Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (6 page)

“I could kiss you the way you’d like it but
I’m not going to,” I returned.

“Drivel,” he muttered.

“I could!” I snapped.

“Not a prayer in this world,” he
retorted.

What a jerk!

“Why do you even want me to kiss you? You
don’t even like me.” I reminded him.

“Because, my love, I’m a man and most of
your soft body has been pressed to me all night, the rest of it
wrapped around me. That happens to a man no matter whose body it
is.”

“Nice,” I hissed. “Just the words any girl
wants to hear.”

“They’re true.”

“I’ll give you that. Now let me go,” I
demanded.

He let me go and started to slide out from
under me when I did it. I don’t know why, maybe because I was sick
of having a bad rap due to the Cora of this world being a screaming
bitch.

What matters was, I did.

And I shouldn’t have.

I really shouldn’t have.

I lifted a hand to his cheek, moved his head
to facing me and I went in for the kill.

And I didn’t start small. I pulled out all
the stops and went all out. I pressed tight to him, my fingers slid
into the thick, soft hair at the side of his head, I pressed my
lips to his, opened my mouth over his and when his opened under
mine, my tongue darted in and Lordy, but he tasted
good.

Sublime.

Yum!

That was when I
really
went all out,
pushing close and giving it my all.

He took it and with a groan his arms closed
around me, he rolled me to my back, his big body on mine and he
took over.

Oh man, this was better.
Way
better.

He was a jerk but, damn, the man could
kiss.

My fingers slid through his hair to cup the
back of his head and my other arm curved around his muscled back
just as my leg forced its way out from under him and wrapped around
his hip.

He tasted good, he felt good on me, his body
so warm and solid and he could kiss.

Amazing.

He tore his mouth from mine and lifted his
head an inch. I opened my eyes to see his glittering with a new
light as they blazed into mine and I felt his heavy breath mingling
with my own.

Jeez, he was hot and he was even hotter
looking turned on.

“Gods,” he murmured with feeling.

He had
that
right.

“Bloody hell,” he went on.

He had that right too.

His eyes roamed my face and I wished they
wouldn’t mainly because I was hoping he’d kiss me again.

He didn’t.

Instead, his eyes turned to stone and he
whispered, “Conniver.”

I blinked and my skin went cold.

“Cunning little schemer,” he kept at it and
for some reason I suddenly felt like crying.

“Get off me,” I whispered.

“You’ll do anything, won’t you, Cora?” he
asked.

“Please,” I said softly, “get off me.”

“You’d given me that, even a hint of it on
our wedding night, my love, I would have given you a better
house.”

Seeing as the house he gave me belonged in a
fairytale, I couldn’t imagine what would be better but I didn’t
share that mainly because I was concentrating on my stomach muscles
contracting because it felt like he’d punched me in the gut.

Then I shoved at his shoulders, bucked and
shrieked, “Get the fuck off me, you asshole!”

He shifted just enough for me to slide out
from under him and gain my feet. I took several hasty steps away
then whirled to face him, my mind searching for a stunning set down
and finding nothing when I saw him on his side, the hides to his
waist, up on a forearm, his magnificent chest on display, his black
hair tousled from sleep and his eyes on me.

Damn, he was sexy as all hell and I wished
he was ugly as well as a jerk.

“Have I mentioned I hated you this morning?”
I asked spitefully.

He grinned.

Grinned!

Jerk!

“Actually, yes,” he answered.

“Good, I don’t want you to forget,” I
returned.

“Oh, I won’t forget.”

“Excellent.”

“Though,” he started, shoving the hides
aside and moving lithely to his feet, “you don’t want rabbit for
your next meal, you pay the price.”

Oh no.

This didn’t sound good.

“What?” I asked.

“You don’t like rabbit,” he reminded me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like it. It was
that, even tasty, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking it was gross
because I liked bunnies.

“No,” I said cautiously as he crossed his
arms on his chest.

“You don’t want rabbit, love, then you earn
something you want.”

This definitely didn’t sound good.

