Chapter 5
T ris sucked in a breath and held it for a long time.
Then he muttered something incoherent and pulled my face closer to his.
Crushing his mouth against mine, he kissed me back.
Hard. I had no idea his tongue could taste so good or that the roughness of his stubble could make my lower body twitch with excitement.
I had no idea I had these kinds of feelings for Tris, but holy hell, I wanted him more than anything else right now.
I adjusted myself so that I was straddling his lap as he continued to suck and nip on my lips.
Tris could kiss. And if Tris could kiss like this, I wondered what else he might excel at.
As though sensing my questions, Tris slid his hands underneath my tank top and brushed his fingers over the cups of my bra.
His thumbs pushed against the hardness, and I gasped in pleasure.
It’d been far too long since I enjoyed a man’s touch.
That, combined with the copious amounts of wine and the weirdness of today, made all of this much more enjoyable.
“Sosie, I don’t know if we should?—”
“Shh,” I said, cutting him off with another kiss.
His hands trailed up and down my body, sliding ever so close to the inside of my thighs and then quickly rushing back to my hips.
I ran my fingers over the top of his head and down along his muscular arms. Boy, did Tris have a body.
His solid biceps sent another round of shivers down between my legs, so I pushed myself against his own growing excitement.
Tris quivered beneath me as I ran my hips up and down over the thin material of his shorts. It made it easy to feel each other, and I knew from the little noises he was making that we were both enjoying this.
“Sosie?” he questioned.
“Don’t talk,” I said in return.
I wanted Tris so much, I couldn’t make my brain think about all the bad that could come out of this. Would it ruin our friendship? Would it make working together awkward and uncomfortable? Did I care right now?
The answer was no.
Nope, I didn’t care about that at all.
I started to slide my hand against his very excited middle when someone rang my doorbell. I ignored it at first, thinking there was no way I had a visitor. I never had visitors. No one except for Tris, and tonight, Tris belonged to me.
Several seconds and a few kisses later, the bell rang again. Tris pulled his mouth away from my neck and rested his head back against the arm of the couch. “Are you going to answer that?”
“Nope.”
He laughed and gently started to push me back. “You should. It could be important.”
“No one ever visits me,” I said with a huff, trying to slow my breathing and calm my libido.
“Exactly,” Tris said. “Go, answer it. I’ll be right here.”
We could see the front door from the couch, but it meant I had to leave the comfort of Tris’s lap. “Whoever it is, I hate them already,” I grumbled as Tris chuckled.
Straightening my shirt and shorts so they weren’t exposing anything, I ground my teeth together and opened the door.
Looking up, and up, I shook my head when I saw the ridiculously beautiful man standing in front of me.
Blond hair that hung past his chin highlighted his sharp cheekbones and stunning green eyes.
He wore a tight, white T-shirt and dark blue jeans, and with his flip-flops hanging from his toes, I thought he belonged somewhere on the northern beaches instead of in my city.
“Who are you?” I snapped.
The man looked taken aback at my bluntness. “Are you Sosasia Raine Westwood?”
“Yeah.”
He stood even straighter. “My name is Wylen Jerrah Keldi, and I am here to help you find Gilanders Earvin Buchanan.”
Shaking my head and trying to focus, I asked. “Who?”
“Gil.”
“Oh.” I felt Tris nuzzle up to my side and silently thanked him for the support. Wylen’s eyes snapped over my shoulder, and I swore I saw them flash a golden yellow for a moment.
“Who is this?”
“ This is my friend, Tris.” I didn’t like the way the two men were staring at each other, so I poked my finger against Wylen’s chest. He looked down in shock like I’d stabbed him or something worse. “Where are you from?”
He took a moment before answering. “Ashtabulah.”
“Ashta-what?” Tris asked.
Wylen only looked at me. “I have come from the land of the Fae to find the man you call Gil.”
“Okay, buddy,” I said. “It’s late. It’s been a long day. And I really can’t deal with this right now.” I started to close the door, but Wylen stuck his hand out and stopped it.
“Please, I have been sent here by our queen to find The Bladesmith.”
I looked at Tris. “Am I dreaming?”
Tris shook his head, a small grin forming on his face. “Nope, Willow. This isn’t a dream. And it sounds like your father likes blades.”
Wylen cocked his head to the side. “I thought your name was Sosasia Raine Westwood?” He had a slight accent that made it seem like this wasn’t his first language. Then he turned toward Tris and wrinkled his nose. “You stink.”
