Read The Three Fates of Ryan Love for Free Online Page B

She longed to touch them, too. What would a kiss feel like? She’d imagined it a hundred—a thousand—times. She wanted to know.
    Ryan took a deep breath and she remembered he’d asked a question. One she didn’t know how to answer. She couldn’t tell him what she was doing. She wasn’t sure herself.
    â€œI’ll wait outside,” she muttered instead.
    As she walked to the door, she could feel his gaze following. It trilled down her spine and stirred the embers that had been glowing inside her since the very first time she’d seen Ryan Love.
    She’d only just managed to get herself calm again before he emerged to find her in the hall. Dressed, he was a little easier to resist, but he smelled of soap and fresh air and that uniquely Ryan scent she couldn’t label but wanted to bottle and wear like cologne. His gaze met hers for a charged moment before he started down the stairs.
    In the kitchen, they found Ruby still at the table, sitting with Brandy’s nose in her lap, murmuring softly as she stroked the dog. Brandy listened with rapt attention.
    â€œShe had glass in her fur,” Ruby said. “And a piece in her paw. I got it out.”
    â€œThanks,” Ryan replied, moving around the kitchen familiarly. He opened a cupboard and pulled out three mugs. “Coffee?” he asked Sabelle, brows raised.
    She’d never had it before, but she nodded. It seemed expected.
    â€œHave a seat,” he said.
    Sabelle perched on the chair at the table with Ruby on her right and Ryan moving in the kitchen to her left.
    â€œTell me what happened,” Ruby urged in a low voice.
    Ryan poured a dark brown brew into each mug, glanced at Sabelle, and added a healthy pour of cream to one cup. “About an hour after you went home, I locked up behind the last customer,” he began, delivering their coffee. “Then I took Brandy for our run, like I always do after work.”
    â€œWasn’t it raining?”
    He shook his head. “The storm didn’t blow in until later. It came fast. Never seen anything like it.”
    â€œI thought so, too. It was clear when I drove home.”
    He opened a stainless steel box on the counter and pulled out a loaf of bread. As he talked, he put three pieces in a toaster oven beside it.
    â€œI heard sirens when I was on my way back. I could see them down Mill Avenue, around Apache Road.”
    â€œA murder,” Ruby told him.
    Sabelle kept very quiet. She knew all this. The death had been her ticket from the Beyond to Ryan’s world.
    â€œA student out alone. He was stabbed to death.”
    They both shook their heads in silent mourning for the student neither had known.
    â€œI figured it had to be something bad with that many cops responding.” He paused, glancing at Sabelle. “When I got to Love’s, I heard a scream. That’s how I found her.”
    Ruby looked startled, then confused. “What do you mean, ‘found her’?”
    He stopped what he was doing and faced them both. Frowning, Ruby cut her gaze between her brother and his new friend. Sabelle decided now would be a good time to try the coffee. She took a drink and her taste buds sent a battery of reactions to her brain. Bitter. Hot. Creamy. Strangely . . . good. Surprised, she smiled.
    Ryan met Ruby’s gaze over Sabelle’s head and shrugged.
    Sabelle could feel the intensity in their interest. She knew it was her turn to talk, to fill in the blanks. But she couldn’t tell the truth and she hadn’t had time to compose a believable lie—even if she thought she could get away with telling it. She cleared her throat and said, “I was hiding.”
    Surprise widened Ryan’s eyes but he didn’t contradict her. When the silence stretched, she tacked on, “I was scared.”
    â€œOf what?” Ruby asked. “Did you see the murder? Did you know the boy who was