Yield (35 page)

If you enjoyed this series, you might also enjoy reading one of Cyndi’s other series. 

Fey Court Trilogy centers around the world of the Fey.  Follow Grace into Ian’s world and see what being immersed in a fairy tale is all about.

Deception
Book One

Tainted
Book Two

Betrayal
Book Three

Guardian
(Companion Novel to Deception IAN’s POV)

Excerpt for Deception:

“What are you doing?  And how did you get out here?”
I snipped at Ian looking in both directions down the hallway.  I didn’t mean too, but I raked my eyes up and down stopping at the black blazer layered with the solid black Henley.   Hidden tightly beneath that were his broad shoulders that were all muscle and sooo…hard not to watch flex when he leaned absolutely anywhere.  Not too tight, just right!  His black jeans and Doc Martins were always my favorite.  Well, just about all of him was my favorite.   I hadn’t meant to leave my mouth wide open, but sometimes I just couldn’t stop myself.  I closed my eyes despite how inappropriate this moment was for gawking.  I just know he does
these things to make my heart jump up and down and turn flips.

When I
opened them, I caught only a blur of movement moving fast.  He’d just hid around the corner in an alcove near an empty classroom smiling that ridiculously fabulous smile of his.  I walked as slowly as possible towards the place where he’d just vanished.  Has he lost him mind?  Are we playing cat and mouse?

“You wanted to be saved, right!” he grabbed
my scrawny arm and pulled me too close ramming up against him.  Blocking the rest of the world out with his rogue smile shining at just me forced me to bite my gasp in two.  My body had a tremor as I looked up at his clean-shaved, still chiseled jaw line I’d just stared at for three seconds too long.   I followed down to his lips and back up to his eyes.  Those shimmering green eyes with the little flecks of silver flying around inside them, that I was sure no one else could possibly have noticed since I was the only one who got this close to him, were watching mine.   And I watched the silver flecks spread wider when I stood this close to him as if it triggered something only I could.  When I was this close he always seemed nervous.  He pulled his free hand through his silky dark hair that fell right over his left eye where I loved it to be when he tilted just right.  Brown, but with a hint of black to it.   Getting reality in check, I closed my eyes fast.

Focus! 
This is more than just saving.

More hidden messages
were sure to follow every time he spoke, but never explained.   He swallowed, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to—

He cut himself off.

Something inside of me scrunched up and heavied my beating heart. I grabbed my head blocking the scent. 
It’s him.  Kin.  He’s near.
  This horrific connection to the ultimate villain is undeniably hard to ignore.

Ian
stiffened.  He pulled me all the way against him forcing several strategic places to make me still like a statue.  He was standing on my toes.  Tears welled up as I tried to wiggle backwards.  We were edged against the corner now.   My mouth was beside his cheek so I curled my lips in to keep from touching his face.  Soon, my toes were free.

“WHERE did they go?” a voice boomed from the hallway. 
Ugh!
  It was the jock idiot, know-it-all Kin yelling at someone else to split up and find
them
. We were the
them
.  They were forever torturing us.

Footsteps trailed away.

“How did you know you were saving me?  And are you saving me from that horrid class or
him
?” I whispered into Ian’s ear and nodded in the direction Kin left. I didn’t have a choice about the whispering or how close I was to him to say it. He shivered.  I know because I felt it!

I had to ask that to believe it anyway.  I pulled my face back slightly to look at his eyes.  He just smiled sheepishly and looked out behind my shoulder. This wasn’t the first time he’d saved me from that moron.  He always had some kind of uncanny sixth sense when it came to saving me from Kin.  I never questioned it too long, I just loved that he did it.  “Grace,” Ian’s voice moved right beside my ear again, relieving me by simply saying my name and reminding me I was safe from Kin.  “Are you okay?”  He was looking down. He meant my toes.

I nodded unable
to find the ability to speak to him just then.  My body was talking, but my voice had dropped to my stomach.

“Guess he’s gone,”
Ian peeked around to where Kin disappeared from.   “Are you okay?” he repeated. 

I
backed up from the corner the two of us were sandwiched into thinking about all the times he’d done this.  Ian and I had been best friends since, well kindergarten.  He’d always been there.  Always! When life’s disasters seem to happen, he always showed up at precisely the right moment to pick up the pieces.

“The bell is about to ring.  You need to go.” 

He was still standing a little too close to me to hide my own nervousness.  I tried to swallow.  Didn’t happen.  I tried to breathe.  Didn’t happen.  I held my breath.

“You’re lips are turning blue, princess.”  He shifted his arms a little making the warmth
of him hit me in soft waves against my skin.  Sadly, the dull pang of reality gnawed at my heart.

“Why are you not in class?”
I demanded taking a deep breath.  His eyes blinked when a wave of my winded breath hit him.  Thank goodness it was before lunch. 

He held up a pink slip of paper indicating that once again, he had a “get out of jail free
” card as we called it.  Class passes were hard to come by for most people, but they never were for Ian.

He shrugged and
pocketed it. “Umm, I didn’t feel good” he said, but his expression was saying something else.

Yeah, right!
 
I didn’t believe him, but I had a feeling he was only hiding it to protect me from something bad he was dealing with.  “Who was Kin looking for?” I asked with a severity I didn’t really mean.

“You, I guess!” he said without hesitation.
 

“What?”
I was in shock only because he’d said it so casually.  He rolled his eyes in what seemed like amusement. One Mississippi…two Mississippi…the seconds were ticking slower than a turtle running a 5K.  Was he going for shock?

“Oh, I don’t know, Grace. 
I heard him coming. I didn’t think you’d want to run into him.”

He had to have the most devastating dashing smile that shot his upper lip up at the corner
s when he was trying to get me off topic.  I melted and forgot all about getting answers out of him.  As I quietly cursed this all too often lately, cryptic, intense Ian that reduced me to acting like a giddy preteen schoolgirl, I just shrugged and rolled my eyes. 

After stepping further away for the needed distance, I
smiled deviously, batted my eyelids, and headed back to gather my things.  He just stood there and watched me go. I stopped briefly to look at the “Hug a Tree” poster I’d hung over the library door.  I turned to look at Ian and remind him of my tree meeting at the library today, but he was gone.