“I’m gonna give Pegasus an apple before we leave,” she said to break the tension coiling between them. A stupid comment, as he knew good and well what she was up to. Before she turned, she noticed Ariston shaking his head as if the thought of taking care of Pegasus was too much. The impulse to smart off made her bite her tongue. What was his deal about Pegasus? Ariston was acting, well, the same way she had about the other nymph.
If Lily was jealous of anyone, and she wasn’t, she had more cause considering all the people Ariston had slept with to keep from going mad with lust. The memory of the blonde woman’s moans had Lily gritting her teeth, biting into her tongue, and drawing blood. That alone should be enough to make her leave and never look back. She didn’t share, and remembering Ariston’s part in it made Lily want to vomit. Maybe if she’d not seen that little event going down—heh—she’d be less reserved about Ariston himself.
Who am I kidding? My ex called me a soul sucking succubus. Who the hell wants to have sex with that in the back of their mind? Damn! If Donovan wasn’t dead, Lily might very well end up killing him herself. Hormones effectively thrown back into check, she kicked a pinecone and sent it careening across a puddle which had collected from the rain.
Leaves caught in the breeze brushed across her feet as she approached the majestic, snowy steed that had just lifted his head from where he rested in a shady spot under a large tree. He rose swiftly to his feet and trotted to meet her. There was a question in his gaze, and effortlessly, Lily knew what it was.
“I’m fine. I brought you breakfast.”
Pegasus cocked his head to the side and regarded her as though she’d sprouted a second head. She found it hard to believe nobody had ever brought him food before. Did everyone assume he’d provide for himself because he was a horse? She extended her arm and presented the apple.
If horses ever looked confounded, Pegasus was a champion at it. He peered at the apple, and backed up a few paces with a huff. Then he leaned forward steadily, lifting his lips high over his gums and opened his mouth enough to delicately bite into the apple with his front teeth. He yanked it out of her hand and then turned, daintily trotting away with his prize. She laughed and shook her head at his antics. If not for the wings, he’d easily pass for ordinary.
When she turned around, Lily sucked in a breath. Ariston stood sentry on the top step, hands in his pockets, a loose strand of hair at his temple teased his face, having been freed from his ponytail by the wind. The holster for his panpipes was on over his shirt, and she supposed it made them more accessible than wearing them underneath. Ariston had that heated gaze fixed on her again, and when she glanced downward, the bulge in his pants revealed without words he wanted her. She’d known it, of course, but it was a heady thing to see the evidence. Lily’s knees trembled, but she refused to show her vulnerability.
“Hi.” she said. How doofy had that sounded? Twice already she’d made herself sound witless.
Ariston smirked. “Better be careful. Once you feed a stray, you can never get rid of it.”
She shook her head. “He’s not a stray.”
“If you say so.” He shrugged. “Are you ready to look for your boyfriend?” The way he said boyfriend sounded like it pained him.
Searching for Donovan would give them both something to do other than stand around undressing each other with their eyes and sounding like idiots when they spoke. “As much as I don’t want to see his treacherous face again, let’s do this.” She had decided to give up lying about her relationship status. She and Donovan were done.
He raised a brow, but Ariston didn’t question her as he had the night before. Eventually Lily might tell him what occurred if she decided to stay a few more days. However, something told her Ariston may be the type of man who’d defend her honor should he come face to face with Donovan. There seemed little point in making sure Donovan was safe only to place him in immediate danger, and she really didn’t know Ariston well enough to gage if he could be dangerous or not. Despite how she felt about the way the break-up was handled, she wasn’t malicious enough to wish Donovan actual harm.
Lily trailed behind Ariston as he disappeared around the side of the cabin. After they ambled into the heavily wooded area, the ground swooped into an incline. From the cabin, it wasn’t too obvious they’d been at the base of a mountain, so it surprised her when the ground became rockier, slowing her down as she navigated over small boulders. If this was the direction of the nearest highway, she’d been running the wrong way yesterday.
