Chapter Nine
I ’m panting heavily as panic rushes through my body in waves.
I had known he was carrying the two swords when I invited him inside, but I had no clue where he was hiding the rest of his arsenal. Other than the swords, there is also an array of throwing knives, a ritual dagger, a pistol, more knives, and is that… a grenade ??
What the hell would someone need all of this for?
Fuming and pointing at the weapons, I try so very hard to make sure my eyes keep contact with his face. I was so consumed by panic when I first noticed the arsenal, that I haven’t even attempted to ogle the very sexy, obviously dangerous , and incredibly naked man.
But now?
Now I seem to be frozen in place. It could be shock, fear, arousal… it’s really hard to pinpoint my emotions right now. I want to step away for a moment and give the man a chance to dress, but my feet seem to be stuck in place. My head is screaming for me to stop being stupid and run away. My tongue is screaming for me to lick every drop of water off his body. My heart is thrashing wildly in my chest. My core is dripping and I actually fear that the friction of movement throws me over that precarious edge.
If just the sight of him is enough to nearly make me come, I can only imagine what his hands would do. Or his… No! Don’t look down!
Keep your eyes focused, Forsythia. Don’t give in. Don’t be a creep.
Yes, because standing here confusedly angry and pointing while he points back with his dick is much less creepy than taking him up on the offer he made outside.
Obviously comfortable with himself enough to not care about his nakedness, he slowly raises a finger and points toward the towel rack. He very calmly says, “If it’s ok with you, I’m going to grab a towel. I can dry off and get dressed while we talk if you would like?”
He’s clearly waiting patiently for my answer, but my brain will not comply.
“Or you can stand here and continue to stare, but if your eyes get any hungrier, Little Nymph, I don’t know if I will be able to hold on to my control much longer.” His pupils are blown and his tone has a husky edge. I take a deep breath, but that only makes it worse as his scent overwhelms me.
Fuck! Why does he have to smell so damn good?
I finally relent, lowering my accusatory finger and nodding once. It’s the best I can do right now, and I still don’t dare move.
Instead, I watch as he grabs a towel and starts drying his hair. While his face is covered, I let my eyes wander around his body a bit. Just as I suspected, there is a deep black tattoo that curls and moves down the side of his neck before splitting to wrap back behind his shoulder, and also across the front of his shoulder, ending just as it touches his pec in the front. I can’t see the back, so I’m not sure how big it is or if there are any more details. What I can see of it reminds me of a rose vine, only there are no flowers or leaves, just thorns. I can’t help the urge that twitches in my fingertips at wanting to trace the intricate design, but thankfully I manage to keep my hands to myself this time.
My eyes shoot back to his face quickly when I notice he is no longer drying his hair. The towel is hanging limply in his hands and his eyebrows are arched high.
“Enjoying the show, Little Nymph?” His tone is low and teasing, and dammit it makes my nipples impossibly hard.
My own eyes go wide at the realization that I have been caught, only he thinks I was looking at much more than his tattoo. My face heats, but I refuse to apologize. “Yes, I am. However, you said we would talk and you haven’t been talking. I was simply occupying my attention while I waited patiently.”
Was that husky flirtatious voice mine ?
He chuckles lightly. “Alright, let’s start here first... My name is Blake Coakley. Do you have a name, Little Nymph?” He asks as he resumes drying his body.
My gaze drops for a quick second and I manage to glimpse his cock bouncing from the movement of the towel. Thankfully my trance is quickly broken, leaving me even more irritated with myself. I glare at him and manage to growl out a quick, “Forsythia.”
He pulls on some clothes as he continues, “Great. Nice to meet you Forsythia. Thanks for the sandwich, the broken nose, and the shower.”
He has just finished buttoning his pants when I step up to him. I hadn’t meant to break his nose and that is not how my mother raised me to behave. I want to investigate it and offer help, but when I reach up to touch his face he snatches my hand.
“I’m sorry. I just want to take a look. I get that it probably hurts, but I’m pretty good at healing and can help. I’ll be gentle. I promise.” I sound much calmer than a bit ago, but I’m not quite sure why I’m so determined to help him, or why I seem so eager to make him promises all of a sudden.
He quirks the side of his mouth up in a little smile, then lets go of my hand and steps around me to snag his shirt. “It’s fine. I already took care of it. Do you mind if we sit down somewhere and finish this chat?” He pulls his shirt over his head and I find myself a little relieved at the lack of skin on display. Even if it was beautiful bronze colored and stretched across a yummy–
Dammit! Down girl! This is not the time to drool over strange men. My mind has got to stop with this madness. Even as the thoughts ram through my mind, my panties get wetter as his scent flows over me again.
Abort mission, vagina! Chill the fuck out!
