Jon chuckled, the soft rumble reaching her ear as he settled her back against his chest. “So you’ve hidden away all this time with no luck finding your brother?”
Sorrow seeped back into her bones, that ugly helplessness she’d lived with for what felt like forever.
“Not for three years. Nothing. Not a trace of him. I even went back to his house, but there was a new family there. I guess the bank foreclosed…”
She shrugged her shoulders. Cormac had worked so hard for that house. He’d loved every inch, every room. Watching the people who’d moved in from behind a maple tree two houses down, laughing in the sunshine out in his sprawling front yard, playing Frisbee with their children, had almost made her want to run to them and scream the house wasn’t theirs to enjoy.
They had no right to laugh when she was so miserable, but it wasn’t their fault Cormac was gone.
It was hers.
“I feel like a coward. Like there was just one more thing I could have done to find him that I didn’t, you know? Maybe that’s why I got on that dragon’s back. Maybe all my pent-up aggression over Cormac, my helplessness, is forcing its way to the surface. Maybe I’m metaphorically saving Cormac over and over.”
“Might I speak freely, Toni?” Jon asked, ever formal.
She nodded her head, too wrung out from the day’s events to protest.
“You’re no coward. Never say such. You feel guilt because of your brother. This guilt relates to Nina, too. You fight so fiercely because you want to make up for the loss of your brother. And it all leads back to this bastard Stas, whom, I assure you, should I ever encounter, will leave such encounter with no head.”
His possessive tone made her shiver, but his words made complete sense. Her life spinning so far out of control had all begun with Stas and the murders, which had eventually led her to working at the outlet mall for Attila The Bree, which then had led to meeting the ladies from OOPS.
Maybe, in some twisted way, she was trying to keep everyone from harm by taking enormous risks because she hadn’t been able to save Cormac. But was it a death wish like Nina had pointed out?
Or did she think each time she defeated one form of a villain or another, she was racking up some sort of points to make up for not finding her brother? As if she could turn them in to the mailman with a self-addressed-stamped envelope and she’d get something in return—like the return of her brother.
Toni shook her head to clear the cobwebs. “I feel like everywhere I turn, I leave disaster in my wake. First it was Cormac, now it’s Nina. Would any of this have happened if I hadn’t thought a stupid wish up in my head? I’ve spent a lot of time staying out of any kind of trouble since everything happened. I take a different way home from work every three days. I don’t go out, not that I can afford to anyway. I don’t date, I don’t—”
“Date? I must insist you explain this term in your world’s language.”
“See men. You know, go to one of those movies I’ll tell you about, talk on the phone, go for walks, have dinner,” she said on a soft sigh.
“Ah. Then might I tell you, I’m not displeased you don’t date men?”
Her heart shuddered in her chest and her toes tingled. “The point is, I stay out of the limelight. The only reason I’m doing something as public as working at a store is because I couldn’t find work anywhere else, and I think I’m deep enough into Jersey that Stas would never consider looking for me there. The job stinks, but it gave me a roof over my head.” Besides who wanted to hire a woman with an accounting degree and a killer on her ass?
“There is no need to run here in Shamalot. Here, you’re safe with me,” he said.
She slid forward on the toadstool and gave him a look of utter disbelief. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty. Have you forgotten Queen Angria?”
He leaned forward, too, cupping her chin. “I said you were safe here with me, beautiful maiden. I’m not in your land of Jersey. I would always protect you, should you stay here.”
Toni’s throat went dry. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”
He slid in closer, splaying his hand across her lower back and pulling her tight. “I think you do, milady. I’m saying, stay here with me,” he murmured, just before he pressed his lips to Toni’s and she melted into him.
The moment his mouth aligned with hers, fireworks went off behind her eyelids. Vivid, colorful sparks, shooting upward as the soft pressure of his lips increased.
Toni leaned into his powerful strength, her back bowing, her heart pounding. She clung to the lapels of his vest, her fingers shaking from the sharp sweetness of his mouth on hers.
