The Crystal Warriors Series Bundle

by Maree Anderson

  “Ahhh. That is where you are mistaken, Ruby. I did not make love to you because of the bond. I made love to you despite it.” He pressed his lips to her brow and levered himself up off the bed.

  Huh?

  He strode to the door and paused, glancing back at her. “Hurry up, Ruby. We have a bike ride to complete before breaking our fast.”

  Men. God. She would never understand them in a million years.

  ~~~

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jules always claimed that after an argument, make-up sex was the best sex ever. Passionate and hot and oh-so intense that you wandered around with a goofy, dazed smile plastered all over your face for days afterward. Unfortunately, Ruby didn’t get to test that theory.

  Saturday morning arrived and she still hadn’t done the wild thing with Kyan. Worse, he didn’t make it easier for her by sleeping on the couch. Nyuh uh. The man sure knew how to torment a girl.

  Every night, her mind replayed erotic images of Kyan making love to her.

  Every night, she had to deal with him snuggling up beside her.

  Every night, she lay in bed trying not to inhale his tantalizing masculine scent.

  Her lust-ridden girly bits would dampen with lust. Her inner muscles would clench with expectation. Her body remembered him, reminded her in vivid detail how wonderful it was to have him inside her. And no matter how fiercely she admonished her brain to quit with the x-rated show-and-tell, every cell in her body yearned for him to make love to her again.

  Waking up each morning was the worst kind of torture. The instant she peeled open her eyelids and her brain began to function, all the x-rated sensations would slam into her again. And to rub salt into her frustrations, inevitably she’d catch an eyeful of Kyan parading naked around her bedroom with an upstanding erection so pulsatingly proud, it made her want to dive back under the covers and whimper.

  He might be able to ignore said erection, but she couldn’t. He might be able to resist using said erection for the purpose it was intended, but she couldn’t discount it so easily.

  She hadn’t dared attend her Wednesday night clay sculpture class because she’d been terrified her hands would go on auto-pilot and she’d end up sculpting Kyan’s impressive cock. Lani would doubtless approve of that wholeheartedly. But Ruby didn’t think fondling a wet clay penis would help her sex-deprived, Kyan-obsessed state of mind very much.

  It’d only been four freaking sex-free nights. How was she supposed to survive another three whole weeks? She would go stark raving insane.

  There’s a saying: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Yeah, well, Ruby figured it was totally inaccurate. Hell hath no fury like a man who was determined to “do the right thing”.

  She had planned for Saturdays to be mornings she slept in—no waking up at a sparrow’s fart and crawling out of bed to go cycling in the dark. She’d had visions of snuggling in bed until the respectable hour of nine, then heading out for a bike ride, and having a leisurely breakfast upon her return. No drowning lessons were scheduled over the weekends, so she figured she’d go for a jog around 4 p.m. when it got cooler. And if she had something planned in the evening she would have plenty of time to recover from the run before heading out. It wouldn’t matter if she had a late night, either, because Sunday was her rest day from training. Yay.

  It was a nice plan. Except she had woken at 5.30 a.m. on the dot, and couldn’t get back to sleep because of Kyan’s bloody great huge erection snuggled into the cleft of her bum.

  Not even her granny-panties helped mask the sensation of his cock throbbing and twitching against her achingly sensitive parts. And it was so very tempting to ditch her knickers and press herself up against that hard cock, take him inside her while he was still asleep and his guard was down.

  She couldn’t do it, though—couldn’t take away his choice. Damn her overblown morals.

  There was another sensation, too. The horrible kind she got when she knew she’d forgotten to do something important.

