Temperance (27 page)

This man wasn’t like anyone she’d met before. He was crude, rough, and at times frightening. But here and now, dressed as he was, he was the most magnificent man she’d ever seen.
 

As that thought entered her mind, he looked back over his shoulder, and she knew she was in deep trouble.
 

He hasn’t even done anything, and I want to strip my clothes off and beg for it.

* * *

Naeve’s expression had him straightening to his full height to face her. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks rosy under the glow from the candles. And her mouth—that soft, sweet mouth—was slightly parted. She looked as she had after the kiss they’d shared back at L’Mere.
 

Aroused
.

He took in her raggedy dress and slowly walked her way. “Naeve?” He noticed that, every time he said her name, she seemed to sway towards him almost subconsciously. Drawn to him again as she had been back at the castle.

What is going on here?

He stopped and ran his finger over the material covering her shoulder. “We need to find you some new clothes,” he told her. When she silently continued to look up at him, he found his mouth curving into a small smile. “Or maybe none at all.”

He figured that would get a reaction. Maybe pull her from whatever trance she seemed to be in. But instead, she licked her lips and raised a hand as if to timidly touch him.

There was no reason for him to halt her this time, and he had no intention of doing so.

She laid her palm over his chest and then whispered out words that almost brought him to his knees. “I don’t know why, but I feel like I need to touch you.”

She blinked her bright blue eyes at him, and he too found the compulsion to touch her overwhelming.

“Then touch me,” he invited.

She shifted her hand across his chest to where his shirt hung open, and when the tips of her fingers touched his bare flesh, he felt as if a fire was flooding his veins. She must have felt it also, because she pulled her hand from him as if she had been burned.

“Why?” she asked softly as she stumbled away a step.

He reached out to take her arm, but she jerked it away.
 

“Why?” she demanded. “Why do I feel like this around you? I don’t even like you.”

She looked away from him, and that’s when he saw it. The dark marking on her temple had spread. It had branched off and was now making a path down her neck.

He was about to say something when she spun back, and he noticed that her eyes had taken on a wild look. The soft arousal from seconds ago had been replaced with anger.

“You held a knife on me and kidnapped me. The last thing I want is for you to touch me.”

The disgust she poured into the word ‘touch’ sparked something inside him that was a far cry from the desire he’d been feeling.
 

He grabbed her by the arms and shook her slightly as he reminded her, “It was you who touched me, rabbit. Don’t forget that while you’re busy trying to vilify me. I was barely in the room before you were stripping me of my clothes with your eyes.”

“I was not,” she fired back.

His eyes dropped down to the low neckline of her dress. He said nothing, just let his gaze take a leisurely perusal of her until she was squirming in his grasp.

“Stop it,” she gritted out, trying to free herself.

“Stop what? According to you, I’m not doing anything.” He slid his palms down her arms and gripped her wrists, pulling them behind her back, where he clasped them in one of his hands.
 

In this position, her breasts thrust out towards him, begging him to touch, but instead, he waited until she faced off with him. When she stubbornly jutted her chin forward, he began talking.

“This is what I was talking about back at L’Mere. You want to touch me and don’t know why. And by all the Gods, I want to touch you too.”

She started struggling again, but it was ineffectual, because compared to him, she was miniscule.

“But I won’t,” he promised, running a hand down her side. “I will, however, demand to know what secrets you have hidden from me.”
 

He let her feel the pressure of his palm through her dress, and when he plunged his hand into the pocket, her eyes widened. His fingers felt around and touched a small, square object before pulling it free.
 

Bringing it up between them, he saw some writing on the white paper and then read, “Hubba Bubba?”

* * *

Naeve wasn’t sure what was more alarming—the fact that she was standing so close to Kai with his hand wrapped around her wrists, that they were standing in his—for all intents and purposes—castle with a piece of watermelon bubble gum,
or
the fact that she was ready to fight him to the death to keep it.

“Give that back.”

He cocked his head to the side and frowned so hard that it was as though she were staring at a nuclear missile. If she’d been thinking in her right mind, Naeve was sure she would’ve found the situation absolutely ridiculous. But apparently, she wasn’t thinking with
any
kind of mind.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

The hand around her wrists tightened as he hauled her forward so her breasts crushed into his chest. Raising the white square between them, he asked again, “What is it?”

Feeling like a child being chastised, she rolled her eyes and mumbled, “Bubble gum.”

“Bubble gum?”

She was pouting as she replied, “Yes.”

He brought it up to his nose and sniffed. “What’s it for?”

As she stood there, she wondered if she was losing her mind. In the space of seconds, she’d gone from aroused to angry, and now, she found the entire situation hilarious.

“Why, it’s for big bubbles and no troubles, of course.” She gave him a flirty wink before she’d thought better of it, and when he continued to just stare, she let out a long-suffering sigh. “If you’ll allow me the use of my hands, I’ll show you.”

He regarded her as if trying to decide if she could be trusted or not.

“I’m going to eat it, not launch an attack.”

“How do I know it’s not poison? That it isn’t some kind of swift death.”

It was Naeve’s turn to frown now. “Why would I kill myself? All I’ve wanted since being brought to this damn place was to go home with my sisters. That hasn’t changed, genius.”

He reluctantly released her wrists, and when she brought them around and reached for the piece of gum, he warned, “Don’t try anything. You won’t like the consequences.”

