Witch In Charge - Celia Kyle Page 0,19

to the basement. Every jaw in the room dropped at the magnificent sight. “Is that coffee fresh?”

“Let me get that for you!”

Before anyone had a chance to move, Ryan snagged a mug, poured a steaming cup, and hurried it over to the raven-haired hunk. For his part, Nathan was far less impressed with the service than Tiffany had been by the spontaneously opening drawer, though Kelly couldn't hide her surprise when the house snapped the curtains shut to block out the last remnants of the setting sun for Nathan’s sake and flipped on the overhead lights.

“Nathan,” Aurora said, attempting—and failing—to cover her hungry stare behind a veneer of responsibility. “This is Tiffany. She’s our new roommate.”

“I heard.” He regarded the room full of profoundly attentive gazes with a lackluster eye. “Guess we have a full house now, huh?”

“Unless you want one more,” Ryan offered, laughing a bit too readily.

Nathan fixed him with that lazy, unblinking gaze of his until he squirmed under the scrutiny. The whole room seemed to sweat from the intensity.

“Did you make the coffee?” he asked Ryan in a flat voice.

“No, um. I did.” Aurora raised a hand and faltered slightly as those dark eyes of his found her.

He just nodded, raised the cup in a gesture that seemed almost grateful, and drifted back down to his dungeon. As he left, it was like they all let their breath out at the same time.

“Holy hell, I need some fresh air.” Ryan fanned himself. “Anyway, the truck's unloaded, Kell. We’re gonna hit it.”

“Thanks so much! I also meant to thank you for bringing me home last night. I owe you one.”

Ryan looked at her like she had five heads, each one breathing fire. “Don’t thank me. I didn’t bring you home.”

Before Kelly could even register her confusion, a new voice filled the room.

“I did.”

Standing in place of the gargoyle she’d lugged inside was Ronun. Yet again, all the air evaporated at the presence of an attractive man. Kelly’s jaw dropped nearly to the floor. All that time Cora had spent telling her that “gargoyles are people too,” it hand’t been just some idle talk. The hot security guard she’d been lusting after was the gargoyle she’d been decorating for a year.

The two stood staring at each other, almost like two animals waiting to strike. Silence hung in the room like a golden bell, and nobody wanted to be the first to ring it.

“Um, Tiffany, why don’t I show you your room?” Leave it to Aurora. Shattering the quiet, she set them all in motion.

“Yeah. Cool. We should probably do that.”

Tiffany followed her new roommate out of the kitchen while Ryan opened and closed his mouth a few times, then just drifted away, leaving Kelly and Ronun to figure things out for themselves.

Which, for her part, Kelly was doing a pretty shitty job of. Why was her mouth so dry all of a sudden? She knew words—like, a whole bunch of words—so why couldn’t she seem to think of any?

“Thanks, I guess,” she croaked at last. “For bringing me home.”

“You were pretty trashed.”

What gives? He dragged me back here, hung out on my porch all damn day, then surprised the hell out of me just now—all so he could scold me?

“Can't argue with that. Anyway, thanks.”

On a sudden impulse, she went to him, stood on her toes, and planted a kiss on his cheek. That was how a girl thanked a guy for getting her home safely, right?

Ronun’s eyes flew wide and a deep blush swept over his face. For one dazzling second, he was off his guard. It looked as if he had no notion in the world of what to do.

Until he did.

Turning to Kelly with a sudden ferocity, he kissed her with the kind of passion that sent a wave of electricity crackling down the whole length of her spine and down every nerve. Her toes curled, and she vaguely wondered if she might melt through his grip into a puddle on the floor. Which seemed entirely possible. Her head reeled, and she clung to him to keep from falling away from his kiss as her knees buckled.

Was this the guy she thought hated her? Because this was a really long way from hate. A really, really long way. His tongue searched her mouth with an earnest caress and hers answered it eagerly.

Then it was over. He pushed her away, that same odd, dark look stealing over his rugged features.

“I have to go.”

Brusque as ever. The