by Rachel Angel
“Exactly.”
She looked up at him. “I’ll admit, I still have issues with the magical aspect of all my classes. I mean, give me straight up math and I do great. Show me a science questions and I’ll manage just fine. But this… All this magical stuff is just…” She looked down at the quiz in front of her as tears threatened to fall. “I know so little about this stuff. I mean, I get most of it, on the surface. But some of these questions are just so in depth, so detailed and intricate. I don’t even know where to begin with the answers.”
“Why won’t you just let me help you then? A lot of this stuff is second nature to me. I could help you with the magical aspect of your classes and maybe you could help me with the less magical aspects.”
Harley looked pointedly at him. “We’ve been down this road before, Red. We’ve been through the tutoring thing. I helped you; you and Zed. I wanted to help you. I was happy to help you, but you spat in my face in return. You trampled my emotions. You damn near destroyed me.”
Nodding, he stared down at the table. “I know, and I’m sorry.” He slowly brought his gaze back to hers. “All the more reason for you to let me make it up to you. Let me help you, teach you what I know. We’re from different worlds. There’s literally no one in the human realm who can truly help you with the magic you need to learn.”
She looked into his eyes. The boyish playfulness was gone, replaced with kind sincerity. She knew he was right. No one could help her. No one could even understand what she was going through.
“Let me do this for you,” he said gently. “Look. I’ll help you for a week, maybe even two without you helping me with math or science at all. It’ll be complete payback.”
“All right,” Harley said after a long moment of thinking about it. “But no funny stuff. This is to be a strictly studious relationship.”
He chuckled and nodded. “Whatever you say.”
For the remainder of that evening they looked at magical devices, magical arts and the dark arts and as the days passed, Harley found herself relying more and more on his help.
Chapter 2
Harley
On more than one occasion, Harley went to the dorm room Red shared with his twin brother Zed happy to find that Zed was out.
Those evenings alone in his dorm room, Red was consistently sweet and considerate and a true gentleman. There were no sly remarks, no sidelong glances into her shirt, no sexual innuendoes at all.
On a Tuesday night of their second week of studies, she looked at him and smiled, impressed with how well behaved he continued to be.
“What are you smiling at?” he said, looking at her with boyish innocence.
“I just set you up for a tease and crude remark, and you said nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I said I would have to be naked and alone in order to make that particular magic work, and you didn’t even bat an eye.”
His smile widened and his eyes narrowed slightly. “Are you testing me, Harley?”
“It wasn’t my intention, but I do think it’s an interesting result all the same.”
“So long as you don’t take my gentleman ways for lack of interest. Believe me; I am still very interested in you. I’ve just chosen to respect your space and your pace.”
“I appreciate that.”
They settled in to look at the various theories regarding different magical techniques and Red even gave her a quick lesson on the fae history of a few of those techniques.
After two hours of pouring over the techniques and history, Harley tossed her pencil to the table and rolled her head from side to side in an effort to unkink her neck.
“You okay?” Red said.
“Yeah, fine,” she said getting up and walking around the table while rolling her shoulders. “Just need to stretch and get the kinks out a bit.”
“Here,” he said, indicating her chair. “Sit back down. I’ll get those kinks out.”
Wary, she slowly came back around the table and sat down. Red set his warm hands on the back of her neck, his thumbs running circles up to her hairline.
“Oh,” she let out involuntarily.
“Feel good?”
“Feels great,” she said softly.
He then applied pressure into the muscles of her shoulders, getting right to the heart of those kinks. His hands traveled lower down her back only to walk up her spine, her neck and into her hair.
Never once did his fingers dangle over her breasts or lightly brush up against them. He remained completely focused on simply relieving her of her pain and made no attempt to turn it sexual.
It quickly became a nightly ritual. They studied hard for two to three hours, then he would massage the tension out of her shoulders, and they would resume studying for another hour.
One lazy Sunday afternoon, right after a lengthy massage session, Harley fell asleep.
She woke up, surprised to find herself in her bed, and when she looked up, she saw Red seated at her kitchen table studying.
“What are we doing in my dorm room?”
“I think you’ve been working too hard,” Red said. “You were out like a light.”
“I was?”
“But, considering that we have two tests this week, I thought you might want to continue studying once you woke up.”
Harley looked out to the setting sun. “I guess it’s still early enough to get a few hours in.” She took a whiff of the air around her. “What’s that smell?”
“Oh,” Red said, setting down his pencil and getting up to head to the kitchen. “I thought you might be hungry when you woke up, so I fixed us a bite to eat. We got nachos going in the oven along with a few spicy chicken wings.”
Harley suddenly felt the calling of her empty stomach. “That’s sure to wake me up,” she said with a chuckle. “I can’t believe how thoughtful you’re being.”
She walked over to him, put her hand on his shoulder and leaned in to kiss his cheek. When he turned to look at her, she leaned in again, this time kissing his lips.