Jon slipped his tongue between her lips, the silken rasp making her nipples tighten and press hard against the bodice of her confining dress. The blanket around her shoulders fell to the ground and suddenly it wasn’t cold and snowing, it was hot and maddeningly delicious.
Each stroke of his tongue made her weak, made the space between her thighs hot and achy with need. His thickly muscled arms hauled her closer, his breathing strained, matching the heave of her chest.
She drove her fingers into his hair, pushing away the piece of material he used to hold it back and threading her fingers through the soft silken strands, clinging to him.
Jon moaned into her mouth, tightening his hold as he leaned back, pulling her until her hips were pressed to his, the strain of his shaft against his breeches making her squirm.
Her arms went up around his neck as he took her mouth, devoured it, captured it until Toni felt faint. She wanted this man, wanted to know what he looked like naked, wanted to stop wondering what his hands would feel like on her flesh—
“Hey, Flawless! Quit eatin’ her face off and get the hell in here before you knock her up. The last thing we need is magical fairytale babies!”
Nina?!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! she mentally shouted as she and Jon pulled apart in guilt.
Jon’s eyes instantly found hers and they held self-reproach. “Milady, my apologies. I’ve risked your honor and good reputation.”
Pressing her hands to her hot cheeks, she took in a shaky breath. She’d been kissed before, and at one point or another she was sure she’d been kissed well, but it was nothing like Jon’s kiss.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. Where I come from, we kiss all the time.”
His eyes went wide and one eyebrow rose. “Out in the open when public eyes are upon you?”
Toni snorted. “Uh-huh. It’s not inappropriate to make out. Maybe not in, like, the Shop Rite, but when you’re alone in the privacy of your home, no one gets upset.”
“You do this in your land without an escort—this dating? It’s unheard of here.”
“As long as you’re an adult and you’re both consenting.”
“I take back what I said about staying here. I think I like your land better,” he said, his chuckle deep and husky.
She shrugged with a smile, her pulse still slowing but her thoughts far away. “I don’t know, I think I like Shamalot. It’s magical.”
“There is plenty of magic to be had, but we do not have phones and nets and dating. We’d do well to learn from your kind.”
“Either way, there’s nothing to worry about. Besides, who would care if my reputation were soiled anyway? No one. So you’re safe.”
Jon grabbed her hand and captured her gaze. “I would care, milady. I would care greatly.”
She had to look away from his intense stare. “We should get back inside,” she whispered.
Toni rose to leave, her hand slipping from Jon’s. But it wasn’t without reluctance as the warmth of his flesh dissipated.
Making her way inside to where Marty and Wanda sat sipping coffee and eating the sandwiches Hamish had made with a very animated Nina, Toni couldn’t help but smile to herself.
Nina was okay.
That was all that mattered right now. Her brother, what she’d told Jon, their kiss…it would all have to wait.
&
nbsp; Sneaking up behind Nina, careful not to unsettle the birds curled up in her hair, Toni wrapped her arms around her neck and gave her a hug—a long, hard one just before she planted a wet kiss on the vampire’s lean cheek.
“I’m so happy you’re better. There’d be no reason to get out of my tent every morning if you weren’t around to offend me and call me ugly names.”
The quick acknowledgment Nina gave by squeezing her wrist was all Toni needed just before she flicked her hand. “I could tell how happy you were. So happy, you almost sucked Flawless’s lips right off his GD perfect face, huh?” she joked on a growl.
Everyone laughed, even Toni.
And in that moment—a moment she was sharing with people she was coming to like—she felt less alone, less like there was no point to getting out of bed each morning.
She liked that. She liked that a lot.
* * * *
“Ye like the lass?” Dannan asked just outside of Ellesandra’s, both of them leaning on the fence with their elbows, watching the rise of the new day.
“Why do you ask?”
