Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
PENNY
“Are you sure you can leave your tavern, Silver?” I ask for the third time as we pack up the wagon we purchased for this trip.
“Penny, I told you it’s fine. Do you not want me to come?”
“No!” I say in alarm. “Of course I do, I just don’t want you to lose business because you’re helping me. You promise it will be okay?”
He comes to stand in front of me and reaches out, holding the side of my shoulders. “Penny, I promise it will be fine. My friends will handle everything here. Besides, it’s not the first time I’ve left it to head to the sea, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”
I nod and he lets go, moving to lift another large container of water onto the wagon.
I glance past it and into the forest across the street for the thousandth time since the incident with my masked stranger a few weeks ago.
Where was he? Why didn’t he come and say hi?
Was it just a coincidence that I had seen him again? But I swear I could feel eyes on me.
“Boo,” a deep voice whispers in my ear, making me jump.
Ryker’s deep laugh rings out, making me slap his arm as I glare at him. “Ryker! That wasn’t nice,” I pout.
“Sorry, Red, I couldn’t help it. Were you looking for him again?” he asks, putting his arm around my shoulder and looking into the woods.
“Who?” I ask, pretending I don’t know who he’s talking about.
He smirks down at me. “Your masked hero, of course.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, birdman,” I tell him as I lift my chin and turn away, his laughter following me.
Brax and Indy are lifting the last of the water into the wagon now.
I can’t believe how much we are bringing, but they said it will take us weeks and weeks to cross the desert and we don’t want to be caught short out there.
Apparently, there will be nothing but sand until we reach the other side.
I asked why we didn’t go around, but they said it would add a month to the journey and wasn’t much safer due to the territory where those lands fall.
“You ready, Sugar?” Indy asks as he jumps down in front of me, grabbing my hand and kissing my fingertips.
“Yeah, I’m going to miss it here, though, I think. Havenridge has been a home to us for a little while now.”
“I think you’ll find it was the company more than the village. Don’t get me wrong, this place is okay, but there are much nicer ones, safer ones, too.”
“You don’t have a home somewhere you want to go back to, Indy?” I ask him.
He shakes his head before looking down at me with a smile. “I already told you, my love, my home is with you.”
“I love you, Indy,” I tell him as I turn to face him, my hands sliding up his hard chest. “These last few weeks have been the best of my life, hands down. I think that I’m just a little scared to lose the bubble we’ve been in here.
Waking up with the three of you every morning, spending our days and nights together…
” I trail off, not sure how to end that.
“Sugar, they’ve meant so much to me, too. But don’t feel sad, we’re not splitting up. We’ll continue our adventure on the road now.”
“I know, I’m just afraid of things changing between us, I can’t lose you Indy, any of you.”
“You couldn’t if you tried,” he says, dipping his head to press his lips to mine.
My fingers tighten in his shirt as I open my mouth for him.
He wraps his arms around me and I lose all sense of where we are, loving the feeling of him holding me, keeping me safe.
We slowly ease away from each other, and he asks, “Ride with me first?”
I smile and nod up at him, causing him to smile back.
We decided to take the wagon, pulled by two horses, with two drivers, and two additional horses for the other two men to ride.
Any fewer horses and it would be too much weight for them to pull, any more, and it would mean bringing more water for the additional horses too.
They said I could rotate between the two riders and the wagon, as I am a lot lighter than them.
They said they had camels in this world, too, which would have been far better for crossing the desert with, but they were unable to locate any nearby.
“Everyone ready?” Silver asks, climbing on the second horse as Brax and Ry head to the front of the wagon.
Everyone agrees as Indy lifts me effortlessly onto his horse, before climbing on behind me.
Silver offers to take the lead, and Indy and I take the rear to make sure nothing happens to the wagon on our journey.
After a couple hours, I start to get bored of the constant trees around us, they all start to look the same. I decide it’s a good time to get to know more about my husband.
“Indy, will you tell me about your childhood?”
“My childhood?”
“Yeah, I want to know more about you, tell me some stories about you as a kid.”
“Hmm… Well, as you know, I grew up with Apollo. As our parents weren’t the kindest towards him, we tended to keep to ourselves. There was a beautiful pond not far from our home, and we’d often spend our free time there, swimming and jumping off the waterfall.”
