Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (7 page)

“I’ll hurry but promise to listen,
okay?”

He stared at me but said not a word. I took
this as a yes.

“Right, okay. I’m not from here. I’m from
somewhere else.”

“And where are you from, Cora?” he asked
with ill-concealed impatience.

“Uh… earth?” I ventured.

His lips thinned before he told me, “I’m
from earth too.”

Well, at least we resided on the same
planet…
ish
. Good to know (kind of) I wasn’t beamed to a
different galaxy, just catapulted to an parallel world.

“Okay, that answers that but I’m from an
alternate universe earth where we have computers and smart phones
and, uh… cable TV.”

He scowled at me.

I kept at it. “I’m an administrative
assistant. I work at an ad agency. I live in an apartment. I’m
single, as in, not married. I had a boyfriend, his name was Brian,
but he wouldn’t marry me so I had to cut my losses and break up
with him before, you know, life passed me by.”

He continued to scowl at me but at the
mention of Brian I felt his body go still and I watched his face go
hard.

These were ominous signs but I kept going.
“See, I went to sleep and then I woke up and I was here. I mean, I
went to sleep at home,
my
home, where, you know, beds aren’t
made of feathers but of…” I didn’t know what mattresses were made
of but I was sensing his patience waning so I sallied forth, “Other
stuff. And you don’t understand birds and there are no curses. That
was why I didn’t know about the Rosa and Dash thing. See, we don’t
have curses but even if we did, I wouldn’t know about that curse
because I’m not the Cora you know. I’m a different Cora, one who’s
fat but polite and doesn’t snore and…”

He cut in with, “You aren’t fat.”

“You said I’d gained weight.”

“You have. You’ve also grown your hair.”

Now we were getting somewhere.

“See!” I exclaimed. “That right there proves
I’m not the Cora you know.”

“No, it proves that in the six months since
I last saw you, you stopped watching every bloody morsel you put
into your mouth and let your hair grow.”

He hadn’t seen me in six months?

“You haven’t seen me in six months?” I
asked.

“For the gods’ sakes,” he clipped.

“We’re married!” I cried. “Why haven’t you
seen me in six months?”

“Because you hate me, Cora, and I’m not
overly fond of you.”

I latched onto that. “There you go. See, the
Cora I am knows how to baste meat and isn’t lazy. I’ll admit, I’ll
drag my feet on stuff I don’t want to do but eventually I’ll do it.
I’m polite and my parents and friends think I’m funny. I don’t want
to brag or anything, but I’m pretty cool to be around. If you give
me a chance, I can show you I’m not the Cora you know.”

“I’ll wager you can. And I’ll wager you’ll
stick with it every second of the day and live it with every breath
you take. But all of it will be an act of pure deception.”

Jeez, if he believed that then the Cora of
this world must be a serious bitch.

“No one can do that,” I said softly.

“You could,” he returned. “You see, my love,
a year and a half ago I bedded a woman so cold, it was a wonder my
cock didn’t splinter to shards when I drove it inside you.” I
gasped at his words but he kept talking. “And but hours ago, just
your mouth was so warm it lit a fire inside me. If you could turn
that around, you could do anything.”

I flattened my hand on his chest, got higher
up on my toes and said quietly, “But, don’t you get it? That also
proves I’m not the Cora you know.”

“It, and this nonsense you’re spouting, only
proves how desperate you are to keep me on your good side so I’ll
keep you safe from Minerva and do it in the style which you
undoubtedly require.”

Minerva?

I didn’t get the chance to ask, he kept
talking. “But Dash believes your performance, Rosa adores you and
therefore, out of respect for them, I’ll keep you safe and fed but
I’ll damned well get what I can out of you in the process.”

I fell back to the soles of my feet but kept
my eyes to his, asking, “Why do you hate me so much?”

This was the wrong question. I knew it when
the light of rage hit his eyes at the same time his face went stone
cold.

“Why?” he whispered.

I knew he thought I shouldn’t have to ask
but I felt I should know what I was dealing with.

“Yes, why?”

“You dare ask?”

“Yes, Noctorno, seeing as I don’t know you,
I met you just yesterday, I dare ask,” I stated cautiously.

