“I got a contraceptive shot,” I admitted.
“At your age, that is best.” Now my stepfather was the one looking uncomfortable. “Which boy is it? One of these two or is it one of the others that the twins talked about on Friday night?”
“Nobody, yet.”
“It’s good you’re making friends,” he said. “Your mother is happier knowing you aren’t all alone in your apartment doing whatever twenty-something-year-old girls do when they’re wallowing... it’s not brooding - too masculine- maybe pouting? No, that’s not right, either.”
“Moping,” I offered. “I sit around and eat cereal out of the box and mope around the apartment, sometimes watching Lady Antebellum running on her wheel and thinking how neither of us is getting anywhere.”
“That’s deep,” my stepfather said.
I met his laughing eyes with my own serious look. “If Lady Antebellum was a mouse, I would be like Cinderella, up in her tower, moping about her life.”
“Clever,” my stepfather said. “Your brothers certainly can be wicked, and I am the very definition of strict, but you don’t live in a tower and the only chores you do are dropping the garbage down the chute on Tuesdays.”
“But the sadness, a lack of real purpose in life...”
“Marrying a prince is your goal in life?”
I thought about my new Fae swains and shook my head. “I’m never growing up if I have to get married. Maybe I should be Wendy from Peter Pan instead.”
“She gets married and old.”
“Getting old isn't such a bad thing, right?” I said before I could think about it.
“No,” my stepfather said. “I wish you arthritic knees and crow’s feet.”
His eyes weren’t sad. My stepfather didn’t brood. He lived each day to the fullest.
“Is that going to be your wedding speech?” I asked him.
“Of course not, I have more embarrassing things to share on your wedding day.
It was a scary thought, but not for the reasons he believed.
Chapter 12:
I SWUNG WITH MY STEPFATHER for another minute after we finished the talk, and then we decided to join the mock archery range. I felt like I had gotten off easy and I was grateful that my stepfather hadn’t ended the talk by offering me a box of condoms. I still had an embarrassed blush on my cheeks that Falin commented on when I made it to where they were all standing. I blamed it on the exertion of walking twenty feet.
The twins went first, accepting instruction from Aeric. He showed us how to nock the arrows, draw properly and sight the targets. Surprisingly, the boys were pretty good at archery, hitting the closest targets within a few tries.
My mother insisted on standing for her turn, not ready yet for the Paralympics. I told her that the disabled athletes could beat a couch potato like her with one arm tied behind their backs.
Aeric calmly informed me that it wasn’t possible to use the bows we had bought one-handed. My stepfather couldn’t suppress his Jeopardy nerd and informed everyone that archery had been included in the Paralympics with modified bows since their initiation in 1960. My mother hit the center of the target on her first try and shut everyone up.
After my mother showed us how it was done, the pressure was on. My stepfather missed all his targets, only moving on when the twins heckled him. It was like watching somebody playing mini-golf that kept missing the hole, painfully slow to finish the course.
It was my turn next, but I looked at Falin and asked Aeric, “Where is the hardest to hit target?”
Aeric pointed and Falin put his hand out for the bow and an arrow. He aimed for a long time, so long I was about to say something when suddenly he released the arrow. I think I gasped, feeling the difference between his beautiful release and the others immediately. It flew to the tiny target almost hidden in the trees and hit it near the outside.
My brothers and stepfather whooped. My mother slapped him on the back. Falin smiled his scary smile at me.
“Seems easy,” I dryly commented.
A dozen arrows later I was frowning at the closest target. I swear the damn thing was moving every time I took aim. I was barefoot and had been thoroughly tickled.
“Noodle arm,” teased Jackson as I nocked another arrow.
“It’s because I’m short,” I whined. “You made the targets too high.”
“Go get her a booster chair,” Matthew said. Jackson did it, of course, getting a chair from the patio.
I stood on it. Now my arrows missed the target by six inches too high instead of too low. I lifted one of my feet up for the twins to tickle.
