by N P Hector
He gestured for her to take a seat beside him. As she turned the corner on the couch she realized that two steaming bowls of chicken pot pie were laid before the lounges.
Her stomach growled at the thought of the hearty comfort food. “But clearly confident enough to order dinner for two.”
His grin was wolfish. “I had hoped that you would come down.” His gaze focused on the circles under her eyes, no doubt the smudges had been put there by exhaustion. He was sincere, “please, don’t feel obligated to stay. You can take the food and go, if you so choose.”
Her heart clenched at his kind words. She knew that he had been looking forward to their meeting in the library. She knew that he would give anything, devote any amount of time, to convince her that they were fated.
But here he sat, more concerned with her wellbeing. It was soothing. His attitude towards her made her feel safe, protected. That only made her want to stay more.
She took a seat on the sumptuous leather couch and crossed her legs, settling into the warm material. Romulus took a moment to just appreciate her before handing her the dish and some cutlery. She raised her eyebrow, “are you allowed to eat this casually?”
He chuckled and picked up a forkfull. “I don’t usually eat in that large dining room. I usually eat alone or here.” She nodded and moaned at the taste of the chicken pot pie.
A slow smile spread across his face at her obvious delight. As she settled in he asked, “so, how are you adjusting to the Order?”
She paused and then slowly lifted her gaze to his. Her eyes were pleading. “Rom, can we please talk about something non-magik, something not related to soulmates? I just want you to get to know me as me, just as I want to learn about Rom – and not Romulus the Relentless.” She breathed out and then took another stab at dinner.
He chewed thoughtfully and considered that they should know eachother better. He’d like to hear more about what made her tick. Leaning forward, he shook out his napkin and placed it on his lap. “I want to know everything. What are your parents like? Did they treat you well?”
Selene nestled into the plush couch and sighed. She took a pillow and placed the warm dish on top of it. Thinking about her family made her smile. “Well, my parents couldn’t have children naturally so they adopted me.”
Rom almost wanted to interrupt with a point that it was because she was from a fae bloodline, but he held his tongue. Selene was talking to him without any barriers or acidity. She was comfortable and spoke to him as a man. “That also meant that I was an only child. But that was fine with me because my mom was a teacher, so growing up with her was like having lots of other siblings. She took her work home, you know?”
He did not. But he nodded anyways and asked, “what did your father do?”
That was a sensitive subject. “My father was one of those down to earth, soil on hands kind of guys. He was just so hearty and so good. He had this great booming laugh and he used to lift me up onto his shoulders.”
“It sounds like you’re very close.”
“Were. We were very close.”
He tilted his head at the gentle correction and frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?”
She shook her head and tried to be blasé. “He was a farmer. He got into a machine related accident. It was quick and he didn’t suffer, but I was only 14.”
“You must miss him.”
She smiled fondly, “deeply. I miss him deeply. He used to take us to the cottage every summer. He taught me how to fish and play ball. He was just a really good man, you know?”
“So, is that where you get your work ethic?” She glanced at him a moment to see if he was flattering her or not. When she realized that he wasn’t just saying that, she nodded. “I want to be more like him, so yes, I hope so.”
Uncomfortable with the vulnerability she’d just displayed, she steered the subject away. “So, were you always this tall and this badass? Did you ever play red rover with the other kids?”
He finished his supper and set the empty bowl on the side table. He crossed his hands behind his head and leaned back. “I grew up long before you were ever born. Before even Joan.”
“oh my gosh, you’re a creepy old man.” Selene threw the pillow at him and laughed.
He pretended to be offended but couldn’t keep the smile from spreading. “I guess that you are a good deal younger than me, but don’t worry, I’m still in my mid-twenties at heart.” She snorted at that and he continued, “I was orphaned at a young age. I was left by myself without any guidance from the Order. It was either starve or perform manual labour, so I worked for a farm for a few years and sold crops at the market.”
She gave the muscles of his arm a quick perusal. He winked when he caught her looking. She blushed, “well, you must have worked very hard.”
She had no idea. “Farming wasn’t like the movies. Let me tell you, it was a pretty unsavory job. But it put bread on the table and gave me a purpose.”
Selene leaned against the cushion on the back of the couch and stretched out. If she leaned in closer she could rest on his chest. The warmth from the fire was making her sleepy, but she forced herself to stay upright. “So how did you get caught up in the Order?”
He needed to clarify, “in this life”
“Here and now, it’s just Rom and Selene. Just Rom and Selene.”
He nodded. “So be it. I was saved by the Order. I had no idea who I was or what I was capable of. They found me before I was 26. There was a traveller, Zolum. He was passing through the village and needed to resupply. He noticed me and knew immediately that I was a member of the Order. So he told me that I could choose: live in the village and enjoy relatively anonymity, or join the Order training camp and avenge murdered souls.”
She exhaled. That would have been one hell of a question to put towards a young boy. “So, what did you do?”
He gestured to the room around them. “I said yes. I went to training camp and the rest is history.”
