by Tasha Black
“Still here,” he said to himself in satisfaction.
He grabbed a sheet off a nearby chair and spread it on the floor.
She watched as he opened the package on top of the sheet.
The layer of plastic gave way to a layer of newspaper, then fabric, then more plastic.
When he pulled off the last layer, she almost fainted.
Three massive stacks of cash sat on the sheet.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Oh, I like to keep some cash handy,” he said lightly.
She leaned in and saw the bills were all hundreds. She couldn’t even get her mind around how much money there must have been altogether.
“You’re… rich?” she asked, testing out the idea.
He shrugged. “I’ve been lucky in business.”
Her mind went back to that glassy building and the two secretaries waiting outside his office.
Of course he was rich. How could she have forgotten that part? Look at this place. And he said it was his second home.
“I’m sorry,” she said faintly. “Things aren’t coming back evenly.”
“It’s fine, Jessica,” he said, sitting beside her and wrapping a big arm around her shoulders. “We’ll have all the time in the world, soon enough. You’ll remember things slowly, and I’ll be here for you.”
She buried her face in his chest and the reeling, dizzy feeling receded a little.
He smelled so good, and so familiar.
Flashes of the past sparked in her mind, all happy ones. His mouth pressed to hers, his hands on her waist.
A shiver of desire shot through her before she could contain it.
“Jessica, are you okay?” he asked, observing her with those beautiful dark eyes.
11
Cullen
Cullen searched Jessica’s beautiful face.
He hoped he hadn’t frightened her by bringing her here.
“Oh, my love, we shared so many happy memories here,” he told her softly. “It felt like a safe place to me. But I wasn’t thinking about how confusing it must feel to you, remembering things in bursts. We can go somewhere else, anywhere you want.”
But instead of answering she reached out and cupped his jaw in her hand, so gently, as if she were afraid she might hurt him.
A wave of desire nearly knocked him over.
Remember that she is vulnerable right now. She may not even fully know what we were to each other.
But he was already turning his face to her hand, pressing a burning kiss to her palm.
She made a small sound, and it was his undoing.
He bent and pressed his lips to hers, delirious with the softness of her sweet mouth.
She kissed him back as if her life depended on it.
Before he knew what he was doing, he had lifted her into his arms and was carrying her to the bedroom.
But when he got there, he realized that every single item in the cozy space was covered in sheets.
He cradled Jessica in his arms, helplessly trying to figure out how he was going to get the bed uncovered without putting her down.
She giggled and the sound distracted him from his conundrum.
He smiled down at her, loving the way her eyes sparkled and the little dimple that appeared on the left side of her mouth when she laughed.
“What’s so funny?” he teased. “Don’t you like my spooky decor?”
“I’ll help you get rid of it,” she said with a wink, wiggling to get down.
Reluctantly, he placed her on the floor. She went to work right away, whisking sheets off the furniture. He joined her, pulling a sheet from his reading chair in front of the fireplace. She removed sheets from the bedside tables. He went onto the balcony and pulled the coverings off the chairs and table.
At last, they met on opposites sides of the bed.
That last sheet was the only thing between them, the only barrier to finally making her his queen.
They both grabbed it at once and Jessica laughed again. Together, they pulled back the sheet and let it fall on the ground.
He meant to savor the moment, to walk over to her slowly, tangle a hand in her hair.
But she was already crawling across the bed to him, focused as a fox leaping on its prey.
The air seemed to go out of the room along with the furniture, the view, and everything except his beautiful queen and the way she gazed at him with such confidence and such naked need.
“Stop me if I go too fast,” he managed to say before he pulled her close and ravished her mouth with his once more.
12
Jessica
Jessica let herself go to sensation.
Cullen kissed her, thumbing open her jaw with one hand and sliding the other down her side, tracing her curves.
She wanted him so badly, would have wanted him even if they didn’t have a history.
But there was memory in his touch, an echo of pleasure that had her breathless already.
“Let’s get you undressed,” he suggested, his whisper rough in her ear.
She nodded, knowing he was worried that she would change her mind, or be scared. And she was scared. But she wasn’t going to change her mind.
Her fear had nothing to do with his big body, and everything to do with her fragile mind.
Making love with Cullen would bring more memories back, she was sure of it. And everyone had some bad memories along with the good.
Cullen slid her dress over her head and began working on her underwear.
They are outside, on a picnic blanket, someplace safe. He is kissing her, removing her shirt. He flicks her bra open, like a pick-up artist, and she is giggling.
Jessica laughed at the memory and the delicious feeling of the cool air on her breasts.
How long had it been?
But he had leaned back, inviting her to strip him bare just as he did to her while she was revisiting the past.
She released one button, then another, slowly, enjoying the reveal of his muscular chest and six pack abs.
