Beyond Wild Imaginings (10 page)

Oh well, she didn’t mind Garren coming along. At least he was something interesting to look at, and it made her feel good to know that he cared.

“My panini is enormous!”

Kelly’s right eye twitched and it took her a moment to get it under control as her attention snapped back to Roger. “I beg your pardon?” she asked, arching her eyebrows.

He looked up at her and pointed at the grilled sandwich he’d just been delivered. “My panini. It’s the biggest sandwich I’ve ever seen.” He grinned and gave her an arrogant expression. “You see, I only dine at the best restaurants. You definitely get what you pay for.”

She sighed and looked down at her plate of pasta. Roger had taken her to an Italian restaurant/bistro. It was upscale and very nice, but she would have enjoyed it a lot more if her companion hadn’t been making her stomach turn for the past half hour.

She dipped her fork into her pasta and tried to just focus on how good it looked while Roger launched into another speech about his favorite subject—himself.

Garren sighed also and put his head in his hand. There was a bowl of olives sitting on the table, different kinds—green, black and burgundy. Garren noticed them, discreetly pulled a few out, and lined them up along the edge of the table. Kelly frowned, but tried not to pay him too much attention.

Another one of Garren’s projectiles hit him directly in the earlobe. Roger looked around in annoyance, and Garren seemed entirely too pleased with himself. He lobbed one more at him.

“Ow!” Roger cried. “Ow! My eye!” He covered his eye, and Kelly put her hand over her mouth in an attempt to stifle her giggle. Garren gave a satisfied smirk and sat back in his chair.

“Who was that?” Roger growled, scanning the room. “Who had the audacity to—” His eyes fell on a little boy of maybe ten sitting at the table diagonally across from them. He appeared well behaved, sitting up straight in his seat and eating with his utensils, not his hands. Roger glowered. “You wanna put a leash on your kid, lady?”

“I swear, kids these days,” Roger muttered. He adjusted his suit jacket, cracked his neck, then looked back to Kelly. “I’m very sorry about that. Now, where were we? Oh, yes. There I was, talking to Marlon Brando—”

“Roger, how do you feel about kids?” She folded her arms on the table and met his gaze while silently fuming over his outburst. It hadn’t only been embarrassing. It had been highly uncalled for and downright rude.

He cleared his throat. “Children should be seen and not heard. No child of mine will ever be out of line like that.”

She frowned.

He waved his hand. “Kids these days think they run the world. They don’t listen to their parents.” He snorted. “But, then again, most parents nowadays are completely underqualified. I think that people should have to pass a test for a license before they can have children. I tried to get a bill to pass in Congress, but it never did.”

She arched an eyebrow. Was he serious?

“When I have children, I will put them in boarding school as soon as I can. That way they grow up learning valuable things instead of filling their heads with nonsense.”

She nodded. “I do agree on the not filling their heads with nonsense thing. Nowadays, parents just sit their kids in front of a TV and let it be a babysitter.”

He frowned. “Well, I don’t see anything wrong with that. At least if they’re in front of the TV, they aren’t running around like wild Indians.”

She blinked. “You don’t think children should play? You don’t think they should get outside and exercise their creativity?” She couldn’t believe his line of logic.

He snorted. “Definitely not. Children spend too much time being fanciful, and then they grow up to be ridiculous adults who leech off society. Children should only be allowed to do practical and useful things. Daydreaming and playing around are not useful or productive.”

Highly insulted, Kelly opened her mouth to protest, but she didn’t get a chance to get any words out. Garren was obviously fuming. He reached out and knocked Roger’s glass of wine over, sending the red liquid pouring over the table cloth and onto the man’s lap.

Roger jumped back with a shout, and Garren stood casually, making his way behind the angry man. He grabbed hold of his tie and wrapped it around Roger’s neck, which caused his eyes to bulge as he gasped for air and grabbed at his tie.

Kelly’s eyes widened, and she watched in fascinated horror as Garren let him panic for a moment, then flung him to the ground, where he gasped and flopped around like a fish out of water. Several waiters and waitresses ran over, and the other patrons were staring in shock at Roger’s display.

Roger pushed away the waiters who were trying to help him and stood with as much dignity as he could muster. He shooed everyone away and, red and flustered, glanced back at Kelly.

“Are you all right?” Kelly asked out of courtesy.

He cleared his throat. “That was the strangest thing.” He dabbed at his wine covered pants with his napkin. I swear someone was choking me.” He shook his head.

Kelly slid her glance to Garren and gave him a sly smile. “But no one is here.”

Garren’s lips quirked, but it was obvious that he was still very much upset with Roger. He was sitting with his arms folded and a black scowl on his face.

Roger cleared his throat again. “Yes, well, Kelly, I find that I’ve lost my appetite. Allow me to escort you home?”

She looked down at her uneaten pasta. “Yeah, just let me get a to-go box. Are you sure you’re all right?” His color had gone from red to ashen.

“I’m fine. Just a little uneasy, that’s all.”

Kelly called a waitress over and got her food put in a box. Then they paid their ticket and headed back outside, where it was raining like crazy. Roger swore as his expensive, dry clean only suit got soaked almost instantly, and he continued to mutter as he tramped up the street to where he had parked his car.

“Did he forget you are here?” Garren grumbled, his voice holding more than a little bite to it. “What kind of gentleman takes off and lets his lady get soaking wet?”

She sighed. “Garren, I don’t see any gentlemen here.”

He gave her a dark frown, and his wings erupted from his shoulders with a burst that caused her to jump back and gasp. “I beg to differ,” he all but snarled, positioning one ebony wing over her head to protect her from the torrential downpour.