I barked a laugh at the same time Tris told our guest to go fuck himself. Finally getting a control over my emotions, I focused on the blond fae standing at my door, laughing on the inside at how ridiculous this all was. “Look, Wylen. Why are you here?”
“We need your help.”
“Why me?”
Wylen wrinkled his brow like my question had no merit. “Because you are the daughter of Gil and you have the ability to find things.”
“I am just a reporter,” I groaned.
“No. You are much more than that,” Wylen said.
Tris sighed beside me. “Well, let him in. I’ll go open another bottle of wine.
” Tris stomped away from us as I reluctantly opened the door wider and gestured for Wylen to come inside.
But instead, he blinked out of existence and reappeared beside Tris in the kitchen.
Tris shouted and dropped the wineglass he’d been holding.
Once my heart settled, I laughed at the absurdity of my life.
My make-out session with Tris had now turned into a three-way conversation with a fae, a human, and a halfling.
“It must be Tuesday,” I muttered to myself as I closed the door and joined the two men standing in my kitchen.
For about ten minutes, everything seemed normal in a strange sort of way. Tris was pouring drinks. I was sitting at the table watching him. And Wylen was standing in front of me and trying to explain something as though I had the comprehension of a child.
“You’re a what?” I asked for the tenth time.
Wylen pressed his lips together—a sign that he was annoyed with me. “I’m a Hound.”
“Like a dog?”
“No, like a hunter. In my realm, I…investigate things. Like you do here. ”
“How do you know what I do here?” I sat at my kitchen table and sipped another glass of wine. I wondered if my pension for drowning myself in alcohol was a fae thing.
“Because we track all halflings,” Wylen said matter-of-factly.
“Because they track you, Sosie,” Tris mocked. “Are you buying any of this?”
“He did poof out of existence right in front of us,” I reminded him.
Tris sighed and leaned back in his chair, glaring at the stoic man standing next to the table. “Wylen,” I started. “I’m still not sure how you think I can help. I didn’t even know Gil. I literally just learned about him twenty-four hours ago.”
“Yes, I understand that he was not truthful with you. However, you share his fae blood, and we think you can use that bond to help lead me to him.”
“I feel like you’re not telling me something.” I glared at Wylen. “You’re the one not being totally truthful.”
He grinned and dropped his head. “This is why we know you can help. You have a lot of Buchanan inside you.”
Not liking the way that sounded, I tapped my fingers on the table. “Out with it.”
“Your…intuition? That comes from the fae bloodline. Your instincts are superb, and you have a good read on people the moment you meet them.”
“And that’s going to help me find him, how?”
He shook his head. “I do not yet know.”
“Why now?” Tris asked.
Wylen looked surprised at his question. “I don’t understand.”
“Why did they send you now? What’s so special about Gil?” I smiled at my friend for thinking about asking such a perfect question once again.
“I understand,” Wylen said. “My queen has sent me to your world because Gilanders is not the first fae to disappear in recent months.”
“No?” I asked, intrigued once again by the mystery side of this whole situation.
Wylen shook his head. “No. And we are unable to discover those at fault.”
“What happens to them when you do?”
A malevolent grin spread wide across his face. “We have laws in our realm.”
“Yeah, but they’re here. In our world.”
Wylen shrugged. “For now.”
“Wylen,” Tris started, “do you really think Sosie’s going to help you commit murder?” Tris glanced at me. “There are human laws we need to follow to make sure we don’t end up in jail or somewhere worse.”
“Worse?” Wylen asked.
“Like prison. Or an insane asylum because we told the cops we were hunting faeries.”
I giggled at the sound of that statement. One, because it sounded so utterly ridiculous. And two, because it was exactly what we were being asked to do. Trying to pull myself back into reporter mode, I asked Wylen, “How many have disappeared?”
“Recently?” His sharp green gaze captured my eyes.
“Sure. Or in total.”
“Gilanders…Gil makes number ten in the past six weeks.” Wylen clasped his hands together and shifted his stance. He didn’t like revealing that little fact.
“And who do you think is taking them?”
He hung his head and ground his jaw together a few times. “We don’t know.”
“How come Gil and the others are living here and not in Ashtabulah?” Tris was just spot on with his own investigation tonight. I smiled at him at the same time I thought I should stop drinking so my brain would work faster.
“Not all fae are allowed to permanently live in the human realms. But those who do, like Gil, make a great sacrifice to do so. ”