Ruby Shadows Read online

  “I’m fine,” I said, pulling away from him and swiping at my streaming eyes. “I’m just…fine. Really I am.”

  “Certainly you are,” he said dryly. “You just escaped death not once but twice after having to call on one you despise to save you.”

  “I don’t despise you,” I said uneasily. “I just don’t like you very much. Not that I’m not grateful you came to save me,” I added quickly.

  “You don’t like me because I challenge you,” he said. “You challenge me as well, Gwendolyn which is exactly the reason I do like you. Very much. Especially as you are now…wet and half naked.”

  “I’m not half naked,” I protested, feeling my cheeks get hot.

  “Oh, no?” His ruby eyes swept over my body, reminding me that I was wearing nothing but a thin white t-shirt and panties, both of which were soaked and clinging to me. I became abruptly aware that my nipples were so hard they hurt—both sensitive peaks clearly visible against the nearly transparent fabric of my t-shirt.

  “No,” I said defiantly, while at the same time trying casually to cover my breasts with one arm.

  “I would beg to differ,” he murmured, his deep voice low and teasing. “You are half naked, mostly wet, and completely beautiful, Gwendolyn.”

  I felt a rush of heat go down my spine at the way he was still looking at me but I shook it off impatiently.

  “Five minutes ago I was covered in slime and puking my guts up and now I’m sure I look like a drowned rat,” I said, frowning. “Either you need glasses or you had a lot to drink just before you came to save me.”

  “I have perfect vision and alcohol does not affect me,” he murmured, still giving me that look. “Come, let us get you out of that tub.”

  He helped me to my feet and out of the tub. While I stood dripping on Grams’ best blue bathmat, Laish grabbed a towel. But when I reached for it, he pulled it back.

  “Not just yet, mon ange. First I must examine you.”

  “Examine me? What are you talking about?” I demanded.

  Laish didn’t answer in words. Instead he dropped to his knees before me and began running his big, warm hands all over my trembling legs.

  “What are you doing?” I tried to step away from him but he held me firmly.

  “Making sure all the Hellspawn slime is gone. If you have so much as a speck left on you, it can eat its way inside.”

  My breath seemed to catch in my throat. “It…it can?”

  He nodded. “I am afraid so.”

  “What would happen then?” I was looking down anxiously at my legs myself now.

  “Eventually it would find your heart and rot you from the inside out.” He looked up at me. “So you will pardon me for being thorough.”

  “All right,” I grumbled uneasily. “But no funny business.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He smiled at me charmingly as he ran his long fingers up my inner thigh. “If you wouldn’t mind parting your legs just a little…?”

  I did as he said, feeling a hot blush creep into my cheeks. I was well aware that my panties were completely soaked and the white cotton was see-through. I was glad that I’d just had a wax the other day…and then angry with myself for being glad. What did I care what Laish thought of what Grams calls my “ladybusiness”?

  I could feel his hot breath against my inner thighs and I couldn’t help thinking I’d never had a guy so close down there before. My skin broke out in a rash of chillbumps and my heart started to speed up as I waited for him to make some kind of a move…or at least make a lascivious comment.

  But Laish surprised me. He simply examined me thoroughly and then nodded, as though in satisfaction.

  “All right. You’re clean.” He stood in one smooth motion and wrapped the towel around me.

  “What—that’s it?” I couldn’t help asking.

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you disappointed? I hope you didn’t imagine I would make advances on you in your current weakened condition.”

  “I’m not weak.” I drew myself up, wishing it was true. “And I’m not disappointed. Just…surprised.”

  “Just because I come from the realm of lust and evil doesn’t mean I am not a gentleman.” His ruby eyes flashed. “Besides—there’s no sport in taking advantage of a woman already in a compromising position. I much prefer a long, drawn-out seduction, mon ange.”

  I bit my lip, my heart beating double time again for some reason.

  “You know you’ll never seduce me. I’ll never give it up for you, Laish, even if you did save my life. Twice.”

  His eyes flashed again. “That remains to be seen. Now, have you anything dry to change into? We need to talk.”

  I thought about going into my room for new clothes, but then I risked waking Grams. Noises don’t bother her while she’s wearing her Darth Vader mask but movement around her bed wakes her up every time. And while she would have to be told everything that had happened eventually (the giant sinkhole in her bedroom was going to be impossible to hide) I decided I would rather wait until after Laish was gone to let her know what had happened.

  Looking around the bathroom, I saw my fuzzy pink bathrobe hanging on the back of the door. That should be warm and comfortable and it wouldn’t show anything I wanted to keep hidden—aka, the aforementioned “ladybusiness.”

  “I’ve got something,” I told Laish. “You can wait in the living room.”

  “Don’t be long,” he said, and left, closing the door behind him.

  I slipped out of the wet t-shirt and panties and pulled on the robe. Although I didn’t like being naked beneath it, there wasn’t much else I could do.

  Next I took a look at my poor fingernails. They were pretty ragged from all the clawing I’d done at the lip of the sinkhole and I still had a splinter beneath one of them—my right index finger. I pulled it out, wincing at the sharp little pain and ran some cool water over it. It was bleeding so I wrapped a band aid from the medicine cabinet around it. That was going to hurt for a while.

  With my hands tended to, I took a moment to brush my teeth, getting rid of the last of the bad taste, and ran a pick through my hair. Then, feeling more human, I belted the robe tightly and walked out into the living room where Laish was pacing back and forth.

  “All right,” I said. “Let’s talk.”

  Chapter Five

  Laish

  “All right, let’s talk,” the little witch said, putting a hand on her hip.

  I frowned at her, trying to control my irritation. Did she not realize what peril she had been in? If I hadn’t come to her the moment she called, she would be dead by now, both her body and soul digesting in the belly of the voracious Hellspawn. And yet she was acting as if nothing had happened.

  “Yes, let us talk,” I said, going over to the couch. I sat and patted a spot beside me. “Come here.”

  She came—reluctantly, I thought—and settled beside me, not where I had indicated but on the far side of the couch. She crossed her arms and legs tightly as she turned to face me, presenting a closed face and a tight mouth. Clearly she expected to be lectured.

  I had been prepared to give her exactly what she was expecting. But the mulish expression on her lovely face changed my mind. I would never get through to her that way—another tactic was needed to get my little witch to see sense.

  I leaned back on the couch, one arm across the back of its faded floral fabric in a pose of relaxation completely opposite to her tense, rigidly upright posture.

  “You’re going to die soon, you know,” I remarked conversationally. “I mean, even sooner than most humans, which is saying something since your mortal lives are over in the blink of an eye anyway.”

  “What?” She looked at me blankly.

  “But first,” I continued, “All those that you love are going to die in various horrible ways, right before your eyes. Your beloved grandmother included.”

  “What?” She was angry now, her vivid green eyes narrowed and her lush lips a tight line. “H