The Queen of Fairies parted her ruby lips and said, “Well!”
And Janet said, in a tiny, broken voice that didn’t want to believe, didn’t dare believe:
“Mum?”
Janet was aware of nothing, and aware of everything. She was aware of the hard, heated outline of Tam Lin’s body against her backside, of the gentle pressure of his cock, gone completely soft now, of his arm weighing down on her shoulders. She was aware of his short, astonished intake of breath, and of his slight shift in posture, and of the fact that he had tilted his head to look at her with betrayed eyes.
Yet at the same time, she wasn’t aware of him at all. He might as well not exist, because she was stuck in a white space — or her eyes only saw white, which amounted to the same — and her ears were filled with non-stop noise, and she could feel nothing but her heart, which had erupted in a bonfire.
“This is embarrassing,” Mabel Reed — or was it the Queen? Janet could see both, both women dressed in green, both of them dark haired, one having aged well, the other ageless — admitted, and stared down at her bare feet. The tiny bright stars in her hair tinkled as she shook her head. “I suppose you might want to start, daughter? I’m sure you have questions. You were always so full of questions, even when you were small.” A smile touched the corners of her mouth, but it didn’t extend to her eyes, which remained watchful, apprehensive.
Janet would have liked to pretend they looked guilty, too.
Her mother — because whoever else the woman in front of her was, she was her mother first and foremost — was right, though. She had so many questions that they tripped on each other on their way out of her mouth, until one won over.
“You are a fairy?!” She was shouting. She didn’t care. “You are a damned fairy?!”
“The fairy, please,” her mother replied airily, and if Janet had some patience left, it evaporated right then. Never before in her life had she felt so angry, so tempted to break something. All that she could think of was the past year, and how long and difficult and unhappy it had been, and her father, languishing at home with a head full of self-recrimination. Because of her mother. Who was standing right in front of her, dressed like a cosplayer with too much money to waste, talking to her as if she hadn’t wronged her terribly.
“You are a fairy!” Janet felt like she couldn’t repeat that enough. She lifted a hand to her eyes to wipe away the tears that threatened to spill. “And you left! And you kept a man tied to a tree for who knows how long!”
“I will only answer questions, not accusations.”
“Right? Well, here is a question! Why?!” This wasn’t how Janet had imagined their reunion would go. Not with her naked and bruised, and a likewise nude man standing behind her with his mouth scrunched in a frown. Not with tears and snot running down her face, and magic muddling matters. “You left without saying why! Was this it? Did you just get bored of being our mum and decide to go back to braiding walnuts in your hair, or whatever it is you do?”
“I left because it was time. I never intended to walk the world of mortals for as long as I did. But then I met your father, and then there was your brother Ian, and then there was you, and I lingered. A fae can only leave the land of eternal dusk for so long. I couldn’t have stayed with you, even if I wished to.”
“You still could have said something!”
“You would never have believed the truth, and anything else would have been a lie.” Her mother shut her eyes briefly and sucked in air, then opened them again, her expression pleading. Janet felt no compulsion to offer her pity. She leaned against Tam Lin, who stroked her hair obligingly, having concluded at last that although the familial issues playing out in front of him were beyond his comprehension, she was not some evil fairy who had been leading him on all along. Which raised another, more worrying question. Her hand flew to her mouth, but her mother kept talking, having regained her footing and some of her poise: “What would you have had me do? Take you all into these lands to prove myself?”
“Yes!” Janet was so furious that she was out of breath, and so out of breath that she felt like she was about to pass out. Tam Lin put his arm around her waist, alarmed, as if he feared that she’d throw herself at the woman if she wasn’t stopped. Which in fairness, wasn’t out of the question. “Don’t you think we deserved to know? Forget leaving for no reason, if you are a fairy and you are my mother, then Ian and I are half-fairies, aren’t we? Doesn’t that sound like something too big to keep from someone?”
