Seared [Pain & Love 1] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Read online

  Tyler was absurdly proud of his mate. The further she pulled away, the more she irritated him, yet her survival instinct did not fail to impress.

  His new body was lithe and muscular, allowing him stamina and fleetness of foot. He found it was very similar to his old one, and it made him happy. Because of the appreciable similarities between this and his other body, the difficulty of keeping up with Reyna over the unfamiliar terrain did not drain him. Tyler found himself pleased with the new body’s abilities.

  Following the feel of his mate, Tyler eventually came to a small, tidy house. He observed the structure with admiration, knowing it was hers and finding pleasure in the fact.

  Seconds after he came upon the house, he was further surprised by his mate’s resourcefulness and survival drive. She had managed to get behind him and now had a weapon of some variety pressed to the back of his neck.

  Chapter Two

  “Get away from me,” she snarled.

  “I am here for no other reason than you,” Tyler responded patiently.

  Reyna was mad that he’d followed her. Furious, in fact. She knew she’d lost the other pursuers, but this man had followed her unfailingly. She didn’t know how. She’d thought she’d surely given all of them the slip.

  “If you’d let me explain,” Tyler began patiently, but Reyna interrupted him by pressing her weapon more securely against the back of his neck.

  “I don’t want any explanation from you,” she declared in a growling voice. “Just keep moving. Stay away from me.”

  Tyler debated his options. He had what he considered his very last resort, and that was bonding their minds so that she could not refuse him. To do this to a mate without permission was considered among the most heinous of acts, and it was a rare coupling that could overcome such betrayal. He would reserve it until he had no other recourse, because Reyna had suffered long and enough and the last thing he wanted to do was imprison her mind.

  “If I go, they may still come for you, Reyna,” Tyler said, hoping that her care for her own safety would overrule her desire to get him away from her. He knew that she was angry about the instant attraction she’d felt to him and hoped to reassure her that the feelings were as natural as the sun and wind.

  “I won’t even ask how you know my name because that’s far from the weirdest aspect of the night,” Reyna said. She had a choice to lower the shovel she had pressed against his skin or beat him to death with it. Either way, her arms were starting to shake from the effort of holding it in an aggressive position.

  “I’m going to lower my weapon and get out of the rain. You come in, you explain this shit to my satisfaction, and maybe we’ll try to work something out from there. If you piss me off or make me think twice about trusting you I will shoot your ass and call it self-defense. Are we clear?”

  “Crystalline,” Tyler agreed. He couldn’t keep the smile off of his face as she lowered her weapon. It was a shovel, he saw, as he turned to face her.

  He wanted to embrace her and more. Her nearness filled him with desire, hardened him as the wanton advances of a thousand women on his home world had never been able to. He’d been a celibate creature until now, wanting to be with no other than his mate and needing her nearness even to be functional as a male.

  “I don’t like that look,” Reyna told him as she returned the shovel to its spot leaning against the backdoor of her home. Tyler followed, still grinning.

  “I wager you would like the thoughts that accompany it far less,” he said, and Reyna couldn’t figure out if he was teasing her good-naturedly or needling her into punching him. She went with the first, because most people didn’t actually go out with the intention of getting punched. It was just in her experience that most of them deserved it regardless.

  They entered her home and Tyler breathed deeply, inhaling the scents that conveyed Reyna’s essence and personality. Her space was clean and personalized. Everything in the room had obviously been chosen based on what Reyna wanted the space to reflect, and she damned all opinions that were negative against her style.

  Tyler saw they were in the kitchen. The countertops were gray stone, with backing on the walls underneath done in shades that matched the earthy tones. The cupboards were dark wood, so dark they looked shiny and black in the night. Reyna flipped a switch beside the stove and it flooded the room with soft, muted light.

  Tyler saw there was no dining room table in the area designed to hold one, but instead there was an island for storage that had a flat, laminated countertop, a space to chop vegetables and other ingredients on top. On the additional counter space, metal and wooden bowls were stacked, and cooking utensils like spatulas and serving spoons sat in a squat vase that was previously used for flowers.

