The Crystal Warriors Series Bundle

by Maree Anderson

  “In truth your dilemma is a simple matter, Ruby. If you choose not to initiate the full bond for whatever reason, then Kyan cannot be the man for you. He must still have many important lessons to learn before a mate is chosen for him again. Or not.”

  That “or not” chilled her bone-deep. Those two little words were loaded with the real possibility that returning to the crystal meant Kyan’s death. From what she remembered Mike saying, no one knew for certain. But no one had ever heard of a Crystal Warrior who had been given a second chance.

  “If I don’t he might die.”

  “Perhaps. Though that has yet to be proven. And remember, Ruby, that Kyan is first and foremost a warrior. He has faced death many times. More importantly, this choice is yours to make.”

  “And boy oh boy, doesn’t that just suck the big kumara.”

  Wulf chuckled. “Yes. It sucks indeed.”

  “One last thing, Wulf. Does Kyan know about this three times the charm when it comes to sex with me thing?”

  “You fear he knows and is using you to save himself.”

  “Yes.” It cost her dear to admit that. “So, does he know?”

  “That depends.”

  “On what?”

  “On whether your brother passed on everything Chalcey imparted to him. To afford you some measure of choice, some degree of protection, she did not reveal to Kyan the full nature of the bonding. And neither did I.”

  “Oh. Thanks, Wulf. For everything.”

  “And does it help you now to know what is in store for you both?” he asked.

  She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “Maybe. I hope so.”

  “And I am full of hope for you, too. Be happy, Ruby.”

  “You too, Wulf.”

  “Ah, but can you not tell? I already am.”

  He rang off, leaving Ruby to wonder about her brother’s loyalties. And Kyan’s motives—or lack thereof. Depending upon what Mike had seen fit to tell him.

  Mike knew everything. But had he revealed to Kyan that it took three bouts of intercourse to irrevocably bond to her? Was Kyan making love to her because he wanted to, or because he believed he had to? Come to think about it, did Kyan even know sex was involved at all in the bonding process?

  She snorted. Duh. Of course he knew. That had to be the reason behind that serious little exchange between Kyan and her brother when Mike walked in on them in the bedroom. Kyan must have been tacitly seeking permission from Mike to continue with his seduction. Meaning, Kyan was using her to save himself.

  Not that she could blame him.

  Bottom line? She still had a choice—for now. Two steamy hot sex sessions down, and one more to go before her choice was stripped from her.

  And that was another thing. If she did choose, and three times proved the charm, when the Testing finally came, what if she failed? She wasn’t much good at physical stuff. Aw, heck. Let’s be honest. She sucked at the physical stuff.

