She found herself caught and held in Malach’s strong arms. He planted his butt on the ground, dragged her into his lap and cradled her.
“Love will grow, sure and slow,” Lìli chanted. “Strong and true, this love will prove. May your love have the strength of a tree, be as flexible as its boughs in the wind, be as sweet as its fruit. May your blessings be as many as the leaves, and nurtured by the powers of both heaven and earth.” She came toward them, placing her hands on their heads before uttering the final benediction. “If it harm none, so mote it be.”
The instant Lìli finished speaking, Jade felt heat radiating from between her breasts. Her pendant. She drew it out, squinting down at it, trying to focus on the stone.
“What’s wrong?” Malach demanded.
As the stone’s heat cooled, the color seemed to lighten and….
Her blood chilled and the fine hairs on the nape of her neck stood to attention. “My pendant. It’s changed color again.” The disturbing blood-red hue of red jade had lightened to the exact shade of the flowers blooming on the lavender bushes growing in Lìli’s herb garden.
“Be calm, Niece,” Lìli said. “No harm will come to you from your namesake crystal. It merely alters to reflect the journey you are undergoing.”
“What has it become now, then? Tell me!”
Lìli gestured at Malach. He turned Jade to face him so he could get a proper look at her pendant. He fingered it, his hand resting intimately against her breastbone. Heat suffused her again. Not magical crystal-heat this time, but the heat of wanting him.
“’Tis lavender jade,” he said.
“And?” Lìli prompted.
“Lavender jade lessens emotional hurt and trauma, bestowing the gift of inner peace and teaching subtlety and restraint in emotional matters.”
“Very good. Tell me, Niece, when exactly did the stone first change to red jade?”
Jade groaned inwardly and buried her face in the crook of Malach’s shoulder. Of course Lìli would have spotted the change the instant she laid eyes on the pendant. Intriguing that her aunt hadn’t immediately pelted her with questions about it, though. Almost as if she’d already known….
Jade shifted in Malach’s arms, suddenly uncomfortable with such intimacy beneath Lìli’s far-too-astute gaze. Malach took the cue and lifted her off his lap, setting her beside him. She fussed with the skirt of her dress as she strove to recall the moment. “It was on my way home this morning, after—” Her face heated and she resisted the urge to fan her cheeks, certain they were now as red as her pendant had recently been.
“I see,” Lìli said, and Jade was very much afraid that she did. All she could hope was her aunt wasn’t getting any vivid pictorials of what Jade and Malach had gotten up to last night.
“How very fitting,” Lìli said, and although her tone was carefully devoid of innuendo, her eyes twinkled.
“I believe so.” Malach dropped his gaze, finding a very interesting blade of grass to observe.
Malach? Embarrassed?
That made Jade feel a tiny bit better. At least until she thought she heard her aunt mutter, “About time!”
“Pardon, Lìli Yiyi?” She couldn’t have said what Jade thought she’d said. Could she?
“Nothing, nothing.”
The silence became awkward, provoking Jade to say, “I guess the spell’s worked, huh?”
Lìli smiled and shrugged. “It would seem so.”
“What happens next?”
“You both let nature take its course.”
Jade’s gaze drifted to Malach. She wouldn’t mind letting nature take its course again sometime. In the very near future would be good.
It crossed her mind to wonder whether her growing infatuation with him was because she’d starved herself of sex and intimacy, and now she had a man on tap she felt compelled to indulge herself to the fullest.
Of course, it could also be Lìli’s spell working its magic but right now she didn’t much care. Right now she just wanted to take him home and… let nature take its course. Not that it’d be easy to have a private moment, what with Mei and Grace acting as chaperones. But where there’s a will, there’s a way, and Jade was definitely willing.
She scrambled to her feet, brushed herself down, and offered her hand to Malach. “I guess we should be going. I need to get back home and check on Mei.” There. Nice and casual. No hint of what she really wanted to go home for in her voice.