  Reyna leaned against the counter while Tyler admired the art she had on her walls and the tiles she’d chosen, laid, and grouted on the floor by herself. She had something in the crockpot on the counter behind her, and the entire house was filled with the delicious aroma that wafted from it. The contents had been cooking all day. It was typical of her to use the crockpot to cook, and the meal would usually last her two or three days of dinner. As she worked from home, she didn’t go out much and absolutely loved to cook. This recent recipe was a crockpot chicken and dumplings, and the smell of it made her stomach remind her she hadn’t eaten for hours. She was starving.

  “OK, explain so you can get out of here and I can get to my dinner,” she told him as she turned to the crockpot and lifted the lid. She’d put the biscuits in before her run and took a moment to scoop some of the broth up to pour over them. She didn’t want them drying out.

  Tyler sniffed and gave an approving smile. “I’d be eternally grateful if I could share that dinner with you while we speak,” he told her in a gregarious tone of voice.

  Reyna looked at him out of the corner of her eye and did her best not to smile back. However, she couldn’t fight the urge to grin, nor could she refuse him. She sighed and got two bowls out of the cupboard above her and forks from the drawer in front of her. She peeled several sheets from her wooden paper towel dispenser and dished up two servings. Before she could take them to the table, Tyler took them from her, leaving her with the napkins and a sense of confusion to have someone helping her set her poor excuse for a table. She had few friends, fewer lovers, and no family. It was very rare to have someone else in her house, let alone an attractive someone who’d died and revived before her eyes. It was a strange night.

  Pulling down cups from the same cupboard that held the bowls, Reyna wondered if she should ask Tyler what he wanted to drink or just give him something. When she opened her refrigerator and saw no less than four options, the issue became a conundrum for her. She decided to just gather all the beverages up that she could see and take them to the breakfast nook that Tyler already stood beside. He patiently awaited her presence.

  The nook was an extension of the wraparound countertop and had two chairs, one on either side that tucked unobtrusively under when Reyna wasn’t eating. Tyler had put both bowls on respective sides of the nook. Reyna deposited the glasses near each bowl and then fiddled with the settings momentarily before forcing her hands to still.

  “I didn’t know what you liked,” Reyna said lamely. For the first time she felt she fumbled with him. She cursed the loss of her cool veneer and fought not to appear as graceless at serving a guest as a child taken from a tea party to host a social dinner for dignitaries.

  Tyler eyed the collection of drinkables curiously. He’d never tried anything that Reyna had placed on the countertop except water. Water was the predominant liquid ingested on his home world. It was in such large supply and his people craved the natural sustenance their home world offered. The only other thing that might be drunk was the sweet nectar of fruits and some flowers, but the soda pop and iced coffee he saw were truly new things to him.

  “I would like to try them all,” he said to her, and she thought she heard a hint of shyness in his tone. Not about to argue
that no one tried six different things with dinner as she had found a can of iced tea and a bottle of tomato juice in the bottom, shoved to the back of the refrigerator, Reyna simply took his cup and grabbed the clear glass pitcher that held water. Tyler stopped her with his hand on her wrist and a smile that nearly halted her heart.

  “Forgive me. Water is one of several things our worlds share. I would like to try the others, if you don’t mind.”

  Reyna’s hand was a little less steady when she uncapped the soda and poured some in Tyler’s cup. She didn’t like to think that the fine trembling in her fingers was attributable to Tyler’s touch and avoided looking at him as she poured.

  Figuring that iced mocha would taste horrid after citrus soda, Reyna returned to her cupboard and took the remaining cups from her collection down. The dishes she owned occupied that one single cupboard, and she had only eight cups. Now that they were all on the table, she set to filling them with lemonade, iced coffee, tomato juice, iced tea, and water, which she also filled hers with.

