Wicked Thing (C.O.A Series Book 2) (8 page)

No, it wasn’t. He was going to forget
.

“We should get out of the water, and lay in the sun for a while?” she suggested. They both struggled their way up the embankment and sprawled out on their backs in the grass. She rolled over onto her stomach beside him in the luxurious cushion of the greenery and grabbed for one of the stray apples that had dropped from the tree. It felt like a reward for allowing him to have his way with her. To say no, would have hurt him and she had always known he wasn’t nearly as emotionally durable as she was. Sometimes this tree reminded her of the apple tree from the story of Adam and Eve. Theoretically they were in the in-between.
It might be the actual tree. That made sense.
The tree with the sinner’s fruit right beside a pool of water that induced naughty behavior.
Nobody had ever warned them to stay away from the apples.

He flirtatiously grinned and asked, “Can I have a bite?”

She dangled it over his lips and smiled as he took an over ambitious bite of the fruit. He started to chew his enormous mouthful while smiling at her in that way that had always softened her heart and made mush of her resolve. There was this satisfied adorable crinkle in the corner of each of his eyes that wasn’t there with every smile. Lexy leaned over and kissed him square on his apple juicy lips. Then she licked her lips tasting the fruity flavor of his as she stretched out in the grass and closed her eyes ever so briefly as the warmth of the sun’s rays caressed her nude form. When she opened them, he was staring at her appreciatively. She grinned and said, “Why don’t you just take a picture it’ll last longer?”

“Now, there’s a thought,” he lovingly teased as he traced a slow seductive path down her arm with one of his fingers. He whispered, “I feel like I should be worried about what we just did for fifty different reasons right now but all I can think about is how soft your skin is and how much I want to do it again.”

She took his hand, placed it on her breast and said, “Why don’t we worry about it tomorrow.”
Meaning, she would worry about it tomorrow and he would be blissfully oblivious.

Grey positioned himself above her and gave her a deviously naughty grin as he trailed kisses down her stomach to her abdomen. She gasped and grabbed a handful of the silken fragrant grass as he pleasured her until another explosion of ecstasy rocked her to her core. He didn’t wait for her to finish shivering before he confessed his love for her as he took her once again. Her heart soared with her love for him as he drove her all of the way to the edge with his knowledge of what movements would pleasure her until he left her gasping and pleading as the aching within her became a swirling explosion of euphoria. In the end they lay wrapped in each other’s arms with their limbs still intertwined, both of them completely spent.
She loved him too much. Why had she done this to herself again?
Her eyes grew heavy and she knew by the steady rhythm of his breathing that he was probably already asleep. Lexy stayed there for a moment longer and as her eyes filled with tears she blinked them away, knowing that there was no point in shedding tears over something that would only matter to her. It would be best to treat this as a dream, a beautiful dream that had never actually taken place. She’d endeavor to move on with her life as she had planned before she’d slipped up and given in to the desire that held no promise of evolving. She needed to get dressed. Lexy attempted to put his on, but couldn’t. Grey was absolutely dead to the world and his limbs were as unmalleable as bags of cement. She’d tell him he went skinny dipping and fell asleep in the grass. Lexy smiled when she thought about how many times the poor guy had woken up naked somewhere and never bothered to search for an explanation. Lexy made sure she wandered far enough from the pool to be certain that they wouldn’t end up having round three.
Next time she’d say no
. Lexy sprawled out in the lush grass and closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of the grass with each breath she took until she drifted off to sleep.

After a long luxurious nap, she awoke to find her Handler clothed, sitting beside her watching a caterpillar crawling in the palm of his hand.

Grey showed her his new friend and exclaimed, “Look at how fluffy he is.”

The Friend zone version of her Handler had returned
. Lexy smiled, as she sat up so she could get a better look at her Handler’s fluffy orange and black companion. She nodded and exclaimed, “He’s pretty cute.”

Grey continued to stare into the palm of his hand as he added, “I woke up completely naked over by that pool.”

Lexy knew if she told him something feasible he wouldn’t bother searching any further for answers. She got comfortable by folding her arms in front of her like a pillow, and rested her head on them, closing her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look into his as she lied, “I wanted to have a nap and you weren’t ready to go to sleep. I didn’t want to hang out with you by that pool for obvious reasons.”

He shook his head at her like she’d just said something completely ridiculous, messed up her hair in a brotherly way and teased, “I don’t think you ever have to worry about that happening.”