Gulping to swallow my desire, I nod and concede. A little.
“Yes, but the weapons and pack stay right where they are. You can come back and get them when we are done and you are leaving.“ I turn and step out into the hallway, keeping eye contact while waiting for a response and for him to join me. He makes a noise in the back of his throat and grimaces but agrees and follows me to the living room.
He takes a seat on the small sofa, and I pull up a wooden chair to sit opposite him. “Alright Blake Coakley, what are you doing out here and why do you have all of those weapons?”
Instead of answering, he catches me off guard when he responds with a proposition. “Well, listen, I’m prepared to answer your questions, but I do have a few myself. How about we take turns? An answer for an answer?”
I shake my head immediately. While I seem to have a soft spot for this guy, I’m not naive.
He raises his hands in a defensive pose and says, “Then we will make it two-to-one. For every two answers I give you, you have to give me one. I know I’m a stranger to you, Forsythia, but you are also a stranger to me. Plus this is your house, so you have all the power here.”
Ugh, I hate logic. It means that I have to compromise. At least Ori decided to keep himself out of view. Mr. Coakley thinks it’s just the two of us here. So my hidden feathery ally is a nice little additional safety net. “Fine,” I manage to grit out between closed teeth.
He smiles and nods. “Ok. So to answer your first question, I was camping in the woods last night. I had just fallen asleep when it felt like something was coming and I needed to run. So I took off. I don’t know how far I ran, but I was so tired I just collapsed. I woke up with a beautiful girl falling for me and a sandwich. It was clearly fate.“ He says the last bit with a big smile and wiggles his eyebrows dramatically.
I can’t stop the snort of laughter that escapes, but do manage to roll my eyes at him as I respond, “Hardly.” I think for a moment before posing my next question. “So what were you doing camping in the woods to begin with? There aren’t any campgrounds in the preserve. And what was chasing you?”
He wags a finger before responding, “Sneaky little nymph. That’s two questions and I already answered one. You’re lucky I’m a generous guy. I was camping because I like to be in nature and I had been riding on my bike for most of the day. It was the closest place I knew of, and I know how to stay under the humans’ radar. Also, I don’t think anything was actually chasing me. I said it felt like something was chasing me. Maybe I had a weird dream? I’m not quite sure.”
I chew the inside of my cheek as I think about his responses. He seems truthful enough, but he is obviously not giving me all of the information, and I didn’t miss his lack of an answer regarding the weapons. Before I get a chance to say anything else though, he jumps right into his first question.
“Ok, so that means it’s my turn to ask a question. Why do you live all the way out here alone?”
He thinks I’m alone, so I have to be sure to leave out any information that would indicate Ori was here as well, or he may go on the defensive. “I live ‘all the way out here’ because I like it here. It’s safe and away from unexpected visitors.”
He flinches at my pointed stare from the “unexpected visitors’ comment. It is true though. Extenuating circumstances aside, I really do like the solitude I get out here. I continue on with my next question before he tries to pull a quick one. “So, Mr. Coakley, why does a camper need all of those weapons?”
He sighs and rubs his hands down his face before resting them on his knees. “First of all, please don’t call me that. It’s Blake. Just… Blake. Anything else sounds formal or too much like my father. As for the answer to your question, I think you have a good idea of why I might need to protect myself. All magickals carry around protection and we all know why.“ At that, he simply stares at me.
I do know why, but that doesn’t explain why he has so many weapons. He couldn’t possibly be a hunter, could he?
Thinking about the way he looks, and how he carries himself, it wouldn’t be too far off a guess. Trying to keep my emotions in check so as not to give anything away, I ask him my second question. “Ok, Blake. Be straight with me then.” I take a deep breath, slightly afraid of his answer. “Are you hunting the Creatori?”
His body goes stiff at my mention of the monster. “Possibly. What do you know about the Creatori?”
I throw my hands up and shake my head. This is getting ridiculous and I’m losing my patience. “Ok, nope. The back-and-forth questioning has to stop. I want to trust you. I actually do. For some cracked-out reason, I feel like I’m supposed to trust you. And yes, I know how crazy that sounds, so don’t patronize me. However, you are in my home, so I think it is time you just lay it out and then we can discuss it like… like…“ I let my eyes get lost in his and completely lose my train of thought. I have got to get a grip, and that thought alone has me irritated with myself.
Thankfully he picks it up quickly. “Like friends?” he asks with a quirk of his brow. “How do I know I can trust you ?”
I roll my eyes. “Seriously, dude? I could have killed you in your sleep, I could have killed you with the food, I could have killed you in the shower.” I know that I’m waving my arms around like a crazy person, but this guy makes me feel kinda crazy. “Basically, I had loads of opportunities to kill you, and yet... here you are.“ I say while gesturing to all of him, “Annoying the shit out of me.”