She looked at him with different eyes. At one point in time, even if it was hundreds of years ago, this man had been a small, orphaned boy. Instead of taking his lot in life he had jumped at the opportunity for adventure. She had to admire that about him. But part of her still wondered, “did you ever regret it?”
He looked startled by her question. He spoke lowly, “no one has ever asked me that before.”
After some thought he spoke again, “I’m sure that I regretted it during the brutality of training camp, and during some of the harder missions. But no, it’s been worth every pound of pain.” He looked at her as he said it, as if thought of his fated had allowed him to survive it all and rise to the top.
“So, you guys talk about Kem and hunting down soul mate murderers. But what does that actually mean? And why is Kem like this?”
The fire in the hearth jumped to life. “It means that together, soul mates are very powerful. Some fall victim to Kem’s force. We want to prevent that. Long ago, Kem fell in love with a very beautiful, kind woman. He thought that he would be more powerful with her power and so he killed her. And he was more powerful, but that power slowly ate away at his sanity. Now he’s beholden to that power.”
“How awful.”
She was so beautiful with the firelight at her side, and the flames highlighting the dark raven of her hair. Here now, without makeup, she was beautiful. He enjoyed hearing her speak about her childhood and the things she was passionate about. It brought a crisp rose flush to her high cheekbones.
And her eyes. Her eyes looked so beautifully dark and deep in the dark. He couldn’t help but ask, “Tell me, beautiful Selene. Have you ever been in love?”
She froze for a moment and her eyes widened. Instead of rushing to respond she looked into the fire for a few brief moments. She leaned against the back of the chair. “I don’t think so. I dated this guy in University. Justin.” He had to tap down the wave of jealously that washed over him. “I cared for him, I really did. He wanted to get marr
ied, but I wasn’t ready for that type of commitment. So I’m not sure, maybe it was love after all and I just wasn’t ready.”
He shook his head adamently. “When it’s love its undeniable. You’ll know when you’re in love.”
She raised her eyebrows. “So you’ve been in love, then? As Romulus?”
He wasn’t expecting her to ask him that. He honestly didn’t think that she cared. But maybe she was beginning to like him. To tolerate him, at the very least. His response was much faster than hers. “No, I’ve never been in love.” He gave her a quick glance. “But I’m hoping that will change.”
She was impressed. She expected him to wax poetic about how he was already in love with her because of the soul connection or some other nonsense she didn’t believe in. But to hear him talk about love so reverently, without immediately suggesting that he was in love with her, really gave her a moment to pause.
In fact, it made her almost want to hear him say he loved her. Now that he was treating her as Selene and not Sorcha, she felt those sparks rise in her stomach. Before, when he spoke of love it seemed like he considered her to be a frozen meal. Pop her into the microwave for two minutes and she would be ready for love. Here and now he was taking the time to get to know her, to view her as a new and different person. It made her absolutely crazy.
She thought that maybe if she had met this man somewhere else, a college bar perhaps, that she would have been attracted immediately and flirted. But because her first introduction to him had been him insisting that they were soulmates she didn’t get that chance to show herself as Selene. The sexual attraction between them was on fire. Now that she could see him interested in her, as Selene and not Sorcha, that barrier was removed and the full force of their chemistry hit her like a train.
And here and now, when they were sharing such intimate thoughts, she couldn’t help but notice how ruggedly handsome he was. His silver hair was unusual, certainly, but it looked like silk as it hung pin straight to his shoulders. And his jaw. His jaw looked like it was cut from glass, it was so sharp. And the way he looked at her with those deep, black eyes. She felt feverish and warm. Lustful.
Before she could stop herself she leaned forward and captured his lips with her own. He seemed shocked at first, but then he sank into the kiss. Making a sound of approval in the back of his throat, he pulled her all the way on top of him. His large hands spread across her ass and pulled her against him. He deepened the kiss until his tongue moved against hers.
The kiss was hot and made her melt against him. She placed her hands firmly on the strong muscles of his chest and ran them down his hard abdomen.
He groaned and then caressed her sides gently before cupping her breast. Something hard pressed against her belly. It brought her back to reality and she scrambled off of him. Pushing back her hair, she wrapped her arms around her belly and backed away.
She didn’t think it was possible, but his eyes flashed silver. He breathed deeply. The fabric of his shirt unbuttoned partly to reveal the firm planes of his chest. She thought about running her hands over the corded muscles of his abdomen and shivered.
I’m losing my mind.
She shoved her hair out of her face and caressed her now swollen lips. He followed the movement with his eyes and she abruptly dropped her hands. “Ok, things got a little bit out of control. But that won’t happen again.”
Moving ever so slowly, he stood from the lounge and walked until he was right in front of her. She resisted the urge to back away.
He looked down at her and smiled softly. “Selene, there’s nothing wrong with what we feel for eachother. Why deny yourself something to natural?”
