Tiger's Quest (8 page)

Ren picked up a smaller package and handed it to me. “This is from Mr. Kadam.”

I opened it and found leather-bound copies of
Mahābhārata
from India,
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
from China, and
The Tale of Genji
from Japan, all translated into English. There was also a short letter wishing me a merry Christmas.

I stroked my hand over the leather covers and made a mental note to call him and thank him later.

Ren handed me another gift. “This one’s from Kishan.”

Sarah looked up from her mixer and asked, “Who’s Kishan?”

Ren replied, “Kishan is my younger brother.”

Sarah gave me a motherly look of exasperation, to which I shrugged sheepishly in response. I’d never mentioned Ren or Kishan to her, and she was probably wondering how I could fail to remember someone like him.
I’d be wondering why I’d been so close-mouthed too.

I opened the box and found a small jewelry case from Tiffany’s. Inside was a thin, white-gold necklace. The card was very carefully handwritten:

Hey, Kells,

Miss you.

Come home soon.

I figured you’d like something more girlish to wear with my amulet.

There’s also an extra gift in the box, just in case you need it.

Kishan

I set the necklace aside and dug through the box. A small cylinder was wrapped in tissue paper. Unrolling it, a cold, metal canister fell into my palm. It was a can of pepper-spray. On it, Kishan had taped a picture of a tiger with a circle and a slash across its face. At the top were the words “Tiger Repellant” in big black letters.

I giggled, and Ren took it from me. After reading the label, he frowned and tossed the can back in the box. Reaching down, he picked up another package.

“This one’s from me.”

His words immediately sobered me. I glanced up quickly to measure Mike and Sarah’s expression. Mike seemed happily ignorant of the tension I felt, but Sarah was more in tune and was considering me carefully. I closed my eyes for a second, praying that whatever was in the box wouldn’t raise a billion questions that I’d have to answer.

I slipped my fingers under the heavy wrapping paper and opened the packaging. Reaching my hand inside the box, I felt smooth, polished wood. The kids helped me yank the carton off. Inside was a hand-carved jewelry box.

Ren leaned toward me. “Open it.”

I ran my hand nervously across the top and carefully tilted open the lid. Rows of tiny drawers were lined with velvet, and inside each little drawer was a coiled-up hair ribbon.

“The segments come out. See?”

He lifted the top section and the next one. There were five sections with about forty ribbons per section.

“Every ribbon is different. No two colors are the same, and there’s at least one from every major country in the world.”

Stunned, I said, “
Ren
. . . I—”

I looked up. Mike saw nothing wrong at all. He probably thought something like this happened every day. Sarah was looking at Ren with new eyes. Her suspicious and concerned expressions were gone.

With a small approving smile on her face, she said, “Well, Ren. It seems you know Kelsey pretty well. She does love hair ribbons.”

Suddenly, Sarah cleared her throat loudly, stood, and asked us to watch the kids while they went for a quick run. They brought us two mugs of steaming hot chocolate and disappeared upstairs to change into jogging clothes. Though they exercised all the time, they usually took a break on Christmas.
Was she trying to give Ren and me some alone time? I wasn’t sure if I should hug her or beg her to stay.

The box was still on my lap, and I was absentmindedly fingering a ribbon when they jogged out the door with a wave.

Ren reached over and touched my hand. “You don’t like it?”

I looked up into his blue eyes and said huskily, “It’s the best present I’ve
ever
been given.”

He smiled brilliantly, picked up my hand, and pressed a soft kiss on my fingers.

Turning to the kids, he asked, “Now who would like a story?”

Rebecca and Sammy picked out a book and climbed up onto Ren’s lap. He wrapped an arm around each of them.

He read in an animated voice, “I am Sam. Sam I am. Do you like green eggs and ham?”

The only word he got stuck on was “anywhere,” but the kids helped him sound it out, and he got it every time after that. I was impressed. Mr. Kadam must have taught him how to read English.