His response was swift. He leaned into her, hungering for her as his lips enveloped hers. Groaning, he pulled her delicately into his arms. His intense passion was evident in his kisses, but his arms maintained a certain restraint as he held her, almost as if he was afraid to scare her off.
She was touched by his thoughtfulness.
“I’ve wanted for so long to kiss you,” he murmured against her lips. “This past year has been torture, seeing you but not being able to get close to you.”
She backed up and looked at him. “It was all your doing.”
His eyes filled with regret, and he cast his gaze down. “I know. Believe me, I know. I don’t know if I will ever in my entire life regret something as much as I regret taking part in what happened to you.”
Saying nothing, she continued to look at him, trying to decipher every facial feature, every emotion.
“Let me show you that I am a better person than the one you knew last year. Let me show you how I’ve grown. I want to start over, Harley. I want to show you just how much I love you. I haven’t stop thinking about you. I’ve learned such a valuable lesson since meeting you, and I’ve been humbled by all this.”
She wanted to. She wanted to put it all behind her, but… It was so hard. The pain. The hurt. All the memories of that night still stung.
Chapter 3
With her Dark Arts book tucked under her arm, Harley made her way to Red’s dorm room. As usual, she tapped her knuckles to the wood of his door and opened it to let herself in.
“I hope you’re ready, because I really want to ace this test. I did great on the Magical Devices and Magical Arts tests yesterday and I intend to do the same with the Dark Arts.”
“I’m ready if you are.”
Harley turned to face Red as he stepped out from the kitchen. She looked carefully at him and noticed a strand of blue hair under his ballcap. “You’re not Red, she said. “Red!” she called out.
“Oh,
” Zed said. “Don’t be so quick to ruin my fun.”
“Where’s Red?”
“Out.”
Harley glared at him.
“You know, I’m pretty good with the dark arts. Why don’t you let me show you a few things?”
Harley turned back to the door. “I’ll come back when Red is here.”
Zed hurried to stop her from opening the door. “No. Please stay.”
“When will Red be back?”
“He just stepped out for a few moments. I think he forgot something in his last class or something of the sort. I can keep you company as you wait.”
“Fine. I’ll wait a few moments, but if he’s not here in ten minutes, I’m leaving.” Harley walked to the dining room and dropped her book on the table.
“In the meantime, why don’t we take a look at what tomorrow’s test will most likely tackle.”
“Like what?”
Zed pulled back a chair for her and after she sat down, he dragged a chair to her side and sat close to her.
“Let’s see,” he said as he opened her book. “We can start here. The myths about defeating the dark arts.”
Harley listened to Zed as he read through the myths and thoroughly explained them to her. While her textbook looked at the intricately technical part of each myth, Zed brought a very real and easy to understand perspective to the myths.
Looking at him, Harley felt as if she were back in the first year of studying with him, tutoring him. Only now the tables were turned, and she was his student. He proved to be a great teacher. Certain passages in her textbook were difficult to understand; she knew that because she’d read one particular page over and over again and could still not understand what she’d read. But Zed read the passage and quickly broke it down for her in easy to understand terms.
“You’re a genius. You know that?” Harley said, marveling at the ease with which he understood these things.
Zed grinned. “Don’t tell Red. He already has an inferiority complex. This just might push him over the edge.”
Harley laughed, knowing all too well that Red was also quite smart and was far from having any feelings of inferiority.
“Is this something you just instinctively know, or did you develop your knowledge of the dark arts over time?”
“A little bit of both, actually,” Zed said. “I had learned a bit about the dark side from my mom. Then I was actually confronted by it, fighting it. War can be ugly, and it exposes you to so many dark things, the arts included.”
“How awful for you to have to experience that when you’re still so young.”
He snorted and grimaced. “Some people experience it a lot earlier than I did. A kid I know from my kingdom was only fourteen when he had to deal with some pretty dark stuff.”
Harley shook her head in dismay.
“You know there are some really dark faes out there. This book,” he said, tapping the pages, “doesn’t even go into that until much later. I’ve read it already, and it actually doesn’t completely divulge just how dark they can be. There are stories about one particular dark fae who uses the dark arts in the most disturbing ways.” He looked at her with sorrow in his eyes.
Harley instantly knew where his thoughts had led him; the night of the gallery.
“I know that what we did to you was awful. I don’t think I realized it at the time. I guess a silly, boyish part of me just saw it as funny. Just another prank.” He shrugged as if struggling to understand his own motivation.
“Did you stop to consider just how humiliating it would be for me?”
He looked her in the eye. “No. I didn’t really. I mean, I knew it would be embarrassing. I knew it’d be funny. I didn’t really dig deep enough to see just how devastating it could be for you.”
“Zed,” Harley said gently, her anger over the incident now subdued by time. “You guys put up very private photos of me, for all to see. I mean, if you’d simply slashed my artwork… okay, I would have been hurt and angry. I put so much time into each of those paintings, but I could have gotten over that relatively fast. But those photos, intimate and in moments that should always remain private.”
