Wicked Prince Charmings: Blue Saffire & Co. Fairy Tales

by Blue Saffire

  “I’m not avoiding you. I told you I was only staying for one night. I have to work.”

  He lets out a crude snort. “Is this what you call working?” He points to her crumpled clothes and borrowed shirt.

  Brianna pulls at her shirt and looks down nervously. I hold my tongue. The urge to tell this guy he has no reason to be concerned with what she does is making me anxious.

  “Look,” he continues. “You’re still punishing me for what happened. I thought we were going to remain friends. “

  “We are friends. Only friends. Which means you don’t show up at my job asking me questions about my whereabouts. How did you find me anyway?”

  “You wrote the address in your planner.”

  “You went through my stuff.” This seems to piss Brianna off.

  “You say it like I’m some stranger. I’m your best friend. I was just making sure you were okay. I mean no one has heard anything from you in days.”

  She shakes her head. “The boys see me every day.”

  Scott takes a step back as if in disbelief. “You spend time with them, but not me?”

  “You’re being irrational.”

  The anger that flares up in his eyes along with the scent of complete outrage has me stepping away from the wall again. This time I don’t care if Zhong tries to stop me.

  My sudden movement has Scott looking over at me. He must not be as dumb as I made him out to be because he cools immediately.

  “Will you be home tomorrow morning? We need to talk.”

  “Brianna,” I call her name before she can make any promises I won’t let her keep. She turns her head toward me. “Go eat.” I demand.

  I did something I would never do in any other situation, I put control in my demand. Because of the cuffs I don’t have much of the old ability, but I have enough to make her listen. Brianna turns to her friend and says, “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

  She will not.

  She turns her back to him, heading to the door. I stop her when she gets to me, turning her head to me, I plant a kiss on her lips. Slipping my tongue in I claim her mouth in front of Scott and Zhong. When I pull away, she looks dazed.

  “Go eat, my love.”

  She smiles and walks out of the room. The sweet scent of her arousal would have me following her if I didn’t have to deal with this guy. I walk toward him.

  “Master Wei,” Zhong warns, but I don’t need it. I am not going to kill the human, just going to remind him of his place.

  Scott takes a step back, when I stand in front of him, towering his small frame. My dragon is crawling beneath my skin ready to come out.

  “This will be your last interaction with Brianna.”

  “Who the fuck are you to tell me what I can do? She lives with me.”

  I remain in my spot completely still. Wrestling my anger back down, I fight my dragon for the control not to slaughter this man where he stands. My eyes never waiver from his. I see the moment his common sense and fear win out. He takes a step back from me. First smart thing he has done.

  “You have been warned. Zhong, see him out.”

  “She’ll come back to me. Wait and see. She will be back at my place,” he says his words as Zhong escorts him to the door.

  I watch, waiting for him to leave. With each time that I return it gets harder and harder for me to sense Renshu. I can’t say for sure this man is him, but I will do all that I can to keep Brianna away from him.

  I find her and the boys still in the kitchen laughing and joking when I enter. I place a kiss on her temple. I do not care that Mason’s eyes are on us. I need the reassurance. My dragon needs to calm down and the only way I can accomplish that is to be near my mate.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she whispers to me. “That wasn’t very professional of me.” She laughs uncomfortably.

  I place my hand at her lower back. “You will not go back to his home.”

  She looks up at me with wide eyes. I can see the demand does not sit well with her. I place a quick kiss on her lips.

  “That is not a suggestion.” I turn to walk out of the kitchen. She follows me out, her bare feet announcing her steps.

  “Wei, we need to talk.”

  I don’t stop until we are far enough away from everyone else. As soon as we are out of earshot, I spin around on my heels, causing her to come up short. Before she has time to react, her back is pressed to a wall, my hand around her throat and my tongue is in her mouth.