Dannan chuckled and winked. “’Twas evident when ye almost gobbled her face off out here last night. ’Twas more evident by the happy tune ye whistled as ye prepared for today’s journey. True love’s kiss is grand, aye?”
That made Jon pause. Was that what this was? Love? Nay. So soon? They’d only known each other a mere few days now.
He was intrigued, yes. The very thought that someone might hurt her back in her land incensed him. To the point he wished to travel to her Jersey, hunt this Stas down like he’d hunted so many before him, and chop his thieving head off.
Thinking of Toni helpless, alone, out in the cold while she camped and had no home to call her own, enraged him.
Thinking of her lips over and over, soft, tasting of the sweetest strawberries, before he finally found sleep last night almost drove him to dive into the cold snowdrifts piled up outside Ellesandra’s path to the front door.
But love?
“What do you know of true love’s kiss, ogre?” he groused, annoyed that he’d been called out. “It’s nothing but a silly legend made up by a bunch of maidens who have too much time on their hands.”
“Then yer mother is a silly maiden? I think she might box yer ears for sayin’ as much, lad.”
Jon turned to look at his longtime blue friend. “My mother? What do you know of her romance?”
Dannan grinned, folding his hands together. “I know the courtship she shared with yer father. Ye forget, I’ve been around more than a hundred years. I was there. Ah, ’twas a thing of beauty. Everyone said as much, and when they talked of yer parents, they talked of yer mother and her story of true love’s kiss. She told anyone who had ears the legend was true.”
Jon rolled his eyes at his friend. He didn’t want to talk of his parents. “You are daft, good sir.”
“Nay. I’m observant, and I enjoy the maiden’s company. She makes me laugh.”
Now he smiled fondly—almost too fondly for his own liking. “Aye, with her talk of phones and cars, she is quite amusing.” So amusing, she made his gut tight and his morals questionable.
“Have ye given thought to what awaits her at the castle? This happiness that chattering Brenda speaks of? What could it be?”
“I have given it thought, yes. I know not what it means. Nor do I know what the shoes mean, but they mean something. Mark my words. I believe they’re responsible for these powers Toni has acquired. It’s as though she’s absorbing her foes’ strengths. How can that be? Have you ever heard of these shoes?”
Dannan made a face at him, nudging his shoulder. “Why would I know about shoes, lad? What ye think of me? I do not wear fancy garments with ribbons and bows.”
Jon shook his head. Those shoes meant something, and he wanted to know what. If not already, it wouldn’t be long before Angria knew she had them, and their worth.
“I meant were there any rumors floating about. Something you might have heard in your travels through the kingdom.”
Dannan scoffed. “Nay. I have never heard rumors about shoes. The king keeps his secrets well, aye?”
Aye. “Ellesandra knows nothing of them either. ’Tis a quandary, but we must be more alert than ever. The queen would surely like to get her greedy hands on them.”
“Again, I wonder, could this be the reason the queen’s sent her henchmen for our Toni? I shall go back to the ways of old and pick their bones clean should they try to harm the lass again!”
Jon hopped upon the bottom rung of the fence and reached up to slap his friend’s back. “Ease off. There will be no delicate fingers in your soup tonight. You made me a promise long ago. You must not break it.”
“Yes, yes,” the ogre groused his displeasure. “I was a fool to agree to such nonsense. But it was under duress. Alas, ye had that pointy sword nestled at my nether regions. I regret the day I ran into ye in the forest, Jon Doe. For my stomach yearns all these years for a tasty human thigh.”
They’d met when Jon was just thirteen, and he and his friend Theo were out in the forest practicing their swordplay. Theo had tripped over Dannan, who was hidden beneath an enormous pile of brush, napping.
Upon waking, the sleepy ogre had plucked Theo from the ground and threatened to eat him in one bite.
But luckily, Jon had his wits about him that day, and he’d ducked under the ogre’s wide stance and offered to take his manhood if he chose not to let Theo go.
And they’d been friends ever since. Now, in his thirty-fifth year, he was grateful. Dannan had taught him everything he knew about the woods and life on his own. He’d been especially invaluable this past year.
