Denial (Goblin's Kiss Series Book One) (22 page)

He dismissed my comment and said,
“Get your bee-hind back up and move.” I knew he was mocking me. I
stuck my tongue out at him flirted right back. I could get used to
that.

He laughed. I needed him to smile
and laugh more.

“We can give you
two privacy if you need,”
Trigger bugged.

“You scum!” I gave them my best
snarl.

“Ohhh,
that
’
s a classic. You are so hurting my feelings. Such bad words
from a classy
little
girl,” Trigger cooed like it was an
endearment.

I felt the unearthly anger fill me
up, making me shatterproof, but not the surroundings. The ground
and rock shook beneath us. I’m not little.

Ames stood up
taller to hide their faces from me. It was like he wanted to
protect me from all bad. Bad words. Bad people. Bad non-people.
“Enough guys. She can hold her own and you know it.
Don
’
t rile her up and get her to remind you what you
can
’
t do.
”

I hid what was
crawling up my skin and itching to spark out. Ames felt it. He
grabbed hold my hand to calm me down relaxing his grip and then
tightening it to remind me he was with me. I
’
d never felt that
calm, that fast. Nothing had ever tried to stop my un-wielding
force like he keeps repeating. Was it his closeness or just that
fact that he cared? Or was it something else? Maybe he knew and
kept that secret too.

I thanked him away from the prying
eyes of our companions. We crossed over two more big rocks and
right into a cave-like entrance that had just enough light and just
enough coverage to be hidden.

“How did you know this was here?”
I asked as I saw a little pile of ashes in the middle of what could
be called a room of sorts. A box of something stood in the corner.
Someone had been here.

“I was prepared,” he said
smugly.

I shifted my hip sideways, “You
were here before?”

He rolled his
eyes at me, “I come here a lot. I can
’
t stand to be around that moronic
king all the time.”

Understood.

“Why here, Ames? Why not get going
farther away?”

“I need to know
something.”

I waited
patiently for what the
something
was. He finally dropped his eyes releasing his
power over me. He ran his thumb across his top lip, then his bottom
in a circle and let it sit there on the corner. That was the second
time I
’
d noticed this particular dealing-with-stress
habit.

“Your power. How much you really
have.” His guarded eyes were trying to read me. His eyes had so
many ways of telling.

“How do you plan to do that?” I
switched my hand to the other hip trying to work out the kinks of
mountain climbing.

His grin was too sexy and full of
devious looking thoughts pushing out. I had to look away and blush
at the cold, stone wall. I worried what he might do.

We settled
marking our spots of territorial claim. Trigger and Wicker on one
side and Ames and I on the other. The other two
wouldn
’
t let the suggestive comments let up even in our
exhaustion.

I had just about had it when
Trigger threw in, “Might be cozier on my side princess. I have
nicer—

I moved across
the room away from her knowing what was coming the second he took
it too far. Her face lit up with the way I gave her the go ahead
and also by the fact that I wasn
’
t moving to touch her. I looked
straight to her fingers that I
’
d become accustomed to checking
for signs of her destructive instinct. The sizzle moved up through
me telling me she was fired up and about to let it go on him.
Hiding in the hole of a mountain, I worried then
I
’
d
made a mistake, but it was too late to worry about the cave or us
buried under it.

The blast landed
Trigger right smack against the stone wall of the other side of the
caved entrance moaning and groaning. After seeing he was initially
okay, I laughed my friggin
’
head off. Trigger would watch
his mouth from now on.

My only fear?
Right after the burst of energy whammed Trigger into yesterday, the
mud and water from the ceiling settled over our heads and two
stalagmites sliced the ground around Trigger with their sharp
points. Theories are sometimes wrong, but this one
wasn
’
t. She could level the mountain if she wanted
to.

After letting
her cool off, I walked over to comfort her. She was shaking from
the second the magic stopped, but I couldn
’
t chance making her anger
flare up and burying us alive.

“How are you doing?” She looked at
me like I asked her to eat alligator meat. “Okay. So, not so good.
Do you think you can control yourself?”

The lethal look
she added to the last one wasn
’
t reassuring. I
couldn
’
t say anything right.

“I mean to just
know you are okay and not upset anymore. If you need something….”
Lord if I didn
’
t sound already whooped by this
girl.

I
wasn
’
t the only one who thought so. Trigger whistled and made a
his fake fighter jet crash into the imaginary surface sending the
message that I have “crashed and burned” as well as let the girl
wrap herself around me squeezed tight since he was now fake
wrapping his finger.

Figuring
I
’
d
never win the wordless fight with the guy, I chose to ignore him
and worry about Emma, besieging myself. She needed to know a few
things.

“Ignore me all you want, Mav. It
is what it is.” I still owed him another beating. Now he had two
coming.