My mother yawned. She would never admit to being tired, but fatigue was part of her condition. I caught my stepfather’s eyes and nodded towards mom.
“Would you like some homemade bread with dinner?” my stepfather asked me.
I missed another target. It wasn’t really his fault. My other foot went up this time. They were both super sensitive. I couldn’t keep missing.
“Bread? Absolutely. Mom, can you make those french baguettes with the really crispy crust?”
“Hmm... it’s chewy crust, and yes, those would go perfectly with the ratatouille I prepared.”
Making bread would take hours, but most of those were spent rising the dough, leaving Mom plenty of time to sneak in a nap. I trusted that my stepfather could get her to lie down to rest her eyes for a few minutes.
“We’re going to football practice. Be back for dinner,” Jackson said. The twins were bored with my miserable failure. It was even worse than mini-golf closing issues. I was the guy that scored a goal on his own goalie, I was so bad. If I hit a target it would be by plain, dumb luck. At least the tickling punishment was over.
Give up, Baby?
I nocked another arrow. “Isn’t it the teacher’s fault if the student fails, too?” I said, knowing Aeric was losing enthusiasm for showing me the motions repeatedly.
You can’t be Light Fae, Brat. Maybe we should try getting you a sword.
I missed.
“You haven’t even tried yourself,” I said, turning on my chair to Aeric. “How do I know you aren’t all talk? Light Fae are born with a bow in their hands,” I mocked.
Aeric looked me right in the eyes. Standing on the chair, I was his height. He grabbed the bow he had strapped on his back and an arrow, nocking it and releasing without once looking away from me. I heard it hit.
I looked. “Fuck me,” I said. It landed dead center in the farthest target that Falin had just managed to hit.
“Don’t say things unless you mean them, Baby,” Falin said, coming up behind me. He grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back, nudging my hair off the bite and licking it. I jumped like lightning hit me.
“My parents might see you,” I said, trying to wiggle free.
“I have enough magic back to glamour you for a quickie,” he said. “Get on your knees and Aeric can have your bratty mouth while I fuck you from behind. Five minutes and I’ll make sure you come twice,” he promised.
Aeric put his bow back and looked at me with interest, eyes lingering on my mouth.
Suddenly, I realized they had no idea I was a virgin. They weren’t going to hold back with me. No handling me with kid gloves. I licked my lips. Falin was all hot air, I reminded myself. I was not going to lose my virginity on the back lawn. If I was ever going to sleep with one of them it would be on my own terms and not with the cockiest one in the group for my first time.
“No,” I told Falin. “No cheating. You’re just trying to distract me. If I give up now, you will win.”
Falin bit my earlobe, hard enough to get my attention. “I need inside you, Baby.”
I couldn’t possibly be tempted to star in his threesome. “We had a deal, Falin. If I hit even one target, and you are violating the terms if you stop me from trying to win,” I said, turning my head to keep my ear from his lips and teeth.
“There were no other terms,” he said.
“I know,” I admitte
d. “Nothing’s going to stop me from picking up an arrow and stabbing it through a target when we’re finished so I won’t lose to you, but I am trying to make an honourable attempt first.”
Falin laughed, and it was as dark and scary as his smile. “Honourable? You really have never bargained with the Fae before, Baby.” He cupped my face from behind, turning me back towards him, whispering in my ear. “No other terms means I can do whatever I want to stop you from winning and since there’s something I want from you, I will win.”
I felt my face suffuse with hot anger. “You bastard,” I cursed. “Were you playing with me this whole time, letting me try when you didn’t mean for me to win?” I looked over at the target, fighting his hand on my face. “I knew the target was moving.”
“I didn’t have to use magic. You’re a terrible archer.”
“Let go of me,” I said, fighting the urge to break my bow over his head.
He released me and stepped beside me, giving me a mocking bow.
Were there any terms against receiving help, Brat?
Aeric replaced Falin soundlessly catching me from behind. His hands were on my waist pulling me against his body and it hit me like cold water poured over my head, waking every nerve ending that had been complacent.
