"Okay," he agreed, eyes going smaller still as his breathing went unsteady beneath me.
I lowered down to him in what felt like slow motion, every part of me feeling over sensitive, poised for the moment.
It was a small thing, surely, to most.
To me, kept cloistered, kept as pure as possible for my mother's personal gain, it felt big. Huge.
My lips pressed to his, a shiver moving through my insides to find his lips firm, foreign, yet welcome.
I fumbled.
Or, at least, it felt like I fumbled, like I had no idea what I was doing.
But Drake's hand twisted in my hair, his lips parted, coaxing mine, demanding more.
A low, throaty sound escaped me, making his body shift, turning, pressing me back into the mattress, his body half moving over mine, crushing into me.
My leg rose up, wrapping around his lower back, pulling him against me, shuddering hard when I felt his hardness pressing against my inner thigh, so so close to where my body was begging for the contact, begging for things long denied it.
My hips ground upward as a low, throaty moan escaped me, the sound seeming to shatter something between us, making Drake pull away hard, pressing up on his hands, putting space between our bodies.
"Just a kiss, Amy," he reminded me, voice rough with his jagged breathing.
"It's not enough," I told him, hands grabbing for the lapels of the robe, dragging him back downward.
His forehead pressed into mine as his air rushed out of his chest. "I don't have too much control left here, honey. Please don't push it."
There was a vulnerability in his voice, something raw and sweet that somehow managed to let me think through the desire clouding my brain, burning my body.
"Sorry," I mumbled, hand moving up to run through his short hair.
His eyes opened, brows drawn low over their dark depths. "Don't apologize. Do you have any idea how lucky someone like me is to get to have you want him?
"Someone like you?"
"A prisoner. Someone who has been broken day in and day out for more time than he even knows consciously."
"You didn't choose to be a prisoner, Drake. That isn't who you are. You're... you're a legend come to life," I told him, not understanding the insecurity within him, but hating my parents all the more for embedding it there. "I think I'm the lucky one. I mean who else in all The Green could claim she got to kiss a Draca?" I asked, smiling a little when his eyes lost the sadness, found warmth instead.
On the nightstand, the phone started screaming, making Drake shock back, eyes wide.
"Our wake-up call," I explained to him, reaching for the phone, pulling it up to my ear.
"Wake-up call," the chipper woman at the front desk declared.
"I appreciate it," I told her, hanging up. "We set it up so we didn't miss check-out," I reminded him as he fell onto his back, hand resting on the hard outlines of muscles in his abdomen where the robe had opened.
"Right," he agreed. "It's time to leave," he added, sounding resigned.
I guess the same feeling settled inside me as well as I sat back against the headboard. "I will walk you back to the veil," I offered.
"No."
"Yes," I countered. "I want to make sure you can get back."
"I can get back," he assured me, sending me a smile. "I can navigate The Green, honey. I think I can handle O-hi-o." He stretched the word out, a foreign sound on his lips. "I will see you off in... what was it?" he asked, eyes scrunching up, searching for the word.
"The bus," I reminded him.
"The big, metal car that sits dozens of humans."
"And now me," I declared, forcing a smile and a pep in my voice that I did not feel.
"I don't like it."
I nodded at that. "I don't like the idea of you going back into The Green to face some unknown fate either."
"I'll be fine. I always am."
"If it turns out that your kind... that..."
"That there are none left," he finished for me.
"Yeah. What will you do then?"
"Honestly? I don't know."
"Cece will take you in," I told him with certainty. "You helped save her and Jasper. The Light will protect you from harm."
"I don't know if a life of protection is what I want. It sounds a lot like another name for captivity to me."
With a nod, I shrugged at him. "Well, you can come find me in New York City if you want," I told him, knowing it was silly, but also knowing he didn't stand a chance if he fled The Green of being seen as anything other than a crazy person. "How about this, every Sunday, I will go to a place called The Museum of Natural History at noon. And stay there for two hours. Here, let me write this down," I said, rushing for the pad and pen I had purchased the night before. "You take this twenty-dollar bill to use as your donation to buy a ticket - if you need to live in the human realm that is, of course - and come meet me at the tyrannosaurus rex. That way, you have someone on the outside who understands you, that you can talk to about things like how a cell phone works or what the purpose of a Snuggie is," I told him, folding the money into the note. Along with another short message that I figured he would only read at some point much further down the road.
"Time passes so differently here than..."
"I will be there," I assured him. "Every first Sunday. If you ever need help in this realm, that is where you can find it. I mean... for as long as I am around," I added, shrugging off the idea of how easily the mortal coil was shrugged off in this realm. That was what I had chosen. A shorter life by my own terms instead of a much longer one controlled by others. It seemed like a fair trade.
"How much faster is the time here?"
"I haven't been able to peg it down completely, but it seems like for every week in The Green, it is several months in the human realm."