  I kiss her like I want to possess her. Her body immediately softens into mine, melting into me like ice cream in the summer. Her hands go to my hair wrapping the strands around her finger. She loves my hair, loves playing in it. I heard her request last night for me to let it down.

  When I have her completely breathless and caught up in the kiss, I hike her leg up, brushing my erection against her hot center. She moans and her scent increases, letting me know her essence is drenching her panties.

  I pull away from her lips, placing my forehead to hers. “You will not go back to his home.”

  “I have to get my stuff.”

  I growl. “Tell me to come with you.” I can’t go unless she invites. Never have I ever hated the restrictions of this curse so much.

  “You don’t—” I cut her off with another kiss. This one just as demanding, just as searing, only shorter.

  “Tell me,” I growl.

  “Will you come with me to get my things from Scott’s house?”

  Finally. “Yes.”

  I reluctantly release her and step away. Readjusting my cock in my pants. She looks confused until Kyro and Tyrie come running around the corner toward her.

  “Bri, can we go to the park today?”

  It takes her a few minutes to catch her breath and compose herself. “Sure,” she answers breathlessly.

  “Great. Can you come too, Mr. Wei?” I smile down at Kyro.

  “If your sister would like that.”

  “Yes, you should come.”

  I nod. “Let us get ready then.”

  I watch as she and the boys walk off back to the kitchen. My smile falls from my face. Brianna makes me happy. She is everything that I wanted those many centuries ago. However, when I see her with her brothers, I question if I have a right to ask her to pass up her chance to take them?

  Chapter 10

  Tapes

  Bri

  I look down at my ringing phone. It’s another call from Scott. It’s been a week since he showed up at my job. I’m still pissed at him.

  I send his call to voicemail, like I’ve done every time he has called. I broke one of the few rules Mr. Zhong gave me. I wasn’t supposed to have any visitors. I already don’t have a moral leg to stand on with that job.

  My body still tingles as I think about the way Wei made love to me this morning before I left work. We still spend our time talking and hanging out, but now we do it in bed.

  I knock on the door in front of me. Since I’ve started getting paid, Tasha allows me to stay here on the weekends. During the day, I’m supposed to find someplace else to ‘lay my lazy ass around’ as she puts it.

  So, every day, except for Tuesdays, I get off of work and sneak here. I come to Tasha’s house and hang with the boys while she and Robert are at work. It’s the perfect plan that keeps me from having to go back to Scott’s place, and spend alone time with my brothers. However, when the door opens and I see Kyro’s red face, I know something is wrong.

  “Ro, what is it?” I ask as soon as I walk in the house. Kyro never answers.

  “Bring your ass on in here,” Tasha calls from the living room. My heart drops. I know that tone. That tone always comes before something bad.

  “Are your brothers okay?” I whisper to Ro and he nods his head. I walk into the living room, Mason and Tyrie are already there.

  “Bee,” Tyrie calls out excitedly as he always does as soon as I walk in.

  “Shut your dumb ass up,” Tasha yells at him.

  “Don’t c
all him that.”

  She turns back to me, takes a puff off her cigarette, and glares at me. “So you around here scheming and shit.”

  “I just come and see the boys when you’re at work.”

  She waves her hands in the air to cut me off. “You thought I wasn’t going to find out? I got friends down at that office. They told me you be up there trying to get custody of the boys.”

  I freeze. I never once thought that she would find out. I never make much of a fuss when I go there. I couldn’t actually rat Tasha out for her treatment of the boys, especially not before I was ready to take them.

  If their social worker finds out too soon, they will take the boys out of the home and probably foster them out to someone else. Someone that may not allow me to come see them, or worse, they will break the boys up. I had to keep my mouth shut until I was able to take the boys.

  “I… I…” no words will form. Not that there are any to say.

  Tasha snorts. “I took your black ass in when others wouldn’t. Fed you and sheltered you and you try to do me like this.”

  “I just want my brothers—”

  “Those aren’t your goddamn brothers,” she shouts. “Your crackhead mama didn’t have no more kids before she overdosed. And that white bitch that birthed these motherfuckers ain’t had no black and ugly daughter.”

