Yield (2 page)

I am in no mood for negotiations, but when she pouts her lip out and bats her eyes to force me into giving her what she wants, I can
’t say no.  And I haven’t ever been tempted once by a girl to give in to any kind of demands until Emma.

“Okay.”

She beamed, arching her back, forcing her chest to expand.  That didn’t help.  She eyed me spying on her rising heartbeat that caused the visually patterned breathing I couldn’t look away from and cleared her throat to bring me back into focus.  I couldn’t help that her habit of stretching was also shoving two works of art in my face.  They were beautiful.  Well, I imagine they are.  I haven’t seen them yet to know.

“Where do you want to go?” I pressed her hand into mine watching her calm at my touch, not that she needed calming.  I truly loved doing it and I needed to calm my own libido.

“Anywhere?”

Anywhere.  Alright.  It
’s time to culture the hidden princess who leads me on and leaves me cold with want.

For weeks now I
’ve started going on Emma’s daily run.  I’ve lifted weights for years, but have never been a runner.  I couldn’t see letting Emma go alone, so I became a runner.  Besides, seeing her in those little shorts was worth every pant.

Emma found out what a bore I was.  My life before her consisted of video games and sitting on the back porch.  Yeah, I
’d been there done that with clubs and bars for a couple of years.  It got old fast.  Most of the humans were all shallow and acting as if their shorter lives weren’t important enough to take care of themselves.  Maybe it was the fact that I took so many lives, but I couldn’t stand watching people do drugs and all manner of harmless things.  I was no saint, but I was a halfway decent man. (Except the destruction of evil creatures who endangered my life or others.)  But all that changed when I met her.  I wanted to be better.  I wanted Emma to see me as a good man.

Through the front main hall we stopped to tell Brooks to keep watch.  I didn
’t see the old nightmare walk through the doors before it was too late.

“Oh, hi Ames.”

Emma’s body never moved, but her eyes cut to mine and back to the girl in front of her.

“
Sydney.”  I politely nodded and pressed my hand into Emma’s back to give the hint to move on.  She didn’t.

“Hello.  My name is Emma.  I don
’t believe we’ve met.”

She friggin
’ giggled and held her stupid hand to her make-up caked mouth right in front of Emma.

“
No.  We haven’t.  But we have.”  She pointed to me.

Hell!

“I’m sorry. But we are in a hurry.”  I wanted rid of her.

“It was nice to meet you
, Emma,” she said looking at
me
with friggin’ bedroom eyes.  Did everyone hate their past selves and live to regret the poor decisions they’d made in life?  I sure did.

And the look on Emma
’s face said she was definitely not being nice to the girl because she wanted to be her best friend.  I was glad of Emma’s self-assured nature to handle any and most situations, but this was uncomfortable.  I wish I could make every girl I ever knew go away from my head and past altogether.

Away from the doors, I didn
’t let go of the ball of anger I was trying to hide from her and managed to bark at her when she finally got the guts to ask.

“She one of your girlfriends?”

She’s always so ballsy in her non-hesitant nature also.

“No.  I
’ve never had a girlfriend.”  Oh, and that was better.  I was such a craphead.

She didn
’t bring it up again and I didn’t offer.

In the Jeep, she turned the cold air to freezing and blew it right in her face making her hair fan out and her eyelashes dance.  I watched thinking she has no idea how appealing that is to me.  Her warm, sweet scent blasts me and makes me blow the freezing air on myself just to cool off from the daring thoughts I couldn
’t stop. 

She moaned and opened her mouth to feed the air in.  I wish I could hold a mirror up or videotape this so she could see how she looked to me.  The word provocative came to mind, but I didn
’t think I could place her in that category and be comfortable.  If she knew the amount of appeal she presented that would not go over well with me if anyone else was watching, she would be blushing all the way to her toes.

She fell back against the seat and pulled her feet up under her to face me.  “Do I need to be prepared to run into anymore girlfriends?”

I was happy for conversation to distract me from her little show, but that was not it. 

“I told you, none were my girlfriend.  I
’m not proud of my past and have never hid it as so.  You mind if I make a visit with my fist to your previous friend Rick?”