"By the time I even reach my ancestors' land, half a year could pass here."
Was it just my wishful thinking, or did his voice almost sound sad? It had to have just been me, and the unexpected longing I had to have him with me, to not have to do this all alone.
But all alone was what I would have to be.
It was something I was going to have to come to terms with.
"Still," I assured him, "if you get there, and there is nothing, make your way back. Maybe it would be a year, but I will still show up at that museum in case you need a friend in this world."
I knew I could likely use one.
"You're a good woman, Amy," he declared, voice firm, leaving no room for me to disbelieve him.
"Can you do me a favor?" I asked, reaching for another piece of paper.
"Anything."
"If you come across someone on their way to the Light court, could you have them deliver a message for me to Jasper? You can give them this," I told him, reaching in my bag to pull out a ring - a sapphire as big as my thumbnail that my father had given me on my birthday the year before.
"That is too much for that errand," he told me, eyes wide as he looked at the ring.
"Well, then if you pass by Tenray Square or something, you can trade this for various other items, including the errand."
"That ring must be worth something in the human realm."
If I understood anything about humans and their jewelry, it would get me close to ten-thousand dollars. That could cover rent for me for several months. But I had other rings as well from a lifetime of my father not realizing I didn't care for rings. Rubies. Spinel. Emerald. On top of the money I had stolen from the fund at my parents' estate in the human realm when I was last there, another ten-thousand right there.
I couldn't claim to know everything about human finances, but I was pretty sure I was going to be okay money-wise - at least until I could find a job.
I jotted off the note to Jasper, telling them the same thing about the museum, should they ever need or want to see me, then folded it up, and gave it to Drake to tuck in his jacket pocket.
"We should have gotten you more a
t the store. For your journey."
"I have enough food to last me a month. What more could I need?"
"We will stop at the store again," I decided. "The bus stop is right around there anyway. And you need a bag at least. You can't bring the plastic for those almonds into The Green. And maybe I can get you a blanket?" I suggested, hoping they would have something natural, something made of cotton. "Or maybe some..."
"Amy, you've done enough for me," he cut me off. "I have survived for this long without a blanket in the cold, I am sure I can make it back to my land."
"But I am getting you the bag," I added firmly, not telling him that maybe an item or two that he didn't know about would end up in there.
"Okay. Just the bag."
With that, he climbed back into his clothes; I got into fresh ones more weather-appropriate, we checked out, and made our way back down the road in silence, both of us lost in our thoughts.
Mine, oddly, were mostly about him.
His, well, were likely about his family, his tribe. I wasn't arrogant enough to imagine they might be about me.
We went back to the store. I bought him a backpack I had found made of leather which, even though there were no cows in The Green, was natural. I snuck in some berries, knowing they would be welcome if all he had to eat were nuts on his trip, and socks, a hat, and gloves. He might not have wanted them, but he would get use out of them regardless.
"That thing is taking you all the way to your Apple?"
"The Big Apple," I clarified. "And no. It is going to take me a few different buses and trains to get there."
"I don't like the look of those humans," he grumbled, jerking his chin at a few men - beleaguered, angry at life, sitting looking out the windows.
"Safety in numbers," I assured him, nodding my head at the group of women toward the front. "I'll be fine. You're sure you know your way back to The Green from here?"
"Yes. Don't worry about me either, Amy. And thank you," he told me, words heavy. Because, for us, for fae, thanks meant you owed someone a favor. He was offering me one. Should I ever need it.
"Take care of yourself," I demanded, moving in to put my arms around him as the doors to the bus creaked open.
"You too," he ordered, squeezing me tight until the driver of the bus let out a cough, my warning that he was ready to go.
"I hope you find them," I told him as the doors closed, preventing any reply.
And I did.
I hoped he found his kind.
I hoped he was happy with them.
Even if it meant I would never see him again.
Even if that thought made a deep sadness settle in my belly, something I couldn't shake even after five buses and two trains that brought me where I was planning to go.
The Big Apple.
New York City.
My dream had come true.
Why then did I feel so utterly unhappy?
SIX
Drake
I felt two things at the same time.
The Green trying to pull me back.
And something deep within me trying to pull me back toward Amy.
It was a deep-rooted urge I actively had to fight when it pulled me to a stop every few feet.
There were no sex fae here, I reminded myself. No fae to feed off her desires.
There would be men, though.
Human men.
Ones who maybe meant her harm, sure, but ones who simply wanted her desire for pure reasons.
And that thought set my teeth on edge.
I had no claim on her, of course.
We'd kissed. That was it.
There could have been more.
If I hadn't stopped it.
But I had to stop it.
Because I knew it was going to be important to her.
And I maybe had a feeling it would be important to me. Because it had been so long. Because she had saved me. Because I already felt bonded to her.
Then throw in the fact that I knew we were parting ways, and I knew we couldn't go there.