He gasped when she ran her fingers lightly down his midsection.
She pushed his shirt off his shoulders and he let it fall.
God, but he was beautiful. It seemed strange to use that word for someone so masculine, but it was true. Every inch of him seemed to be formed to please her.
She must have gaped at him too long.
He hopped off the bed and removed the rest of his clothing quickly, slipping the hourglass chain over his head and resting the thing on the bedside table.
She refused to think about the time limit the queen had placed on their mission. Right now, Cullen was the only thing in the world that mattered.
He turned to her, looking like he was ready to pounce.
“Hey,” she scolded.
“Sorry,” he growled. “I’m just feeling a little impatient.”
“I can see that,” she teased, glancing down at his furiously stiff cock and suppressing a shiver of hot need.
“Now what?” he asked, still standing in front of the bed.
She lay back on the bed, wildly aware of how his eyes devoured the sight of her.
It was coming back to her now, the knowledge that he loved her just the way she was, that there was no need to suck in her stomach or try to hide her generous hips under the blankets.
He crawled in, his eyes hazy with lust.
She reached for him, wanting to touch his face, his hair, his broad shoulders, all of him at once, wanting to eat him alive.
But when he lowered his face to hers, the kiss he gave her was reverent and oh so gentle.
He kisses her gently, like she is breakable. He kisses her until she is panting with lust...
The memory of sweet torture let go of her and slammed her back into the present.
Cullen was kissing her collarbone, moving lower to brush his lips against the stiff buds of her nipples.
She arched her back, shamelessly begging for his mouth.
He chuckled a
nd licked one nipple firmly, rolling the other between his thumb and forefinger.
Jessica heard herself moan.
He moved lower, kissing her belly, her hips…
She let him press her legs apart and held her breath, waiting for him to touch her.
He nuzzled her inner thighs and then ran the tip of his tongue slowly against her opening.
Jessica moaned again and let her head fall back against the pillow.
She could feel him smile against her thighs and then he licked her again, flicking his tongue in a way that made her see stars.
13
Cullen
Cullen felt Jessica’s pleasure cresting like a wave, washing over him.
He pulled away, leaving her balanced on the edge of her climax.
She whimpered, hips quivering, frantic.
He crawled up and caged her head between his arms, loving the look of desperate abandon in her eyes.
“Please,” she moaned.
“Are you sure?” he asked, not sure what he would do if she wasn’t sure. His own body was pounding with wild need.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He felt the word shoot through him and entwined his fingers with hers.
He pressed into the heaven of her, suppressing a roar of satisfaction in favor of searching her face for any sign that he was hurting her.
But of course he had forgotten that if she felt any pain, he would feel its opposite.
Jessica made a sound of satisfaction and squeezed his hands.
Cullen lost control and took her harder, deeper, loving her sounds and the way she clung to him, as if he couldn’t love her intensely enough.
When her cries told him she was falling apart, he felt his own pleasure ripped from him.
“Jessica,” he shouted as he felt her flutter around him as he jetted into her again and again.
When he opened his eyes, she was smiling up at him with sparkling eyes.
And vines were growing from their fingers up to their wrists, binding them together again.
“Forever this time,” he told her, gazing down at their hands.
“Forever,” she agreed.
He collapsed beside her and pulled her onto his chest. Her warm weight felt amazing on top of him.
He tried not to get too comfortable with the situation, reminding himself that things were far from perfect. She still didn’t have her memories back, and time was short if he wanted to bring his brothers back to faerie and complete his new bargain with the Queen of Silence.
But somehow, none of it mattered compared to the rightness of his queen in his arms.
He meant to stay awake, to make a plan, but he found his eyes closing in spite of himself.
He glanced over at the bedside table where he had left the hourglass.
The sand appeared to have stilled almost completely.
Maybe just a few hours of rest would sharpen his mind.
14
Jessica
Jessica awoke feeling incredibly happy.
She opened her eyes, expecting to see the interior of her cozy little cottage.
Instead, she saw a vaulted ceiling and sliders leading out to a balcony overlooking a gorgeous view of a wooded valley.
“Cullen,” she murmured.
She reached beside her, but the bed was empty.
The sound of a shower from the adjoining room told her he hadn’t gone far.
She sat up and hugged herself.
Then she remembered and examined her left hand.
A tattoo of inky black vines wound from her finger, wrapping delicately around her wrist, just like before.
Before.
She did have a tattoo like this before. An image of it flashed in her mind like a coin dropping into a fountain and disappearing.
The bathroom door opened, bringing her out of her thoughts.
Steam flowed out and Cullen followed.
He was so handsome that she almost couldn’t breathe. Droplets of water ran down his chest, sliding between those incredible abs and soaking into the towel that hung around his hips like an afterthought.