  She covered her face with a cushion to muffle her moan. Shit. If she was the only option Kyan had, he was screwed. He’d be back in his crystal before he could blink.

  ~~~

  Chapter Twelve

  Despite her worries Ruby crashed pretty much as soon as her head touched the pillow, and slept right through the night. She woke with Kyan wrapped blanket-like around her. He must have snuck in very late last night and decided to ditch the rather uncomfortable couch in favor of her queen-sized bed. Either that or he wanted to keep up the pressure, remind her of how good they were in aforementioned bed. After all, he couldn’t risk her getting away.

  She lay very still with hers eyes closed, pondering why he hadn’t woken her up to seduce her for the third time and make certain the bond could not be revoked. Mind you—

  Nah. No matter how exhausted she was, no way would she have slept through one of Kyan’s seductions. It just wasn’t humanly possible.

  She pried open her eyelids to check the alarm. 5.25 a.m. Might as well sneak out and get the bike ride over with. Kyan didn’t need to escort her. She could manage on her own. She reached out to switch off the alarm before it shrilled. But before she could inch out from under the covers, Kyan’s arms tightened around her.

  She was so in tune with him that she noted his breathing change. It wasn’t a reflexive action. He was awake. Bugger.

  She rolled within his embrace to face him. He opened his startling blue eyes and stared into hers. A frown creased his brow. Ruby itched to lift her hand and stroke his worries away. She stopped herself before thought and need provoked the reaction.

  It was as though he intuitively recognized that she’d held something back, for his body tensed. He sucked in a deep breath and sighed away the tension. His eyes grew shadowed, distant. And he released her, shuffling across the mattress.

  Despite the mere inches between them, to Ruby, the gap yawned like a chasm. He knew something had changed.

  “You are angry about my past,” he said. “About the women we stole from your world.”

  “No, it’s not that— God. That’s a lie. Kind of. I mean, I do have a problem with that. But this is more important. It’s not that I don’t care about all those poor women, you understand? But I haven’t had time to figure out how I truly feel about all that stuff yet. So you’re off the hook. For now, anyway. No, this is something else. Something really big. For me, anyway.” Sheesh. She was babbling like an idiot.

  “What is troubling you, Ruby?”

  Crunch time. Okay. She’d hit him right between the eyes with it and watch him squirm.

  “You don’t feel anything real for me, Kyan. You could never consider loving someone like me under normal circumstances. You’re only sleeping with me because you’re afraid that if you don’t, the Crystal Guardian will send you back to the crystal.”

  He winced. “I do not know, Ruby. Every time I try to analyze what I feel, every time I convince myself what we have is real, I look at you and I wonder.”

  “How you, a man who could have your pick of gorgeous women, could be involved with someone like me?”

  “Not that, Ruby. Never that. As is your way, you again underestimate your appeal to men. No, I wonder why I have been chosen for you. Why me? Because, as my gods surely know, you deserve better.”

  Ruby blinked, mouth agape, only able to watch as he rolled out of bed to sit slumped on the edge of the mattress, elbows on knees, head in his hands. His little speech had knocked her for six. She’d expected smooth denials and suave declarations, not a stark admission that had throbbed with pain and self-loathing.

  She shuffled her bottom up the mattress until she could prop her back against the headboard. She sucked in a deep breath and spoke to his vulnerable, naked back. God. Why did he have to make this so hard. Why couldn’t she hate him for deceiving her?

  “I know about the bonding process, Kyan. I know the significance of us having sex. One more time and we’re irrevocably bonded. Then, if we pass the Testing, you’re free and the Crystal Guardian can never imprison you again. I thought—” She wound a finger through a lock of her hair and tugged until her scalp hurt. The small pain helped ground her, helped her formulate her thoughts and go for the jugular. “I thought exchanging true-names bonded us and brought on the Testing. I thought I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Mike told you everything.” He sounded resigned.

  Her heart twisted into a painful knot that make her gasp and rub her breastbone. Kyan did know everything. He’d been feeding her lines to ensure he got into her knickers.

  When she could bring herself to speak her voice was flat and cold—a last ditch effort to hide the pain of lost hopes and dreams. “It wasn’t Mike. I know why he didn’t come clean, though. He’s a medic—a healer. He can’t stomach the thought of standing by while you’re imprisoned again to suffer, and maybe even be murdered by the Crystal Guardian. He thinks I’m your best shot to get you out of this mess. I’d be pissed off at him except—”

