Once they were pulling her luggage through a spacious kitchen with dark wooden floors and matching cabinetry, he said, “I’ll make lunch, and then we’ll get started.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You’ll eat.After Awakening, you’re probably not going to feel like eating for a while.”
“Great, knowing that really helps my appetite.”
She was too worked up to even appreciate two stories’ worth of ocean view beyond a wall of windows.Or the gorgeous interior: a curving staircase, a bridge over a pond surrounded by plants, and water drifting beneath a piece of solid glass to the pool out on the patio.
He passed the stairs and opened the door into the short hallway just beyond.“You’ll stay here for as long as it’s safe.Take a minute or two to settle in, then meet me in the kitchen.”
“As long as it’s safe?”She paused in the doorway.“I thought this place was hidden.”
“The thing about the Hidden is, we’re never really safe.As strong as you are, there is someone stronger.As clever as you are, there is someone cleverer.And as hidden as you think you are, someone will find you.They know about me, obviously.If someone has the right connections or the right magick, they’ll find where I live.Which is why we don’t have much time.”
She stared out the huge glass doors at the sparkle of sun on the choppy waves and felt as if she were slipping beneath them.His finger on her chin startled her.
“I can be easy on you, at least in the beginning.If you need that.”
She stepped away from the way his touch felt electric on her skin.The way his low, soft words washed over her.“No, don’t be easy on me.These people killed my uncle.And are trying to kill me.I don’t want easy.”
“Good girl.See you in a few minutes.”
Damn it, he’d manipulated her again.
9
“Can we turn the lights down?”
Ruby followed Cyntag into a windowless room the size of a tennis court.
He stripped off his shirt and tossed it to the floor.“I forget, you still have the modesty of a Mundane.”
“I don’t even know you.Prancing around a virtual stranger isn’t in my nature.”She hoped she didn’t sound apologetic.
“You won’t be prancing.”He strode to the control box near the door and dimmed the lights.
The halogen lights honed the planes of his cheeks and angles of his jaw, razor sharpening the cut of his muscles.The mirrors on two sides of the room created infinite versions of him.Cyntag, everywhere she looked.She scratched at her stomach again.Damn rash was worse than ever.
“You have an itch,” he said, and she swore he meantthatkind of itch.Which she did not have, thank you very much.
She waved her hand dismissively.“Psoriasis, the doctors think, though they’ve never given me anything that relieved it.”
“Show me.”
“You’re used to ordering people around, aren’t you?Of course, you’re a sensei or whatever, with classes of rapt students following your every command.”And probably women falling at his feet.
“True.Your point?”
“Would it kill you toask?”
He seemed to consider it.“No.Show me the rash.I’m not morbidly curious.I think I know what it is.”
With a roll of her eyes, she unbuttoned the lower part of her shirt and lifted it.
He knelt down to get a better look.The feel of his fingers brushing her skin startled her.
“Cyntag—”
