“Where were you?” he demanded to know the second I had the bedroom door closed. I was almost positive he magicked the room silent so Peter couldn’t listen in on our conversation.
“I was trying to figure out the truth about Anna and Russell Charming’s relationship,” I said, tucking hair behind my ear. I walked to my desk and slid off my leather jacket before hanging it on the back of the chair. “Where were you?”
I hadn’t meant to sound so suspicious. I knew he had to go back to the Fae realm. He had told me as much himself. But there was something about him, something different. My Rumple was a lot more relaxed, almost nonchalant, in an annoying way that hinted he didn’t care about anything at all. This Rumple seemed tense, angry, like there was so much pent-up aggression inside of him and he was looking for an excuse to let it out. He was looking for a fight and seemed to expect me to be the one to give it to him.
My own magic swirled inside of me, almost as though it was saying it was up for the challenge, almost saying that it wanted the chance to fight with Rumple, to meet his anger with my own. But I tampered it down as best as I could.
I recalled what he had said about his parents, what Pan seemed to imply with them, and I tried to remember just how awful they were supposed to be.
“You know where I was,” he said slowly.
“And?” I perked my brows, challenging him. I didn’t like that my first reaction to his aggression was defensiveness. As his...whatever I was to him, shouldn’t I be able to calm him down? Shouldn’t I be able to soothe his anger?
The problem was, I didn’t know how to do that. I wanted to. I wanted to do that more than anything. But I had fire running through my veins, and Rumple’s frustration seemed to be the perfect spark for setting myself on fire.
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” I asked. My lips curled down into a sneer. “Or are you going to tell me you can’t? Are you going to tell me you’re trying to protect me and telling me that is going to hurt me in some sort of way or put me in danger?”
Rumple furrowed his brows together, crossing his arms over his chest. “Where is this coming from?” he asked.
I could see him struggle with whether he wanted to address me by name. He wanted the answer and was going to compel me to answer. Of course, I had been able to resist his compulsion for the most part, and thanks to his younger brother, I knew about it in the first place. Instead, he didn’t address me as anything, which was probably the safest bet.
“I went to see your brother,” I admitted. “I thought that since he knew Russell Charming, was in business with the man, he would be able to help. But he didn’t. He sent me to Jack.”
“Jack Lupine?” The snarl that wrapped around Jack’s last name caused me to flinch. I knew the two didn’t get along, but I didn’t realize the extent that Rumple seemed to hate him. “And did good ol’ Jackie boy have information for you? Although, I must say, I highly doubt he knows much of anything. I’m surprised Pan would send you there...unless there was a reason for it.” He clenched his teeth together, eyes narrowed on the kitchen tile.
“I don’t want to talk about what happened with Jack.” This much was true. Even thinking about it now caused anger to flare up, and since Rumple seemed to be looking for a fight, I wanted to avoid one. And I highly doubted anything that had to do with Jack would help me avoid a fight.
“Funny, because that’s all I want to talk about,” Rumple said.
“Can you conjure up some tea for me?” I asked, ignoring him. It was petty, I knew, because we both knew I never asked him for anything except help if I felt threatened.
Rumple opened his mouth to say something, then heaved a sigh. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, a tea cup managed to arrive in my hands. I clutched at the handle and took a long sip.
I winced, letting out a hissed breath.
“Careful, darling,” Rumple said. “It’s hot.”
I contemplated throwing the tea on him just so he could experience how hot it was, but I decided that might not be a good idea. Instead, I blew on the liquid for a long moment and took another tentative sip.
Ah. Much better.
“What’s your problem?” I asked, setting the tea down on the counter next to me. “Why are you acting like this?”
He frowned. He conjured his own cup of tea, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he added in a little kick of alcohol based on his mood. He glanced at the amber liquid, stirring the contents on the cup with a silver spoon before it disappeared.
“I have no idea what you are referring to,” he said.
“Yes, you do.” I pressed my lips together, looking up at him with imploring eyes. This wasn’t Rumple. Rumple actually trusted me with information. If something happened, he didn’t lash out either. We talked things through. We made a good couple. We made a good team. But this Rumple...I didn’t know what to make of him. “This isn’t like you. Are you okay?”
He flinched at my question, though I wasn’t sure why. It was a reasonable question. And yet, the way he looked, it was almost as though he was surprised I had asked it in the first place, as though he didn’t deserve my kindness.
“What did you find out back in the Fae realm?” I asked, tilting my head to the side. Hair spilled over my shoulder and I was tempted to brush it back. Instead, I reached up and began to braid it into something loose, just to give my fingers something to do.
He opened his mouth to respond, but cut himself off. He took another drink of the tea - for courage, maybe? - before setting it down on the counter next to mine. He was careful not to brush against me, and that alone was enough to make me want to cry. Why didn’t he want to touch me? Why didn’t he want to talk to me? Had I done something to upset him and just not know it?
“Someone has been able to penetrate the Never Glass,” he said finally. He moved so he was standing directly in front of me. We weren’t touching, not quite, but it was much better than how we were before. “Not someone. A group of people.”