Kelly met his violet eyes, now fiery from his temper, and found it difficult to catch her breath. Power resonated off Garren, and she moved closer to the warmth of him. She felt safer and more protected under the feather canopy he provided than anywhere else in the world.

She watched Garren lift his wings and take to the sky outside and knew she would see him back at her apartment. She fixed Roger with an icy glare. “One of the lunatics who entertained her creative fantasy as a child,” she said with barely concealed malice. “You know, someone who did useless and nonproductive things while running around like a wild Indian.”

He frowned as he turned the key in the ignition. “Where did that come from?”

She gritted her teeth. “Roger, did Rachel tell you anything about me? I know she told you I was a bestselling novelist. How did you think I got to be that? How could I possibly have made a career for myself if I didn’t have a ‘useless’ imagination?” She shook her head. “Why did you even want to go out with me?”

He still looked confused. “Kelly, you are a beautiful woman, and Rachel told me you needed a real man in your life. Someone with stability and a good head on his shoulders to bring you back down to Earth. She said you wanted that.”

Kelly thought up several ways to torture and then kill her sister. “Rachel is full of crap,” she spat. “I am perfectly happy with my head up in the clouds, and if all I have to look forward to down on Earth is men like you, I’d rather just stay in the clouds. Pull over.” She had absolutely had it with this guy.

“What?”

“Did I stutter? Pull over!”

He obliged and she opened her door and climbed out. She didn’t care that it was raining. The drops would most likely evaporate on contact with her skin anyway considering how pissed she was.

“Kelly! Get back in the car! Are you insane?”

“No, I am
not
insane! Maybe you should ask yourself that question, Mr. Rational-and-Productive, considering you were the one being choked by the Invisible Man at dinner!” She slammed the car door, pivoted on her heel, and strode up the street with more than enough energy to burn off. Okay, technically, Roger
had
been choked by the Invisible Man, but she was not about to tell him that and ruin a perfectly good insult.

It only took Roger a few minutes to discard her and go blazing past her on the road, sending a spray of water right at her. She gasped as the cold, muddy water splattered all over her green dress, as well as the bare arm and leg on her left side. Unbridled rage filled her, but then mixed with profound sadness and she didn’t know what to feel. She was angry over Roger, but saddened that someone could be such a heinous jerk. And knowing that Rachel had been the cause of it didn’t help. Was Roger really Rachel’s idea of a real man? Did she honestly think that was the kind of person Kelly needed in her life? Why did she always end up getting stepped on, walked over and…doused? Doused in crap. She was sick of it.

“Kelly!” Garren landed in front of her, looking concerned. “Look at you, you’re soaking!” He glared down the now-empty street. “I could kill that man for what he did.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, Garren.”

“It does matter!” His voice snapped like the lightning that lit up the sky. “No one should treat you in such a manner! No one!”

She opened her mouth to speak, but he didn’t give her a chance. He reached out and pulled her to him, then bent and lifted her into his arms as he took to the sky. She squeezed her eyes shut, and her stomach dropped at their quick ascent. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck, loving how warm he was.

She almost instantly felt soothed and comforted. She was aware of the storm as they flew, and marveled over how close they were to it, but the lightning didn’t frighten her, and the thunder sounded beautiful to her ears. It was like Garren wrapped her in a protective bubble where nothing could touch her.
I’m not scared. Garren will always protect me.
She smiled and looked up at him. His jaw was clenched and he was still scowling. His defense over her warmed her heart in the best kind of way. She reached one hand up and caressed his cheek. She ran her fingers along and down his jawline, hoping to ease some of the tension. It worked. The harsh lines of his face softened and he met her gaze, his eyes holding a wealth of emotion that she couldn’t decipher.

He landed on the roof of her apartment building and made sure she was shielded from the rain until they reached the stairwell. Only then did he retract his wings. He was silent as they made their way to her apartment, and when Kelly looked at him, he seemed deep in thought.

Once inside, she realized that she had left her pasta in Roger’s car and she sighed. It figured. One good dinner down the drain, just like her evening. She went to the linen closet and pulled out a towel, but Garren took it out of her hands. She looked up at him in confusion. He unfolded the towel, wrapped it around her, and dried off her wet arms and dripping hair.

She gave a small smile. “Garren, you’re sweet, but you don’t have to.”

“Shh.” It was a definite command, and he continued to dry her off.

Kelly watched him. His face was intent on the task at hand, and it stirred butterflies in her stomach. She couldn’t remember if any man she’d ever been with had taken such care of her. His hands were gentle and thorough, and he made sure he left no trace of mud or water on her body. The fluttery feeling in her stomach moved upward to her heart. “Garren,” she whispered.

“Why would your sister set you up with such a man?” he snapped.

A small smile touched Kelly’s lips. “I don’t know, Garren. Rachel thinks she’s helping, but she has no idea what I want or need.”

“Helping? How could she possibly think she was helping you? What has happened to the girl I remember? When did she turn her back on everything she was and become the monstrosity that was in your kitchen this morning?” He flung the towel down in the hamper and strode into the living room, obviously still more than irritated.

Kelly sighed. “I don’t know what happened to Rachel, Garren. She’s been that way for twenty years.” She shrugged. “I know she worries about me. I don’t exactly have the best luck with men. Even before David, I knew how to pick losers. She wants to help. Unfortunately, she has no idea how to do it.”

Garren whirled to face her. “She needs to listen to you. She needs to know you.”

She looked up at him, and her heart reminded her that it was still fluttering. She gave him a soft smile. “I know.”

He snorted and slashed at the air with his hands while pacing back and forth several times in agitation. “I know not how things got so out of hand in your life, but I swear to you one thing.” He turned back to her and pointed his finger at her. “No one, and I do mean no one, will ever treat you this way again.”