“Half-fae don’t exist, sweetling. You either are fae or you are not. You took after your father, I’m afraid.”
That gave Janet pause. It didn’t make her feel less angry, but it gave her a sense of relief. It was nice to know that she hadn’t been ignoring something that important her entire life. Nice to know that even if everything else was stranger than strange, she remained normal. Still, her mother’s statement bothered her. She couldn’t put her finger on the why at first, but then it hit her like a sack full of bricks. If she wasn’t a fairy because she took after her father, then what about . . .
“And Ian? Is he . . .” She didn’t need to finish. Her mother was already nodding. “Does he know?”
“He knows. He is deep in denial, but he knows.”
Janet had thought that her threshold for all-consuming rage had been reached before. She’d been wrong. That Ian had known where their mother was, what their mother was, was the last straw. Every second she spent looking at that woman, at that stranger wearing a familiar face, her brain felt one degree closer to boiling. She couldn’t stay there any longer. She was going home. And then she was going over to Ian’s, to sock him in the face for being a lying, secretive wanker. And a fairy, too, his denial be damned.
“We are leaving.” She tugged Tam Lin’s arm. To her mother, she said: “I’m taking him with me. Problem?”
“You are not going anywhere dressed like that!” The shrill remark was like a knife in her chest. Janet gritted her teeth and turned her back to her. Tam Lin was looking from her to her mother, saying nothing, knowing better than to insert himself in their argument. Janet nodded to herself, feeling almost pleased. Yes. She was keeping him. “And him? What do you want him for? The world he left is not the world we have now. His tiny, sixteenth century brain will never be able to adapt.”
“Why not? You seem to have managed just fine!”
“Don’t you get clever with me, young lady!”
“I’m not a young lady! I’m eighteen now, in case you’ve missed it. Which, oh, wait! You did!” Janet put a hand in front of her mouth, feigning shock. “You missed my birthday and a year of my life, and thanks to you dad is killing himself drinking and everything’s gone wrong. So you don’t get to tell me what to do!”
“Janie . . .”
“And you don’t get to ‘Janie’ me either!” she said, glad that her face was dry again now that it had heated enough to burn away her tears. She took a deep breath. “You know, your freaky cow servant said that you don’t barter like some petty merchant.” Although she knew for a fact that the opposite was true. There were few things that amused her mother more than high-pitched haggling with fish sellers. Janet wondered how the stoic black-clad guards would react if she reminded her of that aloud. “But I’d like you to open an exception for me.”
“An exception? You are my daughter.” Her mother flipped her hair with a delicate white hand and gestured at Tam Lin, as if he were some eye-catching trinket at a bargain sale. “Have him as a gift, if you want him that badly. I have exhausted my use for him a long time ago.”
Now that was a mental image Janet wished she had never been introduced to.
“Not him. I want to barter my . . . forgiveness.” Or the seeds of it, anyway. She couldn’t offer up the whole thing, not when she was still feeling so enraged and so hurt. Her mother wouldn’t know that, however. Tam Lin might be right about it being impossible to trick a people of tricksters, but like every daughter, Janet had been feeding her mother increasin
gly larger lies since childhood without ever being called out on them. ‘Yes mum, I tidied my room.’ ‘No mum, I don’t have the foggiest where those cigarettes came from, must be Ian’s!’ ‘Your majesty, if you do this thing, I will forget you tore out my heart without a care and start loving you again.’
“And what can I offer you in return?”
“Go home.” Janet raised a hand, shutting down what she predicted to be another excuse, and continued: “Not forever. Just for however long it takes you to tell dad that you are alive, and that you leaving didn’t have anything to do with him. I don’t care if you tell him what you are. Just tell him that it wasn’t his fault.”
“And you will forgive me?”
“Yes.” Perhaps. Maybe. One day. “Are you doing it?”
“Yes.”