  Remembering that she also had a half gallon of milk that had yet to hit its date in the door of the refrigerator, Reyna got that out and filled a cup with it as well. She felt silly as she observed her breakfast nook. It was taken up by six classy, charming pieces that matched her bowls with their black exterior and red interior two that she considered cups of preference. One was tall and lime green with an orange twisty straw and the other was an overly large coffee cup with a smiling face flipping a middle finger.

  “I like your cups,” Tyler said, and it was such a ridiculous statement to her that Reyna laughed until she was nearly teary eyed. She was afraid the panic would make itself known now and dissolve her into a weeping, blubbery mess but after the laughter subsided, she was able to sit and gesture for Tyler to join her without giving into hysterics.

  “I like them, too,” Reyna responded and she watched with some fascination how gingerly he handled his fork to spear the chicken she had served him. “Missing that extra digit, are you?” she asked and hoped it wasn’t too blatant a question. She mentally scolded herself, wondering when was the last time she gave a damn about offending someone with her questions or comments.

  “The human body takes some getting used to,” Tyler admitted, and Reyna didn’t know whether to scoff at him, tell him he should start his meds back up, or be frightened of him. What she’d seen in the woods had pretty much convinced her he wasn’t human, and if he was, he was a very, very special member of the breed. She decided to go out on a limb and let him say his piece. Then, if it was too crazy for her, she could just kick him out.

  “Well, most of us have years of practice by the time we’re into one that’s as big as yours so I won’t deduct any points for it,” she told him as she took a bite of her food.

  Tyler smiled at her, and Reyna didn’t like how easily she smiled back at him. She’d never smiled that easily at Ronnie. She’d never smiled that easily at anyone.

  Tyler lifted the fork to his lips with his first bite balanced precariously on top of it and Reyna felt both worry and amusement. She was concerned he was going to drop the food on himself and ruin those magically acquired clothes, but watching him move the fork with such focus made her smile again.

  Reyna shook her head at the whole situation. There was a gorgeous zombie, that didn’t want to eat her face, in her kitchen having trouble mastering a fork. Yes, this was a night of strangeness for sure.

  “OK, you wanted to explain, let’s go,” Reyna said after taking another bite, and though usually her impatience was apparent in an irritated tone and withering glare, she said the words with no malice. She felt relaxed and comfortable, which managed to make her feel anxious and uncomfortable.

  Tyler noted that his mate was fighting his calming influence and marveled at her strength of will. Though it was true his society placed near to equal value on their males and females, it was common knowledge to him that the women were the weaker-willed of any species he’d ever studied. When it came to the bond between mates, the male was always able to exert his energy more forcefully than the female, and that was expected and accepted on both sides. Why, then, did his mate fight him at every turn?

  Frowning, Tyler finally got the bite of food to his mouth and managed to get it inside without much more than a single spilled drip of creamy broth Though that one droplet stayed perched on his full bottom lip, he was able to enjoy the rest of what had found its way to his tongue, and he felt instant, cosmic love for the flavors that assaulted his newly grown taste buds.

  The woman was a genius, a goddess, and Tyler didn’t care if she fought him every minute of every day for the rest of their lives. The subtle context of flavor and texture and aroma all melded together to create the most delicious thing that he’d ever encountered, save the taste of Reyna’s kiss.

  Leaping up from his seat, Tyler accosted Reyna with fervent kisses. Reyna had been unprepared for the onslaught and cursed her distraction. Until he’d jumped out of his chair like a maniac, she’d been focused to the point of distraction by the golden droplet of broth that had somehow managed to maintain its place on his lip through his chewing and swallowing.

  The broth was smeared across her lips now, and though she could think of far sexier foods than the drippings from chicken and dumplings, combining the two potentially sensual acts of eating and kissing had her throbbing with fire and moaning from the ache that erupted between them as soon as they touched.

