Kiera went to Leokin for about an hour, but her heart wasn’t in it. Which hadn’t happened in…ever.
But the truth was, not even the multiclan quest for the hidden dagger that Pete and Dalton had added last week could distract her from real life with Zach.
She argued with herself for almost an hour after shutting the game off.
Text him.
You can’t text him. It’s one a.m.
He said you could.
But you shouldn’t. Just end the day with that nice moment outside…
She took a deep, shivery breath. Nice was such an understatement. The memory of his hands on her, his deep voice saying such naughty things, the way he’d looked at her…
And then he’d left.
She was still shaking her head about that. What was that about?
She supposed she could text him and ask.
I can’t believe you left tonight.
She hit send and bit her lip.
He answered a minute later. I can’t believe how much I wanted to stay.
She smiled. He was there. She actually couldn’t believe how much she’d wanted him to stay tonight either. She’d never wanted a man the way she wanted Zach, and that want was only growing. Even as she got to know him better and realized how different they really were, she was still more and more drawn to him.
She was learning that there were alpha guys who felt the need to dominate and control because it was about them, and there were alpha guys who dominated and controlled because they felt it was good for the people they cared about.
Zach liked to be in charge, but his intentions and motivations were so different from Mitch’s. Kiera could acknowledge that some of it seemed similar on the surface, but she was learning that Zach could back down. He would listen, and he was willing to compromise.
Were you asleep? she typed. She wanted to talk to him, and she didn’t want to sext. Well, she did, but she also, as scary as it was, wanted to just talk to him more.
Nope. Wide awake. Thinking of you.
The guy was smooth, no doubt about it. She grinned as she sent back, You don’t have to sweet-talk me to get into my pants. Obviously.
His response was immediate. First, I think I was pretty sweet prior to that, and second, we probably shouldn’t talk about that.
She giggled and started to type, Why not? But his next text beat hers.
My hand is gonna get sore.
Heat flooded through her. For a moment she closed her eyes and imagined him lying in bed, naked, his hand…
Yeah, they shouldn’t talk about that. She should not go over there at this time of night, and that was really the only way this would end satisfactorily.
She sat up against her headboard. Should I let you get to sleep then?
I’d rather text with you.
Good answer. What do you want to talk about?
Tell me something I don’t know about you.
She thought about that. Her first thought was that there was a lot, but she was shocked to realize that wasn’t true. Zach knew a lot about her. All of the big, important things that mattered to her and that had shaped her.
But there was one thing he didn’t know about. Her job. Her work with Leokin. Damn. It was probably time to spill.
She wet her lips and took a breath. Okay. But you have to tell me some stuff too.
I’ll tell you anything you want to know, came his reply.
Of course he would. Zach was an open book.
But again, that thought didn’t seem quite right. Kiera frowned. Zach probably thought he’d tell her anything, but she knew, somehow, that Aimee wasn’t the Ashley who hadn’t dealt with their sister’s death. Zach was so busy fixing everyone else that he hadn’t dealt with his own loss.
She started to ask her first question: Tell me how you really feel about Josie’s death—because why not just jump in with both feet if she was going to go in at all?—when another text came through from him.
Tell me about the work project you start next month.
Okay, well, talk about a great opening.
I’m working on a huge expansion for WOL.
There was a long pause before he replied, Is there another WOL?
Nope. Sorry.
You work for WOL?
I’m the lead graphic designer. I’ve been with Leokin from the beginning. From before the beginning. The creators—Pete and Dalton—are two of my best friends.
Again there was a long pause. And two of your deep, serious online relationships?
Ah, he’d remembered that. Yes.
Does Aimee know?
Oh boy. Zach didn’t like secrets. Yes. She recognized me the first night I was at your house.
And neither of you told me?
After finding out that there was nothing on earth you hated more than WOL? Kiera asked. No.
Yeah, okay.
Kiera frowned. What did that mean? She typed, It’s okay?
I wish you’d told me sooner, but I get it. And, well, maybe now’s a better time to tell me anyway.
Kiera pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Why is now a better time?
Well, a few days ago I thought video games were a silly waste of time. Turns out there might be some good things about them after all.
Whoa. That was…Did you really just say you were wrong? she asked.
I just read that back and I never said the word “wrong.”
She laughed. Sorry. Thought it was implied.
