“You’re going to be fine. I promise.”
He picked me up, enveloping me with his size and warmth, and I grabbed hold around his neck once again, our faces only inches apart. He stared down at me in the semidarkness. His piercing eyes softened as they studied my features in the strange light. I had the feeling he didn’t show this side to many other people.
As though unable to help himself, he placed a warm, soft kiss on my lips that lingered and made my blood thicken. Then he took one step, which put us in the archway. His head was thrown back, exposing his muscular neck, his eyes closed and deeply focused. He tightened his grip almost painfully on me and stepped through the opening.
A powerful tingling sensation attacked me. A violent lightheadedness enveloped me. I was squeezed, feeling my blood pounding almost painfully hard. Compressed, the air was forcefully pulled from my lungs, and I had a sudden sense of free fall. My stomach dropped, and I couldn’t get any air to even scream. All I could do was hold on tight. Not let go.
Then it was over.
Complete darkness crept over us. The brilliant blue light faded incrementally, until once again not a hint of that brilliant illumination entered the space. All I could perceive was the feel of Ryder’s skin, though it was now clammy and cold. As was mine.
“What was that?” I croaked.
“It’s okay,” he murmured on a deep breath. “Hold on. I’ll get a light.” He stepped away, his heavy boots slowly shuffling in the darkness. A few seconds later, a soft luminescence gently touched our immediate space. I saw him standing in front of a set of secured cabinets.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I think so. What just happened?”
“It was a form of travel. We call it a mylunate transfer. This is my transfer room.”
“Travel? What do you mean? I felt like I was in a blender.”
“Been in a blender, have you?” One side of his mouth quirked into a sexy half grin, which zinged me unexpectedly, sparking a feeling of tenderness which I knew was dangerous for me in a whole other way. I knew he was trying to put me at ease, but I immediately recoiled from it. “Look who’s being snarky,” I replied lightly.
It appeared that I was in a stone room. The walls, the floor, the ceiling—all made of some kind of smooth rock which was a gorgeous, vibrant blue. The room was small, maybe half the size of my bedroom, but there were no windows, which made it feel even smaller, like a large walk-in closet.
Cabinets made of some kind of dark wood took up wall space directly behind Ryder, but they also had thick metal bars over them, protecting whatever was inside. Was there something dangerous or something secret in there?
“Holy smokes, Batman! Is this your super-secret weapons lab that no one else knows about?” I said this jokingly as I walked around the room, checking things out. I threw a smile over my shoulder, but Ryder watched pensively from a few feet away. “Taylor, you should lay off the TV for a while.”
“The TV was my babysitter,” I replied absently.
I noticed the source of the soft light appeared to be some kind of large, glowing rock in the middle of a glass wall sconce, which was absolutely strange, and I lost my train of thought. “How does that work?”
“Trinium is a naturally occurring ore. When you shave pieces off it, the energy from separation produces the light as a by-product.”
“Wow. Are you kidding me? Light that doesn’t have to use electricity? The Edison Company will flip out over this. Can this be channeled into appliances?”
We were in his lab. That had to be it. He had a secret lab in the middle of nowhere because he was developing this really cool “green” technology that all the big corporate energy producers would do their best to sabotage, given the chance.
“Yeah. It’s how we power most everything here. Let me show you the rest.” He went to a section of wall that had another of those slick black-box keypads. “It’s not summer here right now. We need clothes and heat. I haven’t been here for a while.”
That just didn’t make sense. “How can it not be summer here?” He had to be speaking metaphorically.
“Be patient.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that, but what is this place?”
“My home.”
“But I thought you lived—”
“Be patient,” he repeated briskly. “I’ll answer all of your questions.”
It truly must be appreciated that I held my tongue, which was really hard for me.
We’d just walked through some weird psychedelic door in the canyons by Malibu, and now we were in his cave house with glowing rocks? That begged for explanation, didn’t it?
Then he pushed open a hidden panel that led out of the room. A bit paranoid were we?
It was then I realized I was shivering. I followed him through the hidden panel in the blue stone wall, which I would have been more intrigued by if I hadn’t been losing my body heat so quickly. The air was really cold, like snow-on-the-ground cold where crisp air filled your lungs and you stopped being able to feel the tip of your nose. I did need more clothing. Was this just a factor of being underground? I knew that underground caves could stay pretty chilly year-round. Were we in the canyon wall?
As we stepped into another darkened room, I decided that electricity had its place. There was something to be said for being able to flip a switch on the wall and have everything brighten up. Ryder pushed the wall panel back into place behind me and continued ahead. Within a few moments, soft lighting flared from yet another trinium rock, bringing the room to life where I stood. Holy cow, those were a lot of books! Two perpendicular walls were full of them, and they were stuffed in bookshelves and stacked in piles on the floor beside the shelving as well as on side tables around the seating area.
“Like to read much?” I arched an eyebrow at him.
“When I have time,” he stated. “Quarantine doesn’t allow for much else.”
Quarantine?
Ryder had created light with those strange rocks in a vase across the room. I noted the artistry of both vases, which flanked the seating area. They were made of softly tinted swirls of yellow and orange, the light from the trinium filtering through the colored glass making the room warm and welcoming.
“Those vases are beautiful.”
“My sister made them.”
I briefly wondered if this was the same sister he’d mentioned earlier who’d been somehow hurt.
The walls were of the same smooth stone as the room I’d just left, beautifully deep blue, buffed to a smooth polish. The floor under my feet and the ceiling all around was of the same stone, and I realized the room was literally cavelike, but luxurious at the same time. It was amazing.
“Who knew that Malibu had such beautiful underground stonework?” I said admiringly. “Better hope this doesn’t go public or you’ll have every pseudocelebrity suddenly wanting a cave home in the Malibu canyons. This is really lovely.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem, Taylor. We aren’t underground.”
“What does that mean?” When I gave him a questioning look, clearly a what-are-you-talking-about-would-you-care-to-expand look, Ryder narrowed his eyes, but he kept his lips pressed in a thin line. There was something he wanted to say, but he wasn’t saying it yet. Why?
With a mental shrug, I figured he’d get to it when he was ready.
The stone floor had two small, naturally formed steps that rose four inches or so each. These led to the slightly upraised living area where, in masculine tones, there were comfortable furnishings: a couch, armchairs, a coffee table and what looked like a supersoft, thick, furry rug.
Then I caught sight of the real showstopper.