I wanted to remind him it was
Goose who died, but unfortunately, he was right. I abandoned the
situation and started adjusting the room for the coming night.
After dinner with leftover snacks from Triggers quick run to the
gas station, we bedded down in our chosen corners. I waited till
the others were silent and pulled my blanket over to Emma. I was
certainly glad I had all of this stashed here for an emergency.
This fell into that category and then some.

“Emma,” I looked her hoping my
words would set with her the way I wanted. She faced me. “If
something goes wrong, I want you to run.”

She rolled her
eyes at me. At least she wasn
’
t angry at me anymore. “I get it,
Ames. Sneaking around avoiding imminent danger would most likely
cause my feet to run, scream, hide, and even stab random guys who
look at me the wrong way. I get it.” Her hand went to the curve of
her hip and stayed there. I followed it up to her eyes
again.

With a lack of
any ability to speak, I just nodded doing my best to look the part
of cool for which I
’
m finding it harder and harder to
do around her.

Minutes later,
she was tapping her foot nervously and most likely just trying to
pass the time. I was trying to work out in my head the next step of
the plan coming up with nothing. Distractions
weren
’
t usually my problem. But then again, she had never been in
the picture and she had certainly never sat so close to me that
even her perfumed scent knocked me into
overdrive.

“What are you doing?”

Tap. Tap. Tap.

“Nothing,” she said hiding her
face from me.

“Well, will you
please do that nothing a little over to your left and two inches
forward? I can
’
t concentrate with you doing that
with your feet.”

I needed the space. I needed to
think away from her. My hair will fall out if I keep pulling on it
trying to avoid touching her. It was getting harder.

“You moved by me, Ames
Cahn.”

Oh, yeah. My jaw set unable to
give a proper comeback.

She smiled wide staring at my hair
like she does, “Gladly, Mr. Bossy.”

I slid my blanket back to where I
started and never once closed my eyes. She, however, was fast
asleep within minutes and therefore made my throbbing head relax
enough to at least know she would rest.

When the phone
buzzed with the message I
’
d been waiting for, I almost sang
out like nitwit. It was good news.

The morning was
quiet till the dynamic duo came in from their “patrol” around the
big, bad cave. I didn
’
t feel the danger they did, but
what did I know?

Ames got quiet the second the
other two came back into the cave-room just after the sun was
starting to peek in. I was cranky I was up this early and missed my
hot tea.

Trigger made a predictable comment
about my helplessness and constant need to be treated like a damsel
in distress.

“I
didn
’
t ask for any of this. You guys came looking for me,
remember? Go find your other dead king
’
s daughter who
didn
’
t want to be found?”

No, it
wasn
’
t profound, but it was all I could come up with this
early.

When
Ames
’
hand settled into mine in an attempt to calm me down, I let
it be. It was like a “push button” for controlling my urges of
destruction.

The guys all gathered and started
to talk.

I took that time
to get some fresh air. I didn
’
t like the way Ames avoided me
when the two of them came around and I sure didn
’
t understand it.
Instead of making my way out of the mouth of the cave I watched
him.

When they both watched Ames inch
away and look the opposite direction checking on me, I knew then
they were uncomfortable around us. To say the least. So when they
both decided to excuse themselves to see if the area was still safe
and gave Ames just the slightest bow, I felt the need to get some
things in the clear.

“So are you
going to tell me what they meant by the prince thing?” He
didn
’
t budge. He was definitely the deny everything type, or at
least in his past. He didn
’
t want to tell things that would
get him hurt.

Guys are funny
that way. We girls cope with calling our best friend and hashing it
out with chocolate. Guys want to act like nothing can penetrate
their manliness and for sure not show their
feelings
. It would make
them look less
manly
.

“You know, I
heard of a girl who just found out she was some freak human who
turned out to be some long lost princess and the evil goblin king
wants to take her away and...well you know the rest. Either
way...hefty story, fun to tell.” It didn
’
t all sound absurd, crazy,
or fanatical. Just most of it.

I was trying to keep it light,
help him out.

“My story
isn
’
t fun to tell.” He broke a stick for the fire in two and
continued doing so with every little twig he could find.
I
’
d
hit something raw on the inside of Ames Cahn.

The day ended
and I hadn
’
t made any headway into the life
of this guy who says he will save me and keep me safe from the bad
guys. The night wasn
’
t like the one before with blonde
jokes (I
’
m not blonde) and meaningless arguments. Tonight, no one
spoke. Not even mindless chatter.

“I know what you
fear?” Trigger asked me with Emma still asleep. I checked her
breathing. The same counts of three I
’
d done for two nights. I am now
memorizing her sleep patterns.

“And
I
’
m
sure you
’
re going to elaborate,” I rubbed my eyes wanting some coffee.
It was still way too early for all this drama. Emma was still
curled beside me in a ball scooted closer to me than when she fell
asleep. Was she cold? Thinking she was cold, I covered her with my
own blanket that smelled of musty mountain air. I
didn
’
t like that it covered her flowery scent.