  Though Tyler had been the one to initiate it, he left the kiss as abruptly as it had begun to shovel one, then two, and then three more mouthfuls down. Reyna couldn’t keep herself from giggling at his voracious appetite even as she marveled at the way the searing wave of desire had crashed over her. It had been too long, she figured, since she’d been with a man, and Tyler was strange, fascinating, and dazzlingly good-looking. It was no wonder to her that her hormones were on a horn-blowing, flag-waving parade inside of her.

  When Tyler sampled the citrus soda, he once again peppered Reyna’s lips with excited kisses. She didn’t know whether to laugh at him, refuse his kisses, or return them with equal gusto in hopes he’d be keen to sate the ache he’d caused. In the end, she settled for letting him kiss her and laughing when he did. She knew she’d have to make him stop sometime soon, because his kisses made her giddy and dizzy all at once. It wouldn’t do for her to be so distracted by this very strange and special man.

  “I think if I don’t stop letting you eat and drink things, you’ll never be able to get on with your explanation,” Reyna said as she managed to steal a few quick bites between kiss barrages. Tyler looked so horrified at the prospect that she laughed aloud again.

  “I’ll speak,” he promised. “But may I have more first?”

  Tyler showed Reyna his empty bowl and she wondered at how he’d possibly emptied it in between guzzling soda and the iced coffee.

  “Sure, I’ll get it,” she said, but he shook his head.

  “Not at all,” he replied as he stood. “I can manage.”

  Reyna turned to watch him engage in the process of carefully spooning breast, broth, and biscuit into his bowl. He spilled some on the counter and hastily wiped up the mess with paper towel he tore from the dispenser, though he’d taken far too much for so small a spill. He looked at Reyna guiltily and she couldn’t help smiling to relieve his fear she’d be angry with him for the mishap.

  “It cleans real easy,” she reassured him as he turned back toward the breakfast nook with his full bowl.

  Too full, Reyna noticed, and knew what was coming before Tyler sloshed some over the side and yelped as it burned his hand. Reyna reached out instinctively and grabbed the bowl before it crashed to the floor, but almost half of the contents plunged to a sad death on the tile after searing Reyna’s hands, as well. Reyna didn’t mind the mess or the burns she’d managed to get on her own hand and set to cleaning up quickly and efficiently, but Tyler looked horrified.

  As soon as she set the bowl on the counter
near the crockpot, Tyler took Reyna’s hands in his and cradled them as though they were the pieces of a priceless artifact he’d shattered on her floor instead of hands sporting minor burns because of a small dinner accident.

  “They’re fine,” Reyna said calmly. “I’ve had plenty worse. I just have to get them cleaned and wrapped. They’ll be totally OK, Tyler. Let me have a look at yours.”

  Trying to distract him didn’t work, and Reyna noted with a little bit of panic that he was close to crying over the fact that she’d been injured.

  “Listen, it’s really not a big deal. This happens more than I’d like to admit. I even have a burn salve around here somewhere,” Reyna continued as she pried her hands away from Tyler. “Let’s get these taken care of, and then we can talk.”

  Tyler, looking morose and guilty, followed Reyna silently toward her bathroom, which was attached to her bedroom next to her walk-in closet. She loved the bathroom and the huge, deep bath that took up the entire far wall. There was a standing shower in the corner of the room with a toilet opposite. Tucked into the space between the toilet and the large bath was a cabinet with a marble tile counter that had a sink with a gracefully arching silver spout and classy-looking handles set inside of it. The spout and handles that controlled the bath matched those in the sink and helped solidify Reyna’s opinion that the bathroom was the most attractive room in her house.

  Tyler stopped when his mate told him to stop and stood there without speaking as she rummaged through a collection of medicines, ointments, lotions, and creams.

  “And here we go,” Reyna announced with a smile as she procured burn ointment from among the bottles.

  Reyna very carefully applied the burn cream to her hands, enjoying the soothing feeling, and then attended Tyler’s with equal concern. Wherever their skin touched, it felt like there were magnets instead of muscles. The more Reyna touched Tyler, the less she wanted to do anything ever again.