Ren convinced Sammy to hold the book for him and pulled me closer with his free arm. He tugged me up against his body so that my head rested on his shoulder and then trailed his fingers teasingly up and down my arm.

When Mike and Sarah returned, I bolted up and started gathering my things like a woman with her shoes on fire. Nervously, I glanced at Ren and found him watching me with a slightly amused, steady gaze. Mike and Sarah thanked us and helped me pack my things into my car. Ren said his good-byes too and waited for me outside.

Sarah gave me a look that clearly meant I had some explaining to do. Then she shut the door and left us in the cold December weather. We were finally alone.

Ren slipped off a glove and traced my face with his warm fingertips.

“Go home, Kells. Don’t ask me questions now. This isn’t the right place. We’ll have plenty of time later. I’ll meet you there.”

“But—”

“
Later
, rajkumari.” He slipped his glove back on and walked over to the Hummer.

When did he learn how to drive?
I turned my car around and watched the Hummer in the rearview mirror until I turned onto a side street, and it fell out of view.

Thousands of questions pummeled my brain, and I ran through the list on the drive up the mountain. The road was a little icy. I set aside the burning questions filling my mind to focus on the drive.

When I passed the curve and saw my house, I noticed something was different. It took me a minute to figure out what it was: there were curtains in the window of the connecting duplex. Someone had moved in.

I parked in the garage and walked to the front door of the other home. I knocked but nobody answered. Twisting the knob, I found the door unlocked. The home was furnished almost the same way as mine but in darker, more masculine colors. When I saw the old mandolin resting on the leather couch, my nagging suspicions were confirmed. Ren was moving in.

I walked through the kitchen, found the pantry and refrigerator empty, and saw that the bottom half of the back door had been refitted with a huge swinging flap.

Hmm . . . won’t keep burglars out. They can crawl right in. But, I guess they’d get a surprise if they tried to steal something here.

I hurried back to my house, closing the door behind me, not even bothering to look upstairs or check his closet for the designer labels I knew were there. There was no doubt in my mind that Ren was my new neighbor.

In fact, I’d just slipped out of my shoes and coat when I heard what could only be the Hummer making its way up the drive. I watched him from the window. He was a good driver. He somehow managed to maneuver the giant vehicle between the protruding branches that might’ve scratched the paint. He parked the Hummer in the other garage, and I heard the crunch of his footsteps on the frozen path as he made his way to my front door.

Leaving it open for him, I walked into the living room, sat down in my recliner with my feet tucked under me, and folded my arms across my chest. I knew that body-language specialists said it was a classic defensive pose, but I didn’t care.

I heard him close the door, shrug out of his coat, and hang it in the hall closet. Turning the corner, Ren walked into the living room. He searched my face for a brief moment and then ran a hand through his hair as he sat down across from me. His hair was longer than it had been in India. Silky black strands fell over his forehead, and he brushed them back in annoyance. He looked bigger, brawnier than I remembered.
He must be eating better than he used to.

We looked at each other silently for several seconds.

Finally, I said, “So . . . you’re my new neighbor.”

“Yes.” He sighed softly. “I couldn’t stay away from you anymore.”

“I didn’t think you were trying to stay away.”

“You asked me to. I was trying to honor your wishes. I wanted to give you time to think. To clear your head. To . . . listen to your heart.”

I’d definitely had time to think. Unfortunately, my thoughts were about as confused as they possibly could be. I hadn’t been able to think clearly since I’d left India. And I hadn’t listened to my heart since I woke up next to Ren in Kishkindha. I’d shut myself off from my heart months ago.

“Oh. So then, your feelings haven’t . . . changed?”

“My
feelings
are stronger than they ever were.”

His blue eyes studied my face. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and leaned forward. “Kelsey, every day you were away from me was
agonizing
. It drove me crazy. If Mr. Kadam hadn’t kept me busy every minute, I would have been on a plane the next week. I sat patiently through his instruction every day, but I was only a man for six hours. As a tiger, I wore a path on my bedroom rug from pacing hour after hour. He almost got out a safari rifle to shoot me with a tranquilizer. I couldn’t be appeased. I was restless, a wild animal without . . . without his mate.”