  Except she knew Mike only wanted her to be h
appy. He believed Kyan made her happy. And the bugger of it all was that Mike was right. Kyan did make her happy. When he wasn’t making her miserable, that is.

  Kyan glanced over his shoulder at her, curiosity overcoming whatever else he was feeling right now. “Who told you of the bonding, then?”

  “Wulf. I rang him last night.”

  “Ah.” A wry smile twisted his lips. “Wulf and I have often clashed. We are too different to like each other overly much, my kinsman and I.”

  “He cleared things up for me, though.”

  Kyan turned his face to the wall. “And?”

  Ruby scooted forward on her knees until she knelt behind him. She ran questing hands over his shoulders, trying to soothe away the tension. When that failed dismally, she entwined her arms around his chest and held him, resting her chin on his shoulder. “And, if we don’t make love again—” she breathed into his ear “—if I can find the strength to resist you, you’ll be returned to your crystal.”

  He shuddered beneath her hands. She didn’t know whether he was affected by her touch or the threat inherent in her words. It wasn’t a true threat. She knew it had no teeth because she wouldn’t be able to resist him.

  “And if you are taken by the crystal, it could be a good thing. You might have another chance, Kyan. No one knows for certain whether the Guardian will kill you, or even whether he can. He may simply find you another woman—one far more suited to you than me.”

  “Perhaps I do not wish to take that risk.”

  The words stung but she couldn’t blame him. He’d not asked for this—any of it. She’d bemoaned not having a choice but he’d never had a choice either. Until now. Not that it was much of a choice at all. Her, or insanity. Not to mention, the high possibility of death.

  She ran her hands over his chest. There was nothing sexual about her touch. It was more about comfort—hers and his.

  “What if you are the only woman for me, Ruby? What if there is no other?” He grasped her hands, stilling them and holding them above his heart. She felt his heart beating steadily beneath her hands.

  “And perhaps,” he said softly, “what I truly want is you, Ruby.”

  Ohhh. His words sank into her, warming her soul, banishing the hurt. She didn’t have a chance to resist him. If she hadn’t been a goner before, she was now.

  Until this precise moment she hadn’t known what her decision would be. But now her choice was clear. She couldn’t be responsible for Kyan’s torture or possible death. He was too vibrant, too alive to be caged and twisted by pain and suffering. He was the whole package. The almost perfect man—a dream come to life. And part of that package, an intrinsic part of Kyan’s makeup, was his knack of knowing the perfect words to say to make her feel precious and wanted and worthy of love.

  When he’d uttered that heartfelt sentiment he was completely caught up in the here and now, with her. So deep in her soul she was certain that his words weren’t lies. They were the truth—at least for that precise, precious moment in time. Whether he meant them later, when the cold light of reality crashed in on him, remained to be seen. But for Ruby, “later” was rapidly becoming something of little consequence.

  Right now, Kyan made her feel like no other man had ever managed—or cared—to make her feel. Sexy. Desirable. Worthy of being loved. As far as she was concerned, her uncertainty about what tomorrow—or next week, or even next month—might bring could go to hell.

  Now, she would willingly take the first step toward saving Kyan. She would give him her body—such a small price to pay to save his life.

  Relax and enjoy, Ruby. Wasn’t like making love with him again was an imposition or something unpleasant to be endured. It was mind-blowingly amazing. A beautiful experience to be treasured. One that would give her a bunch more wonderful, tenderness-filled memories that she could treasure for the rest of her life. So quit worrying about the future and grab hold of now.

  His murmured words dragged her back to reality—her bedroom, the man she was embracing tightly, desperately, like she would never let him go. The man she didn’t want to give up. “Perhaps I want all of you, Ruby, especially your heart.”

  He twisted, pushing her backward onto the bed and trapping her there with his body. He levered himself up onto his elbows to better examine her face. “What say you, Ruby?”

  He must have seen what she truly felt in her eyes—the flare of desperate hope, warring with agonizing doubt she couldn’t hide no matter how hard she tried to kid herself.

  She pulled his head down so that she could kiss him. She touched her lips to his, soft, butterfly kisses at first, and then hard demanding kisses. She put everything she had into her kiss, wanting only to erase the pain she saw in his eyes.

  He responded with passion, taking control, kissing her until she was drowning in him, and no longer knew which way was up. She would have lain back and spread her legs for him then, given herself into to his keeping—body and soul—let him do whatever he wanted with her and to her, the bond and the consequences be damned. She wanted him. She didn’t care about anything else.

