that desperate to be loved, that pathetically needy?
She squirmed beneath Kyan’s strong, muscular body. Mike seeing Kyan and her like this escalated their relationship—such as it was—from the realms of speculation, into fact. How would she be able to look her brother in the face tomorrow? Or Kyan for that matter.
She tried to push Kyan off her but it was fruitless as trying to shift a huge hunk of granite with bare hands. He remained unmoved, merely bending his head to whisper in her ear, “Be still, Ruby. You are a grown woman and this is your house. Mike is a guest. If anyone should be ashamed, it should be him for walking in on you taking your pleasure from me.”
Taking her pleasure?
Interesting way of putting it.
Kyan twisted again to meet her brother’s gaze. The two men stared at each other, wordlessly communicating in some masculine fashion Ruby was unable to fathom. Then Mike turned and walked from the room, carefully shutting the door behind him.
“What was that all about?” she demanded.
Kyan turned his full attention on her once more, and nuzzled the incredibly sensitive little spot directly below her ear. “Your brother and I have come to an… understanding, Ruby. And that—” he slipped a hand under her t-shirt to caress the underside of her breast “—is all you need to know.”
She sucked in a deep breath, preparing to ta
ke umbrage over that chauvinistic statement, but all thought of argument fled when he rolled her nipple between his fingertips. Heat spiraled lazily through her pelvis. Then, as he pushed up her t-shirt and replaced his fingers with his mouth, sparked through her entire body. Every nerve-ending she possessed lit up, morphing into tiny fizzing firecrackers of incredible sensitivity.
It felt so good—he felt so good lying atop her, his warm weight pressing her body into the mattress. Her worries, her self-consciousness, the censure she imagined Mike would heap upon her, receded. Her whole world was Kyan.
And as he stripped off her clothes and plunged his hard, eager cock inside her, so too did it seem that she was his world.
He moved within her, growing thicker and harder until each thrust made her moan and writhe beneath him. He brought her to the brink of orgasm again and again, always backing off and slowing his thrusts at the brink of her climax, never quite pushing her over the edge.
She wanted to scream his name. She bit her lips to keep the scream inside as she pumped her hips and hooked her ankles about his thighs in a futile attempt to keep him deep inside her. She quivered with the need for release. She wanted to demand he fill her, insist he fuck her hard, and fast, instead of keeping to this teasing, almost torturous pace.
She settled for grasping his shoulders and moaning his name. “Kyan.”
The helpless desperation in her voice gave him pause, allowing her to catch and hold his gaze. His eyes were half-blinded with lust—an expression she had never thought to see in any man’s eyes when he made love to her.
He flexed his arms to lever his upper body away and hold himself poised over her. Her gaze slid from his face, down the length of his body, stopping where they were intimately joined. Her breath caught. His cock pulsed inside her and she gasped at the sensation.
“Am I hurting you, my Ruby?”
Her gaze flew to his face. The concern, the caring in his expression, brought tears to her eyes. “No. It’s not that. It’s just that I—” She couldn’t finish, couldn’t bare her soul to him even though she’d already bared her body.
The Crystal Warriors Series Bundle Page 43
