Witch In Charge - Celia Kyle Page 0,31
led to this—a grown man in a tutu, crumpled on her couch like a used tissue. Whatever was eating away at him, she had the dark feeling it was her fault. Or at least he thought it was.
When he looked up at her again, she sensed the effort it took. At first, he had trouble meeting her gaze, but when he finally did, a deep reservoir of pain lurked behind them.
“Why?” he asked simply, softly. “What is it about me that makes you want to torment me all the time? Is it fun for you to embarrass me in front of your friends?”
“Embarrass you?”
She was at a loss. That was the last thing this had been about. But Ronun pointed out his tutu and mustache with an exasperated gesture, spelling it out. Kelly was startled. She had been so wrapped up in him that she’d hardly even noticed them.
“Oh, shit,” she blurted. “Hang on.” Putting her hands out one more time, she wiped the slate clean and he was himself again. “I’m really sorry about all of this. Will you let me explain?”
“You know what?” Ronun surged to his feet, suddenly stiff with frustration. “Don’t bother. I get it. You’ve been decorating me forever, so why stop now?”
Of course. That’s exactly what this looks like.
Kelly opened her mouth to speak again, but it was too late. He was already brushing past her into the hall and carving a path to the door. When he got there, the knob jiggled in his hand, but the door held fast.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he shouted at the house. “Open up or I’ll kick a hole in you that you’ll remember.”
With that, the door swung free, and Ronun fumed out into the dusk. Kelly was hot on his heels. She couldn’t let him storm off thinking she was getting her kicks playing tricks on him.
“Ronun,” she called. “Hey! Will you just hang on a second?”
“No,” he tossed over his shoulder without even breaking his stride. “I’ve got to get to work.”
“What a coincidence,” she said, doing her best to sound as if nothing was going on. She jogged to catch up with him and chugged to match his stride. “We both work in the same building. Can I walk with you?”
For all her forced brightness, Ronun remained silent.
He didn’t say no, Kelly thought, and kept up her brisk pace.
After about a block, he must have noticed the toll it was taking on her and slowed his gait. Kelly was never one for physical exertion that didn’t have some kind of pleasure attached and was already just a tad winded. The guy had a real stride to him.
As they dialed down to a more agreeable rate, silence vibrated between them. Ronun wouldn’t even look at her, which drove Kelly absolutely crazy. But the more she studied his profile, the more she came to realize that he wasn’t really angry at all. Just humiliated.
“It’s not what you think,” she started.
“How do you know what I think?”
“Ummmm, you told me? Back there you said, ‘You’ve been dressing me up forever, so why stop now?’” Her grumpy, faux impersonation of him finally made him crack a smile.
“I said, ‘decorated,’ not, ‘dressing me up.’ Get it right.”
“Same diff,” she said with a shrug, happy to have cracked his shell a bit. “And if I knew you were, well…you, I never would have pulled all of that.”
He grunted, but she took that as permission to go on.
“Look, it wasn’t about making you the world’s butchest ballerina. Not by a long shot. We were trying to help you.”
“Is that a fact?”
“Yeah, it is a fact, thank you very much. The whole reason we were all there was to try to break your curse.”
Ronun stopped in his tracks, causing her to stumble to a stop of her own. At last, he turned his eyes on her. He looked shocked that she even knew about his curse.
“Cora told me,” she said meekly.
“Figures.” He was quiet for a second, looking up at the sky, then he turned his dark eyes on her again. “So you were really trying to break my curse, huh?”
“Yes,” she said, stifling the impulse to take his hand. “You know I’ve been interning with Owyn Stahagan, right? He’s one of the best curse breakers there is. I guess I was hoping a little bit of his talent would have rubbed off by now, but…well, hope springs eternal.”
Never really one for self-pity, Kelly dug her hands into her