She stumbled on the uneven path. “Do we have to go over it?” She shielded her eyes from the light breaking through the trees and took in the daunting climb ahead of them.
“No.”
Yet they weren’t changing directions, and continued hiking up farther. “But—”
Ariston unsnapped the holster and retrieved his panpipes. “Behold,” he said before he played a few chords. The air in front of her rippled and a chunk of the mountain melted away, leaving an opening in the mountain which resembled a manmade tunnel. Sunlight poured through from the other side.
“Well, that’s convenient.” She’d stood no chance at escaping if he could go through mountains.
“Right? I don’t know how I lived before I had such magic.” Something in the dryness of his tone made Lily want to move closer to him, to comfort him, but she squashed the notion.
“Yet you live alone in the middle of nowhere?” she teased.
Ariston brushed a speck of dust off his panpipes. He looked...tired. “So I do.”
She needed to lighten the mood again, so she prodded, “How did you learn to do this? Do you have girlfriends spread about the state and need to reach them in a hurry?”
“No.” It was a curt reply, but the puzzled glance in her direction was a step up from his uneasiness before.
“I’m surprised you know the meaning of that word. You keep using it, but when I say it, you drop it from your vocabulary.”
Ariston snorted. “I’m sorry you met me under the circumstances you did,” he said. “For what it’s worth, I would never have forced you to do anything you didn’t want. I’d hoped maybe the nymph legends were true. You know, the ones where if you capture a nymph she’d belong to you. That was certainly a lie. I thought I could seduce you into liking me, but then you ran away before I could start phase one of that.”
Part of her wished she’d stuck around to see what he’d had in store, but she’d done the only sane, logical thing someone in her circumstances could by running away. How was she supposed to know he was one of the supposedly “safer” satyrs to be captured by? She craned her neck in the direction of the cabin, out of sight now. Maybe they should have brought Pegasus with them? No, Ariston can pass as human, but Pegasus can’t hide his wings.
“Dude. You seriously need to brush up on seduction techniques of the twenty-first century. I’m almost shocked you didn’t bash me over the head and drag me back to your cave, wave your junk in my face, and expect me to be impressed. Oh, wait. I bashed my own head and you did the rest. Never mind.”
“Ha. Ha.” He didn’t sound amused, even though she’d said it lightheartedly. It was pretty amusing after the fact.
“So, uh...how did you figure out you could tunnel through mountains?” She stepped inside the passageway and ran her fingers over the smooth, rocky wall. Grainy, like sandpaper.
Ariston passed her as she studied the texture. “There has to be a cave there, which is why we had to climb to this point. The song carves it out, makes it and anything living there incorporeal and transparent, but it all returns to normal once we exit.”
“Good to know.” Lily dropped her hands to her sides and shuffled out the other end, wanting out of there before the cave decided to come back. Ariston may be used to magic, but she wasn’t, and the thought of a cave returning through her didn’t sound appealing. Ariston’s chuckling teased her as she breezed past.
When he sauntered out, he played a similar tune on his panpipes a
nd the cave returned as though it had never vanished. Whereas there’d been no apparent opening on the other side, the mouth of the cave loomed in front of her ominously as an oblong slit of black against the various earth tones of stone and moss. The surface inside appeared uneven and jagged rather than the smooth surface from before. She’d have to squeeze inside, and likely not be able to turn around to climb back out. Yet she’d strolled through the exact same spot moments before with little effort. Lily’s mind: kaboom!
Turning away, an overgrown cluster of ferns and other plants with huge leaves mixed together in a jumble caught Lily’s attention. Something about it seemed curious, almost as though they’d been placed together purposely. Her suspicions were substantiated when Ariston plunged into them, and she concluded he must have used the greenery to hide something. She would have to check him for ticks before being intimate with him...if she was intimate with him. Strangely, the “if” seemed more of an afterthought than it had the night before.