“Good morning,” he said, his voice low and pleased.
“Good morning,” she replied.
He eyed her like a predator, then smiled and shook his head.
“If you keep looking at me like that, we’ll never leave this room, and then I’ll end up stuck in faerie.”
Of course.
She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she’d almost forgotten their mission.
“I’ll let you get dressed,” he told her with a smile. “You still have some clothes in the closet. Help yourself to the shower if you want. Then we’ll get something to eat.”
“Thank you,” she said, suddenly feeling shy.
“Don’t,” he winced.
“What?” she asked.
“My people don’t like to be thanked,” he said mildly, recovering. “Besides, what’s mine is yours. You are my queen, after all.”
Those words…
“I’ll see you when you’re ready,” he said, slipping out of the room.
She rushed into the bathroom, freshening up and showering in record time in her eagerness to get back to him. When she emerged in a towel, she headed to the closet he had indicated, where rows upon rows of pretty dresses awaited her.
But her eye was drawn to a large folded denim item.
“My overalls,” she murmured.
She is wearing her favorite overalls. He is holding her, sliding his hands inside the worn denim to pat her bottom. She throws her head back and laughs as he kisses her neck.
She pulled out the overalls, still smiling at her happy memory.
A quick check of the rest of the closet turned up some underwear and a clingy long-sleeved t-shirt to wear with them.
As soon as she was dressed, she felt like herself again.
Gazing at herself in the mirror, she wondered how long she had been wearing fancy gowns while she lived in faerie. It felt like forever since she had seen herself as she truly was.
She pulled on some fuzzy socks and a pair of purple Doc Martens and headed out of the room.
Sunlight filled the airy space and shone in the wood floors.
She found Cullen waiting for her in the living room.
“Hey, there,” he said. “Oh, wow.”
“Now I look like me.” She smiled and spun around. “I think.”
“You sure do,” he said, striding over to embrace her.
She giggled when he slid his hands inside the back of her overalls and patted her butt.
“I remember that,” she whispered.
When she pulled back, he looked a little sad.
“I’m going to take you somewhere familiar,” he told her. “And on the way, we’ll talk about what happened in this realm while you were gone.”
“I’ll bet the world was basically in mourning,” she teased. “Nothing will ever be the same again.”
He didn’t laugh and she wondered again what was making him seem sad.
They headed out the kitchen door to the garage and he pushed a button on his keys. There was a muted chime of a response.
When she entered the garage she was taken aback at Cullen’s new car. It was sleek and low to the ground and the wheels looked oversized.
“Wow, what is that?” she asked.
“It’s a Stingray,” he replied.
She studied it. “Isn’t the Stingray a classic car?”
“Not anymore,” he said lightly. “Chevy is making them again. Let’s get in.”
When she saw the inside of the car she began to laugh. “What is this? You’re so rich you drive a spaceship?”
“This is a newer model,” he said. “I hope you like it.”
She laughed again and looked out the window as he pulled out of the garage in his futuristic car and headed down the winding driveway to the road that led to Rosethorn Valley.
It was so nice to be back in the real world again. When J
essica spotted another ultra-modern looking car as they turned onto the street, it occurred to her that maybe Cullen’s car wasn’t as futuristic as she thought.
How long was I gone?
She tamped down the thought and turned to Cullen, resting her hand tentatively on his thigh. It looked right at home there, her tattooed hand on his leg. He glanced at her with a smile, and she leaned her head against his shoulder as they headed toward Tarker’s Hollow.
When they crossed the bridge over the creek, she was greeted by the big trees and Victorian homes they had passed so many times before.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“The Barry White Diner,” he responded without taking his eyes off the road.
“And we went there a lot?” she asked. The name wasn’t ringing any bells.
“Almost every time we stayed at the house,” he confirmed. “Is it coming back?”
She nodded, but didn’t speak. They were coming up to another car that was even more unfamiliar than Cullen’s. Even the street signs looked different than she remembered.
“How long was I away?” she heard herself ask before she could stop herself.
Cullen sighed.
“It’s been a long time, Jessica,” he said slowly.
“How long?” she asked.
But he was pulling into the parking lot at the Barry White Diner and signaling for a spot.
Once she saw it, the diner was familiar. It had gotten a fresh coat of paint, but the sign outside still had the same removable plastic letters with charmingly misspelled messages.
Today’s posting reminded patrons to try the “halapeeno bites.” That seemed normal enough.
She slowly let out the breath she’d been holding.
They got out and she saw that every car in the parking lot was sleek and streamlined, with larger wheels than she was used to.
Cullen ushered her inside without a word.
She was relieved to see that the booths and tables were all the same.
“Table for two please,” Cullen said to the waitress.