Jon barked a laugh. “You would no more have eaten my friend Theo than I would have sliced your man parts to ribbons.”
“Now ye tell me this? He was a mighty meaty lad,” Dannan joked, his eyes squinting with laughter. Then he sobered. “And what about Toni? How will ye fare once we get to the castle?”
Jon looked away from his friend and off into the distance, where the castle sat high atop a mountain, beautiful and ominous. “I will do as planned. Bring her to the gates and leave her to find her happiness as Brenda requested. I cannot break the rules of the realm. The realm says deliver her to the castle.”
“No more than ye already have, lad?” Dannan taunted, his eyes inquisitive.
But Jon ignored him. “Then we shall continue our adventure back at home where we belong.”
“Ah, but what if her happiness is with ye here in Shamalot? Will ye still be able to let her go? Will ye risk losing her forever if she goes back to this land called Jersey?”
“Who said her happiness had anything to do with me?”
He’d asked her to consider staying without even thinking about what the castle had in store for her. What if her happiness had absolutely nothing to do with staying here in Shamalot? What if it had to do with going back to Jersey and finding her brother? He couldn’t ask her to give up the chance.
So he’d stay away this next leg of their journey, unwilling to become more captivated with her than he already was.
“Just an ogre’s hunch. Have ye sent word to the castle we’ll be arrivin’?”
Jon shook his head. “Why would I do that? I told you the plan—”
“Bah! Aye, ye told me the plan, but I’m callin’ yer bluff. Ye no more wish to drop the lass and run when we get to the castle than ye wish to have yer man parts sliced off. I suggest this—let the important parties at the castle know we’re to arrive. No more. No less. Agreed?”
He hated admitting it, but he had tried to get word to the castle. But as wretched as the weather had been, no one was willing to take the risk to deliver a message for free. “I have already attempted such, friend. No one wishes to make the journey for little to no pay.”
Dannan grinned, his fluted ears wagging. “I knew I could count on ye to at least try. Now answer the question. What will ye do if she chooses to return to her land?�
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Jon clenched his jaw, along with his resolve. “I will do as I promised and not look back.”
Now Dannan slapped him on the back, almost knocking him over the fence. “Take care, lad, or our fair maiden will have yer nose growing,” he teased, his laughter ringing through the crisp morning air.
Indeed. Care he would take. He’d take care not to fall further prey to true love’s kiss.
Whether the furious beat of his heart in his chest wanted it that way or not.
Chapter 9
Toni groaned as she hunted for berries. Her ankles ached and her dress was beginning to feel like a pair of psychotic Spanx, squeezing her, pinching her, and generally getting in her way. Wandering along the path as she searched for berries, she eyed their surroundings as night began to fall, the forest still as beautiful as it had been when she’d first opened her eyes almost a week ago.
She could swear she’d heard the ocean as they’d chosen a spot to settle in, the surf lapping at the land, the scent of salt in the cold air.
Shamalot had everything, without the stress of Stas. If this crazy queen didn’t have it out for her, it would be the perfect place to reconfigure her life—a new beginning.
She’d decided she really loved it here. Despite the danger they’d encountered, despite the lack of coffee and creature comforts. The woods brought her peace. She could roam them for days, exploring if not for the price on her head—which was why she was teamed up tonight with Marty as her babysitter.
They’d continued their trek onward after leaving Ellesandra’s with plenty of supplies and the wish that they return someday under happier circumstances.
Day after day, night after night, they walked. Nina was much stronger after Ellesandra’s magic elixir, but she only had enough to last for another few days. Thus, the push to make it to the castle was ramped up. They slept little, walked for what felt like miles, all in an effort to keep Nina alive and return these stupid shoes.
And she’d do it all again—whatever it took, as long as Nina would remain on this side of the grave.
Accidentally Ever After (Accidentally Paranormal Novel Book 11) Page 12