Ouch, that unknowing barb had stung a bit.
She swallowed it down and suggested, “Let’s go find Frost and Lily.”

Grey kept rotating his palm around so the fluffy little caterpillar was walking in an endless circle. He sighed, “Do you really want to leave? It’s so peaceful here and we don’t have to think about everything that’s going on. I could stay here for a while longer.”

He was blissfully enjoying his moment with the furry little distraction in his hand. Sometimes she was in awe of who he was with his ability to find joy in the simple things. She smiled and replied, “I guess, we can stay for a while.” Grey beamed as he allowed the tiny caterpillar to meander up arm. Lexy placed her hand in front of it and their tiny distraction strolled onto her palm and switched directions; the tiny feet tickled and she smiled. When Grey noticed she was enjoying herself his smile widened and once again his ability to find joy in everything made her feel more than she knew she would have been capable of all by herself. This was how they were meant to be. Perhaps, he had the right idea. She needed a distraction to get her through the next few days of hurt as he obliviously moved on from what they’d shared.
That’s what she’d do. She’d find a distraction as soon as they got back to the land of the living
.

They didn’t have to go searching for Lily and Frost because they appeared in the field just as she decided to put an end to Grey’s special ‘me time’ and suggest they go and find the others.

Frost strolled up to them and announced, “Azariah has something she needs us to do. Come on you two, enough relaxation, it’s time to get down and dirty.”

Grey grimaced as Lily knelt beside him to get a closer look at what he had in his hand. She placed her hand out and Grey let the fuzzy little caterpillar crawl onto Lily’s hand. Lily smiled as she watched it crawl across the length of it and then placed her palm in the grass and it disappeared into the fragrant carpet of green. Lily rose to stand and held out her hand towards Grey. He took it and she gave him a tug to his feet.

“Thanks beautiful,” he said as he took a deep breath and exclaimed, “Don’t you love the smell of this grass?”

Lily replied, “It does seem to be a little extra potent today, doesn’t it? I wonder why that is?”

Frost placed his arm around Lexy as they started to walk away and whispered in her ear, “The pool…really? That doesn’t seem very proactive.”

Lexy quietly responded, “It wasn’t my idea.”

Frost nodded and kept the rest of his observations silent as the scenery flashed around them and they found themselves standing at the bottom of what appeared to be the same sandstone multihued ringed canyon where she’d trained the three to die like champions. She smiled and wondered if they were going to be fighting those enormous scorpions.
That would be a lovely way to spend the afternoon
. She could burn off a little bit of energy and deal with some of that pent of rage.

Grey shook his head at his Dragon’s overly exuberant response to standing at the bottom of the ravine and sighed, “The vacation’s over isn’t it?”

Chapter 5
Dragon ‘Me’ Time

A
sword appeared in Lily’s hands, she chuckled, gripped it firmly and gave it a skilled practice swing, “Yes, I’d say it is.”

Lexy grinned as a sword appeared in her own hands and she sparred, “I guess that depends on what you see as a vacation.”

In the distance they heard the thundering clicking approach of what they assumed were gigantic scorpions.
This is amazing, just what she wanted to do today.

Grey cleared his throat and nervously piped in, “Hey, you guys. I still don’t have a sword. I keep thinking about one and it hasn’t appeared.”

Frost swung around his spiked ball on a chain and made a suggestion, “I couldn’t think up a sword either. Think of something else.”

A spiked club appeared in Grey’s grasp and he groaned, “I hate these things. They get stuck and then you have to pull them out. It takes away valuable time.”

Lexy grinned as widely as a child on Christmas morning, her pulse raced in preparation for the battle ahead as she mocked, “Oh, quit whining Greydon and get ready to fight. This is going to be fun.”

They all started to laugh. Well, everyone but Greydon who was still feeling pissy because he was a lover not a fighter.
Each scorpion was usually the size of a truck. Some were the size of a big rig…Why were they not visible?

“Where in the hell are they?” Grey stammered. He had his weapon raised, ready to fight the impossible.