  Kyan knew it. And she knew he knew it.

  But he pushed away from her, rolled off the bed and stood staring down into her confused, passion-hazed eyes. “What’s the matter, Kyan? Don’t you want to have sex with me again so we can finalize the bond?”

  “Oh yes.” The conviction in his voice caressed her, rolling little lust-filled anticipatory shivers down her spine. “I want you, Ruby. I want to bed you. I want to make love to you. But when you next offer yourself to me, it will not from obligation or because you feel you need to save me.” He turned away.

  “But… but… Kyan!” The wail tore from her throat and echoed, mocking her.

  He pulled on his clothes.

  “Why are you doing this? Do you have a freaking death wish or something? What if Chalcedony’s mother is right, and if we don’t bond, you get sucked back into that goddamned hunk of rock? What if the Crystal Guardian can kill you?” She knelt on her mattress, arms raised like a religious supplicant begging for salvation. “Kyan, please. Come back to bed and let’s get this bonding crap over with. I want to—”

  He whirled to face her. “Is that all I am to you, Ruby? Something to be ‘gotten over’?”

  “No! I didn’t mean it like that. I—”

  “If you are only willing to bed me again in order to complete the bonding, then I am not interested.” He pulled on his socks and sneakers, stamping his feet to check for comfort, just as he did with his boots. Must be a warrior thing.

  “I am unwilling to be used,” he announced, driving the final nail into his metaphorical coffin.

  Ruby lowered her arms and sat back on her heels. “Excuse me? I can’t possibly have heard you right. I thought you just implied that I was using you.”

  “That is correct.”

  “You stupid, brainless, dim-witted, idiotic… man! I’ve just given you carte-blanche to have your wicked way with my body so we can be bonded and prepare for this Testing which could save your bloody life. And you think I’m using you? How the freakin’ heck do you figure that one? Now is not the time to get all moral, Kyan. We’re talking possible life and death situation here—yours. So get your bum back over to this bed and fuck me, okay?”

  Just to emphasize her point, she lay back on the bed and wiggled her hips in what she hoped was an inviting fashion. Her nighttime attire of t-shirt and granny-pants possibly didn’t present the most alluring of pictures but beggars couldn’t be choosers. She was all he had.

  He stalked toward the door. “No.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  Ruby’s skin prickled with white-hot anger. Bad move, Kyan. This was gonna get ugly. “Oh, I get it. It’s a control thing, right? I can’t initiate sex with you, because you have to be in control of the situation. You have to tease me ’til I’m gagging for you and then you’ll deign to have sex with me again. You wait till I’m a big lusty bundle of panting wants and
needs, then you jump me, and I’ll be sooo grateful to you for giving me another orgasm. It’s all about what you want, when you want it.”

  “That is not true. I—”

  “Couldn’t have a woman, or worse, a woman like me calling the shots, now, could we? That’d change the natural order of the universe, wouldn’t it?”

  “Ruby, I—”

  “And your other Crystal Warrior mates might laugh at you, huh? They’d say that Kyan’s lost his mojo. Why else would he let a woman like me seduce a man like him?”

  Of course it could be that he really doesn’t want to make love to you, that damnable little inner voice whispered. But why now, when she understood all the terms of the bonding and the consequences of giving Kyan her body? Why now, when she’d finally committed to saving him? Hadn’t that been what he wanted from her all along?

  She didn’t realize she was crying until the tears trickled past her chin. She blotted them away with the hem of her t-shirt. Crying over him. Again. How humiliating.

  Through the blur of tears she watched him stride toward her. His fists were clenched as though he wanted to strike out at something.

  Her, probably. Well, bring it on, baby. That’d be one way to ensure she went right off him in a big bloody hurry.

  She tensed, inching back toward the wall, waiting for… for… whatever might be about to befall her. He climbed onto the bed and crawled on all fours toward her. It might have been an incredibly erotic fantasy come true, except that right now, Ruby felt so miserable and wretched that she wanted to curl up into a ball and howl.

  He didn’t touch her. He settled next to her, leaning up against the wall. “What am I to do with you, my Ruby? I am trying to be gallant, and put your needs above my own. I do not want you to offer yourself to me for the wrong reasons.”

  She sniffed. “And how is wanting to save your life—or at least, giving you the best shot to actually have a life—the wrong reason? You knew about the conditions of the bond when you made love to me before—twice. And yet you had sex with me anyway. So how is this time any different?”