I stepped back, crossing my arms over my chest and glancing to the side. I didn’t know much about the Fae realm save for the fact that Rumple was from there and it was highly protected by what was known as Never Glass. Not even ShadowMagic could leave a mark on it, so a group of people cracking it was supposed to be impossible.
“Are you okay?” I asked, picking up my tea. “Maybe we should talk about this in my room.”
“The Dwarf is not here,” he said, though he followed me up the stairs. Even if Peter wasn’t here, he could come home at any moment, and I highly doubted Rumple wanted anyone listening in on our conversation.
Once we got to the room, I flipped on the lights and sat on the edge of the bed. Rumple began to undo the buttons of his shirt, though he was pacing while he did so.
“They weren’t even magicked,” he said, and I couldn’t tell if he was talking to me or if he was talking to himself. “They’re a band of thieves that lives in the Blood Forest like a group of savages that roam from place to place without a home. I don’t understand how that’s even possible.”
“I don’t know much about Never Glass,” I said, slowly walking over to him. “Was there a weak spot they took advantage of? Maybe they observed the perimeter of the Fae realm for a while and happened to know that that was where the weakest place was.”
“There is no weak point on Never Glass,” Rumple said, narrowing his eyes at me. There was something akin to annoyance in his tone, and I nearly flinched at the sound. Rumple was rarely annoyed with me unless I truly deserved it. I might be ignorant, but that didn’t mean his impatience was warranted. “That’s the whole point of Never Glass. What does my father always say? It’s nigh impenetrable.”
“Okay, except it is,” I pointed out. I tried to brush off Rumple’s reaction to me and focus on why I got closer to Rumple in the first place. My hands reached up and I began to unbutton his silk shirt. “You know that now. The question is, what do you plan on doing about it. What do your parents want to do about it
?”
“They want me to return to the Fae realm and start doing my duty as a son and heir so I can take over,” he said. There was a hint of bitterness in his tone, but this time, I knew it wasn’t directed at me.
I nearly stumbled over the buttons at the thought of Rumple leaving. In truth, the last thing I wanted was Rumple to go. And I doubted he even knew how long he’d be gone. Knowing his parents, I doubted they would want him to return, especially if they believed someone - a group of thieves - from Wonderland were trying to penetrate their realm.
Fear permeated my bloodstream, but I tried to control it with deep breaths. Even if Rumple was forced to leave Wonderland, that didn’t mean he would stay gone forever. He wouldn’t do that to me. I knew him well-enough to know he genuinely cared about me. He wouldn’t just disappear and never come back.
Because if that did happen, it would positively wreck me.
I wasn’t scared of a lot of things. Even as a citizen within Wonderland, I had never been afraid of magic. At the time, I thought I didn’t have any in me. And maybe that made me terribly naive. If anything, I was curious about it. I wanted to learn more because knowledge usually helped ebb the current of fear, at least for me.
But Rumple leaving? That scared the shit out of me. Not because it meant he wouldn’t be around to protect me or train me.
It meant he’d be gone. And I didn’t want him to go.
“And?” I forced myself to say. I winced as I heard the crack in my voice, and dropped my fingers to the next button. I cleared my throat, my gaze on what I was doing rather than at him. “What do you want to do?”
“I do not know.” His words were quiet, serious. Dark eyes were on me, pinning me in place. “I am bound by duty.”
I pressed my lips together to stop myself from saying the first thing that popped into my head. Instead, I reached under the shirt and pushed it off his shoulders, letting it cascade to the floor. My eyes looked everywhere but at him because he said exactly what I didn’t want to hear. I didn’t want him to be bound to anyone except for me, and while I knew that made me selfish, it was also the truth.
I reached around him, my fingers caressing his skin - until I realized some of Rumple’s flesh was not even. I pulled away - not because I was disgusted, but because I wanted to see what I was feeling.
I tilted my head to the side, realizing there were scars that littered his back. How had I not noticed them before? We had made love multiple times. How had I missed this? I reached out. I wanted to touch them, to feel them. Some sick, morbid part of me wanted to see if they were real. But before I could, Rumple grabbed my wrist and glared. His lips thinned into a line. There was nothing he even wanted to say. His fingers felt like brands against my wrist, pressing into my skin, burning me. My cheeks crackled with heat, though I wasn’t sure if it was because he made me feel as though I was doing something wrong or if there was more to it.
And then, he spoke. “Don’t.”
The word cracked. It was filled with desperation and...and if I was being honest, longing.
There was something about the way he said it that made me realized he was terrified of me touching that part of him. The broken part. The part that he hid from the rest of the world.
I swallowed, his eyes still on me, watching me with every ounce of his energy. It was almost as though he didn’t trust me the way I expected him to.
I tugged my wrist from his grasp. He released me almost instantly, but his eyes never left me.
I stepped around him slowly, so slowly, so I was behind him.
“Alice,” he said, his voice a warning.
A plea.
And maybe I should have listened to him. But I wasn’t going to do that.
Not tonight.