Yeah. It was.
She blinked. Then she decided to tell him something else he didn’t know about her. My mind has changed about a few things too, now that you mention it.
Do tell.
Turns out not all hot guys are assholes. The response was flippant, and suddenly she had the urge to make it more meaningful, so she added, And turns out that not everything exciting and worthwhile happens on a computer screen.
* * *
I probably should have told you more about the exhibition.
Zach read Kiera’s text with a bit of trepidation, if he was totally honest. It had been a week since the arcade, and the exhibition at Maya’s studio was now only two days away. And Zach was very aware that he was going to be completely out of his element there.
Okay, hit me, he typed back.
The exhibition is kind of more like a play.
He frowned. A play?
It’s a live performance. We’ve done it three years in a row. Sophie writes and directs it.
I’m not following. Thought it was a demonstration of the things they teach in the classes.
Yeah, it’s that too. We all show up at the studio like it’s just an open house. A time for parents to sign their kids up for classes and for the kids to see the place and meet the instructors and talk about what they’ll do in class. Everyone comes in costume. There’s punch and cookies. The whole bit.
But? he asked.
Well, at some point in the midst of all of that, the show starts. One year it was an alien invasion. Another time it was mobsters coming in to hide out from the cops. Last year two girls from the past time-traveled to the studio and needed the kids to teach them about modern times.
He chuckled. Okay.
It’s really cute. The actors use the martial arts and self-defense moves and even some of the weapons stuff that Maya’s studio teaches. It gets the kids excited and entertains everyone more than just standing up there and explaining it.
Sounds good to me.
You’re okay with it?
He paused. Do I have to be one of the actors? And would he do it if she said yes?
LOL. No. But I am.
You’re wearing the short skirt and the leather boots, right?
Right.
And you’ll be doing some sword fighting?
Yes.
I’m in. 100%.
You sure talk big, came her response.
What’s that mean? he asked.
It means that you pretend you’re all turned on by me, but you’re acting like a monk.
He laughed out loud. You’ve felt plenty of proof of how much I want you, and monks don’t put their hands and mouths the places I’ve had my hands and mouth.
He loved that she wanted it as much as he did. Over the past week, they’d had multiple opportunities, but he hadn’t let it go beyond heavy making out. He really wasn’t teasing her. He wanted more from her than sex. He’d even told her that. But she hadn’t asked, “Like what?” He knew she wasn’t ready for more yet. But he was willing to wait.
What he wanted was for her to open up to him, face-to-face, in real life, and not get spooked by all the feelings. He wanted her to dig in, in spite of her fears, and be there.
It seemed simple, but he knew it wasn’t.
But he’d wait. He was proving to her that people did stick around and that he could be counted on. It would take time, but eventually she’d trust him. He needed her to trust him.
Every shift he worked, he had people entrusting him with their well-being. He knew the patient whose heart he’d restarted yesterday had trusted him. He knew the woman whose little girl had stopped breathing at the park had trusted him. He knew the grandmother who had fallen down her back staircase had trusted him.
But he wore a uniform and drove a truck with a siren on it and was dealing with physical issues that had answers. What he really needed was someone he cared about, who knew him and knew he had flaws and shortcomings, who knew that he didn’t actually have all the answers, to trust him anyway. His parents and sisters hadn’t. He needed Kiera to.
You’re driving me crazy, Kiera finally typed.
Okay, that was sort of emotional. Are you angry?
Frustrated. And scared.
You never have to be scared with me, Princess. I’d never hurt you.
There was a very long two minutes before she replied, The scariest part is I’m starting not to care about getting hurt. I want you anyway.
Zach felt as if she’d wrapped her hand around his heart and squeezed. I never want you to be scared, Kiera. Not of me. Not of what we’ve got here.
He held his breath waiting for the response. They could talk this out—or text it out, at least. He’d reassure her. He’d even admit that he was falling in love with her. He just needed an opening for more…
It’s getting late.
Fuck. Zach let out a sigh.
I should get to sleep. Can’t wait to see you at the exhibition.
His jaw tightened. I won’t see you before then? That was still two days away.
I need to catch up on some work. Pete and Dalton are coming to town in a few days, and we’re meeting about some new things. I need to have graphics done.
The project was going to keep Kiera holed up in her room in her pajamas and eating cereal. And not seeing him.