An engine revved from behind the foliage, and then he reappeared atop a grumbling four-wheeler. It was forest green with one seat large enough to fit two, containing a storage box on the back of it. Ariston patted the seat behind him. “Hop on, pretty lady.”
“I never imaged a satyr driving one of these.” Of course, he didn’t look like a satyr at the moment. Lily straddled the back of the four-wheeler, wrapping her hands around Ariston’s waist. It was the first time she’d touched him willingly, and she felt him tense beneath her hands. His firm torso radiated warmth, and because the storage box was so clunky, she had to mold herself against his back to sit comfortably. No way Ariston couldn’t feel Lily’s breasts smushed against him, her thighs squeezing against his.
“Just because I’m ancient doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy some of the modern inventions.” His voice sounded huskier than usual, his accent stronger.
“I get it, I get it. You’re a guy. Guys like things with motors.”
Ariston laughed and accelerated, showing off by speeding through tight clusters of trees and rock faces as a means of making her shriek, squeeze him tighter, and bury her face against his back. Typical male. Lily caught herself smiling as she ducked her cheek against his shoulder blades to avoid a low branch he’d purposely driven under. The soft thump, thump, thump of his heart was audible like that, even over the roar of the four-wheeler’s engine. How could he be so normal and completely not at the same time?
Neither spoke as Ariston maneuvered expertly, making it obvious he had traveled this path many times before. Time passed as swiftly as the trees while they zoomed through trails he knew by heart. Eventually, Lily spotted a building in the distance, and when they slowed to approach it, she gathered it was where they were headed.
“What is that?” she asked. There were no roads around them, paved or dirt, but there were tire tracks in the mud near the large doors on the side of the building.
“My garage.”
“Aren’t those usually attached to houses?”
“Not when reaching the house by vehicle is tricky, and continuous driving would leave a noticeable trail back to me.” Ariston pulled up to the doors, braked, and then hopped off. Lily followed suit, careful to avoid the mud where the ground was mushy. When he opened the doors, a big black pickup truck awaited them, and it desperately needed a car wash.
“Imagine that. A man with a truck.”
“See, I’m no different than ordinary guys. I just happen to be a bit hornier.”
“With hairier ankles.”
“That too.”
With the doors open, Ariston climbed back onto the four-wheeler in order to park it in the space beside the truck.
Afterward, he opened the truck’s passenger door for her and beckoned for Lily to climb in. Despite the outside appearance, the inside was relatively spotless—dirt on the floorboards notwithstanding. Out of courtesy, she made sure to knock off her shoes before settling in as he closed the door. Ariston jogged to the driver’s side and hopped in. He backed the truck out of the garage, parked, and then jumped back out to lock the building. Upon returning, he didn’t speak again until he began the slow trek toward the nearby highway.
“How’d you manage to keep anyone from breaking into your garage?”
“Has happened a few times, but not in many years. I have a permit for that bit of land. There’s ‘No Trespassing’ signs and everything.” He winked at her.
“Do you have a permit for the cabin?”
Ariston hesitated. “Yes and no. If someone shows up there I have a forged permit, though the one for the garage is legit. If they pull the records up for the cabin elsewhere, they won’t find it. Since it was formerly a ranger cabin, I borrow from the other ranger stations’ utilities, and they don’t really notice the extra building being paid for. I’ve been living there way too long. Honestly, I should have traveled elsewhere already, but I like the location. It’s warm most of the year, doesn’t become too uncomfortable in winter though it gets cold enough. I don’t want to head north, and farther south has too many gators. I like to swim, but I don’t desire to become lunch.”
That was the whole reason Lily had moved to Charleston. South Carolina was a coastal state, so a trip to the beach wasn’t too bad of a drive. And, like Ariston had mentioned, the weather was nice. Humid, but nice. Not to mention, she loved swimming too, and could understand why the larger number of alligators and the salt-water crocodiles present somewhere like Florida would be a constant worry.
