178 Lily (14)

Ten seconds after hugging Kyro, Iris realized what she had done. Resting her head against his shoulder was incredibly comforting, but there was a reason why she had never done that before. A very good reason.

"You said you were okay."

He embraced her, and her face heated up. She wanted to die of mortification, but it was an unlikely event, so she had to come up with an excuse. Or something. Anything.

"I-I'm fine," she murmured into his shoulder, not daring to raise her head. How was she ever going to face him again.

"So you just ran into my arms for fun? This is how you're always gonna greet me from now on?" he asked in a teasing voice, his tone gentle and soothing.

Iris really wondered if the ground could simply open up and swallow her whole. Just once. "I didn't run to you… I thought that guy found us again… and… and… miscalculated."

"You thought he could enter here?" Kyro asked with some disbelief

She knew full well how silly her conjecture had been. "I was thinking about him… and then I heard the click of the door… My brain just connected the two…"

"I'll know to never trust your 'okay', note taken." There was that slight teasing note in his voice, and Iris pushed him away, getting out of this awkward situation.

Kyro let her go, but the light brush of his arm against her sent a sharp pain stabbing through her shoulder. She gritted her teeth, thinking to act like nothing had happened, but her momentary change in expression hadn't went unnoticed.

"Are you hurt?" Kyro asked, pushing her shawl away.

His movement was so swift that Iris didn't even get to react before her bruise was exposed in all its ugly glory. "It's nothing, it'll heal," she told him, taking a step to the side to avoid him and pulling the shawl back with her other hand.

"It'll heal, but why are you trying to hide it from me?" Kyro didn't walk closer to her and his voice didn't contain an accusation. It sounded as if he was asking some random question, like what's the weather today.

But it was never that simple with him, and Iris lowered her eyes, not certain what to say. She didn't know why she did it herself. Not fully, anyway.

Somewhere in her heart, she just didn't want him to see her like this. Unlike him, she wasn't strong and infallible. It was just her first day after promising to take care of Lily, and she had already messed up a dozen times. The worst being her scaring the girl into tears with her own fear.

"Whatever, let's put some ice on it and tell me what happened. Come." Kyro sighed and motioned for her to go to his bedroom.

When she sat down on the bed, not feeling strong enough to face the upcoming confrontation on her shaky legs, Kyro showed up with a pack of frozen vegetables. The two them had gotten it a while ago but never used.

He passed it to her and then closed the door so they wouldn't disturb the sleeping girl. "Don't skip on any details. I want to know all that happened."

"All right." There wasn't much to share, though. They had simply went shopping, visited a dozen more shops, and met the creep. He had taken hold of her, demanded Lily, and then they ran away.

"I don't really remember how he looked. He was tall, and muscular, dressed in a suit, but that's it. In my memory, he's kind of a blurry figure that towers over me and looks menacing."

Iris lowered her head, resting it against her hand, but she couldn't remember more. There had been too many emotions in her head at that moment to pay attention to how the man looked. She was more concerned with how large he was, how easy he could break her apart if he wanted. Back then, she had realized for the first time just how powerless she was when a man tried to subdue her.

"Do you know why I came back?" Kyro asked out of the blue.

She looked up then, wondering what was on his mind. He was standing against the wall, arms crossed. His eyes were in the shadow, but she could see the straight line of his lips that didn't bode anything good. He was unhappy about something, but she couldn't tell if it was caused by her or what had happened.

"Uhm… No?" Now that he mentioned it, she remembered that he'd said he was in a meeting. 'It couldn't have ended just as I called, could it?' The likeliness of that happening was almost negative.

Kyro stepped forward then and crouched down before her. They were at the same height, and she could see his eyes boring straight into hers.

"I came because I knew you wouldn't have run as far as my place if it hadn't been serious, so next time don't try to hide that you are frightened and just tell me, okay? It'll make it easier for the both of us."

"I didn't hide!" Iris refuted him right away, her cheeks coming ablaze. She couldn't believe he had read her so easily. Was she really that obvious? Then for what were all her preparations to act as if nothing had happened?

His lips curved up. "And now you're lying." His expression grew serious soon, though. "You did well. Lily is still here, and without a scratch on her. The fault for what happened lies with that man and not you. It's nothing you could have expected."

"But I scared her," Iris whispered, letting out what was gnawing at her. A good portion of it at least. "If I had been calmer, if I'd known what to do… I let her see my terror. She might have not even understood that something was wrong if someone else had been with her!"

"And who would that have been? Some random nanny that would have run off the moment someone tried to take the kid by force? You did well, way better than either I or Gale could have ever expected. So don't beat yourself up when you did your best and succeeded."

His words fell into Iris' ears like precious gems. Although her inner side wanted to argue, she ignored it and rejoiced in the simple fact that Kyro wasn't annoyed at her. It was a relief to know that he didn't think less of her for running away like the whole of hell was after her once she escaped the man's hold.

The next moment, she saw him lean over, and her heart sped up. Was he?

His lips brushed past her forehead, and he smirked at her wide-eyed expression as he rose. "Take care, I need to go back now, but I'll return in the evening. See you then."

He opened the door and disappeared out the house, leaving Iris alone to ponder over what had just happened.