Malach surged to his feet in a graceful flow of movement. A thrill clutched her heart. He was incredible.
“Grace is more than capable of looking out for Mei,” Lìli said in a chiding tone. “But you go if you like. Come back when you’re ready to do some preliminary sketches. Malach, let us get you settled into your room before your session with Dai-soon” She linked her arm with his. “You can pick up your bag from Jade’s house later.”
“Huh?” Jade glanced from Malach to Lìli, wondering what she’d missed and when she’d missed it. “I figured he’d be staying with Mei and me.”
“As I have a spare room, we thought it best if Malach stay with me for a while.”
“We?”
Malach nodded. “’Tis unseemly for me to stay with you if we have not made a formal commitment to each other.”
“Unseemly?” She winced at the shrillness of her voice.
“People will talk.”
Un-freaking-believable. “You’re worried about what people will think of us?”
He nodded, his brows drawn together, mouth set in a thin line.
Jade couldn’t contain her outrage. “What people might think, didn’t seem to matter last night when Pieter shut us in and we ended up shagging each other senseless did it? It didn’t matter when you ripped my knickers off me. It was just you and me, and what anyone else thought didn’t seem to matter at all, then. Or was all that just a means to an end, and now we’re bonded, you don’t want to screw me anymore? Don’t I do it for you anymore, is that it? You bastard! Do you think now you’ve had me, you can discard me like the whore you were so convinced I was?”
Her body shook and she ducked her head, unwilling to meet her aunt’s gaze. She’d gone too far this time. Not only would Lìli be appalled by what Jade had done last night, she’d be appalled by Jade’s swearing and her rudeness toward a guest.
She blinked back tears and stared at the ground, wishing it would swallow her up, wishing she could take back her angry words. And as she waited for her aunt to dispense the tongue-lashing that she so richly deserved, Malach’s boots blurred into view. His hand tilted her chin gently but forcefully, until she had no choice but to meet his gaze.
“You are not a whore. You offered me a precious gift that I did nothing to deserve, and ’tis I who feel shame for judging you. I would take back those cruel words, Jade, if only I could find a way. But once uttered, such words cannot be recalled—only eased by gestures and deeds, so that in time they may be forgiven, and over time, perhaps forgotten.” He pressed his lips to her brow. “I am sorry.”
“Me, too.” He folded her into his arms and held her exactly how she wanted to be held right at that moment. He comforted her with no expectations and she loved him for that.
God. Just her luck that when she finally found a man who instinctively knew what she needed, he was in love with another woman and would only be sticking around for a month.
She sneaked a glance at Lìli. Rather than the disgust and disapproval she expected, she found compassion and understanding and deep, abiding love. And, more practically, when she disengaged from Malach, a handkerchief so that she could blot her eyes and blow her nose. Lìli, too, always seemed to know just what Jade needed.
“I am staying with your aunt to give us space, Jade,” Malach explained. “I thought it better for us to date, as your world calls it, and get to know each other, rather than jump into the water feet first and live in each other’s belt-pouch.”
“We say ‘pocket’. And you’re right. We have got off to rather
a rapid start considering we barely know each other.” Except in a strictly biblical sense.
“So we are—as you would say—cool?”
“Yeah. We’re cool.” She smiled at him, and wondered how ‘cool’ he’d be if he knew how desperately she wanted to get him alone for a little one-on-one.
She tore her attention away from Malach. “So what’s this about a session with Dai-soon, Lìli Yiyi?”
“We discussed it while you were in the kitchen.”
And lots more besides, no doubt. But Jade knew better than to demand a full accounting from her aunt. She’d just have to wheedle it from Malach. “Well, you must have read my mind,” she said. “I was going to mention the possibility of Malach attending a few sessions with Dai-soon. I thought it might be good for him to get a bit of a workout while he’s here. Provided Dai-soon agreed to it, of course.”
“It is already arranged, Niece. In fact—” Lìli glanced at her watch “—we are due at the school in fifteen minutes so we must hurry or we will be late for the lesson.”