“So this is your game now?”

“No, this is honesty,” I told him
honestly.

His hold on his temper slipped and his face
got in mine where he clipped, “Sly cow.”

Um…
ouch
.

“That’s mean and it isn’t true,” I returned
quietly.

He kept at me. “Black with trickery to your
bloody soul.”

“That isn’t true either,” I whispered.

He glowered at me and I did my best to brave
it out. When I was about to give up, he gave in.

“This is the game you wish to play?”

“It isn’t a game,” I reminded him of
something he refused to believe.

“This is the game you wish to play,” he
decided and I sighed.

I was right. He refused to believe or,
likely, Cora of this world was just that much of a bitch.

“Right,” he went on, “then you play your
game, I play mine.” That didn’t sound too good, I braced and he
kept talking which luckily meant he explained. “You’re the other
half to my soul.”

I blinked.

Then I whispered, “What?”

“You heard me.”

“I’m the other half to your soul?”

“In all the kingdom, in our generation,
there are only two men whose souls were split at birth, the other
half put in their lifemates. Dash to Rosa and you to me. The
she-god saw fit to award Dash all the sweetness of Rosa and for
some bloody hideous reason she saw fit to saddle me with all the
foulness of
you.
”

I didn’t know what to say to that, it wasn’t
nice but it also sounded like something the Cora of this world
deserved so I didn’t speak.

Noctorno did. “For any other man but Dash or
me, they could take anyone as bride. For him, it was only Rosa, the
reason why
you
couldn’t have him, not that he wanted you. To
hold back the curse
you
started to unleash yesterday, and
because we agreed to do it in order to give the others the
happiness they deserve, you had to leave him to her and wed me. And
for me, it was only you. I had no other choice.”

Oh my God.

That was crazy.

“That’s crazy!” I cried, pressing back into
the wall.

“Bloody right it is,” he agreed firmly.

I stared at him.

As crazy as this was, it was worse. Because
he struck me as a man who liked choice, a man who would value,
beyond anything, his free will, a man who’d fight and die for it
and yet it had been taken away.

“Couldn’t you, um… protest this
decision?”

His brows shot up. “To the she-god?”

“Uh… yes?” I tried.

His brows descended and his eyes narrowed.
“You
are
mad.”

“I take it you don’t question the gods,” I
muttered.

“No, Cora, even you wouldn’t question the
gods. Our fates were written in the sky the moment we were
born.”

Oh. Wow.

“Written in the sky?” I breathed.

“Me to you, you to me for all the kingdom to
see.”

Holy crap.

Then something else occurred to me.

“Uh-oh,” I whispered.

“Pardon?”

“Uh-oh,” I repeated.

“Uh what?”

I guess they didn’t have uh-oh here
either.

I moved around that. “Noctorno,
I
am
not the other half to your soul. The other Cora is.”

“
Gods,
” he hissed, losing
patience.

“No!” I cried. “It’s true. If you could get
in trouble being with –”

I stopped speaking when he pressed
closer.

“Excellent try, love, but it’s not going to
work.”

“No, seriously –”

His hands spanned my hips and I quit
talking.

“The she-god wrote that you’re the other
half to my soul which meant I had to bind myself to you but it
didn’t mean I couldn’t bed whoever I wanted and I do. So even if
you aren’t the Cora of my world, as you lie that you aren’t,
none
of the gods would give a toss if I kiss you, touch you,
taste you and drive into you and they also wouldn’t give a toss
that I let you do the same to me, except, obviously, the last so
let’s just say they won’t mind if you ride me.” His face dipped
closer and he finished with, “
Hard
.”

His words were coarse but even so I was
stuck on something he said earlier and therefore asked with
disbelief, “You’ve
cheated
on me?”

He grinned and his grin was wicked. “If
you’re not my wife, then no.”

“You’ve cheated on me!” I cried.

“So you’re my wife?”

“No!”

“Then no.”

Ugh!

“Move away,” I demanded, my hands going to
his wrists and pushing.

