Chapter 6 #2
She would’ve thought that the roaring heat would dim to a simmer after the way she wiped out like that. And maybe it would have if Callie hadn’t landed with her legs spread open, giving Ash a direct peek at the teensy, tiny scrap of underwear that barely covered her pussy.
She closed her legs.
Ash gave her a long-suffering sigh, then moved toward her before holding out his hand. “Allow me to help you up.”
His fingers were long, almost unnaturally so. It had the same richly bronzed skin as the rest of him, including his palm. It was one point on Ash that was so very other that she remembered just in time that he was fae.
And hadn’t she heard long ago to never give the fae permission to touch you?
It was a buried memory that had made itself known yesterday. Something kept telling her to keep her distance, and during her reading of a few of the fairy books she kept on her bookshelf, there were passing mentions made of that very same warning.
Callie shook her head. “I’m good.”
“Give me your hand, Callie.”
That sounded like a command to her. Good thing that Callie wasn’t her true name, huh.
Pushing herself to her feet, she refused again. “I’m fine. You don’t have to pretend to be a gentleman.”
“Is that so?” Ash frowned. “Haven’t you forgotten already, human? I can’t pretend at all when you’re near.”
“That’s just your glamour,” she brushed off, annoyed. So they were back to ‘human’ again now? She supposed she deserved it, but still. “I can see through that, but that’s all I can really do. How can I trust you? You could be lying right to my face and I’d never know.”
Ash’s expression turned to one of scrutiny again.
Callie didn’t like it. “What?”
“It’s just that you called me fae before. I thought you knew all about my people.”
“Okay. Now what does that mean?”
He turned away from her.
Callie clenched her teeth. If there was one thing that drove her nuts, it was when someone turned their back on her when she was talking to them.
Growing up the youngest of three, Ariadne and Hope used to do it to her all the damn time.
It was infuriating. And maybe she’d started it by throwing down the gauntlet when it came to not being able to trust him, but he was fae!
How was she supposed to trust a fae she just met, even if he did save her?
“I asked you a question, Ash. I know you’re fae.
I know you’re from Faerie. Excuse me if I don’t know much more than that, but when most of the faerie creatures I run into are, I don’t know, actively trying to hunt me, forgive me for not asking them all about their differences.
I’m human, as you keep reminding me. I shouldn’t know about Faerie. You’re lucky I know as much as I do.”
That caught his attention. Slowly turning on his heel, Ash’s expression this time was unreadable.
He bowed his head slightly. “So I am. If you don’t know that the fae are incapable of telling a lie, then it would follow that you’d doubt my word.
And perhaps you should. While every word I speak is true, things aren’t always as they seem.
But believe me when I tell you this: there’s a reason we’ve met.
I don’t know what that is just yet, but I will figure it out.
Until then, I’m not going anywhere. You might as well get used to it. ”
Callie was silent for a moment. It was good to hear that the fae were forced to tell a truth if not the truth, but for Ash to smugly say that she had no choice in the matter now that he had fixated on her?
“What the— no. It doesn’t work like that.
This is my apartment. My home. I let you in today”—because, to the twisty fae, her opening the door probably counted, even if he swept in without an actual invitation—“but that doesn’t mean I’ll always be available to humor you.
I have a life. A job. I don’t have time to deal with an arrogant fae male I just met. ”
“You make excellent points there. To them, I have one thing to say: leave all of your human responsibilities behind. Come with me to Faerie. Maybe things will be much clearer there.”
Callie blinked. Oh. Look at that. Now they were back to this beautiful male being certifiable again, weren’t they?
“No.”
He pursed his lips, an expression that somehow made him seem even more stunning. Probably because it just highlighted the cutting edge of his cheekbones, she decided.
A soft sigh escaped him. “You do so love to refuse me.”
She shrugged. “That’s the great thing about being human. I get a choice. It’s this amazing thing called free will. You should try it some time.”
It was, on the surface, a flippant comment, but Callie was testing him. She needed to know just how much trouble she was in now that he’d come to see her again.
“I get what I want eventually, human. You’d do well to remember that.”
She raised her eyebrows. A tricky fae answer. She should’ve expected as much.
Well, two could play that game.
“And you’d do well to remember that my name isn’t ‘human’. I don’t know what it is you want from me, but—”
“That again? You still don’t know what I want?” Ash scoffed. Damn it, even that was attractive. “You seem a grown human to me. Untouched, yes, but I didn’t take you for an innocent. You must know.”
Callie fisted her hands at her hips.
“I’m no innocent,” she retorted. “And I don’t know where you get off calling me ‘untouched’ like that since my sex life sure as hell isn’t any of your business—”
His golden eyes lit up with a predatory gleam. “Oh, but it is now.”
Callie pointedly ignored that. “—but, anyway, I’m no virgin, either.
You’re right. I don’t know that much about your people.
I told you before, you’re the first fae that’s actually spoken to me.
But I’m a pretty girl on her own in a big city.
I’ve dealt with my fair share of pervs. If you think you can waltz in here and expect that I’m going to fuck you, then I’m sorry. You’re wasting your time.”
“Am I?” Ash sidled closer. “You owe me a debt.”
She’d been wondering when he would bring that up. It wasn’t an accident that he didn’t mention it before now. She was sure of that.
“So you want to have sex, is that it? You saved my life, so now I have to sleep with you or… what? You’ll kill me?”
Because, to Callie, the literal meaning of a life debt was just that. He saved her life and now her life was forfeit to him. If Ash pushed it, he could twist it so that her murder would be justified—well, to a fae, it would be.
“I won’t take your body or your life, but I’ll settle on a piece of your soul.
Give me that, and the debt’s even. Then we can discuss fucking each other—because, I promise you, Callie, that we will eventually…
once we’re on a more equal footing, of course.
We owe each other nothing except honesty.
I can’t lie to you and I expect you to treat me the same.
” He paused for a moment, letting his words break through the sudden shock clouding her mind. “Do we have an agreement?”
Putting aside his absolute certainty that they would end up in bed together, Callie just resisted the urge to gape up at him.
Ever since the event in the park, she had decided he had only followed her home to make sure he could collect on his life debt.
Sure, she began to see—even without relying on her sight—that there was more to it than that now that he’d come back again, but to just put his intentions out there like that?
And if he really couldn’t lie to her, then he meant every last word he said—including that he would wipe the life debt clear for a piece of her soul.
If only she knew that that meant.
“I’m not agreeing to anything just yet,” she said carefully, “but say I did. What does it mean, give you a piece of my soul?”
“It’s very, very simple. You give me permission to touch you.
Nothing intimate,” he added before she could interject again, “though it certainly can be. A brush of your hand against mine will do, my fingers against your cheek… there has to be a touch. I won’t take much.
You’ll hardly miss it. But for one of my kind, it’ll give me a rush of power and a pleasure that’s almost as good as sex.
You’ll experience the pleasure, too, so don’t fret that it’ll hurt. ”
“And… and that’s all? You touch me and then I won’t have to worry about the life debt anymore?”
“I told you that I couldn’t lie, didn’t I?”
True.
And Callie really, really hoped she could believe that.