  She put up with both maddening problems for thirty agonizing, frustrating minutes before she gave up and gave in to the inevitable. She fell out of bed. Deliberately. Onto her hands and knees.

  From there, she crawled on all fours toward the wardrobe. She pressed her lips tightly together as she reached up and used the wardrobe’s door handle to haul herself upright. All the unaccustomed exercise had taken its toll, and her muscles were in full-bodied, shrieking revolt.

  Tuesday, she’d been a mite stiff. But by Wednesday morning, her intense training sessions had begun to catch up with her. Big time. Each morning she had to cling to her wardrobe door handle until she could unkink her muscles, and bite her lips to stop from shrieking as she stretched to get her heels right down onto the floor. She’d even taken to wearing heels at work because if she wore flats, each time she got up from her chair she tended to lurch around on her toes until her calf muscles stretched out again. And her shoulders from all the swimming…. Ouch. Even typing hurt. Reaching into the cupboard for coffee had brought tears to her eyes.

  The stretching fucking hurt. A lot. But at least it meant she could function. Kind of. Just as well the wardrobe door handle was pretty sturdy and hadn’t broken off from all the abuse she’d been dealing to it lately.

  As she dressed, swallowing groans of pain whenever she was forced to bend or stretch, she glanced over at the lump in her bed. Kyan yawned widely, and eyed her with an amused gleam in his eyes. Bastard.

  “Coming for a ride, oh mighty warrior?”

  “A ride with you is always foremost in my mind,” he said, smiling as her face turned rosy.

  Sheesh. Double entendre, much?

  “Perchance have you had a change of heart?” He sounded so hopeful she couldn’t help but feel flattered. Damn him.

  “What? You think that overnight, I might have decided I don’t give a rat’s arse about saving your life? Sorry to disappoint you, Kyan, but my offer still stands. I’ll willingly sleep with you to initiate the bonding and that’s the end of the matter. Don’t suppose you’ve changed your mind?”

  “No.”

  “Then we have nothing more to discuss.” Unless, of course, he wanted to discuss it. In which case she’d very likely burst into tears, get down on her knees, and plead with him to change his mind. Which would not be good.

  Well, the sex part would be good—excellent, in fact, if Jules’ theory on make-up sex was to be believed—but sex was never a good way to resolve problems. Unless you happened to be a Crystal Warrior, in which case it might just be the only way to resolve your problems. Or not. Because it might create a whole heap more, depending on what the Testing and subsequent life-mate stuff entailed.

  God. What a mess. She’d raised her hands to tie back her hair when the aches of abused muscles stabbed her. Owww.

  “I thought you would sleep a while longer this morning,” Kyan said. “Is this not a day of rest with no work scheduled?” His voice was still husky with sleep, and he surveyed her through lazy, half-closed eyelids.

  She had to force herself to turn away and take deep breaths. It was either that or launch herself onto the bed and use her superior, er, weight to pin him down while she tried to take full advantage of him. Then there was the distinct possibility if she belly-flopped on to her bed, she might damage Kyan and the bed. She couldn’t afford to buy another one.

  “Couldn’t sleep,” she mumbled, fumbling with the laces of her shoes. “You coming or not?”

  His eyebrows raised and his grin turned wicked.

  Ruby mentally reviewed what she’d just said. Uh oh. Heat flushed her face.

  “I wish,” Kyan said. “But, no. I am not coming. At least, not this morning. Perhaps later. After we… talk some more.” He rolled onto his stomach and damned if the sheet didn’t slide all the way down his back, exposing the cleft of his muscular bum. He lifted the aforementioned buns of steel from the mattress, adjusted himself, and flopped back down, sighing and wiggling his hips in an effort
to attain ultimate comfort.

  Oh. My. God.

  On jelly-like legs, Ruby fled from the room before her blush overtook her whole body… and she was tempted to sink to the floor, stick her hand down her pants, and stroke herself until she came right there, on the carpet beside her bed.