He wanted to be supportive. But he didn’t have to like it.
Okay, I’ll see you at Maya’s.
Great.
Kiera?
Yeah.
Text me. Anytime.
Okay.
“Okay.” That was it. He hated texting so damned much. Zach gripped his phone and forced himself to set it on the coffee table instead of hurling it against the fireplace. He picked up the laptop from the cushion beside him and went back to the search he’d been doing when Kiera had started texting him.
“What are you doing?”
He looked up to find Aimee padding through the living room on her way to the kitchen.
Trying to convince myself not to go over to Kiera’s house and hold a boom box over my head on her front lawn until she comes out and talks to me.
There. He did see movies.
“Buying an eye patch.”
Aimee stopped in the doorway to the kitchen and turned back. “Did you say eye patch?”
“Yeah. Maya’s thing.” He looked down at the screen in front of him. “I guess I’m supposed to wear something?”
“And you’re going to wear an eye patch?”
He looked up again. “And a sword.”
Aimee came back across the room and climbed up to sit on the arm of the couch next to him. She grinned. “Seriously?”
“You don’t think so?”
She studied his face. “I don’t see pirate in you.”
He sighed and looked back at the screen. Pulling off the bad boy thing should be easier than this. “That’s the point, right? An escape from reality?”
“I guess sometimes for some people,” Aimee said.
Something in her voice made him look up. “But?”
She shrugged. “I think the best costumes are the ones that make you feel like who you most want to be.”
He sat up straighter and set the computer to the side. He turned to face Aimee more fully, draping his arm along the back of the couch. “Is that how you feel about being Quinn?” he asked.
She smiled and he knew he’d gotten points yet again for remembering her Leokin character’s name. Why did everyone assume he’d forget that?
“Definitely,” she said. “I’m completely comfortable when I’m her and in Leokin.” She gave him a small smile. “My gamer friends make me feel normal and my regular friends make me feel weird. Ironic, right?”
He couldn’t help but give a little laugh at that. “I don’t know—there’s a girl from Leokin who has managed to get me a lot closer to normal than I’ve been in a long time.”
Aimee’s grin widened. “But she’s got you looking at pirate costumes.”
“Not costumes.” Not unless he was in Kiera’s bedroom and they had a good several hours to make the most of the role-playing. Alone. “But eye patches, yeah.” He nodded. “Talk about weird.”
“Maybe you just didn’t know what your real normal was before Kiera.”
Zach looked at his sister and, maybe for the first time, saw her as the almost-eighteen-year-old woman she was. She’d grown up. In the past six months more than ever. And she knew him. And loved him. “I think you’re right.”
There was a pause. Then Aimee said, “After Josie died, I didn’t think anything would ever be normal again. That’s why Leokin and Quinn were so important to me.”
She didn’t hesitate even slightly over Josie’s name or the word died. While Zach almost couldn’t breathe. He and Aimee hadn’t spoken about Josie at all to one another.
He didn’t feel as if things were normal. There was almost nothing familiar about his life now. Work. That was about it. And even that was filled with a new pressure to do everything he could and then some. He’d always felt that, but since Josie’s accident, he’d felt an even stronger drive to make it all work out, to be the savior.
Zach cleared his throat. “But now you feel back to normal?”
“Not back to normal,” Aimee said. “At least, not like it was before. A new normal, I guess.”
Part of him wanted to argue against that. Her old normal had been so good.
But had it? He was so used to believing what he had about her life—what he’d wanted to believe—that it took him a moment, even now, to remember that her mother was a closet alcoholic and her father was never around and her sister’s good influence had all been a lie.
“So online with Leokin you can forget about everything?”
“Not forget.” She lifted a shoulder. “Online I can…manage stuff, I guess. In real life it felt like everything was coming at me at once—Josie not being here and Mom going off the deep end and you freaking out and hauling me over here. There was no escaping all of that. I felt like everything was happening to me, and I couldn’t change any of it.”
He grimaced but didn’t interrupt.
“In Leokin I was Quinn, a fourth-level witch. Nothing more or less. Everything anyone knew about me was on that screen. And I was kick-ass. When everything in the real world was confusing and completely sucked, all I wanted to do was to be in Leokin.” She paused. “Online, I was in control. Or I could just shut it off when I didn’t want to deal at all. Unlike off-line, where everyone knew everything and it was all constant and impossible to shut off.”