10
I had no idea if what I was doing was the right thing. At this point, I was listening to my instincts right now. But Rumple didn’t stop me, and I was glad about that because I didn’t want him to. I wanted him to sense just how much I cared about him, how much I wanted him, how much I loved him.
I picked my head up to look at his reflection in the mirror over his broad shoulder. How did I never notice these scars before? I was certain I had held him, had scraped my nails down his back in pure ecstasy during our time together. It was probable I had been too caught up in the moment to really notice, and since I had never seen them visually, I could understand why I wouldn’t know they were there at all.
But now that I did, I needed to do something. I needed to shower him with affection because I wasn’t going to let him think he was a monster.
I didn’t understand how his parents could do something so vicious to him. It must have hurt.
God, it must have been excruciating.
I wished I could take the pain away. He probably didn’t hurt much anymore, but I wished I could take the memory of it away.
His eyes clashed with mine in the reflection. There was a smolder there, a low, simmering heat filled with agony and anticipation. He burned to know what I was going to do next. At the same time, he dreaded it. I was never supposed to know about his back. I wasn’t sure how he thought he could keep it from me, considering how intimate we were, or why he just didn’t glamour it with his magic - unless he couldn’t.
But I was glad to know.
I wanted to know everything about him.
I kissed him again. This time, I didn’t take my eyes off the mirror. I wanted him to watch me kiss him, to know how much I cared about him, regardless of everybody else, of what he had been through, of any of it.
“Please,” he said. His voice was filled with longing, and it shot lightning bolts straight to my core. I wanted to press into him, to consume the heat he wanted to give me, but I refrained. I needed to control myself. I needed to get a grip. “Alice, please.”
I wasn’t sure if he was begging me to stop or if he was beginning me to keep going. Either way, I kissed the column of his throat, dragging my tongue down it. Now, I closed my eyes. Now, I let myself enjoy the clean, salty taste of his skin. I let out a low moan, my lips vibrating against his skin.
“You foolish girl,” he growled. Without warning, he rolled on top of me, pinning me to the bed. He still faced the mirror even though I couldn’t. “Why did you let yourself fall in love with me?”
“Trust me,” I said. “If there was any choice in the matter, I definitely would not have let this happen.”
For a moment, his eyes softened as they looked down at me. Instead of glaring at me as he scanned my face, he caressed it with his gaze. “There is always a choice, Alice,” he murmured.
“Not when it comes to you,” I replied honestly.
Without warning his mouth found mine, and he prodded my lips open with his demanding tongue. He didn’t even have to work that hard. I would have opened up for him without a second thought. There was something about him that made me want to do dangerous things, things I never would have done before.
His tongue slid into my mouth, looking for control, wanting me to know he was the one in control.
And I let him.
I succumbed. Because how could I not?
His hands traced my body, my curves, searing my skin any part of him came in contact with any part of me. My fingers immediately found the silky locks of his hair, teasing them with my caress. I breathed through the kiss, making noises I couldn’t control. I wasn’t even sure if Rumple had magicked the room so no one would be able to overhear us.
I didn’t even care.
I needed to show Rumple what I felt for him, needed him to know that I wanted him - all of him - even the ugly bits. He belonged to me, and to prevent me from having all of him...I had to make that right.
His fingers slid under my shirt and began to peel it off of me. He didn’t even break the kiss until he was forced to, but immediately resumed it the second my shirt was off and littering the floor of the room. His lips pulled from my mouth, trailing down the column of my throat, ghosting across the slope of my collarbone, befo
re reaching in between my breasts. He lifted his hands and cupped them in his palms. The soft sheen of the bra warmed under his touch, and my nipples pebbled at the gentle pressure he put on my body.
He reached behind me, and with those deft fingers, unhooked my bra. He moved to the side so he could take the bra off carefully before replacing his hands on my breasts.
I let out a moan as his thumb began to caress the hardened peaks.
Jesus, he knew how to touch me. He knew exactly what to do to drive me crazy.
When he dipped his head and latched onto one, my hand immediately went to the back of his head and pressed him to me.
The way his tongue lavished attention on me, the way he knew exactly what to do in order to get some sort of reaction from me, caused my core to squeeze with both pleasure and pain. Moisture caused the area between my thighs to pool with warmth.
Rumple pulled back, eyes heady as he locked them with mine. “I can smell your desire for me, darling,” he said, his voice thick.
“Only you,” I replied in a low murmur.
He growled at my words, so entirely animalistic that I was surprised. Rumple was poised and polished. Never was he beastly. And yet, the sound that just came from his mouth made me let out my own moan.
Because I liked it.
I liked the way he seemed to lose control of himself around me.
I didn’t want him to be so put together all the time. I didn’t want him to be in control. I wanted him to trust me enough to completely let go, to succumb, to give into his own pleasure the way he ensured mine.
And whatever I needed to do to make that happen, that was what I intended to do.
He released my nipple only to move over to my other breast, his hand skimming down the curve of my stomach before resting on the waistline of my pants. Nimble fingers slid between the pants to rest on my heat. He still wasn’t touching my core; there was still thin boy shorts between us, and something about that protective barrier being the only thing between us caused my insides to pool even more.
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