She was having a hard time answering that herself. It had been a long time since she’d felt that kind of passion. In fact, all previous interludes paled in comparison to what he had shown her. But she was scared. Not scared of intimacy with him, no. That ship had sailed in the first year of university. She feared falling in love with him and never being able to hold a candle to his former love, Sorcha. Worse, she feared being forever chained to a man determined to convince her that she was someone else.
She craned her neck upwards until she could meet his eyes. “Rom, we can’t do this while you still think that we have to do this because of fate. We don’t. We’re our own people. We decide our future.”
He smiled softly and brushed a hand through her hair. “Ah, my dear. But what if our choice just so happens to align with fate? What then?”
She didn’t know how to answer. She looked at him one last time before practically running out of the door and back towards her room.
Hours later Joan returned to her room and the two sat laughing on the bed. Joan had started the fire with a flick of her wrist and they were now watching Netflix and chatting. Selene was comfortable in her pajamas and had felt much better after after her meeting with Rom, if a bit antsy.
The two went silent as a knock sounded at the door. Joan called, “come in!”
Rom strode in quickly and went straight for double doors at the other side of the room and opened them. Selene peeked around Joan and was surprised to see that he was in what appeared to be a weapons room, and not a walk-in closet. He was pulling open a cabinet of what appeared to be knives.
Joan hopped off the bed and walked towards him, “bad news?”
He strapped a dagger to his ankle and glanced up towards her, “we had some soul stealers on the east side of the city again. One of Kem’s minions targeted his soulmate. The guy managed to get away, but it looks like he might be targeted again.”
Joan leaned against the door jam and handed him a knife that seemed to be made from moonstone, “does he have any idea of what his soul mate has gotten into?”
He shook his head, “no, the kid thinks that it was a random shooting on the street. He has no idea.”
He pulled on a leather vest and tied his long silver hair in a knot at the base of his neck. He pulled on hand wraps and strode away from the weapons cabinet. Selene watched, enthralled as they discussed an entirely different world.
Joan closed the double doors and addressed him, “I’m still healing-- so who’s your second hand?”
Rom looked at Selene and gave her an appreciative glance. “Cullum.”
Joan gave a sound of disgust and he moved to reason with her, “Joan, he’s the third highest ranking here and Kem had nearly seven minions with him on this last assault. And I need you to watch over Selene.”
Selene waved her hand. “Selene’s right here. And she doesn’t need a babysitter.”
Rom strode towards her and towered over her small figure. He looked like he was all muscle, a lethal weapon unto himself. He looked like he would kill anyone who would dare harm her.
Lifting her chin with his hand, his black eyes looked into hers. The silver hair at his temples fell forward as he neared her and whispered, “It’s for my peace of mind. I leave my heart unprotected when I leave you.”
He leaned in to whisper, his square jaw so close to his cheek that the roughness of his day’s growth beard scratched against the petal smooth skin of her cheek, “Selene, my love. A kiss for good luck?”
It would have been so easy for her to turn her cheek ever so slightly to the left. One small movement and her pliant lips would glide across his firm ones. The scent of leather and sandalwood filled her nose, and she yearned to stretch on her toes and grasp on his broad shoulders.
She knew from brief experience that he would pull her against him with his strong arms and slant his mouth over hers unforgivingly.
It would have been so easy. But her fear of what could be, what that kiss would mean, kept her from doing anything. She stood there, unmoving. He hummed to himself and straightened forward. His eyes flickered between silver and black again. But he caressed the side of her face with his calloused hands and smoothed the pad of his thumb over her cheek, “on my return, then.”
He withdrew his hand and abruptly flashed out of the room.
“
Wow” Joan breathed. “That was...intense.”
Selene hummed in response. Snapping back to reality, she turned towards Joan and mused, “does every guest bedroom have an armory?”
“Oh honey, you think that this is a guest room?”
Selene’s face fell, “it’s not?” Joan shook her head. Selene guessed, “it’s his room, isn’t it?” Joan nodded and began laughing.
Selene launched a slipper at her and prodded, “ok, why were you so mad that he’s taking Cullum with him?”
Joan caught the slipper with ease and tossed it back to Selene, “because, he’s my mate.”
Chapter Twelve
Have you ever felt really close to someone? So close that you can’t understand why you and the other person have two separate bodies, two separate skins?
– Nancy Garden
Selene had fallen asleep doing her taxes. Her laptop was askew on the floor along with her tax deduction chart. She couldn’t do math to save her life and she hated taxes, but she was too stubborn to pay someone for a job she could do herself. For god’s sake, she had a PhD. So, she was still dreaming of eco credits when she was awoken to the sound of someone whispering her name.
A large hand smoothed the hair away from her face. She groaned into the pillow and batted the hand away. “Selene”, the voice said, “come with me.”
Rom?
Cracking one eye open, she realized that Rom had returned to the room. His room. Somewhere along the way he had disarmed himself and returned the cache he carried on his person to the armory. The moonlight streaming through the arched windows on the other side of the room made his silver hair look like moonlight. The same moon beams cast shadows across his strong jaw. His eyes were silver.
She couldn’t help but say, “you look like a moonbeam.” There was something so ethereal about him.