He looked at her. The calm in her eyes. And the peace. God, he loved seeing that. But when had she gotten so insightful?
Then a thought occurred to him. “Did you know about Josie’s band?”
Aimee nodded. “Yeah. And she begged me not to say anything.”
Zach scrubbed a hand over his face. This wasn’t as much of a blow as he might have expected. As he and Kiera had discussed, he would have tried to stop her, and that would have been totally based on his own opinions and biases and narrow view. “I understand,” he finally said.
Aimee looked so relieved that Zach felt like a complete ass.
“Am I that hard to talk to?” he asked.
“You’re hard to…disappoint,” she said. “I mean you’re easy to disappoint. I mean…that’s hard on us. On me,” she finished, with a touch of sadness at the reminder that she was now his only sister.
Zach knew that he couldn’t promise to let up entirely and leave her completely alone. He’d never be able to pull that off. “I’ll always love you, no matter what.”
She nodded. “I know. And I know you’ll always be there.”
“Always,” he said firmly.
“But I want to trust myself more,” Aimee said. “When I put that costume on for Quinn the other night, I realized that there’s a strong, sure part of me. I just need to bring it out.” She ducked her head. “That sounds kind of dumb, doesn’t it? That a dress and a cape and some makeup can get me in touch with something that technically should be there all the time?”
Zach shook his head. “Three weeks ago I would have said yes, that sounds strange. Now not so much.”
Aimee looked up with a grin. “Kiera.”
He sighed and nodded. “Kiera.”
“She’s the best.”
That was one word. “She is. She’s also shown me that, if you’re doing something you love and have a passion for, you shouldn’t hide it. If Josie believed in what she was doing, she should have been proud enough of it to tell me and not care what I thought.” The words came out before Zach could really analyze them.
Aimee sat up straighter on the arm of the couch. “Really? You would have been okay with the band going on the road?”
He shook his head. “Probably not,” he said honestly. “But I would have respected her standing up for herself. And maybe my opinion shouldn’t have mattered so much.”
Aimee’s look of surprise probably mirrored his own. He’d spent most of his life believing his opinion should matter. To everyone.
“But when you love someone and respect them, their opinion does matter. It just does,” Aimee said. “Even if you hate it sometimes, their voice is in your head.”
Zach shifted on the couch. “Okay, in that case, let me put this in your head, in my voice—I love you and I’m proud of you and I want you to be happy above everything else. And if you find something that makes you happy, I want you to go for it, even if I don’t understand.”
Aimee blinked at him, and he thought maybe she was holding back tears.
“I should have said that to Josie,” he added. “I wish I had.”
Aimee launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing hard. “I love you too, Zach.”
His chest felt tight.
“So maybe you should do pirate for one night,” she said, finally pushing back and wiping her cheek.
He didn’t comment on the tears. He reached for his laptop and turned to prop his feet on the coffee table and set the computer on his thighs. “You think so?”
“It’s got to be exhausting being the good guy all the time. You should have a night off once in a while,” she said with a nod. “Let someone else do the worrying for a change.”
Damn. That sounded great.
* * *
“Okay, everyone, it’s time!” Sophie called. She was dressed as a lady-in-waiting, a member of Kiera’s royal court in Leokin.
Tonight’s show was about a princess being kidnapped by a knight from another land and then saved by her own people. Kiera didn’t know how many of the younger kids knew much about Leokin. Their primary demographic was ages fourteen to thirty-six. But she knew even the younger kids would understand and love the princess and knight characters and the sword fighting.
She glanced around, but Zach and Aimee weren’t there yet. She smoothed her dress and straightened her spine. Fine. This wasn’t Zach’s kind of thing. Or maybe he’d gotten held up at work. In any case, the show had to go on.
Maya’s staff and friends gathered just inside the door to welcome everyone and direct them into the main studio where everything was set up. Kiera pasted on her smile as the doors swung open and a horde of tiny superheroes, fairy princesses, soldiers, witches, wizards, and monsters tumbled into the building.
She smiled and greeted them as they all came past, checking out her outfit and her sword and all talking at once. When they were all gathered in the main studio room, Kiera took her place along the wall farthest from the door, meaning that her would-be captors would have to come across the room and so would her rescuer, both meeting in the middle for the big sword fight.