“Perhaps you’ll explain,” I suggested
though, truth be told, I didn’t want him to explain.

He did as I suggested. “A kiss for a
meal.”

Uh-oh.

“I –”

“You want anything else, like clothes,
you’ll need to get creative.”

Uh-oh!

“Noctorno –”

He leaned forward slightly but ominously.
“I’m certain you can be creative, can’t you, Cora?”

“I’ve decided I like eating bunny and my
nightgown is perfectly fine, thank you,” I snapped, wrapping my
arms around my belly protectively.

“You’ll need a bath. You like to bathe, I
reckon.”

Oh shit.

I did, indeed, like to bathe. Actually, I
was hoping I wasn’t already ripe.

“Noc –”

“You’ve earned breakfast with what you gave
me on the hides. It was so good, love, you earned a trip to the
river too. Anything else you want, you work for.”

I unwrapped my arms from my belly and
planted my hands on my hips, leaning forward slightly myself.

“How much more of a jerk can you be?” I
asked.

“Why don’t you see?” he returned.

“Ugh!” I grunted, my arms shooting straight
down, my hands in fists, my head going back so I could stare in
disgust at the ceiling. Then my chin tipped down sharply and I
glared at him. “I hate you!” I yelled.

“You already told me that.”

“Well, I hate you more than I hated you
before.”

“I don’t really care.”

“And I hated you a lot before,” I informed
him.

“I repeat, I don’t really care.”

“Well, you’ve made
that
clear,” I
snapped.

His head tilted to the side and he
grinned.

“Is there something you need to do?” he
asked.

“Plot your murder?” I replied.

His grin turned to a smile and it sucked
that it was hot.

“Other than that.”

Yes, there was something I needed to do and
that something was go to the bathroom. Then bathe (in the river,
for God’s sake, yikes!). Then eat.

And I needed him for all those things, I was
guessing. I mean, I could do the first and second myself but he had
to protect me from vickrants or whatever else was out there while I
did it.

I glared at him. He held my glare
calmly.

Then I tore my eyes from his and asked
myself out loud, “Why did I kiss this jerk? Why? Damn my pride!
Damn it to
hell!
”

“I take it that means you agree to the terms
of our continuing relationship,” he remarked and my gaze cut back
to him.

“Jerk!”

His eyebrows went up. “Are you saying you
don’t?”

“Go to hell!”

He shrugged and then moved to his shirt.
“You could, of course, go forth on your own. The vickrants will be
hunting you or The Shrew may send toilroys.” He shook his head and
I didn’t like the idea of toilroys. Vickrants were bad enough.
Furthermore, I didn’t know who The Shrew was but any shrew, I knew,
was bad news.

Damn.

He pulled his shirt on as I clipped out,
“Fine.”

He turned only his head to me.

“Fine?”

“
Fine!
” I snapped.

He grinned.

I glared.

He grabbed his boots and tugged them on.

When he straightened, he extended his arm to
the hide-covered opening.

“Fancy a bath?”

I growled under my breath and stomped to the
hides.

From behind me I heard a manly chuckle.

Seriously, I freaking
hated
this
world!

Written in the Sky

I had a plan.

It probably wasn’t going to work but at
least I had a plan.

See, Noctorno took me outside into the
overcast day. He also took me somewhere secluded and gave me
privacy while I attended to nature’s call while I was in nature –
not my favorite thing in this world or my own, in fact, I never did
it in my own but once and that was bad enough so I never did it
again. But it was the call of nature and nature was my only choice
so I answered the call.

Then he took me back to the cave, lifted me
onto his horse, Salem (who seemed to snort his greeting at me
though I couldn’t sense this like I could sense what Aggie meant
when he chirped, it was only the impression I got), he got on Salem
behind me and we took what seemed to be a long ride to the
river.

My bath wasn’t all I’d hoped it would be
seeing as he took off his boots and waded in with me, we both got
in fully-clothed, we had no soap and although the river was
gorgeous (regardless of the gray day) and crystal clear, it was
danged cold.

