Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (22 page)

And I wanted him to have all he could have
for as long as I could give it to him.

I opened my eyes and pulled in breath.

So that, I decided, was precisely what I was
going to do.

“Sweets?” Tor called, his free hand coming
to mine on his chest.

“Mm?” I replied but he didn’t answer, or at
least not verbally.

He moved both our hands to between his legs
and wrapped my fingers around his rock hard shaft.

Jeez, apparently men of this world had
superhuman recuperative powers.

“I’m ready for you again,” he murmured, I
felt a spasm between my legs and then he shifted me over him.

I lifted my head and looked into his face
lit dimly by the city lights.

God, he was beautiful.

He moved the tip of his cock inside me then
both his hands went to my hips and pushed me up to straddling him
and as they did, he filled me.

Oh yes.

I bit my lip as I stared down at him and his
hands took control of both of mine, leading one to my breast and
the other between my legs.

“Give me what I want,” he muttered his
throaty order, his hands leaving mine where he wanted them as his
moved to my hips, his fingers curling in.

I swiped with a thumb and rolled with a
finger at the same time moving up and down in a deep stroke.

It felt so good, my held fell back.

Oh yes. I was going to give him all I could
give him for as long as I could give it to him.

“Eyes on me, my love,” he commanded and I
tipped my chin down and caught his eyes.

Then I smiled.

At my smile, his face darkened and his hips
bucked.

Then I rode my prince, giving him all as I
could give him for as long as I could hold out.

Life Is Good

Six weeks later…

“Ready to go, Aggie?” I called to the fully
recuperated, but unfortunately now flightless, bird who was hopping
around on my dressing table.

“Chirpy, chirp,” Aggie replied excitedly,
which meant, “Ready, Cora!”

Aggie liked our excursions. Being
flightless, he didn’t get out unless I took him and he’d told me he
missed the fresh air, uninterrupted vistas and daily adventures. I
couldn’t give him any adventures but I did what I could every day
to give him a change of scenery so he wouldn’t get bored.

I extended a finger to the tiny bird, he
hopped on then I lifted my arm as he hopped up it and took his
usual place on my shoulder.

Then I left Tor and my rooms and wandered
down the wide hall toward the stairs.

I was down half the flight when, around a
curve, I saw Lucinda, one of the maids, on her hands and knees
scrubbing the stairs with a scrub brush, the marble steps behind
her glistening wet and so clean, they could be in a commercial.

“Oh!” I cried and her head shot up, she
spied me and her mouth formed a tentative (what I was sure was
forced) smile.

“Your grace,” she said through her
smile.

“I’m sorry, you’re cleaning. We’ll use the
backstairs,” I told her, lifted my skirts and started backing
up.

“No!” she cried, straightening and lifting
up a hand to forestall me. “It’s just fine, I’ll scrub up after
you. No problem at all. Use these.”

See. There it was. The smile was totally
fake. Like always. She was scared she’d do something to upset me,
which would make me complain to Tor, which would mean he’d unleash
black prince fury. And she was willing to do anything to stop that.
Including letting me trod on her hard work. Cleaning stairs on your
hands and knees with a scrub brush had to suck. She didn’t even
have a pad for her knees!

“No, that’s all right,” I assured her,
continuing to move back as well as starting to turn. “It’s
perfectly fine. Enjoy the celebrations this afternoon,” I finished
then I fully turned and jogged up the stairs, hurried down the hall
and took the backstairs.

I made it without encountering anyone,
moving quickly through the halls to the mammoth entry in order not
to run into anyone else and then I went out the enormous double
front doors that had to be at least two stories tall and were open
to the sunshiny day.

“It’s a beautiful day,” I told Aggie, my
only friend in this world, as I strolled through.

“Chirp, chirp, chirp,” Aggie replied which
meant, “That it is, Cora.”

I made it down the wide steps leading up to
the castle, my eyes on the sun glinting diamonds off the big,
beautiful, circular, gushing fountain in the middle of the
courtyard in front of the castle and as I hit the bottom, a vivid
flock of small birds swooped low, flying around me so close, they
blew the flimsy pale pink skirts of my gown forward, my hair flew
too as the wind from their wings caused a light breeze to surround
me.