Jade narrowed her eyes. Her aunt hadn’t phoned anyone since they’d arrived. So how had she arranged a lesson for Malach?
Light-bulb moment. Ah. “You’re hoping to surprise Dai-soon by turning up with Malach out of the blue, aren’t you? You think he’ll be so impressed he might concede to show Malach a thing or two, don’t you?”
Lìli winked at her. “What do you think, Niece?”
“I think Malach had better be as good as you think he is, or Dai-soon is never going to let you live it down.”
Lìli patted Malach’s shoulder then entwined her arm in his. “I am confident he is.”
“How ‘bout you, Malach?” Jade said. “You ready to meet a taekwondo Grandmaster?”
Malach cracked his knuckles, threw back his shoulders and stuck out his chest—a picture of self-assurance and confidence.
Jade winced. She’d seen Dai-soon in action. Malach was in for an arse-kicking he wouldn’t forget in a hurry.
~~~
By the time Jade arrived at the Lane Cove West School hall, she was red-faced and breathless—all her own fault, of course. The lure of capturing Malach in action had been too hard to resist and she’d run home to pick up her sketchbook and pencils, resulting in a dash up the street and a full out sprint the last few hundred meters to the hall, so as not to miss a second of Malach’s taekwondo debut.
She shouldered through the door and scanned the room. She wanted to find Malach and wish him luck before the lesson began. She figured he’d be needing it. Dai-soon took no prisoners. Neither did his students, for that matter.
It took a minute or two for her to spot Malach among the bunch of students milling around the Grandmaster. Someone had lent him a uniform and he blended in with the other students.
Seeing her aunt shaking hands with Dai-soon distracted Jade from Malach’s upcoming lesson. What was she up to?
Catching sight of Jade, Lìli waved and left the floor. As she approached, a secretive expression curved her lips and excitement sparkled in her eyes. Something was definitely afoot.
“Dai-soon’s given permission for Malach to participate in the lesson, huh? That’s great! You must have done some fast talking.” Jade juggled her sketch book as she rooted in her shoulder bag for a charcoal pencil. “What was that handshaking business about?”
“Shhh. They’re about to begin.”
The crowd melted away, leaving two men standing in the center of the mat: Malach and Dai-soon.
Hang on. “Begin what?”
“Their sparring match.”
“Their what?” Jade’s shriek drew sideways glances from the students who’d gathered alongside the mats. She lowered her voice. “A match? Are you crazy?” She’d expected Dai-soon to give Malach a bit of one-on-one in a lesson, not an actual match.
“Shhh!”
Jade’s heart jumped around like a mad thing in her chest. “What exactly did you tell Dai-soon about Malach, Lìli Yiyi?”
“I told him the truth.”
“And that would be?”
“That Malach is an accomplished fighter who would appreciate the chance to match his skills with another accomplished fighter.” She strove for nonchalance but Jade wasn’t buying it.
“You didn’t!”
“Shhh!” Lìli dragged her over to the bleachers and shoved her down before seating herself. She clapped her hands together gleefully, and then began to rub her thumbs over her fingers as if anticipating crisp banknotes crossing her palms.
“You made a bet with Dai-soon, didn’t you?”
“One I am sure to win,” her aunt said, oozing confidence.
“What were you thinking?” Jade couldn’t suppress a groan as visions of tending a bruised and very battered Malach danced through her mind. “You seriously reckon he has a chance one-on-one against a Grandmaster like Dai-soon?”
“Don’t you?” Lìli pinned Jade with a piercing gaze that arrowed straight into her soul.
Good question. And the answer?
She did believe Malach had a chance. A very slim, almost anorexic one, but a chance nevertheless.
Dai-soon was an accomplished taekwondo practitioner. He’d attained a Ninth Dan ranking: the maximum rank for members of the International Taekwondo Federation. His peers expected he would soon be awarded an honorary Tenth Dan for his contributions to the sport. And he’d passed the official Kukkiwon Instructor Program in Korea with flying colors, subsequently turning down the opportunity to remain in Korea and establish a new taekwondo school, in favor of returning to his adopted country.