“Are you unglamoured?” I asked, remembering the feel of Dain’s unglamoured form.
“Only a little,” Aeric admitted. “I still look the same to everyone else but Fae.” He let go of my waist. “Keep facing forward and stay still,” he ordered.
His hands swept through my hair, tugging out tangles and then he started braiding it.
“Frenching my hair is going to make me a better shot?” I asked, sighing. I thought he was going to offer real help, more of a mutual mutiny against the Dark Fae.
“Arrows are loosed, not shot,” Aeric corrected, fingers quickly working down the braid he was creating.
“He’s putting Fae braids in your hair,” Falin said.
“Do they give me magic?” I asked, sounding more excited.
Falin snorted. “No.”
“Your Marks will be more visible to another Fae,” Aeric said. “It will also keep your hair out of your eyes while you practice archery.”
Practical but boring.
“Wait a minute. You said Marks?”
The price of my help is a Mark of my own. If you submit, I’ll help loose the next arrow with you.
Falin growled. He paced in front of us and then came right up to my face.
I held still. Aeric was braiding my hair and I was still undecided.
“She only needs my Mark for protection,” Falin said. I put a hand on his chest to push him back and was nearly burned.
“Are you unglamoured as well?” I shrieked, pulling my hand off.
“Barely,” Falin said. “Do you see wings, Baby?”
“Dain didn’t burn me when he touched me with his wings. It was warm,” I said.
Falin snorted again. “Do you really think Dain would touch you with his unglamoured body when you’re such a weakling? That was more glamour.”
They all thought me so outclassed. I wanted to get that arrow right in the center on my own and see the look on their faces. This wasn’t about short-term gratification. I would learn archery if I had to practice every damn day, but today, I was going to beat Falin at his own game.
“Do it,” I told Aeric. “Glamour us, Falin,” I added in case my parents looked out back.
I thought Falin would interfere, but he did as I asked, magic slipping over me like warm sunshine. He must be letting me feel it this time on purpose, or perhaps he really was strained and he couldn’t hide his magic fully from me.
Aeric grabbed my hips and pulled me hard against him. I could lean away to avoid him, but I had agreed to this and he wanted me to hold still and take it. The lick at the back of my neck made me shiver, feeling the magic he applied there, too. It was cool, spring water trickling down my spine, leaving numbness in its wake.
“There’s a cost for everything,” Falin warned, taking my lips as Aeric bit.
Kissing Falin was not the same as Falin kissing me. I had merely played with his lip ring, but he pushed hard against my mouth, ground that metal loop against my lips so there would be no mistaking who was kissing me. I felt my lips bloom under the pressure, sensitive tissues swelling from his rough treatment, tingling as he brought all the nerve endings to life. Opening my mouth, he immediately softened the pressure, tongue gently prodding and then going deep, avoiding hitting his stud on my teeth.
Geezus, he really did have everything pierced, I thought, feeling the smooth round ball with my own tongue. I sucked on the tip and flicked the piercing just as Aeric released me from his bite. A moment later, I bit the tip, just past the piercing. Falin waited until I released before he drew back, expertly avoiding my teeth with his piercing again.
“You can take your glamour off now,” I calmly said.
Falin was pressed up as hard against my front as Aeric was my back, holding my hips. I wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought I would be stuck between them, which was dangerous. I liked it too much and they couldn’t be allowed to figure that out. Falin licked his lips, letting me get a glimpse of that tongue piercing as the glamour dropped from me, following the warmth as he took a step back.
“Give us more room,” I said. He was standing in the way of the easiest target.
“If you’re going to cheat, make it worthwhile,” Falin challenged.
“Close your eyes,” Aeric whispered in my ear.
I embarrassed myself by moaning. Had that noise come from me?
“Falin,” Aeric muttered. “She has to get through dinner with her parents before we go home.”
“She has to hit the target first. Her hand has to be the one releasing the arrow,” Falin said.
