Chapter 4
Maggie
Iknocked his hand away. “I don’t trust that smirk on your face.”
He stepped back and picked up my elk leg as if it weighed nothing. It was very unfair that he was crazy strong. I thought my quickness would overcome his monster, but the sight of that bloodbath made me pause. He’d never done anything like that at the Keep.
His shrug remained infuriatingly casual for someone who had just pierced my secrets. “You can always find your way on your own.”
He meant the thicket, but he also meant the truth about my magic. I couldn’t find my way. I had tried and he knew it. Rue, the single individual who grasped my magic at all, had left this world.
I looked around the impenetrable wall of trees just waiting for me to run again.
As much as I hated the Elf, he would get me out of here or I would kill him.
And now I was determined to understand what he kept in that flighty head of his.
If it concerned sex, like his smile implied, I could remain crystal-clear.
Enough men had suffered my indifference over the years; Noth would be no exception. I picked myself up off the ground.
“I wouldn’t let you off the hook so easily,” I said.
Sunset filtered through the trees. Who knew whether it was real, or an illusion created by the wood.
Rat Face took my hand and pulled me up, and I ran straight into his chest. We tumbled together, and the forest floor tilted ass-over-tea-kettle until we stood in a moss-covered bower, vines and soft petals arching in a frame around a luxurious carpet of plants.
My head certainly didn’t swim because of his heady charred-ruins musk.
I swallowed the unexpected longing back down.
“Did you do this? Is this what you wanted to show me?” The display screamed romance even with the rest of the thicket dormant.
Noth shook his head no. “I don’t need parlor tricks. It’s probably trying to help.”
A trench before the bower smoked and then sparked with flame. I barked out an uncomfortable laugh. Help us what? Hook up?
“Trying a little too hard, isn’t it?” I took in Noth's bemused expression.
“You’re really not a romance girlie, are you?”
I would never admit it, but I didn’t hate the idea of all that.
I just never found anyone who meshed with my particular flavor of it.
Actions always spoke louder than words for me because I wasn’t the sort of girl you “dated”.
I was the girl you fucked for fun. So romance became just another part of the dance.
The clearing filled with the soft glow of fireflies.
“Okay. All right.” I spun around to leave the bower and found a wall of trees behind me.
“Well, this is perfect. We get a two for one, Pumpkin. You and the thicket apparently need the same thing.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I shouldered past him and collected some branches to drive into the ground for a spit. If nothing else, we would cook the elk. We still had the meat, right? The legs tumbled into the clearing like an overeager dog spit them out at us.
“It’s easier to show you than tell you, but that can wait until after we eat.”
He sat me at the edge of the bower. Rat Face might have been petty and eaten both legs by himself, but he diligently skinned and cooked them off, letting me eat my fill in peace.
It didn’t mean we were friends or anything, but the silence was nice—just the right amount.
It let me connect to the ocean of calm I always reached for at meals, so I ate consciously.
I stopped eating before I was full, knowing it would settle, even with all the activity of the day.
I tried not to let it get me down that said activity was a miserably failed assassination.
As soon as I thought it, my anxiety crept up and whispered all manner of outlets to soothe it.
I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth before I stopped.
Since we appeared fresh out of alcohol, it pointed out Noth would be a dangerous diversion in a lovely setting.
Maybe I wanted his mysterious answer to be sex.
“You have a little…” Noth reached out and swiped my bottom lip free of grease. One simple gesture melted all the way down to my toes.
I ignored the urgent need to rub my thighs together. “You want to tell me my secret now?”
He leaned over, only a whisper from my mouth. “So eager.”
Heat prickled all over. Overwhelming turned out to be a mild word for Noth. I needed some space. This was spectacularly stupid. It was one thing when the sex was for the sake of killing him. It was quite another to choose it.
“Really, you’re going to try that when we’re both disgusting?”
He drew back. Because I remained a contradictory bitch, I missed him in my space.
Noth stood, the last of his elk leg forgotten, turning to the woods. “A little help here.”