I fidgeted and shifted in the chair.

“I told Kishan I needed to train to get my fighting skills back up to par. We fought constantly as both men and beasts. We trained with weapons, claws, teeth, and bare hands. Fighting with him was probably the only thing that kept me sane. I’d fall onto my rug every night bloody, exhausted, and drained. But, still . . . I could feel you.

“You were on the other side of the world, but I often woke with the scent of you surrounding me. I ached for you, Kells. No matter how much Kishan thrashed me, it couldn’t diminish the pain of losing you. I’d dream of you and reach out to touch you, but you were always just out of reach. Kadam kept telling me it was for the best and that I had things to learn before I could come to Oregon. He was probably right, but I didn’t want to hear it.”

“But if you wanted to be with me then . . . why didn’t you call?”

“I
wanted
to. It tortured me to hear your voice every week when you called Kadam. I waited nearby each time, hoping that you would ask to speak to me, but you never did. I didn’t want to pressure you. I wanted to respect your wishes. I wanted it to be
your
decision.”

How ironic. There were so many times I wanted to ask for him, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“You listened in on our phone conversations?”

“Yes. I have excellent hearing, remember?”

“Right. So what . . . changed? Why come here now?”

Ren laughed sardonically. “It’s Kishan’s doing. We were sparring one day, and he was beating me as usual. By that point, I didn’t even compete much with him anymore. I
wanted
him to hurt me. It helped. Suddenly, he stopped. He walked around me and looked me up and down. I stood there and waited for him to resume the fight. Then he pulled back his fist and punched me as hard as he could.

“I just stood there and took it, not even bothering to defend myself. Next, he punched me as hard as he could in the gut. I recovered and stood in front of him again, not even caring. He growled and shouted in my face.”

“What did he say?”

“A lot of things, most of which I’d rather not repeat. The gist of it was that I needed to snap out of it and that if I was so miserable . . . why didn’t I get up and do something about it?”

“Oh.”

“He mocked me, saying that the mighty Prince of the Mujulaain Empire, the High Protector of the People, the champion at the Battle of the Hundred Horses, the heir to the throne, was felled by a young girl. He said there was nothing more pathetic than a cowering tiger licking his wounds.

“At that point, I didn’t care what he said. Nothing fazed me until he told me that our parents would be ashamed. That they raised a coward. That’s when I made a decision.”

“The decision to come here.”

“Yes. I decided that I needed to be near you. I decided that, even if all you wanted was friendship, I would be happier here than I was in India without you.”

Ren got up, knelt at my feet, and took my hand. “I decided to find you, throw myself at your feet, and beg you to have mercy on me. I’ll accept
whatever
you choose. Honestly, Kelsey. Just please don’t ask me to live apart from you again. Because . . . I
can’t
.”

How could I remain unyielding?
Ren’s words penetrated the flimsy barriers around my heart. I’d meant to set up a barbed wire fence, but the barbs had marshmallow tips. He slipped right through my defenses. Ren touched his forehead to my hand, and my marshmallow heart melted.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugged him, and whispered in his ear, “A prince of India should never have to get down on his knees and beg for anything. Alright. You can stay.”

He sighed and hugged me close.

I grinned wryly. “After all, I wouldn’t want
PETA
to come after me for tiger abuse.”

He laughed softly. “Wait right here,” he said and walked out the door that connected both our houses. He came back in with a package tied with a red ribbon.

The box was long, thin, and black. I cracked it open and saw a bracelet. The thin chain had a white-gold oval locket. Inside were two pictures: Ren, the prince, and Ren, the tiger.

I smiled. “You knew I’d want to remember the tiger too.”

Ren clasped the locket to my wrist and sighed. “Yes, even though I’m slightly jealous of him. He gets to spend much more time with you than I do.”

“Hmm. Well, not as much as he used to. I miss him.”