“Which camp site did you park at again?” Ariston asked as the highway came into view.
She told him and he turned the wheel in that direction. If the car wasn’t there... She didn’t want to think about what that implied. How could anyone be that huge of an asshole? Lily wasn’t too convinced Donovan could navigate himself out of a tin can, but he had taken an online compass reading course before they’d left. Who knew it was because he planned on leaving her behind?
Breathing became optional as Ariston turned into the parking area, and she’d forgotten how. Several cars and SUVs remained, waiting for their owners to take them back to civilization. And there, in the far corner of the parking lot, was Donovan’s little black Toyota with the Irish flag sticker on the bumper. She exhaled in a whoosh.
Before Ariston could put the truck into park, she opened the door. The truck lurched as the brakes were slammed home, and Lily leaped out, trotting to the car. She heard shouting behind her, but all she deciphered was a cacophony of syllables, no coherent words, as the dull roar of her blood coursing through her veins blocked it out. The car was there. Donovan never left. Maybe he hadn’t abandoned her after all. What if he was hurt or dying and needed help? Oh God, and she had actually been enjoying herself on the four-wheeler! Lily spun around to say as much when she noticed a commotion from the forest.
A yell came from the path to the main campsite, and she almost fainted in relief as Donovan came into view—what timing. Then she realized he wasn’t alone. A tall man followed behind him. The tall stranger possessed broad shoulders beneath a dark shirt, but as intimidating as he seemed, he was also ruggedly gorgeous with his long black hair hanging loosely down his back. The wind flirted with the ends, even brushed a lock over his chiseled jaw. The man didn’t even blink at the sight of her, though his gaze bore right through her before he turned his attention elsewhere, dismissively.
Not many men could pull off masculine with long hair; sometimes it gave an effeminate quality to their features. But this guy, Ariston as well, looked fierce and savage but, in a word, beautiful. The look of a handsome warrior prince from the legends of heroes and monsters.
But what if the heroes are the monsters? Lily recalled Ariston the day she’d met him, a satyr in his full glory. She’d been afraid of him then, was wary of him still. Yet he’d come with her to solve the mystery of what happened to Donovan without a fight, had been the one to volunteer to take her. Maybe he really did have good intentions.
Or maybe he wanted to have less d
ifficulty seducing her onto her back during the eclipse and giving in now would call for repayment later.
Most likely a little of both?
Regardless of insecurities about Ariston, Lily found herself ogling the handsome stranger. He turned his head once more in her direction when Ariston caught up, and the stranger’s gaze flicked past her shoulder to land on Ariston. His eyes widened. The reaction so slight she’d almost missed it. Just as quickly, the man’s face became stoic again.
By that point, Donovan noticed her and his mouth fell open. Because he’d never expected to see her again, or because he’d been forced to leave her behind? She eyed the handsome man with Donovan and wondered if he’d been the reason.
Wait...is Donovan secretly gay and running off with his male lover? Was that why sex with her had been such a trial for him, and he refused to tell her about who he’d replaced her with? The sad part was, looking at the new guy, Lily couldn’t really blame him for giving into his desires there. It didn’t, however, excuse the way he’d done it. Not at all.
“Lil? How did you—” Donovan’s words cut off, and his eyes widened as the stranger’s had, with recognition, and in this case, fear. “Get away from her, you monster!” Her ex started forward, waving his hands like he was shooing a stray to keep it from taking a piss in a flowerbed. The man behind him grabbed his arm and stayed him.
Realizing Ariston hadn’t said anything, she turned to him. The color had drained from his face as he stared at the mystery man restraining Donovan. The recognition was mutual then. Somehow she figured the this-must-be-Donovan’s-gay-lover theory was about to crash and burn, which only meant the situation was much more complicated and messed up than she’d feared. Terrific.
The Cursed Satyroi: Volume One Collection Page 39