“I know. You’re right.” Grinning, he turned to her. “I know that this is no excuse, but while intimate and private, those photos of you were really great. I mean, you looked fantastic in every one of them.”
“Well, that’s your opinion,” Harley said, looking down at the table. “And it’s beside the point.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m not trying to diminish the cruelty of what I took part in. I guess I just want to try to heal the pain a bit by showing you the bright side of things.”
“Well, it’s not working.”
“You know, on top of that, everyone really empathized with you.”
“I’m not so sure.” She looked pointedly at him. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you might just be a dark fae.”
His teasing smile quickly disappeared, replaced with a concerned frown. “Don’t say that, Harley. I was stupid. I was juvenile. I was… stupid.”
“You already said that one.”
“Yeah. I was really, really stupid. But I am not a dark fae.”
“How do I know that?”
“Did you know that dark faes are destroying the Faery Realms? You see, they don’t come from any particular kingdom.” He tapped himself on the chest. “Light faes like me are from actual kingdoms; like Spring, Fall, Sea and Wood. The Kingdoms do their best to keep the dark faes out, but every once in a while, they find a way in. And when they do, they cause havoc.”
“Sounds like scary stuff. How in the world do you manage to fend them off?”
“Here,” Zed said, turning her back to him. “Let me show you.” He grabbed on of the linen napkins off the table and placed it over her eyes, tying it at the back of her head.
“What are you going to show me if I can’t see anything?”
“Your mind’s eye. Your internal eye. It’s your most valuable instinct. This is the instinct you need to fight a dark fae or the dark arts in general. Do you realize that without even knowing it, you were using your natural instincts when dealing with Cici and Ashley?”
As he spoke, Harley felt as if she was spinning around. That, or the room itself was spinning with her in it.
“Am I turning?” she said after a moment. “I feel as if…” She wasn’t sure what she felt.
“That’s the thing to keep in mind when you’re fighting the dark arts. It almost always feels as if something is off. As if something isn’t quite right; quite level. Do you feel like you’re off balance?”
“Yes. That’s exactly how it feels. Like I’m teetering to one side, then the other.”
“That’s the sensation of dealing with the dark side. It throws you off. It makes you question what’s real or not.”
“It’s so weird. Unpleasant, really.”
“It usually is. But there are ways of working to get used to it. You can practice and get better at dealing with that strange sense of dizziness. You’ll also come to trust your instincts. You’ll learn to dig deep in your gut and you’ll react instinctively to that darkness that envelopes you.”
Harley staggered back as the spinning intensified and she lost her footing. Zed grabbed her shoulders, steadying her.
“Oof,” she let out, suddenly breathless.
“I’ve got you,” Zed said softly into her ear as he pulled the linen napkin off her eyes.
The spinning immediately stopped.
“Steady now,” Zed said as he slowly turned her to face him. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. “That was wild. So strange.”
Still holding onto her, Zed looked at her, his gaze gentle and loving. “Yes,” he whispered. “It is so strange, being here, so close to you after all this time. It’s so strange all the things you make me feel, all the emotions that fill me, and now…” He leaned in to kiss her.
They backed away from one another, their gazes mee
ting, questioning. He leaned in again, gently setting his lips over hers.
Harley wanted to remain cold and distant. She wanted to push him away. She wasn’t ready to forgive him just yet.
But when he pressed his lips more insistently to hers, her lips parted and welcomed him. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her to him and crushing her against his chest as his tongue slipped into her mouth.
Keeping his lips on hers, he guided her to his bedroom and lay her back on his bed.
Harley could feel her body heat up with anticipation, making it impossible to push him away. She realized as she watched him peel her jeans off that she wanted something from him.
Was it just sex? Did she just want the erotic satisfaction? Or did she want more?
With a devilish gleam in his eye, he tore off her panties and tossed them aside. The gesture heated her up even more. She could feel her clitoris throb as it waited to be tended to. Already, she knew her orgasm would be strong and swift.
She was on fire.
Zed needed only to lay a finger on her knee and she eagerly parted her legs, giving him full access to her body.
“Maybe this will help you to forgive me,” he whispered huskily as he crawled onto the bed and kissed his way up her thigh, finally finding her clitoris.
Harley gasped and clutched the comforter as the sensation of his mouth over her clitoris consumed her. The motions of his tongue brought her to heights of pleasure that lead her to another world. She was no longer in his room, on campus, on his bed.
She was in a world where all that existed and all that mattered was what was going on down there. Her entire body was filled with enjoyable pleasures that had her relaxing then contracting as he brought her higher and higher.
She had anticipated a swift orgasm, a quick rise to the peak, but Zed was taking his time, bringing her a deliciously slow but intense orgasm.
“Oh, yes!” she cried out as she climaxed in the most glorious way. “Oh, yes.”
Zed stopped moving and simply set his lips over her clitoris with the right amount of pressure, extending her orgasm.