I giggled as they flew (this wasn’t the
first time this happened, the first time I freaked way the hell
out, now I was a dab hand) and they chirped, most of their chirps
being, “Morning, Cora!”

“Morning, birds!” I called after them as
their brightness faded into the sun.

Then I looked across the courtyard, not
noticing (because I’d learned to keep myself to myself) that all
the men and women in the courtyard were gazing at me with indulgent
smiles and I spied Salem across the expanse.

“Salem!” I cried with delight, snatched
Aggie off my shoulder so he wouldn’t go flying (figuratively) and
skipped excitedly across the space while holding Aggie carefully in
my hand.

Salem watched me and when I got close, I
threw my arms around his glossy neck, deftly letting Aggie out of
my hand so he could hop up on Salem’s back.

Salem whinnied and when I stepped back and
grinned at him, he stuffed his nose in my neck and blew.

I laughed out loud because it tickled.

“Look at you, you beautiful beast. I’ve
missed you. I haven’t seen you for a whole week!” I cried.

Salem snorted.

“How do you like that, Algernon?” A deep,
handsome voice came from Salem’s other side and I ducked under the
beast’s neck to see Tor standing there, arms crossed on his chest,
powerful legs planted wide, eyes on me, his sergeant at arms,
Algernon, at his side. “My wife flies across the courtyard to hug
my horse
and she doesn’t even look
at me.”

Salem whinnied in a way that I could swear
was laughter, I grinned at Tor, moved under Salem stroking him as I
went then, when I cleared him, I flew the four feet to Tor and
threw myself in his arms.

I had my face in his neck so I didn’t see
the indulgent smiles all around widen or the knowing, happy looks
that were exchanged as Tor whirled me in a circle, setting my legs
and skirts to flying, then he set me down on my feet in front of
him.

I leaned close, resting into my arms with my
hands flat on his chest and my head tipped way back to look in his
light blue eyes.

“How are you this morning, my husband?” I
asked on a smile.

His arms around me gave me a tight squeeze.
“Very well, my wife. How are you?”

I leaned closer and whispered, “
Very
well.”

His eyes warmed then scanned my face.

Then one of his hands slid from my back,
around my waist, to come to rest, weirdly, palm flat, on my
belly.

Then his neck bent deep and his face was all
I could see when he murmured, “How well, my love?”

“Very,
very
well,” I replied on a
grin, leaned up the inch he left and touched my mouth to his.

Then I forced myself to look at the
strapping, blond Algernon who would, in return, pretend to like
me.

Tor had not been wrong about his men so the
folks of the city and castle loathed me but his men despised me.
This I found out in an unpleasant way when some words were uttered
in my direction (if not to my face), words, or, in particular,
a
word (starting with a “c”) that I didn’t know they even
had
in fairytale lands.

This incident I had been smart enough
not
to share with Tor.

“Heya, Algernon.”

He grinned at me and it was a good one. It
looked nearly genuine. But it did not meet his eyes.

Then he bowed at the same time he touched
his fingers to his forehead and said, “Good morning, Princess
Cora.”

I smiled at him and looked back at Tor.

Then I asked the question I’d asked every
day as each of them slid by with two things not happening: me going
home (and it seemed pretty clear I was stuck here, it felt like I’d
been there forever); and Rosa being rescued.

“Any news of –?”

Tor’s eyes went guarded and he gave me
another squeeze.

“No, love.”

I pulled in both my lips and bit them.

Tor, as he always did, swiftly changed the
subject, likely, I guessed, because he knew it upset me.

“What are you up to today?” he asked and I
shook my head.

“You can’t ask me that question,” I informed
him.

“I can’t?”

“Nope.”

His brows drew together. “And why not, wife?
I ask it of you every day.”

“Yes, well,” I smiled up at him and pushed
closer, “every day is not my husband’s
birthday.
”

His eyes scanned my face again as his body
went still but his arms got tight.