  ~~~

  The bike ride cured her lustful thoughts. It only took ten minutes to completely squelch them, too. Now the only throbbing going on in her groin was as a direct result of having her girly bits mashed against the supposedly ultra-comfortable, non-chafing, gel-covered saddle. Nothing quite like the cold, hard reality of a bicycle saddle to cure lustful thoughts. Just to make absolutely certain, though, she completed her circuit twice.

  She stowed her bike in the garage, and couldn’t dredge up any sympathy whatsoever for her neighbors when the garage door screeched like a banshee as it shut. Then she let herself into her house, and snuck back into her bedroom to grab some clean clothes.

  Kyan was still snoozing. His lips were curved in a slight smile.

  Be nice if he was dreaming of her. But it was more likely to be the harem of young women she’d seen in that dream she’d had. Damn him. She considered having a cold shower to completely cleanse herself of any lustful thoughts, but in the end she couldn’t bring herself to be that masochistic.

  When she emerged from the bathroom after a long, hot shower, she heard voices coming from the kitchen.

  “This is life or death, you bloody fool.” Mike’s voice. “Why haven’t you completed the bonding process with Ruby? What the hell’s your problem?”

  Mike’s tone effected conveyed his worry for Kyan—a man he barely knew—and his words conveyed his complete disregard for his sister’s virtue. Nice to know he had his priorities straight. Ruby lurked just out of sight, curious to hear Kyan’s response.

  “I refuse to take advantage of your sister’s misguided desire to save me.”

  Mike snorted. “It’s just sex, dickhead. Ruby likes you. And you seem to like her, too, if the noises I’ve heard coming from her bedroom are anything to go by. You’ve already done the deed twice, so what’s the fricking problem?”

  “The problem, Mike, is this.” Kyan’s tone was so short, sharp and tightly controlled, Ruby suspected he was trying very hard not to lose his temper. “In my previous life I could have any woman I wanted. And I had many.”

  “So? All the guys I know would clap you on the back and call you a lucky dog.”

  “Indeed. And I would take my pleasure and move on to the next attractive female without a backward glance, or a care for who I hurt. But when I encountered your sister, everything changed. And when I learned the terms of the Guardian’s spell from you, I was not displeased. It would be no imposition at all to take your sister for my life-mate. But now she has bewitched me. And each time I make love to her, I want her more. Not just her body—all of her.”

  “And this is a bad thing, how?” Ruby could hear Mike’s frustration.

  “I cannot bond with Ruby.”

  “Why the fuck not? If she’s talked to Wulf as you say, then she understands exactly what’s at stake. And from what you’ve told me, she freely offered to complete the bonding, and she’ll do her best to help you pass the Testing. I don’t see what the fucking problem is. Do you have a death wish or something? Christ!”

  Something crashed onto the breakfast bar, followed by a muffled expletive and running water. It wasn’t a stretch to envisage Mike taking his frustration out on his coffee mug and sloshing hot coffee all over himself.

  There was a pause, and Ruby found she was holding her breath. She let it out with a whoosh when Kyan finally spoke.

  “Your sister deserves a chance to find real love. I think I am in love with her, but I cannot be certain what I feel is real. Ruby deserves better than me—more than being forcibly mated to a be-spelled man who cannot be certain he truly loves her for who she is.”

  “I get it. She’s my sister, and all I want is for her to be happy. But Kyan, how do you know what you’re feeling isn’t real? It could be. Wulf and Chalcedony’s love turned out to be real. And they’re both happy. Why couldn’t you and Ruby be happy, too?”

  Ah Mike. He was such a sweetie. And such a sap when it came to romance. But it was ludicrous to expect everyone to be as blissfully happy as he and Annie were. Not everyone managed to find that perfect person for them—their soul-mate. Sometimes, people had to settle. And sometimes, it was far less heart-breaking to be alone.

  “There is one other factor to be considered.” Kyan’s voice cut through her maudlin thoughts.

  “Yeah?”

  “Ruby has made her desire to bed me again abundantly clear. But despite her knowledge of the bonding process, she has never once told me she loves me. Or that she even wants us to be together for the rest of our lives. And until she can tell me that, and I can look deep into her soul and know it for the truth, I will resist her allure with every fiber of my being. In this decision at least, I will have a measure of control. I despise the thought of her being manipulated by anyone or anything. Her choices will be of her own making, and that is all I have to say about the matter.”

  Admit her true feelings for him?

  She did consider it—blundering into the kitchen, confessing her growing love for Kyan, telling him he was her dream man, and she hoped they could make a life together. Yeah. Like, for about five seconds until commonsense prevailed.