Upon taking the square, she unwrapped it and decided she would savor the fruit-flavored goodness. Once she’d brought it to her lips, she bit the piece in half and then rewrapped it, placing the other half in her pocket for later as she started to chew.

The fruity deliciousness burst over her taste buds and she groaned from the sheer pleasure as she kept her eyes on his. He was watching her as if she were about to morph into a wolf or something—which might not have been so unusual here. She wasn’t sure.
 

Then, when it was fully chewed, she pushed her tongue against the gum, and pursed her lips, blowing a huge bubble that inflated between them. His eyes widened slightly, and when the bubble reached its full potential, she opened her lips and chewed it back inside.

Naeve repeated it again as he stood there in silence, and this time when she drew it back inside her mouth, he asked, “What’s the purpose?”

“The purpose?”

He nodded as she blew a small, quick bubble and popped it, drawing it back between her lips.
 

“The purpose is fun, I guess.”

“Fun?”

“Yes,” she answered and then smacked the gum in her mouth, causing a cracking sound. “Do you even know what
fun
is?”

All of a sudden, he snagged an arm around her waist and brought her in close before demanding, “Make another one?”

She pushed her tongue against the sweet substance and then started to blow. His gray eyes concentrated as they moved to the bubble forming between them, and then he lowered his head, bared his teeth, and bit down into it.
 

As the confection popped, he crushed their mouths together, and Naeve felt the gum between their lips. She opened hers and felt his teeth nip at her bottom one before he sucked the gum into his mouth and gave her another quick, hard kiss.
 

Releasing her and chewing, he scrunched his face up at the taste right before a wide smile split his usually serious mouth.

“I can have fun. Hmm, this tastes good.”

Still in shock from the rare and blinding smile he was aiming her way, Naeve responded without even thinking. “Of course it tastes good. It’s watermelon.”

“What’s a watermelon?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “The flavor. Oh, forget it.”

He pulled out a chair for her, and she took a seat. He then walked around to the large one at the head of the table and sat.
 

He looked absurd.

There he was, sitting in a chair fit for a king, leaning back with an elbow propped on the arm, as he chewed the watermelon-flavored Hubba Bubba.

“Now,” he said, leaning forward and looking as stern as the first day they’d met. “Teach me how to blow a bubble.”

Naeve stared at the man opposite her in disbelief.
Is he serious?
 

There were much more important things to talk about then blowing bubbles, and before she knew she was going to, she asked, “Where are all the women?”

The expression of anticipation that had been on his face vanished instantly, and she almost regretted her impulsive question.
 

“They’re dead. Or gone,” he answered with cool indifference.

The clipped tone and the flat gray eyes she was now looking at told her there was a lot more to it than that, and she was determined to get some answers from him.
 

It was all too strange. Ever since arriving they’d only seen one woman, and that was—

“The Empress Seraphine cast a curse over them, years ago now,” he paused and raised a hand to rub his fingers over his chin. “She actually cursed the lot of us that day. The women, the men, and eventually all that required the water from the lakes. I’m not sure she realized the extent in which her hatred would spread. She wanted the people to suffer. But I’m not sure she wanted the land to.”

Naeve didn’t take her eyes off him as she waited silently for him to continue.

Castles, curses, and Empress’s
, she’d never imagined places like this existed in reality. But did they? Was any of this really…real?

“You say you aren’t from here…” he started.
 

When he stopped, Naeve realized he wanted her to speak—but she wasn’t quite sure that she could.

“That’s…that’s right.”

He regarded her carefully before continuing, “I believe you. You don’t talk, dress or act like any of the women from around here. You’re also immune to what ails them. But that leaves the question that I keep coming back to.”

She sat frozen in place as he leaned across and rested his arms on the table.

“Who are you, really? Beyond what I’ve been told. And what does Seraphine have planned for you?”

She swallowed, trying to get some air past the lump stuck in her throat.

“I told you. I don’t know. I’m just a normal woman from America.”

His eyes examined her, and then he asked something she’d never expected him to.

“Where is that? Clearly it’s not anywhere here, from my world.”

Up until now she realized she’d been deluding herself. Hoping against all hope that she was in some sort of dream, or nightmare, for that matter. But as they sat there and she heard the crackle of the fireplace behind her, Naeve knew deep in her heart that this was very real. She wasn’t anywhere near home and this
world
as he’d put it, was definitely not her world.

Trying the word out in her head, she wondered if anything had been stranger for her to say then when she opened her mouth and said, “Earth.”
 

Nope, that’s the strangest thing I’ve
ever
said.

“Earth?” he repeated, and sat back contemplating the word—one, which he’d obviously never heard before.

Naeve nodded quickly as a man wandered into the room holding a huge tray that he placed on the table and slid between the two of them. She stared at the food in front of her and realized she’d gotten so sidetracked with him that she’d totally forgotten to ask what a
Hawkog
was.
 

As she studied the meal she was expected to eat, she noticed the serving tray was elaborately decorated with feathers. When she rose a little and looked into the center of the pretty colors she thought she could see…
oh god, are they hooves?
 

She tried to hold back the look of distaste on her face but when Kai asked, “Are you okay?”
 

She knew she’d failed.

* * *

As their food was placed on the table, Kai pondered over the word Naeve had said,
America
…
Earth
.