The trees rustled, and a stream flowed into the culvert.
Noth stripped off his heavy brocade vest and the linen shirt underneath, and my mouth went completely dry.
Settling back further into the bower, I didn’t want it to look like I was spying.
I stopped counting abs after two. That was the most I had ever seen on anyone but him.
And our last encounter wasn’t exactly full of lingering glances or clothing removal.
Noth dipped down to the stream, soaking his shirt in the water.
His back was just as impressive. Who had an impressive back?
One with ropey muscles that made him bulkier than any other Elf, but still lithe next to someone like a bear shifter.
Luckily I hated him, or the display may have made me do something stupid like drool.
I made a mistake when I tried to seduce him into letting his guard down.
Now I understood the troubling sensation of his ladder-pierced cock buried inside me.
Noth washed himself with care and precision, allowing an ungracious amount of water to slide over those muscles I definitely turned away from.
I glanced back without turning my head. His sharp chin lifted to wipe down his neck and over his broad chest. I swallowed hard.
It should be illegal to be that pretty and that stacked.
At the unbuttoning of his trousers, I held my breath. Would I get a complete striptease?
When Noth turned his back and made quick work of cleaning off the sweat of travel and blood of the elk, I gave my overactive imagination a good neck-snapping shake.
My lady bits and I weren't supposed to be mooning over our homicide victim; no matter how spectacular he looked.
He dunked his shirt in the stream. His long fingers squeezed the cloth dry and then he wet it again.
My breath slowed down as my heartbeat roared in my ears.
His hooded eyes reflected in the coming dark.
A deep primal part of me—the one that worshiped the sun, the moon and the stars—thrilled at seeing it.
What did he see when he looked back at me?
Something he liked because his smile widened and his eyes started to glow.
A little of my anxiety eased even as I grew wet.
Whatever he was badly hinting at clearly involved sex.
I was good at making this emotionless. Lust I could handle.
He skittered as he walked back to me. Was he aware of how much his Nightmare shone through at times? It should have scared me, but the darkness was as much a part of my practice as the light. It held no inherent morality and was nothing to fear.
He crawled between my legs, and I was helpless to keep them closed.
The danger of him was thrilling, but it was the intent in his gaze that made my legs wobbly.
Everyone had good reason to think he was a vain, overbearing, theatrical creature, but his eyes didn’t lie.
The weight of consequences pressed on this man and the shadows he carried were darker than his Nightmare’s.
Noth pushed my hair behind my shoulders. “You got me all riled up from that murder attempt.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t fix that for you permanently, Your Highness.” I shrugged with every bit of nonchalance I had over the rapid beat of my heart and smiled as he flinched at his title.
We were both experts at hiding our feelings by showing others what they were supposed to see.
That’s how I knew I could do this. He wasn’t wrong when he said he knew more about magic than I did.
He might help me manage it, or he might kill me in return.
I was crazy enough to want to find out which.
More control would be worth it. I could do whatever this was without emotion entering the equation if it would help me unlock the buzzing beneath my skin.
Noth took his shirt, still smelling of cut grass and charred ruins, of him, and dabbed at my face with more patience than I thought him capable of.
I unclasped my leather vest and Noth trailed the fabric lower, the cold bite of the stream leaving gooseflesh in its wake.
It woke up every sense to Noth’s sweet assault.
I slid my hand down his naked side, a place that got little touch, and watched it raise the fine hairs on his body.
His other hand peeled me out of my shirt, eyes fixed on the breast band still covering me.
Unlike my sister, I wasn't very well-endowed there, but anyone would have thought treasure lay beneath the cloth with the way his gaze never wavered.
I kicked off my boots, and he did the same, stopping his bath to pull off my socks.
I yanked off his and realized we were going slow enough I had time to think.
Noth might get to his little lesson or not.
It didn’t matter. I was going to take what I wanted to know and soothe the jittery sting of failure.
My leather leggings and panties came off in one fell swoop.
I never liked this part that exposed my body and soul scars to view.
I needed to get to the mindless place as quickly as possible.