He barely holds in a chuckle, “Wow. I didn’t realize you had been fantasizing about my death in so many different ways. How can we be friends if you keep thinking about killing me, Forsythia?” He finishes with a smirk.
I growl in frustration. Staring directly into his eyes I say, “Alright, fine. With that arsenal and without knowing what kind of a person I am, you want to tell me that you haven’t planned how to immobilize me, or even kill me if needed, multiple times since your arrival?” I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him. At least I think I’m glaring, but sometimes my face has a mind of its own, and I don’t do forced facial expressions well.
Without any further argument, leans back on a sigh. “Touché.”
When purses his lips in thought, my eyes immediately track the movement. He does have very nice lips. They look soft, and his bottom lip is just slightly larger than the top. I could just imagine myself biting that bottom lip while he…
Gods dammit! Why am I malfunctioning?
I bring my attention back to our conversation—er… stand off? He stays quiet for a while, seemingly oblivious to his effects on me and the inner struggle his presence has been creating in my betraying body. I don’t know why that just pissed me off a little bit more.
He clears his throat, and leans forward again, before he dives into the nitty gritty of it, “Yes, I am hunting the Creatori. It’s something I have been training for most of my life. That’s why I have all of the weapons. I don’t intend to let it get its hands on any more magickals. I also have a… special spell that can track the monster. That is also why I was camping in the nature preserve. I was asleep last night when something woke me up and I felt like I needed to run. My instincts have never led me astray so far, so I didn’t see any reason to ignore them now.”
He scrubs a hand across his jaw and designer stubble before continuing, “I don’t know how far I ran before the exhaustion must have been too much and I collapsed. Heck, I even thought I saw a huge bird open your door.” He chuckles lightly at that, and I try not to shift at my slight guilt for omitting that information. “Anyways, I tried to do my tracking spell after the sandwich, and it led me to your house. Again.” He spreads his hands and looks at me for a minute, trying to gauge my reaction, but I’m just as clueless as he is on that one.
I sigh and lean forward to mimic his pose, resting my forearms on my knees. “It sounds like you had an eventful night. I can’t tell you why, and I need you to respect that, but I can tell you that I have not had access to my magick for a few years. Apparently, it somehow came back a couple of days ago and when it did, I kinda passed out. I had just woken up not long before I brought out the sandwich.” I wait a minute while I struggle with my decision to tell him about Ori.
He just sits there staring patiently, waiting for me to continue.
I let out a huff and continue on. “The big bird was not a hallucination. It was Ori, my familiar. He is afraid of you and has made himself scarce since you came into the house.”
Just then my familiar comes out from behind the island in a flurry of feathers squawking all the way. “I am most certainly not afraid of anything. I simply thought it was best to keep an ally in waiting. That way I could intervene if necessary.“ He gives out an undignified “hmph” before settling by my side.
I barely hold in a laugh at that ridiculous display by my friend before addressing Blake. “So this is Ori. He is such a nice guy, so sweet and charismatic. He just shits rainbows wherever he goes.”
Ori grumbles but doesn’t correct me. Blake chuckles lightly and then says. “Well, nice to meet you Ori.” He shifts his gaze from Ori, back to me before saying “So Forsythia, that still doesn’t answer the question as to why my tracking spell thinks the Creatori is your house. Any insight you can give me on that would be great.” He’s polite, but I can sense the impatience he’s barely holding back and for some reason that grinds my gears. My damn mouth takes that as a cue to spout off like an asshole
“Maybe you are just shitty at magick.” Oops! I wince inwardly at my lack of filtration. Well, too late to take it back now.
He sits back quickly as if my words physically slapped him, and levels a glare at me before responding. “That could be. Or maybe you are hiding a lot more than you let on... Like why can your familiar talk, or what happened to your magick that you didn’t have back it until a few days ago,” he pauses, leaning forward again as he gestures at me, “or why would a- whatever kind of magickal you are - be out here all alone with no coven or anything to thrive with, or why would you have some strange connection to the monster I’m hunting?”
I can’t see my own face, but I’m pretty sure I’m sneering at this point. I didn’t mean to be an ass about his magick, but he is way out of line with his questions. Most of that is none of his business, and I have absolutely no clue why his spell told him that thing was here. There is no way it would even fit in my house!
I’m breathing heavily, and getting sick of Blake and his utter bullshit.
Finally, though, I manage to force a response to him through clenched teeth.
“Well I’m not telling you my bra size either, so you might as well add that to the list of shit you don’t know too!”
His eyes shoot straight to my breasts and my nipple pebble again.
Dammit!