“Wow, that sounds amazing.”
“Do you know how to swim?”
“Yes, I love swimming,” I tell him.
“Good,” he says, kissing the top of my head from where he sits behind me. “We’ll have to go swimming together one day.”
“Oh, yes! We could play Marco polo!”
“Marco polo, what’s that?”
“It’s a game played in the water, someone is ‘it’ and they keep their eyes closed and yell out ‘Marco!’ and everyone else has to reply ‘polo’, and without opening their eyes, they have to use their other senses to find one of the others. When they touch them, then that person becomes ‘it’.”
“Sounds a little dangerous with their eyes closed.”
“Nah, the others make sure they’re okay. It’s normally played in swimming pools, though, which is a bit safer than a pond.”
“A swimming pool?”
“Yeah, it’s like a pond that you build in your own backyard, there are no plants or fish in it though.”
“Interesting. Will you tell me about your brother, if you don’t mind?” he says as his hand rubs soft circles on my belly.
“Charlie and I were so close when we were young. We could make a game of anything. We’d make bets all the time, how many people we’d see wearing red at school that day, what mom was making for dinner, who could hold their breath the longest underwater, who could climb the tree the fastest. The best part was that it didn’t matter who won, we were just happy to play.
As we got into our teens, we didn’t hang out as much anymore.
I had Ria, and he had some guy friends from school.
We still got along, but we did less together.
Sometimes I wonder if I could have stopped him from becoming friends with those other boys.
Maybe I should have tried harder to get him to hang out with Ria and I. ”
“Oh, Sugar, you know it wasn’t your fault. These things happen, unfortunately. Sometimes it just takes one bad decision to ruin another’s life.” I had a feeling he was speaking from experience. A similar thing had happened to his brother.
“Tell me more about Apollo. Are you identical twins?”
“Yes, although I promise I am the more handsome one,” he says, making me laugh.
“Apollo was always more serious than me. He took our parents’ rejection really hard, and he never felt like he fit in anywhere.
I think it’s partly why I was so eager for things with Caroline to work out.
I wanted him to know he wasn’t defined by his magic.
If I am being honest, I think if I had really thought about it, I would have known she never would have truly accepted him.
He was hoping he could hide it from her forever.
But her parents were friends with ours, so I knew they wouldn’t be accepting of magic.
But I had hoped she’d be like us and not judge him for having it. It’s not like he chose to have it.”
“That’s why he ran,” I say.
“Hmm?”
“You said after that he left, he never came back. It’s because he feels he’ll never be accepted as he is. He’d rather be alone than be treated like crap. I can understand that.”
He squeezes me tight and I feel his lips on my head. “Sugar, you are too perfect. Why couldn’t you have found us years ago?”
“I’m sorry, old man, I was probably a toddler when you were courting Caroline.”
“Why you little brat,” he says, before he starts tickling me where his hand sits on my belly, making me squeal. The horse gets a little agitated, so Indy stops tickling me to calm the horse.
His hand starts rubbing slow circles on my belly instead.
Is his hand moving lower and lower or is it just me?
I’m wearing a pair of my new pants today, not wanting to chafe my legs on the horse.
They closely resemble wide legged dress pants, in a soft flowy light pink material.
They are super comfortable and thin… and as Indy’s hand moves lower and lower until his fingers graze my clit, I realize how thankful I am for the lightweight material.
My hands move to Indy’s arm, and I’m not sure if I’m trying to halt him or encourage him.
“Indy,” I whisper breathily.
“Mmm, I miss you, Sugar.”
“Indy, I’ve been with you all day and we just had sex this morning,” I laugh out.
“That was hours ago, I want to feel you on my fingers. Will you be a good girl for me?” He starts rubbing my clit harder, making me moan. “If you do as you’re told, I’ll let you come all over my fingers, would you like that, Sugar?”
“Yes,” I hiss out. I was not one to turn down an orgasm by Indy’s powerful fingers.
“Undo your pants then put your hands around my neck.” I do as he says.
His hand quickly finds my core as and he slides his palm against me.
A finger runs through my folds before flicking my clit, making my fingers tighten on his neck.
“Good girl. Keep your hands there, but you don’t have to stay quiet if you don’t want to. ”