“That
’s not fair.  We’re talking one guy.  You’ve probably got a list.”

Really!  Was she that dense of this subject?  “Need I remind you that I am in constant awareness of said guys all around you, at your school, the mall checking you out like you
’re a dessert?  Didn’t I just recently rescue you from one of my very own who was very much trying to steal everything from you and even things you could never get back?” 

That made her cheeks burn, but she quietly shut down on the rehashing the past issue.

“So, you said my father signed a treaty once.”

I didn
’t want to discuss that
either
.  I forget sometimes about the little leaks of information she had and never checked up on or knew if she’d asked Katelyn the all-knowing tattle-tell about when I wasn’t around.

Wicker had been on my case twice a day lately.  I
’d screwed up in my haste to claim Emma as mine thinking that the letters from my mother meant she would be safe. 

Safe is relative, I learned.  Other indicators point towards a series of events that could lead to Emma being this great queen, but there are obstacles too.  I know her mother
’s letters say one thing, but my own realm says different.  Not any of it was making sense.  Maybe the kiss is the killer.  Maybe it was me.  Or maybe it was a real curse.  Or maybe, it’s all a damn lie to keep Emma and I apart for some unearthly reason.

“Before you were born, even me, a treaty among the realms was drawn up that all agreed to stay on their own ground and remain in harmony and all that jazz.”

Close enough.  Oh, and another treaty came along with a stupid curse that banned her from me but I wasn’t sharing that just yet.

“And all that jazz included not invading another?”

Why did I have to fall for a smart girl?  “Yes.”

She bobbed her head at me.  “
Soooo....”

“Your father wasn
’t happy with it.  He wanted to take control of the whole realm again like it was before.”  And he lost his wife to one of our own.  I’d have killed to if someone harmed Emma.  Destroyed every last one of them.

“And that was?” Her shoulders shot up.  Without thinking about it, I settled my hand on hers.  Some of her frustration at hearing the bad parts of her father
’s past instantly left her while I circled her palm with my thumb.  Perhaps for my own benefit too.  I stared at her for a good long while to let her know I was trying to make her comfortable with hearing this.  Hiding secrets from her was slowly becoming harder.

I briefly thought about pulling over so I wouldn
’t crash us both.

“At one time all the realms were as one body and no one king kept it segregated.  Yes, there was a king.  And yes, there were different realms.  But all were united.  Then, the son of
King Edmund married a girl who was of royal lineage, but not who his father wanted.  The king exiled him and his bride.  They holed up in a cave within the mountain much like ours and started their own tribe, so to speak.  That realm is the one you are from.”

She wiggled in her seat and thankfully adjusted the air back down to a normal temperature.  “And that realm is mine and I
’m guessing the girl is my long, lost relative.”

I nodded a reluctant yes.

I haven’t even let out the invariable deadlocked secret of what else might be involved with all this.  She didn’t know how much I’ve fought off the elders for months telling them we were just friends now.  Hiding our kisses were becoming harder and harder and I didn’t want to hide them anymore.  I don’t think we were as deceptive as I thought.  Everyone seemed to know anyway.

I can
’t believe the curse might not be lifted.  Our texts said one thing, but her realm’s books say another.  I have read and reread the letters from her mother.  My mother’s letters.    I have visited a few seers who said nothing that would help me.  But now...
now
they say it might not be that easy if we don’t know what the exact future entailed.  Why didn’t they friggin’ say that in the first place?  I’d have never kissed her and sealed her fate. 

I was so blinded by the possibilities I neglected to see in my own mother
’s letter the contradictory words of “she will live long and her destiny is not good”.  What I didn’t see before was the fact that my mother’s letter never said Emma and I were together.  It never said we weren’t.  What more does that mean?

If any of this were true, then the letters should add up.

I needed to find this seer who told all.    The one in her mom’s letters.

He was uneasy about telling me things about my realm and I wanted to know why.  It wasn’t that I was especially intrigued with knowing the whole animated history, but rather the reason behind his hidden thoughts.