  I ignore her hurtful words. I don’t care what Tasha thinks of me. These are my brothers, maybe not by blood but by heart.

  “You don’t want them. You just want the money. You can foster other kids just let me have them.” I don’t tell her that after I take the boys, I’m not going to let her take in any other kids.

  She shakes her head. “No.” The word so simply stated is so cruel. “You can’t have them, and when I get finished talking to that case worker, they won’t even allow you near them.”

  “You can’t do that,” I argue stepping forward. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “You don’t think I know, do you?” The words are so calm they send a chill down my spine. “I know everything that goes on in this house. How do you think Robert was getting the video tapes?”

  I gasp and she cackles.

  “What do you think will happen when that social worker finds out what you used to do for my son? Hell, if you did it for him, you’d do it for Mason. They were the same age at the time.”

  My heart is racing so fast I’m getting lightheaded at the disgusting things she’s trying to suggest.

  “You know why I did that.” Tears have already sprung up in my eyes and are making their way down my cheeks.

  “Doesn’t matter why you did it, it’s on camera. You touching on yourself, touching on him and his friends. Dropping to your knees—”

  “Stop. Stop.” I plead as I cover my ears not wanting to be reminded of the things I did.

  I was a child, hungry, and misguided. He used my weaknesses against me. First it was for food and then it was for love. I just wanted to feel loved, to feel attractive. I was young and dumb.

  “You’re not getting the boys,” she taunts. “I will make absolutely sure of it. Now you get your bags, and get out my house. If I find you have been back over here, I’ll call the police and put out a restraining order on you. Do you understand?”

  “Please,” I plead. Tears running down my face like a river. “Don’t take them from me. Please, Tasha, they’re all I have. I’ll stop the process for fostering them, just don’t take them from me.”

  I’m on my knees. I don’t care about dignity; I don’t even have any shame at this point. I can’t live without them. When the boys came, it changed things for me. I discovered what real love was and I realized the things I did for Robert wasn’t it. Mason and Tyrie saved me when they showed up here.

  “Get out of my house.” Tasha tosses a black trash bag—that I’m assuming has my belongings in it—at me, knocking me over.

  Mason jumps to his feet and rushes to me. He grabs me around the neck holding on tight. We’re both crying.

  “Don’t leave us, Bri. Please don’t leave us here.”

  My heart is crumbling because I don’t want to leave them. Tugging on my arm draws my attention to Tasha dragging me out of the house. Mason is doing his best to hold onto me so that she can’t pull me away and even Kyro tries to hold me.

  Tasha yells and curses me out, but she’s not letting me go. When she gets me to the front door, Tyrie joins us, and tries to pry her hands off me. Tasha releases me before she backhands Tyrie so hard he falls to the floor.

  That’s the last strike. I have been beat, starved, and put down by this woman. I have allowed her to treat me so badly, just because I needed a place to stay or I needed her so I could see the boys. I have put up with it all, but seeing her hit Tyrie, something snaps. I don’t know if it’s because she already threatened to keep them from me, or what, but I charge her.

  I catch her off guard when I crash into her waist, knocking her on the floor. I ball my fist and swing, hitting her in any place I can. I hit her for all the times she called Tyrie stupid, for all the cruel things she did to the boys. I pound at her for the lack of care for their well-being and for the pain they have endured at her expense. For the first time, I fight back for my brothers.

  It takes Mason pulling on my shoulders for me to finally come out of my haze. When I do, I look down at a busted lip Tasha and cringe. This will only end badly.

  “You have to go, Bri. Leave before she calls the cops,” Mason warns.

  I stumble to my feet and Tasha rolls over to her side.

  “I’m going to fucking kill you,” she screams. “You just wait. I’m going to show those movies to the police and show them my face, you bitch. You will pay for this. All of you will.”