Sopping wet, we rode back, he stoked the
fire while I sat by it, hugging my knees shivering then he informed
me he’d be back and he took off.

That was when I decided on my plan. I sat
there pulling my stiff fingers through my hair, detangling it and
hopefully drying it as I alternately got up and fed fuel to the
fire and decided what to do to get out of my latest dire
predicament.

I was going to tell the truth.

He’d likely think I was mad but I didn’t
care.

I had to do
something.

I heard hooves on stone and knew he was
back.

I bit my lip and felt a thrill race up my
spine. I didn’t know if this thrill was fear or something else and
I didn’t think about it.

I had to concentrate on what I would say to
get him to believe me.

The hides were swept back and he walked in
looking great even though his shirt was wrinkled and his hair was
mussed. Or, maybe it was
because
of the latter. He was also
carrying two jugs hooked to just one finger with the rest of his
fingers wrapped around a rough sack and another rough sack in his
other hand. He dropped the sacks and put the jugs on the table.

Then he turned to me.

“I’ve returned,” he announced the obvious, a
smile playing at his gorgeous lips.

“Goodie,” I muttered churlishly.

The smile grew full-fledged.

Ugh.

“Fresh milk,” he said, tipping his head to
the jugs. “And ale,” he went on.

Yuck. I hated milk and beer. Still, it was
something. Though, I wished I knew how to use that kettle
contraption. I’d checked it out and it was beyond me. There was no
filter. And even if I figured it out, there was no water. And I
needed caffeine, stat.

“Right,” I mumbled.

He lightly kicked one of the sacks with the
toe of his boot. “Porridge oats, bread, butter, sugar and salt
beef,” he went on.

Now we were talking.

“Fabulous,” I murmured.

He lightly toed the other sack. “Clothes for
you. And shoes.”

Oh dear.

I bit my lip.

He smiled again.

Oh shit.

“Now, love,” he started walking toward me,
“I hope you spent my time away thinking about how creative you can
be.”

Oh shit!

I started backing up.

“We need to talk,” I informed him.

His head tipped to the side but he didn’t
stop moving. “Well, that’s creative but not what I was
thinking.”

Oh
shit!

My back hit stone so I lifted a hand, palm
out.

“Noctorno,” I whispered.

His chest came up against my hand and kept
coming, pushing it back so it was caught between our bodies.

Yes, that was how close he was.

Yikes!

“Uh –”

“I warn you not to delay, Cora, I’m hungry
and it’d be a shame, me eating in front of you,” he advised.

I stared up at him and all I could see were
his light blue eyes. They were very blue and very clear. Like the
sky on a sunny, cloudless day.

“Your eyes are like the sky on a sunny day,”
I blurted and his mouth twitched.

Oh God. Why did I say that?

But I knew I said it because he was that
close and he was that hot. A hot guy that close would make you
blurt anything, even if he was a jerk.

He pushed closer and I felt his heat hit
more than my hand and let me tell you, his heat was
hot
.

Wow.

His head dipped so his face was close to
mine. “Sweet,” he whispered in his deep voice.

Wow… and…
nice
.

“You’re very hot,” I told him.

“I can get hotter,” he told me.

Yikes!

“Noctorno –”

“Whatever you do, I want you to do it with
your mouth.”

Oh dear.

“And tongue,” he went on.

Oh man.

My fingers fisted in his shirt and I said
quickly, “I’m not of this world.”

He blinked and he did it slow.

Then he growled, “Pardon?”

“That’s what we need to talk about.”

He straightened to his full height, his head
turned to the side, his jaw got hard then he muttered, “Gods.”

“No, seriously,” I said.

His head turned back to me. “Yes, I see.
You’ve used your time thinking how creative you could be.”

This wasn’t starting great.

I persevered mostly because I had no other
choice.

“Okay,” I began, moving up to my toes which
did take me higher but even though I was relatively tall, he was
far taller and I didn’t even get close, “listen to me, all
right?”

“I told you, I’m hungry,” he reminded
me.