  Ruby had thought she’d found the perfect man a couple of years ago—a fitness trainer she met when she’d finally caved and taken up a three month gym membership her mother had given her. He’d been kind and sympathetic about her embarrassment over working out in public. They’d talked and he admitted overcoming a weight problem of his own. She’d dated him for six months. And she’d believed her unconditional adoration for him was mutual. So when he proposed, she accepted.

  He turned out to be a crusader—a fitness freak who thought he could change the world, one overweight person at a time. Beginning with her.

  Not even a month into their engagement, the harping started.

  “Are you really going to eat all that?”

  “You shouldn’t snack between meals.”

  “I’m going for a run—you should come too, the cardio will do you good.”

  “These protein shakes are great—sort out your metabolism and stop the cravings. Shall I buy you some? It’s on special at the moment.”

  On and on it went, the barrage of not-so-subtle hints until eventually, Ruby called it off. She wanted a husband who loved her, not one who thought she was his “good cause”. Or worse, a free advertising campaign for how great a fitness trainer he was.

  Last she heard, he’d latched on to another chubby woman and nagged her into losing heaps of weight, and getting ultra-fit. They’d even started up their own weight-loss program. She hoped they were very happy together.

  She snorted. Yeah, riiight.

  It was all very well to secretly lust after Kyan, to wish they could be together forever, and hope he’d grow to love her. But confessing it to him face-to-face was another matter entirely. And what she’d just overheard complicated everything still more.

  He thought he might love her, but wasn’t sure whether the feelings were his own or influenced by the spell. And yet, before they made love for the third time and invoked the bond, he wanted her to bare her soul.

  The man had some ego.

  Kyan had mentioned control. Perhaps she hadn’t been too far off when she’d gotten stuck in and given him a piece of her mind. Perhaps it was all about control—or rather, his lack of control over his situation ever since he’d appeared on her doorstep a week ago.

  Hang on. She did a mental check. Yep. It’d been exactly a week since she’d first met this man who was now doing her head in.

  One week? That realization was like a slap in the face with a cold, wet dishcloth—more than sufficient to make her swallow any sure-to-be- humiliating declarations, and saunter into the kitchen as
though she hadn’t a care in the world.

  “Morning,” she said, making it chirpy and carefree. And heading straight for the coffee plunger in case her expression wasn’t quite so carefree. “Couldn’t waste a beautiful morning by lazing round in the sack either, huh? What’re your plans for your last day in Auckland, Mike? I’m going to the movies tonight with Jules. You two gonna watch the cricket match on the telly? Oh, and by the way, what time’s your flight tomorrow? I’ll come and see you off if you like.”

  She swigged her coffee and almost choked at its bitterness. “This tastes funny. Did you buy soymilk, Mike?” A glance at the container of milk showed her that wasn’t the case. “Huh.”

  “It’s trim milk,” Mike said. “That’s all you had in your fridge. But we just opened the pack of coffee yesterday.”

  “What are you looking at me like that for?”

  “No reason.” Mike suddenly became very interested in spreading extra Marmite on his toast.

  Ruby sniffed her mug then took another experimental sip. It smelled divine but tasted disgusting. Her stomach roiled. She ditched the coffee and opted for a breakfast of banana on toast instead.

  “Not feeling up to scratch, huh?” Mike was still shooting her weird glances.

  “Must be all the exercise—I’m detoxing and stuff.”

  “Yeah. That must be it. So, what movie are you and Jules going to see?”

  “Kong. It’s a re-screening and it’s supposed to be awesome, so I really want to see it on a big screen.”

  “Yeah. I really wanted to see it when it first came out but Annie wasn’t fussed. If it’s anything as good as Lord of the Rings, it’ll be pretty mind-blowing.”

  “What is a movie?” Kyan asked.

  Ruby screwed up her nose and tried to figure out the easiest way to explain the concept. “Um, a movie is like the stuff you’ve seen on the telly. Only a bunch of people pay to sit in a special, darkened room and watch the film on a huge screen. It’s really cool. Sometimes it’s almost like you’re there, in the movie, with the actors.”