Kiss of Fire (Imdalind, #1)(39)
“The time you beat me?”
“Yeah. You were so scared. I had to prompt you to climb all the way up and then coax you all the way down while you cried.”
“I didn’t cry,” I said. Well, maybe one tear had leaked out at the time, but it still didn’t count as crying.
“The point is, after you got your feet back down on the ground, you realized how much you loved it. I haven’t been able to beat you since.”
I looked into his face for much longer than necessary. The firelight flickered in his dark hair and against his tanned skin, casting the light into weird mesmerizing shadows. He reached up to trace his fingertip along the chain of his necklace that hung around my neck, sending a pleasant shiver over me that caused him to smile.
“I’ll jump with you,” he whispered down to me.
I turned from him to look at the fire and tried to convince myself I was being stupid. Ryland’s thumb continued to caress wide circles on my hand. His hand began to radiate the gentle heat that I was so familiar with; it filled me, traveling up my arm and through my body until I was filled with warmth that made me feel both comfortable and confident. Ryland’s smiling eyes met mine as I looked up at him.
“One,” his silky voice smooth and even, “two, three.”
Our feet took off running in succession, his pace slower so as not to surpass me. As we reached the fire pit, we both took off in a flying leap and I closed my eyes. My heart fluttered as the air moved past me. For a fleeting moment, I felt like I was flying. I wanted the feeling to last forever.
My feet made contact with the hard-packed dirt and I stumbled a bit on the landing. Ryland righted me, placing his hands on my arms to steady me.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” I responded in a hyper voice.
“See? It’s easier than you thought it was.” He smiled at me before planting a swift kiss on my forehead and walking away toward Wyn. “And, that’s how it’s done.”
I had a momentary flash of frustration at being used as a pawn between them, but the irritation dwindled as the warmth from Ryland’s kiss spread over me.
We left soon after that, leaving large amounts of dirt on the fire to extinguish it. We tromped through the forest in anything but silence. Wyn and Ryland jumped and pranced through the forest, singing various Styx songs I had never heard before. Their loud, out-of-key voices echoed off the trees, making it sound like the forest was filled with a cheap Styx cover band. They kept rushing up to me at different times, grabbing my hands in a desperate attempt to get me to sing along. Their bad singing had me in stitches, and it was all I could do to tromp through the underbrush without falling on my face.
We broke through the tree line to the side of the highway where Ryland had parked his Lotus. The alarm twittered in welcome as Ry approached it and inspected every inch for scratches or a break-in. I smiled as he caressed the hood in grateful appreciation at finding nothing. His affection for his car was a fine, debatable line between uncomfortable obsession and a deep love. Ryland seemed to read my mind and glared at me, his falsely affronted look deepening my chuckle into a laugh.
We all piled in, Wyn stretching herself horizontally on the storage shelf that Ryland liked to pretend was a seat. Ryland sped down the mountain doing at least ten over the speed limit. He put on an oldies station, in obvious tribute to their romp in the woods, and Wyn lay back to text on her cell phone again. I still wasn’t sure what to say to Ryland yet, so I turned my head to look out the window, letting the song about some horse in the desert wash over me.
Ryland drummed his fingers to the music as he whispered the lyrics to the song. I fought the temptation to look at him; any conversation we could have would be forced with Wyn in the back seat anyway. Ryland had been acting out of the ordinary all night, and I don’t think it was just because Wyn was here either.
He had always wanted to grow up and be just like his father; no matter how much the man had hurt him or dictated to him. It was always his greatest ambition to grow up and make his father proud. They butted heads and fought, but Ry had always sought his approval, except when it came to me. To have him say that he wanted no part of it made me wonder what had happened between them. I desperately hoped I didn’t have anything to do with it; I didn’t know if I wanted to be responsible for his throwing his life away, and severing his relationship with his father.
Of course, the first odd comment he had made had been back at the school. I still wasn’t quite sure what he had meant, saying that I was more important than his father’s rules. I could take a wild guess and make the assumption my heart wanted me to, but that was foolish. I had a sinking sensation that all of his revelations tonight were connected somehow. Part of me couldn’t wait until Saturday night to find out what was going on with him. I needed to make sure everything was okay.
Before I knew it, we were winding down the canyon into the suburb where Wyn and I lived. I glanced up from the blackness of the window to look at the lights, their twinkling and shining dots looking like a million stars that had fallen from the sky.
Ryland reached out, grabbed my hand and squeezed, the action pulling me away from the lights. His eyes had a million questions behind them, a million thoughts, and a million words. I was lost in them, trying to figure out what he wanted to say to me.
He turned back to the road, his hand staying around mine, keeping them both in my lap. I knew why he was doing this; I couldn’t say anything to him with Wyn here. I couldn’t get my questions answered. I couldn’t tell him what I wanted to say.