“The whole story
, Ames,” I tried to beg a little but it came out demanding and standoffish like he was being.

“Nothing much left.  Your father took it anyway and the gold is yours for the taking since my father perished before yours.  You marry into either of the realms and the realms are reunited either way.”

It can’t be that simple. 

“And all will be right in this little world.  I find it hard to believe that you would be so itchy in your seat if it were that easy to solve.  You keep fidgeting with that cruise control button like it
’s malfunctioning or maybe it’s just easier to focus on than the truth your hiding from me.”

I could tell he rolled his eyes when he glimpsed at the window.  I knew he was thinking I was just being a girl.

“Like I said, not much left to tell.  Joshlin was old enough to command a small army of our guards and warriors that we took our realm with ease.  The Loggin family crawled back to the mountain they surfaced from kingless and heirless.”

Whoa!  I whirled upward, throwing my feet in the floor.  “So my realm doesn
’t have anyone running it right now?”

His face fell with catching his mess up.  “There is someone keeping it afloat.  Very loosely I might add.”  His teeth were gritted with every word.

“You don’t like the guy.”

His head flipped to me.  “Who said it was a guy?” he growled.

Um, roar!  “I just assumed.  I wasn’t being presumptuous.   Is he related to...” I swallowed feeling odd saying my next words, “...my father or mother?”

“NO.  He is just a stand-in.  He just wants the seat.”  He didn
’t sound upset.  He sounded downright angry.

Thinking of another who wanted the same goal, I mentioned his brother.  I was working myself up thinking of Joshlin in his plush happy “
prison”.  I told Ames about my genie wish that never came true with Joshlin’s evil beauty.   I was so frustrated he’d healed from the scar I placed on his face.  I was hoping to make him ugly so that no female would see his outward beauty that contrasted his inner evil.  I think Ames might have smiled at my wish, but it never moved high enough on his lips for me to tell.

Time to take a break.  Ames was a steam happy mess and I don
’t know what part I said wrong to get his panties into a wad.

“Would you like a tea or coffee?”

He read my mind.

Just the distraction, though I couldn
’t help but wonder if he thought of what happened at the last coffee shop outing. The one where people died and I even jumped to help out.

His fingers curled around mine on my thigh and I had to move it over to the console to continue breathing.  He increased the pressure sending what I thought was a silent signal that maybe he understood the awkwardness we still found ourselves in when around each other.  Angry or not, he and I were so in tune with each other.

“Frappe.”

His other hand relaxed on the wheel as he flipped the car into the drive thru.   I think I found another one of his quirks in that moment.  Or at least, it came to my mind.  He gripped the wheel, or his pants leg, or his fist tightly when he was holding back something that bothered him.  With his past, I just hoped it didn
’t mean family violence or anything.  He hadn’t shown any of that yet on me.

His dimple rose with the slide of my drink over the console.  I was happy to see him smiling again even if our destination was still a mystery.  We drove in silence enjoying our drinks.

“You know, I’ve known you nearly a year.”

“Perhaps you
’re referring to the fact that tomorrow you turn nineteen?”

“Maybe,” I grinned at his happier face.  He remembered my birthday.  I was ecstatic.

The moment I caught where the next exit on the highway would land us, I knew where he was taking me.  I first thought he was taking me to practice.  When we passed that exit, I guessed maybe the cabin next.  After skipping that direction altogether, I was at a loss.  Then I wondered if the new direction into a mountainous area I’d never been in before was linked to me specifically and realized where he was headed though I had no reason to believe so.  I tried like anything to make my inner self feel like it was time to go there, but nada.  I was as new to this as a newborn fawn on legs.

“Are we going to my realm?”  I wasn
’t dressed to meet people.  Jeans and a non-dressy top didn’t bode for greeting the relatives.

“Not into it, just outside it.  I thought maybe you
’d like to see the apple orchard your mother had for over a century before it ran dry one year.”

“One year?”

“Yep.  It didn’t produce only one year and hasn’t again since she died.” Ames said with a solemn tone but with a hint that something was left off.

Odd.  “What year was it before she died?”

“The year you were born.”