The ground trembled beneath her feet and Lexy grinned as it began to crumble beneath her. She fell through the canyon floor into complete and total darkness. There was not a hint of light. Not even a sliver of light, just isolating darkness and the thundering clicks of what sounded like dozens of gigantic scorpions. Lexy wasn’t sure if the others were even here with her but she knew better than to call out for them. That would only tell the predators where she was. Lexy tightened her grip on the sword she was wielding and listened as she gingerly crept through the pitch black feeling in front of her for solid ground with each foot before trying to take a step.
This was great!
The light flashed on for a second.
She was surrounded.
In that instant she’d been able to deduce that there was no visible cliff or drop off in her sight line Lexy dove forward and slid across the smooth stone floor maneuvering her way through the clicking feet, driven forward by nothing but instinct, as she swung her sword and slid again, knowing if she took off a leg the enormous scorpion would probably teeter over and squish her underneath its enormous frame. Lexy remained in one spot just a second too long and felt the excruciating sting of being impaled as something large and sharp pierced her stomach. Her body was raised into the air and lurched around. She choked on her own warm blood as it spurted from between her lips. Whatever she’d been impaled upon broke off and she dropped with a thud to the ground. With sight not being one of her options all she had to guide her was instinct and the exhilaration of battle. Lexy was fed a welcome shot of adrenaline and she shivered with pleasure as her healing ability tried to kick in. She realized there was something inside of her blocking her ability to heal, she felt her stomach and yanked the object out of her mid drift causing a euphorically primitive response.
Round one was almost over. She was going to bleed out.
Lexy zigzagged away from her invisible assailant, knowing she had little to no time left in this round of her macabre little pastime. The Dragon swung her sword as the lights flashed on once again. Lexy was aiming for coordinated movement but teetered over as she attempted to skillfully maneuver her way between one of the abomination’s clicking legs. Her senses were working overtime to compensate for her lack of sight; she could hear everything from her blood pulsating through her veins to the whooshing sound of the scorpion’s tails as they gathered around her to finish her off. Something pierced her shoulder and then something else pierced her abdomen a moment later. They began to tug her in either direction and she felt like she was about to be torn in two. She sliced the appendage off of one of her assailants. A second later her body was tossed into the air and she landed on her back on a solid surface, knocking the wind out of her. At least one of the objects must have a stinger, she could tell by the burning of the venom as it seeped into her system. It was as though she’d been stung by a thousand wasps all at the same time. It felt like someone had doused her in gasoline, struck a match and tossed it on her. Lexy’s mind screamed as her entire body went up in flames. She could feel the carnal heat of her ability kick in as blood spurted from between her lips. That last wound had been the kill shot, but still always the Dragon, she endeavoured to crawl forward. The lights flickered on once more and this time her vision was to blurred to make sense of anything. She’d lost too much blood. Lexy was flung by one of the abominations and she slid across the ground as though she were in an ice rink, endeavouring to rise once she’d stopped moving. She felt woozy. A final rush of adrenaline urged her on.
How am I still alive?
Lexy struggled to her feet forgetting to check to see if there was in fact ground in front of her, she stepped forward. Sure enough, there was no ground beneath her feet and Lexy plummeted into the unknown. She raised her arms to either side, closed her eyes and smiled as the wind rippled behind her.
Well, she’d been wrong about there being no drop off
. Unfortunately, her entertaining otherworldly mind game did not reset before she made contact with a hard surface. There was one final excruciatingly painful surge of agony and then nothing. This scenario repeated itself countless times until she could feel no pain at all when she made contact at the end.

After her final illusion of her demise, Lexy awoke and before she ventured to open her eyes she knew she was no longer lost in the darkness. The game had ended. The sun was shining behind her eyelids making her world a pinkish hue. Lexy clutched the ground and by the scent and texture she was pretty sure it was soil beneath her fingertips. She remained there without opening her eyes for a moment basking in the warmth of the sun’s welcoming rays while listening to the music of the tropical birds around her.
Were those chimpanzees?
Out of sheer curiosity Lexy opened her eyes. It had only been the lack of sun that made her think it was shining directly on her. She still found herself squinting in the sunlight that reached her even though it was being filtered through the tropical trees. There was this sweet invigorating scent in the air.
Where was she now? Where was Grey?
He was always her first thought when she snapped out of her Dragon state
.
Lexy was struck on the head by something hard and it rolled across the ground in front of her.
What in the hell?
She bent down to pick it up
. It was a coconut and not a small one.
She glanced up and there was a mischievous looking chimpanzee, poised to throw another one. She smiled and thought about the apple she’d thrown at Grey.
Karma, was such a bitch!
She glared at the monkey that gave her an enormous open mouthed grin as it launched another coconut in her direction.