It was actually dusk in the regular world when Tam Lin and Janet left the fairy lands, so at first she didn’t realize that they’d arrived. He noticed before she did, in fact, and threw himself on the ground. Janet stood back, shaking her head with bemusement, as he rolled through the moss and pine needles, joy and awe clear on his face. After a moment of indecision, she joined him, and he rolled on top of her to pepper her mouth with kisses. She lay back, quietly drinking in the softness of his mouth, revelling in his gratitude.
“No,” she panted, catching his hand to stop him from taking off his shirt. They’d been given clothes. These were too green and too sheer and too sparkly, but since the alternative was going home naked, she hadn’t complained. “Later. We need to get back first. I’m not looking for my motorcycle in the dark.”
He nodded, and helped her stand up. Janet raked her fingers through her hair to shake off the leaves that had clung to it and gave him her arm. She didn’t know what she’d find once she got home. Didn’t know if her mother would keep her word — fairies were, after all, treacherous — and she absolutely didn’t know if being absolved of any blame would help her father drag himself up from the hole he’d fallen into. She had hope, though. Things could be worse. They were certainly better than they had been when she’d gotten up that morning.
“You know, there’s this thing,” she told him, biting her lip, “that I’d appreciate it if you helped me with. If you are up for it, that is. You should probably stick with me for a while anyway, so that I can catch you up on modern stuff and you don’t get taken to the nuthouse, and since I’m going to that trouble . . .”
“Your will is my will, fair Janet. I will follow you wherever you lead me.”
“Great!” Janet brightened. She had a boyfriend! “So after dinner —you have to be starving if you’ve been in that tree since the sixteenth century, so we’re buying pizzas on our way home — we’re going over to Ian’s, because I need to shout at him. And you can stand behind me and look threatening while I do, otherwise he’ll start being Ian at me and I’ll just go red in the face and bawl.”
He took her face between his hands and gave her one of his serious, soulful stares.
“You challenged the Queen of the Fae, alone. You don’t require my aid, but I offer it gladly.”
“Great,” Janet repeated. She let her eyes linger on him and touched a finger to her lower lip. “And, well, later . . . I suppose we’ll have all the time to gauge how much magic you don’t need to turn into a beast. That alright with you?”
Tam Lin laughed, and picked her up, and Janet squirmed over his shoulder all the way from Carterhaugh.
About Alice Schermer
Alice lives somewhere on the northern hemisphere. She likes misty weather, small animals, apples and parentheses. She's been forcing the plot bunnies that live inside her head onto paper since her early teens. Somehow, the resulting stories always seem to revolve around evil men doing bad things to plucky young ladies. She has no regrets about that. (Unless her mother asks, because then she regrets everything. Sorry, mom.)
Website: http://behindthisglass.wordpress.com
Blessed Betrayal
By Livia Grant
Text copyright © 2015 Livia Grant
All Rights Reserved
What a privilege it is to be part of the talented group of authors who make up the Erotic Collective. Rarely do people get to be a part of such a supportive group of friends spread across the globe, tied together by our love of writing. Thanks as well to MJ, editor extraordinaire. A special thanks to Sophie and Myra who helped me set goals and then pushed me to achieve them.
Chapter One
"I'm sorry, Cali. I know it isn't what you wanted to hear, but the test was negative."
Her hopeful apprehension morphed to dread. "Are you sure? Should we do another?"
Dr. Galloway smiled indulgently. "That won't be necessary. The tests are very reliable. I'm sure you took one at home as well, didn't you?"
"Yes." Her dejected reply was barely a whisper.
"Then you already know that taking it again would just be a waste." The OBGYN doctor wheeled his rolling stool closer to the exam table to pat Cali's knee in a fatherly way. "I know you and your husband are anxious to get your family started, but you're only twenty-four. You have plenty of time. We have a lot of options we haven't tried yet."
Cali struggled to hold back her tears. How could she tell her kind doctor how important it was for her to get pregnant?