What had he done to me? I felt restless, energy in me begging me to move and let it out, charged. I needed to kiss that smirk off Falin’s lips.
“Focus on your breathing,” Aeric suggested.
Falin chuckled.
“Do Fae get blue balls?” I asked. Two could play this game. I might have to deal with a growing attraction to the Fae but I didn’t have to suffer it alone.
“To go along with the green piss?” Falin mocked, still sounding much too pleased with himself. This must be a cultural misunderstanding.
I smiled at him. I hope it was as scary as his own.
“Blue balls mean the state a guy gets in when a girl teases him sexually for a long period without offering any release,” I clarified.
Now Aeric was chuckling.
“I know what I want for my prize,” I said. I looked at the furthest target where Aeric had hit the center, nearly hidden in the woods. “I want my arrow there,” I said pointing.
Aeric grabbed my bow from where I had dropped it on the chair. “No,” he told me. He pointed me to one of the middle-distance targets. “Your arm and draw weight are not enough for that distance and you have to release the arrow.”
I let Aeric help set me up. He had me holding the bow but wouldn’t let me nock an arrow yet. “Too tense,” he criticized.
His body was so close behind me, arms wrapped around me, whispering instructions to my ear. I rolled my hips back, not even realizing it until Aeric gasped.
“I’m going to kill you,” I told Falin. Something was definitely happening to my body every time one of them touched me and whatever Falin had done to me made it twice as bad.
“Anytime you’re ready, Baby.”
“Do you use magic when you practice archery?” I asked Aeric, trying to ignore Falin.
“Not really,” Aeric said, raising the bow a half inch. “Light Fae feel all the living things in nature, like the trees we are using as targets. It does give a slight advantage, but practice is the most important. Falin has practiced with thousands of arrows over his lifetime.”
“And you?”
“It’s impolite to ask a Fae his age.”
“Is i
t okay to ask another Fae?”
Brat, are you ready for the arrow?
“Lock and load,” I told Aeric.
“Fae don’t shoot guns,” he said, arrow in hand.
He lowered my bow to the ground and helped me nock the arrow, playing with my fingers until he had three of them in place the way he already showed me dozens of times.
“Breath in and hold it,” he whispered.
In one swift movement, he had me drawing the bow and raising it. The fluid swing made all of my earlier fumbles so obvious.
“Sight,” Aeric whispered. “Keep your eyes on the target, then close them.”
My hand was already cramping. I closed my eyes.
“Feel the wind,” he whispered.
Cool air tickled the hairs on my upper arms and something else. Something brushed against my senses that I would never have noticed with my eyes open.
“Open your eyes again and release the arrow, breathing out,” Aeric said, pulling his hand just off, hovering beside mine.
I saw the tree before I opened my eyes, moving my bow just a smidgen and releasing the arrow with my breath, eyes opening almost at the same time. It thudded into the tree just on the outer line of the target.
I whooped.
“Congratulations, little Halfling,” Aeric said. He stepped back.
I jumped off the chair and ran to the tree to fetch my arrow. It was wedged in tight. Falin had followed me but he didn’t offer to help, leaning against another tree and watching me struggle to get the arrow out.
“What do you want?” Falin asked.
“I’m still thinking about it,” I admitted, putting my foot against the tree and trying to use my body weight against the arrow. Now that I had won, I wasn’t sure I should keep playing Falin’s teasing game of seduction.
Falin grabbed the arrow closer to the tree and yanked. “Aeric’s going to use this to claim you’re Light Fae.”
“I am not,” Aeric said. “It’s too soon to say, but she did take to archery like an Elf with that last arrow.”
“She responded to my magic like a succubus,” Falin said.
“Nobody has even established that I am Fae,” I said, shooting them both annoyed looks. I already believed it but I wanted to fish for more information about myself. “I lie, I don’t need glamour" -no need to tell them about my conversation with Eloden about my ears- "and my Baby is my closest possession, a literal three thousand pounds of metal.”
No Faerie Tale Love (Faerie Series Book 1) Page 18