  I look to my brothers one more time, my heart breaking in a million pieces. I just wanted to protect them, to keep them safe, but look at the mess I’ve made.

  “Go, Bri,” Mason says nudging me toward the door.

  “I’m sorry. I love you,” I choke out to the three sad faces staring back at me.

  “We love you too,” he says.

  I turn and run out the front door as Tasha continues to hurl threats at me. In a fog I find myself back at the dragon mansion. I don’t even know what brought me here or how I got here. It was just a voice or a feeling that told me to come. The moment my car pulls into the circular driveway, my door is opened and Wei is there lifting me out of the car.

  I have no energy. I have cried the entire trip here. I can’t even make out the words to tell him what’s wrong or why I’m back here. Mr. Zhong opens the front door and Wei takes me into the house, carrying me like a new bride coming home.

  “Grab her bag out of the car,” Wei directs Mr. Zhong before climbing the stairs to my borrowed bedroom.

  The smell of roses and the rushing sound of water tells me we’re headed to the bathroom. I have no idea how he knew I was coming or what I needed when I got here, but I don’t care. Wei places me on my feet as he quickly undresses me, and himself.

  He lifts me once again and steps into the large inset bathtub. He takes a seat, me straddling his lap. Though we’re in a very intimate embrace, there’s nothing sexual about the moment. I lay my head on his shoulder and cry, while he strokes my back. The soothing bubble bath helps relax my muscles.

  Wei doesn’t speak. He just holds me close, giving me strength through his touch. I don’t know how long we sit in the tub. I just know that the water has gone from hot to cool and the bubbles have completely dissolved.

  “She’s taking them away from me,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper. “What am I going to do without them? I won’t survive without them.”

  “Yes, you will,” he insists. “There is always a way.”

  I sit up, causing the water to splash. With one arm covering my chest, I shake my head.

  “You don’t know what I’ve done. The things she has on me.”

  “What things?”

  I shake my head, terrified to admit
it out loud. What would he think of me? I haven’t made heads or tails of the feelings I have for Wei. But I know that if I tell him the truth, if I admit to what I did, he will turn away from me.

  That panicky feeling intensifies. That feeling I get every morning I have to leave him. It stays with me until I return in the evening, sometimes causing me to show up to work nearly an hour early. Just the thought of him pushing me away has my heart racing and my palms sweaty.

  Wei cups my face, drawing my attention to the specks of amber in his brown eyes.

  “Nothing you could say or do could turn me away from you. You must always believe that.” His words have the intended effect, calming me instantly. “Tell me what she has on you.”

  I swallow, closing my eyes, refusing to see the look on his face when I tell him the truth.

  “Tasha would place a lock on the fridge that only she and Robert had a key to. She told me it was for my own good. I was too ugly to be fat too, she would say,” I explain. It started as a means for me to eat.

  “After a while, I started to crave the affection I got from Robert. I was young when my grandmother died. We never had the talk about love or sex. Just the don’t sit on grown men’s lap conversation.

  “I had no idea that being intimate with a man wasn’t the same as love. But the conversation most girls have with mothers, aunts, or big sisters was lost to me. I’m not making excuses, because even deep down a part of me knew it was wrong.” I sigh but continue on, still refusing to look at him.

  “I allowed him to manipulate me. To play off my emotions and desperation to be loved. The videos started when I was fourteen.

  “Two years after Mason and Tyrie showed up. At first, it was just me doing things to myself and sometimes to Robert. He would say things like, if you love me, you will do it.

  “Eventually it turned into things I did to his friends. I would always feel so humiliated and disgusting afterwards. I would go back to my room and stare into the boys’ faces and feel sick to my stomach.

  “I soon realized what Robert and I had wasn’t love. Love didn’t make you feel like dirt. It didn’t make you embarrassed to look in the mirror when you were done.” I swipe at the tears that fall from my eyes. “The boys saved me. They gave me real love, gave me a reason to care about myself.”