“I’ll promise to settle down and rest if you’ll get, the fuck, away from me!” I screeched.
His head tilted and his chin went down just as his eyes closed slowly and, God’s honest truth, he looked in pain.
It proved to be true when he opened his eyes and locked them with mine.
Yep, he was in pain. Lots of it.
Ouch.
Man, it totally sucked that I could hate him, see his pain and hurt for him.
Then his hand came to my neck and I had nowhere to go so I couldn’t pull away.
“Please, listen to me,” he said softly.
“Fine,” I snapped. “Get it over with so I can go to bed and let the aspirin work.”
“The what?”
“It doesn’t matter. Just say whatever you have to say.”
His jaw clenched then his thumb started stroking the side of my neck. That was when my jaw clenched and I glared at him.
“Is it normal, in this world, this… travel between worlds?” he asked.
“No,” I bit out.
“Do you know anyone it’s happened to?”
“No,” I repeated shortly.
“No one?”
“No,” I replied. “Get to the point.”
“Me either,” he said quietly, “until you.”
Oh shit. I saw his point and that sucked.
When he said no more, I prompted, “Is that all?”
“My love,” his thumb moved up to stroke my jaw as his face got even closer, “it was fantastical what you were saying. You have to agree.”
“No I don’t,” I denied.
“Put yourself in my place,” he urged.
“Yes, well, sure, for an hour, maybe a day, I’ll give you a week,” I stated sarcastically. “I can put myself in your place and maybe the Cora of your world could pull something like that off for that period of time. I’ll give you that.”
“My sweet –”
“But we had two months together. I saw the damage she wrought on your staff and the entirety of Bellebryn. I know she was idiot enough to spurn your love. I can look around my house and see what she’s capable of. But you can’t tell me that she’s capable of carrying off that kind of deception for that long. When I arrived, everything about her had changed, I hope. Everything. Even the way she slept. And you cannot tell me that you covered my body with yours, moved inside me, looked in my eyes while you fucked me and didn’t know the bloody difference.”
Shit. Now I was using his curse words.
But it worked. I scored a hit. I saw the pain slash through his eyes.
“I wanted to believe –” he started.
“Well, you didn’t. I baked you a fucking cake because it was the only thing I had to give you on your birthday, I wanted to give you a part of me and I got to your study and heard –”
“Don’t,” he clipped tersely.
“Yes, you know what I heard,” I whispered.
His hand slid up to cup my jaw, his other hand joining it on the other side.
“Take your hands off me.” I was still whispering.
He didn’t. He dropped his forehead to mine and started talking.
“Think about it, love, please,” he urged softly.
“Think about what? How, while I was falling in love with you, you were playing me?”
“You love me,” he told me.
“Not anymore, I don’t,” I returned and I watched his eyes smile.
“You can’t fall out of love just like that.”
“Trust me, Tor, you can.”
He lifted his forehead from mine and swept his thumb across my lips. I tried to tear my face away but his fingers simply gripped tighter.
“You can’t. I know. I fell in love with her and it isn’t that easy. I know this because I tried.”
“Well, I’m not you,” I spat.
“No, thank the gods, you aren’t.” And his eyes were smiling as his lips twitched.
I looked at the ceiling then back at him. “Will you let me go?” I demanded impatiently.
“Yes, I will, in a moment.”
“Now!”
“A moment, Cora,” he stated firmly, I glared and he continued. “I will leave you to rest, you need some time away from me. I’ll give it to you.”
Really? How was he going to do that? Where was he going to go?
Oh Lordy, he’d probably walk in front of a car or…
“But, I’ll leave you with this,” he interrupted my thoughts. “If you have a twin in my world then it is safe to assume that there is a man in this world who looks like me. And if he was in your life, if you fell in love with him the instant you saw him, if you were convinced by a prophesy written in the sky that he carried half your soul, just like every prophesy that came true generation after generation for as long as anyone could remember… and then he crushed your heart… then I was brought into this world and I was charming, amusing, seducing you with every turn of my head, every look, every smile, every move I made, telling you fantastical stories about how I came from another world, what would you think? What would you do?”
“I didn’t seduce you!” I cried.
“Cora, love,” he whispered, “you’re seducing me right now.”
That shut me up and it made my heart clench.
“Think about that,” he said quietly then he let me go and stepped toward the door.
I watched him go and I knew I couldn’t watch him go.
Damn it all to hell!
I turned and called out to him (really, I had no choice), “Where are you going?”
He stopped in the doorway and looked at me. “Out.”
“Out where?”
“Wherever my feet take me.”
Shit!
I turned fully to him and crossed my arms on my chest. “Tor, you can’t go out in my world without me. Things are different here. Vastly different. You might get… hurt, or something.”
His mouth curved up. “Worried?”
“No!” I snapped. “I just figure you’re destined to go home soon and I don’t want to deprive Bellebryn of their ruler.”
“Right,” he murmured and started to turn. “I’ll be back.”
“Tor!” I cried, taking a step to him, he stopped and looked at me.
“Take one more step away from the bed, Cora, and I’ll have to be inventive in finding ways to keep you in it and make you rest.”
I took a step back and glared at him.
“Don’t worry about me, love. I’ll be fine. Rest, I’ll be back soon.”
Then he went to the dresser, opened a drawer, grabbed a pair of socks then nabbed a pair of boots from the floor before he disappeared.
I stared after him. Then I walked back to my bed and collapsed on it.
Then I stared at the ceiling and muttered, “Shit.”
