I needed to talk to Val, but I really wasn't feeling it at the moment. Sending a text back that read I'll call you tomorrow, I was relieved when I got an okay from her.
Sighing, I opened up my door and nudged it shut behind me. The TV was about ten decibels too loud and was one of the Twilight movies—maybe New Moon. Tink was nowhere in sight as I walked across the hardwood floor and picked up the remote, turning the volume down. Placing it back on the old chest I'd converted into a coffee table, I gasped when I saw the couch.
A troll doll with bright green hair peeked out from behind the tan throw pillow, and its face, the color of suntan lotion, was frozen in a wide smile. It was also naked.
Sometimes Tink did that. Placed the damn dolls in weird places for me to find and be creeped out over. I snatched it up then walked down the hall and into the kitchen.
Tink sat on the island, crossed-legged in front of my laptop. I sighed. Yet another thing I needed to change the password to. He was so caught up in whatever he was watching, he didn't hear me walk up behind him. I bent over and blew on his bare back.
He shouted and shot up in the air, his wings beating rapidly as he whirled around, placing his hands like he was about to break out some kung fu. Despite the crappy evening I was having, a laugh bubbled out of me.
Tink dropped his hands to his chest and dragged in several deep breaths. "I think you gave me a heart attack. I can feel it in my chest. It's the big one." Pressing his hands to his front, he staggered back. "Oh no. It's happening. I'm about to die."
I tossed the doll at him. "Stop leaving these things laying around the house. It's weird."
He caught it, dropping slightly under the sudden weight. "I did no such thing. I told you what they do. They come alive when I'm sleeping. It's not my fault."
Rolling my eyes, I looked at the laptop. "Why do you have one of the Twilight movies on in the living room and Harry Potter on my laptop?"
"I'm doing research." He landed in front of my computer and placed the doll next to it. "Important research."
"Okay." I headed over to the table and shrugged off my backpack.
Tink flew over, hovering next to me. "How was your day, honey?"
I smiled faintly as I dropped the bag into the seat then zipped it open. "Not the greatest."
He cocked his head to the side. "You want to tell Dr. Tink all about it?"
"Thought you didn't like to be called Tink."
"Don't question my inconsistencies."
I laughed again. "I don't really want to talk about it." I pulled out the box of candies. "But I have pralines."
You'd think I pulled out a handful of naked brownies that were willing to live and serve Tink by the way he reacted. Buzzing around the kitchen excitedly, I was worried he was going to accidentally fly into one of the windows. Eventually he calmed down, and we ended up watching the rest of what turned out to be Eclipse and then Order of the Phoenix for whatever research purposes he wasn't ready to share. I was okay with the brain candy. It kept me from stressing over everything that had happened and what I'd have to do going forward.
I crashed a little after nine like a total loser, but I ate five more pralines before I rolled myself into bed, my stomach not appreciating the overdose of sweetness. Unable to fall asleep and striving to keep my mind free of all the crap, I grabbed a worn novel off my nightstand, cracking open Rule. A little after ten my eyes grew too heavy for me to keep open. I put the novel down, flipping off the light, and shifted onto my side. I wasn't sure exactly when I fell asleep, but when I blinked open my eyes, my bedroom was lit with a soft glow.
It took me a couple of seconds for my brain to process that there were only two lights in my bedroom. The ceiling one, which was much brighter, and the lamp on the nightstand, but I'd turned that off.
Thinking that Tink was being a freak again and had sneaked in my room, I started to roll onto my back, expecting to find a damn troll doll on the pillow next to mine, but my hip hit something warm and hard.
I froze as my heart skipped a beat.
Something was there, something that was way too big to be Tink, and then it moved, no longer resting against me. Instinct shot to the surface, and I shifted onto my back and sat up.
Déjà vu smacked into me, except this time I wasn't in an alley, but somehow unexpectedly staring into a pair of eyes the color of spring grass.
Son of a bitch.
Chapter Five
Part of my brain couldn't fathom what he was doing in my apartment—in my bedroom, sitting on my bed, giving me a half grin that revealed one deep dimple.
Was I dreaming?
He tilted his head to the side, and several dark, russet colored curls fell across his forehead. "You do this a lot? This stare at me and not speak kind of thing?"
Yeah, not dreaming.
Instinct was still firing within me, and I pulled my legs out from under the bedspread as I rolled back. I was more of a kick ass first and ask questions later girl. Ignoring the pull of the stitches, I planted my feet into Ren's chest.
He was knocked back, but caught himself before he fell. On his feet, he rose to his full height as I slid off the bed, landing in front of him. How did he get in here? Had he found Tink? Oh my God, what if he'd done something to Tink? Concern blossomed.
Not giving him time to recover, I spun on one foot and caught him in the stomach with my other foot. Ren's grunt told me that it hurt, and I snapped forward, aiming my fist for his face—his really nice face. What a shame I was going to have to bloody and bruise it.
He moved like lightning striking, catching my wrist and using my momentum to spin me around. An arm gripped tightly just below my breasts. "Whoa, Ivy, you need to chill."
I so didn't need to chill. I shoved my free arm back, catching him in the stomach again, but this time I could feel exactly how hard that stomach was. His abs didn't even budge. I went to do it again, but he did something that was going to piss me off until I took my last dying breath.
He shoved one leg between mine, hooking his foot around my ankle. One second I was struggling against him and the next I was falling forward.
"Crap," I muttered.
Ren didn't let me freefall. Instead, he controlled my weight and where I was heading. Before I knew it, I was on my stomach and he was above me, his knees on either side of my hips, and his hands wrapped around my wrists, pinning my arms to the mattress. My cheek pressed into the bedspread, and from my not-so vantage point, I could see that the bedroom door was open.
How quickly he incapacitated me yet again was humiliating, and I was too damn angry to be that afraid. "If you don't let me go, you're going to regret it."
"Jesus, is this going to happen every time we meet?"
"If you keep doing shit like this, then yes!"
He shifted so that his breath danced along my cheek. "I'm not trying to hurt you."
"You're practically crushing me." I tried bucking my hips, but he squeezed his knees in, stilling me. "I swear to God, if you don't let me go, I'm—"
"You're really feisty, aren't you?" He chuckled, and that ticked me off even more. "Look, I didn't come here to fight you. I need to talk to you."
"This is a really funny way of talking." I tried to twist my arms, but all I managed to do was make the position even more uncomfortable. "How did you find me?"
"Looked at your file in David's office."
My fingers curled into the bedspread. "He's going to kick your ass."
He chuckled again. "Nah, I don't think so."
God, he was so lucky I couldn't get my hands on him right now. "If you looked at my file, then you would've seen my phone number. You could've tried, I don't know, calling me like a normal person."