He continued on with his instructions. "I think it's time for us to do testing on your husband. Since we haven't found any smoking gun on your side of the equation, it's time to take a look at Mr. Bennett's sperm count and mobility. That will help me decide our next steps."
"I don't know about that, Dr. Galloway. Kevin is so busy with his job. He joined his father's law firm last year and is working crazy hours. I doubt he can come in for an appointment." Cali didn't know how to tell the good doctor that her husband had made it very clear that giving him an heir was her responsibility and the only help he planned on contributing to the process was a 'daily hard fuck'. The array of bruises scattered across her body were proof he was living up to his hard promise.
Calista trembled as she realized her temporary veil of protection had fallen with the negative test result. Kevin was more gentle with her during the weeks of the month she might be in the process of forming a fragile new life. For the last year, each month the results were negative, he not only deemed it his responsibility to punish her for failing him yet again, but he then proceeded to make up for lost time. The next two weeks of her life were going to be hell.
No. She couldn't tell the kind doctor that.
"What would he have to do?"
The doctor got a wolfish grin. "Us men have it pretty easy, to be honest. You poor women get poked and prodded with all kinds of needles and drugs. Your husband just needs to come in and give us a deposit of his sperm. He'll have a private room and will be able to bring along reading or viewing material he might need to help. All in all, the men have it pretty good in this deal."
How right he was. "Okay, I'll talk to him about it."
"Sounds good. Keep your chin up. We've done a lot of tests and I see no reason why you can't get pregnant. It's gonna happen when the time is right and not a minute before."
She forced a smile to hide her growing sense of dread. "Thanks again, doctor. I'll see you next time."
As Calista redressed, she said a small prayer that Kevin would be in a good mood when he got home today. He'd been out of town on business the last two days. Since passing the bar exam, he had been working eighty hours a week or more and in truth, he was gone so much it made her life less stressful most of the time. Unfortunately, he still checked in at home often enough to dump his dirty laundry and contribute his duty to operation 'give me an heir.'
Sitting at a stop light on the drive home, Cali once again questioned why she stayed with her husband. He had changed so much since they got married almost two years before. He had always been dominant... demanding. The problem was he'd begun to take the definition of dominant to a whole new level. Cali used to think of herself as a submissive. Lately, she
felt more like a well-worn doormat.
Cali was just doing a final check of her make-up in the large vanity mirror when she heard the garage door opening one floor below. She had taken extra care in her preparations for tonight's Bennett, Bennett & Moore post-holiday party. She knew how important it was to her husband.
She may not have understood why Kevin had singled her out when they'd met during her senior year at the University of Virginia, but she certainly knew now. Cali had been flattered when the president of the university's most prominent law organization had set his sights on her. As a final year law student, he had been charming, sweeping her off her feet with gifts, assurances of love and romantic gestures.
Now a few years later, she knew what a mistake she had made believing a single word he'd said. He had made it abundantly clear after she had said her 'I do's' that she was his showpiece. His grandfather and father were managing partners in one of Washington D.C.'s most prestigious law firms specializing in international tax law. The fact that Kevin had the last name Bennett had assured her husband a top spot at the large firm straight out of law school. It also meant that she was married to a man who had unlimited resources to make her life a living hell should she try to leave him. She ought to know. She had tried. Just once, a year ago. She'd learned first-hand that as ugly as it was being married to him, trying to leave him was worse.
Cali had been lost in thought, missing his arrival in their master suite. She caught his reflection in the mirror as he stood in the doorway. Her stomach churned at the sight of his predatory glare that reminded her of a hunter, about to pounce on his prey.
"You are as gorgeous as ever, my dear. I see you took my advice and wore red." His words may be complimentary, but they didn't distract Cali from the danger just under the surface of his handsome exterior. He had proven his mood changed on a dime.
Twist (A BDSM & Romantic Erotica Boxed Set) Page 26