“No, now that I’ve put up with this rubbish,
you earn your food and clothes and, I’m warning you, now I’m
hungrier than I was before so I’ll not tolerate anymore of this
absurdity.”

“I’m not being absurd!” My voice was rising.
“I’m telling you the truth!”

He kept my gaze even as he shook his head.
“Make no mistake, Cora, I’ll eat in front of you and you’ll wear
that nightgown until it falls off, if it comes to that.”

“Fine!” I snapped. “Great!” I fairly
shouted. “Do what you will. I’ll not
earn
one more thing
from
you!
”

He nodded his head once, muttered, “Your
choice,” let me go and moved away.

And that, apparently, was that.

Jerk!

I stood against the stone, realized I was
breathing heavily and watched him go.

Well, that didn’t work.

“You know what?” I asked him as he crouched
by one of the sacks and started pulling stuff out. He turned his
head to me and I kept going. “When your Cora comes back, and I hope
to God she does, not only so I can go
home
but also so I can
get away from
you
, you’re going to feel just like the
asshole, jerk, scumbag you are!”

He looked back into the sack, mumbling,
“I’ll take that chance.”

Argh!

Only Stupid People Get Bored

I woke the next morning half on and totally
wrapped around Noctorno again.

Great. Just great.

Why couldn’t my unconscious self hate him as
much as my conscious self, I ask you?

I rolled away, landing on my back and he
rolled with me, landing mostly on my body.

Fabulous.

I opened my eyes and looked into his.

Jeez, it totally sucked he was so freaking
gorgeous.

“Good morning, love,” he murmured.

I glared at him thinking there was not one
damned thing good about it. First, I had a headache. Second, I was
starving. Third, I needed a bath, with soap. Fourth, I was sick and
damned tired of wearing this nightgown. Fifth, I was tired and
damned sick of this cave. Sixth, I had to go to the bathroom and
that meant he had to go with me which was humiliating. Seventh, he
was there and I hated him no matter how gorgeous he was. And last,
I was still not home.

Needless to say, yesterday did
not
go
well. He took me to answer nature’s call twice more and when I was
back in the cave he left (taking the jugs and sacks with him, the
king of all ultimate jerks) and came back after filling the one
with water which he informed me I could partake of at will. This
was good for I could dehydrate faster than starve but it was bad
because drinking water made nature call.

Other than that, he spent most of the day
somewhere else (but close, I could hear him doing such things as
murmuring to his horse, chopping wood and what I guessed was
sharpening weapons) and I spent most of the day alone, getting
hungrier and hungrier by the minute, bored out of my skull at the
same time scared beyond reason.

I wanted to go home.

“I need coffee,” I informed him because I
did. I knew my headache wasn’t because I was hungry. I knew it was
because my system desperately needed caffeine.

“Coffee sounds good,” he whispered, his eyes
moving to my mouth.

Oh God. Here we go.

All right.

Whatever!

“Okay, fine,” I snapped. “What do I have to
do for a cup of coffee?”

His eyes moved back to mine and they were
smiling. “Why don’t you do what you think a cup of coffee is worth
and, when you’re done, I’ll tell you if you’ve earned it.”

I glared at him a second, willing my eyes to
annihilate him.

This didn’t happen so I spat, “I hate
you.”

The smile didn’t fade from his eyes when he
replied, “I don’t care.”

What…

Eh…

Ver!

Oh well. Fuck it. A girl like me would do a
lot for caffeine and seeing as I was a girl like me, there it
was.

Both my hands went to either side of his
face, my foot went into the hides, I pushed off, rolling into him,
taking him to his back with me on top and I kissed him, hard,
open-mouthed, wet, long and hot.

God, oh God, oh
God
but I wished he
didn’t taste so
fucking
good.

When I was done, one of his arms was locked
under my shoulder blades the other one was locked tight around my
waist.

I lifted my head and said (unfortunately
breathlessly, so good was that kiss), “Does that earn me
coffee?”

“Sweets,” he murmured, his rough voice
rougher, his sexy eyes sexier and his arm moving from under my
shoulder blades so that his fingers could slide up the back of my
neck into my hair, “that was so bloody magnificent, you get coffee
and
porridge.”