The exhibition was kicked off by Maya and her staff. Maya did a welcome and a quick rundown of how the classes worked, then she and some of the other instructors went through some martial arts routines as well as some hand-to-hand combat patterns, and finally Maya and her favorite sparring partner, Ben, demonstrated a bo staff routine.
Kiera watched the kids and their parents. They were, predictably, impressed with the presentation. Kiera felt the anticipation building, though. Some of the past students knew something was coming, and Kiera herself was excited to get Sophie’s cue to start their part of the show.
The signal came five minutes later. Sophie pulled on her earlobe, which, to the secret actors and actresses in the room, meant action.
Rob strode into the room, dressed as a knight in shining armor, his sword raised. “I am here for Kirenda, Princess of Leokin,” he announced, interrupting Maya’s explanation about the bo staff. “Turn her over to me and I shall spare you all.”
Kiera grinned and scanned the room, taking in the wide eyes and big smiles on the kids’ faces. They were eating it up. Then her eyes landed on one of the dads. Or who she’d assumed in her peripheral vision was one of the dads.
A tall, handsome man stood with his shoulder propped against the main doorway. He wore jeans and a button-down shirt—and an eye patch and a scabbard with a sword.
And that was the moment she officially fell in love with Zach Ashley.
Suddenly Rob was in front of her, blocking her view of Zach. He grabbed Kiera’s arm and jerked her around to face the room. “My land now holds your princess captive. If you want her back alive, I suggest you begin gathering the things you value most. We will meet in the east meadow at dawn in five days’ time. If you are not there or try to hold anything back from us, you will never see your princess again.”
They started for the door as scripted, but just then Aimee jumped in front of them, her cape billowing behind her.
“Not so fast, Sir Robert.”
“Ah, Quinn, the great enchantress,” Rob sneered. “I have heard the tales of your powers.”
“Then you know that you should surrender now. You’ll never make it to the border of our land,” Aimee told him.
Aimee was here. Good. That was good. But Kiera’s thoughts were completely scattered. Because Zach was here. With an eye patch.
“I’m not really Kirenda,” Kiera suddenly said loudly, pulling out of Rob’s grasp. Because he hadn’t been expecting her to actually try to get free, he hadn’t been holding her tightly. Kiera spun toward the room. “There! She’s over there! That’s the princess.”
She was pointing right at Sophie.
Sophie gave her a what-the-hell-are-you-doing look. Rob looked from Kiera to Sophie.
“Go,” she whispered to him.
Rob shrugged. “Don’t think you can fool me!” he declared, and started across the room to Sophie.
Kiera, on the other hand, made a beeline for her pirate as her friends made their way through the rest of the performance. Thankfully Sophie knew every line by heart.
“Princess,” Zach greeted her with a roguish smile as she got close.
“You’re…” Gorgeous, amazing, the last guy I should be falling for, the guy I’m definitely falling for anyway. “A pirate,” she finally said.
“Yeah. Kind of. At least for tonight.” He stroked his thumb over her cheek. “You look beautiful.” His voice was husky, and his eyes were hot as he looked at her.
“You’re killing me, Pirate Zach.”
“Yeah.” He looked grim for a moment. “I know what you mean.”
She started to say more but Maya was suddenly at her side. “Are you okay? What’s going on?” She noticed Zach a second later. “Oh, hey. I was kind of hoping you’d show up as a handsome prince.”
He grinned at her. “You need a prince tonight?”
“Every night, Zach,” Maya said in a teasingly wistful tone. “But I’ll have to settle for a knight tonight in my play and a prince in my dreams.”
He chuckled. “It’s just as well. I’m a bit of a novice at the prince thing.”
Kiera smiled at him. “I’m not so sure about that.”
The guy who came to everyone’s rescue? The guy who was concerned with everyone else’s happiness and well-being?
“Well, maybe the pirate could rescue the—” Maya started.
“No,” Kiera broke in. “He’s busy.” Kiera grabbed Zach’s sleeve and started down the hallway in the opposite direction, tugging him with her.
“Where are we going?” Zach asked.
“Maya’s office.”
“Oh. Why?”
She pushed him ahead of her through the door, then shut it behind her. “Because it locks.” She turned the lock with a loud click.