And today
was
his birthday. I learned
he was thirty-eight that day. And it was going to be a day of fun
and festivities. There were going to be games and dancing and
parties and street vendors and, that night, fireworks set off on
the ships in the sea.

I was dreading it. I would have to spend all
day with his people all around, pretending they liked me. It was
going to be torture.

What I was not dreading were my plans for
him.

I was going to bake him a birthday cake.

I had no money (anything I bought in the
village was tallied up and sent as a bill to Perdita to pay) and I
had no way of earning money and I didn’t want him to have to pay
for his own birthday present.

So I was going to give him something from my
world.

I was going to make him a red velvet cake
(without the red, of course, because I was pretty sure they didn’t
have red food dye). I was going to do this because it was the only
cake I knew how to make by memory and also it was a freaking great
cake.

I just hoped I could find all the
ingredients.

“And what do you have planned for my
birthday, my sweet?” Tor asked quietly, regaining my attention.

“Again, honey, you’re not allowed to ask.”
My hand slid from his chest to his jaw and I whispered, “You’ll
see.”

His eyes moved over my face again before he
replied, “What I see is, whatever it is, I should look forward to
it.”

“Oh yes,” I returned.

His fingers dug into my hip, he dipped his
head to brush my lips with his and when he pulled away he murmured,
“Then I’ll leave you to it.”

I didn’t want him to leave me to it.

In this world, I had Aggie and I had Tor.
But Tor was a prince, he ruled a princedom and his sister-in-law
was in the clutches of an evil witch-god. He had a number of things
to occupy his mind. Which meant, as each day threaded into the
next, I had to find ways to amuse myself without him.

Which sucked.

But, when he came to me in the evenings, he
found ways to make it all worth it.

I pulled away giving him a bright smile and
calling, “See you later.”

I smiled at Algernon, gave Salem another
stroke, collected Aggie, setting him on my shoulder and didn’t
quite meet the eyes of my many onlookers as I sauntered away.

“You need to be back, Cora, by noon!” Tor
called from behind me.

“I will, honey!” I called back. “
Way
before that!”

I made it three more steps before a fat,
ginger cat wove through my ankles.

“Brrr morrrrning, Prrrrrincess Corrrra,” she
purred.

“Calliope, like I tell you every day, you
can’t eat Aggie,” I admonished, she leaped away but stopped, sat on
her fat tush and blinked at me in irritation.

Distracted by Calliope, I caught a vendor’s
eyes accidentally; he gave me a seemingly bright smile, tipped his
cap respectfully and muttered, “Princess Cora.”

“How are you, Boris?”

He straightened from the wares he was
organizing and winked. “Doin’ well, with the party comin’ on.
Bellebryn throws a good party, especially for its prince. Wait ‘til
you see, yer grace.”

“Can’t wait!” I cried, clapping my hands in
front of me and lying through my teeth.

“See you there, yer grace,” he called as I
moved away.

“Save a dance for me, Boris,” I called back
then I gave him a bright wave and brighter smile before I moved
through the vast, black, wrought iron, silver crest encrusted gates
and into the village.

As I strode the cobbled streets, I smiled
and nodded my head as people smiled back. I returned greetings when
they were offered to me. I extended them when I saw someone I knew
or was given an opening. I touched little children’s heads when I
passed them, grinning into (fake) beaming mothers’ faces.

Mostly, I chatted with Aggie, who chatted
back, and I worried I wasn’t going to be able to find mascarpone
cheese.

Then I went to the house with the blue door
and knocked.

It was thrown open by a harassed-looking,
wide-hipped woman who had a two year old, bawling toddler at her
hip and a four year old, snot-faced child clutching her skirts.

She bobbed a curtsy and then looked in my
eyes. “Oh, Princess Cora, I’m glad you’re here! Thank the gods you
could make it on this, of all days.”

I tipped my head to the side and stated, “I
never miss a day, Blanche, you know that.”

And I didn’t. When I’d heard Perdita talking
with one of the maids about her cousin Blanche who had two
children, a husband away at sea and a frail mother to look after,
I’d cautiously offered my services to help out any way I could.
Perdita had asked Blanche and then informed me those services were
taken up.