Dai-soon was a living legend in Sydney.
So why did she think Malach had even a slim chance of holding his own against him?
Taekwondo in this day and age was seen as a sport and Jade knew that Dai-soon, for all his expertise, had never used it in combat. The military training and unarmed combat techniques of the past, had given way to a stylized form of taekwondo practiced primarily for self-defense, relaxation and recreation. And it was at this modern form of taekwondo Dai-soon excelled. He was good. Better than good: superb. But to Jade’s knowledge he’d never been forced to defend his life using his skills.
Malach, however, was a warrior. Battle had been a way of life. More importantly, he’d survived numerous battles intact. And that well-honed instinct for survival might just give him the edge. Or at the very least, allow him to walk from the mat with his pride intact.
She watched the two men warming up. Dai-soon, despite being in his sixties and barely five-foot-six, was one of those men who, by their very manner and bearing, could command the attention of an entire room. He flowed from one warm-up pattern to the next in a seamlessly woven symphony of movement that was thrilling to watch.
In direct comparison, Malach appeared almost clumsy as he rotated his shoulders and proceeded to perform a set of very basic stretches that had Dai-soon’s students snickering and whispering among themselves.
Trepidation trickled down Jade’s spine and made her shiver. She’d never been one of those women who enjoyed watching grown men fight. She couldn’t bear to watch boxing—it was too brutal. And although she appreciated taekwondo for the artistry involved in its incredibly disciplined intricate patterns, she was also aware it was often lauded for its kicking techniques, which allowed the execution of powerful strikes. God only help Malach if he got in the way of one of those.
And then she remembered that Dai-soon also taught his students how to use pressure points and grabbing self-defense techniques he’d borrowed from other martial arts, and she yearned to call a halt to what she was very much afraid would be a debacle. She could cope with the thought of Malach sporting a black eye or cuts and bruises, but what worried her was that despite Dai-soon’s expertise, Malach could still get hurt. Badly.
Dai-soon bowed and Malach followed suit.
Jade tried to jump to her feet but Lìli hung on to her arm. “Lìli Yiyi!” she hissed. “Let go, please. I have to stop this befo
re Malach gets hurt.”
“Joonbi!” one of the students called. “Ready!”
“Watch and learn, Niece. Have faith in your Malach.”
“But—”
The words, “Si jak! Begin!” rang out, echoing from the walls and muting her protests with the inevitability of it all.
It was too late and far too dangerous for Jade intervene now. The sparring had begun and oh boy, was it all on. All she could do was watch and wince, and hope Malach would live up to Aunt Lìli’s expectations without the props he was accustomed to—namely a bloody great sword and a horse.
There was one other thing she could do, and that was sketch Malach in action. At least it would take her mind off of the increasingly violent-looking altercation taking place. She whispered her intention to her aunt, whose gaze was glued to the mat, and made her way to the edge of the mats. Recognizing she was there in some artistic capacity and therefore unlikely to interfere, she remained unchallenged by the students. And, as Malach arched backward to avoid a snap kick that had looked powerful enough to take his head off, instead of closing her eyes and refusing to watch, Jade sketched him.
As the sparring match progressed, her fingers flew madly, covering page after page with charcoal lines and smudges in her search to capture the essence of the man.
A corner of her mind noted that it was not taekwondo that Malach used, nor any recognizable form of martial art as Jade knew it, for that matter. His moves were more like a bastardization of every form ever devised and a few never before seen on this earth. It was effective, nevertheless, despite Dai-soon never giving Malach an opening to press an attack, and forcing the younger man into a purely defensive mode. The watching students murmured their approval of Malach’s tactics and determination. Pride that he was holding his own bloomed in Jade’s heart, chasing away some of her fears.
The Crystal Warriors Series Bundle Page 68