Even if my body was begging for it.
My body had been begging for it since I felt her climb up onto my lap to get warm in the woods. Her hand had moved innocently between my thighs, but had set my body on fire. I sat awake for hours trying to get some control over my response, only seeming to manage to do so right before she woke up, realizing the predicament, and trying to disentangle herself slowly.
Spending another night with her wrapped up over me when we weren't freezing, when it wasn't life and death, that had almost undone me.
I hadn't been able to stop my fingers from seeking out the hair that I had seen so many times - catching the light, dancing in the breeze, looking softer than anything I had ever known in my hard life.
It turned out I was right.
The tremble that moved through her set my cock to steel in an instant. Her climbing over me then demanding a kiss had been like a lifetime of fantasies coming true. And somehow better than I could have imagined.
But no matter how much I wanted her, I had to stop it. Because I had this distinct feeling that once I got her, I would never let her go.
Maybe that was just simply my feelings of gratitude talking. Maybe it was just the freedom I owed to her.
But something within me said otherwise, said it was more, said I had wanted the sunflower in the tower since the day she became a woman, that I had cared for her long beyond that as anyone would when they had saved them more than once.
I shook my head, trying to break the thoughts free as I closed in on the car dealership we had seen coming out of The Green.
She was gone, taken by the giant steel headache headed for a place named after a fruit that - from the sound of things - didn't have a single fruit tree to boast about.
Maybe humans weren't the base, stupid creatures fae often accused them of being, but their naming of their cities could use some serious thought.
The pull of The Green beckoned me forward, reached for me like the embrace of loved ones, begging me to come home.
Home.
That was maybe the only thing that kept my feet moving forward instead of turning around and trying to chase down Amy's bus.
Home.
My land.
My kind.
I was still alive, so if they had not been massacred or afflicted in some way, everyone I had once known should still be living as well.
Hope was something I thought long buried, a seed dug too deep, too far away from the warmth of the sun ever to emerge. But it sprouted then, a small, fragile thing at first that increased as the first day came to a close without someone catching up to me and dragging me back, it found its way to the surface, rooting deeper while spreading upward.
I settled down in a small cave in a cliff, reaching into the backpack Amy had picked out, looking for the almonds that should have been right there.
But they weren't.
They were buried.
Under a cap.
And gloves.
Different than the kind I would have found in The Green, thick, warm-looking.
I wasn't sure when she had slipped them past me, but as I put on the hat and gloves, feeling the warmth making a difference, taking the chill out of my bones, I felt something akin to longing within me.
Not just for sex.
Not for her touch, her kiss.
Just her company.
Just her warmth and kindness.
The way she beamed when something was new to me, when she could explain its function, when she could pull me into a world she clearly had a fondness for.
The smile of hers that lit her whole face.
The way every ounce of abundant tension slipped from her slight body as we stepped out of the veil.
I sat there for a long time eating almonds half-heartedly, taking a few of the blueberries I had found below them, assuring myself that I would feel the same way.
When I crossed into my land.
When I was reunited wi
th loved ones who likely thought me long dead.
I would feel the relief then.
And I was on my way there.
So I slept.
And I dreamed about a field of sunflowers.
-
The next day, I traded some of my blueberries and almonds to a hungry-looking family on their way to the Light Court to carry Amy's note to her brother.
I hadn't been able to part with the ring.
I'd passed a small market where I could have sold it. I could have gotten myself changes of clothing, more food, weapons to defend myself with should I need them.
I'd felt the ring, heavy in my closed fist.
And I just couldn't do it.
It was on my sixth day of traveling that I finally started to find familiar things. A tree I had climbed in my youth, made more gnarled and rough with age, but still boasting the crude carving in the side of a Draca breathing fire. Then there was a stream where my friends and I had flirted with sprites, letting them wash our hair, run their hands all over.
Close.
I was so close that I could feel the draw again. Like the veil, but more familiar, stronger.
If the draw was still there, the chances of my friends and family being there as well was much stronger.
"I wouldn't go that way if I were you," a voice called from above me, making me stiffen, head shooting upward, seeing what I had missed when I had looked up on the tree line as I approached.
A woman.
Easy to miss at first with her lean body clad in dark browns, making her blend in with the tree limb she was standing on, arms down at her sides. Her hair, too, matched, blended in. Long and sleek, tied here and there into small braids adorned with little trinkets found along the forest - rust-colored autumnal leaves, berries, pieces of natural rope with small gemstones beaded through.
Her face was what you would expect of fae - all sharp cheekbones, and a slightly pointed chin. Her almond-shaped eyes were an almost unnatural orange-brown, much like that of the leaves in her hair.
Her hands were perhaps the only thing about her that made no real sense. The tops had strips of scars - some old and pink, some red and new. The palms looked rough and blistered. And her nails, her nails were filed to points.
Escape From The Green Page 8
