Men Are Frogs

by Saranna Dewylde

  Even though those he’d wronged had long forgiven him. Even though they wished him well and actively sought his happiness.

  When Ravenna had mentioned their conversation, Zuri had felt a flash of jealousy, and that kind of green felt worse than frog pox any day. She wasn’t the jealous type. Zuri didn’t believe the emotion served anything.

  Being jealous was a reflection of insecurity.

  It didn’t change anything. Jealousy of Ravenna, who was beautiful and powerful and fearless, all the things Zuri strived to be, wouldn’t change what they’d talked about. It wouldn’t change Ravenna’s feelings, or Phillip’s.

  The only thing it could do was hurt Zuri.

  Needlessly.

  She wanted his kiss.

  Wanted it more than she’d wanted anything in a long time. She didn’t just want a quick peck, as he’d so carelessly put it. She wanted their lips to crash together like some sort of inevitable storm. She wanted to feel the wide expanse of his shoulders under her palms. She wanted to get lost in him.

  Most of all, Zuri wanted him to make her feel something more than this pain, and this numbness that had begun to form like ice around her heart.

  She knew his kiss would burn that wall down, it would singe her from the inside out. So yes, she wanted it, but she feared it, too.

  “Zuri, I don’t want you to be a frog,” he said, when she still didn’t say anything.

  She didn’t know what to say. Kiss me? Come here? Give it to me? They all sounded stupid to her. “Not even to keep you company in the fountain?”

  “I hate that fountain,” he said, moving toward her.

  She realized then she didn’t have to say anything at all. She held out her arms to him, and suddenly he pressed her down against the bed. His weight was a delicious sensation, and Zuri knew then she was in deep shit.

  This wouldn’t be just a kiss, not with the fire that still burned hot and wild between them.

  She hadn’t wanted a cold, impersonal peck, but she didn’t think she was ready for this, either.

  His body was so big and hard, a perfect contrast to her softness. He cupped her face with his hand, and he looked into her eyes for a moment that seemed to stretch into forever. Phillip brushed his thumb over the fullness of her bottom lip.

  She could feel his reaction to her, his arousal, and Zuri wanted to get closer. She wanted to feel everything he had to offer.

  “You’re beautiful. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he said.

  “I don’t even know how you can stand to look at me like this,” she whispered.

  “A few itchy spots don’t change the light I see in you.”

  Zuri wished desperately for that to be true.

  She realized again that she was still in that moment of turning, that time when her path would change again.

  Zuri had to kiss him to get well, but she had this sense that it was going to change everything. Including things she wasn’t ready to change.

  So she waited to close that distance between them. She let them both hang frozen in the moment, with his warm breath on her lips and the desire building deep in her core.

  “Tell me how you want this.”

  The words she’d been unable to find came to her in a rush. “Kiss me like you want to forever.”

  He descended slowly, and her lips tingled with the anticipation of his kiss. She’d swear that a thousand years passed before they made contact, but when his mouth slanted over hers, it was easily a thousand more.

  The man obviously knew what he was doing, and she supposed he’d have to, being Prince Charming.

  The itching that skittered across her body changed to something else. Something even more intense. Her whole body burned with the want of him.

  She wound her arms around his back and gloried in the feel of his sculpted body. Zuri moved her hands over him and touched him in all the ways she’d fantasized about while he claimed her lips.

  His hand moved from her waist up to the edge of her pajama shirt, and part of her logical mind told her she should tell him to stop, but she didn’t want him to stop. She wanted more.

  Only, he made her make a conscious choice. His hand paused, his fingers warm on her skin. “May I touch you?”

  “If you don’t, I’ll curse you again,” she whispered against his lips.

  He held her gaze while his hand traveled up to her breast and he cupped the weight in his hand, his thumb stroking over the engorged flesh of her nipple the way he’d stroked her lip. Carefully, with a designed purpose. To bring her body to life.

  “May I taste you?” he whispered next, his mouth just at the corner of her lips.

  She loved everything he was doing to her, but it gave him too much power. She couldn’t surrender so easily. “What would you do if I said no?”

  “Stop, of course,” he said, and pressed his lips to her jaw.

  “Tell me more. Tell me how you’d feel.”

  He moved his lips to her neck, and she was dizzy with her want of him.

  “Which body part do you want to hear about first? The fact it would break my heart, or about the depraved things I’d do to myself in my room while I thought of you? Of this moment?”

  “I like both.”

  He moved his lips down the line of her neck, down to her breasts. When he tugged her pajama top off, she was hit with a cold realization.

  She couldn’t do this.

  Zuri wanted to, but this wasn’t the way to fix her broken heart. It was a Band-Aid that wouldn’t last long, and when it fell off, she’d be more devastated than before.

  “Phillip?” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

  He pulled back with a questioning look on his face.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” He pressed another kiss to her lips, but this one was gentle and soft, with no insistence. “I’m not.”

  “I want to be with you like this, it feels so good. But it’s not what either of us needs.”

  “It’s definitely what I need.” He flashed her a carefree grin.

  “But I understand. Any time you change your mind, you let me know.”

  Phillip eased away from her, and she felt cold and somehow abandoned. She immediately regretted her choice.

  “I . . . I don’t know what else to say.”

  “You don’t have to say anything else.”

  “But I want to. I’m having so many complicated feelings.” She gestured vaguely.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Zuri. We have time. I said you could trust me, and you can. With your body, your mind, and your heart.”

  Somehow, that still sounded too good to be true.

  “Can we have drinking chocolate again soon?”

  “Anytime you like. What about if you let me take you for dinner? A real date.”

  “Where would we go? Pick ’n’ Axe?”

  “Why not?”

  “I have to warn you, I really love those throwing axes.”

  “I’m game.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Drink water. Sleep until you wake up. Don’t worry about the wedding planning. The godmothers will take care of it.”

  “I assume you’re going to report in?”

  He nodded. “I have to let them know that their charge is cured and she’ll be back in the fray tomorrow.”

  “Cured, huh? I never believed in magic dick, but here we are.” She bit the inside of her cheek. Zuri hadn’t meant to say that out loud. It had just sort of jumped off her tongue like a lemming.

  “I guess it must be magic if it cured you without touching you.”

  “Oh, it touched me, Prince Charming.”

  He grinned again. “I guess you get to use the title.”

  “You guess?”

  He winked at her. “Can I get you anything before I leave?”

  She wanted to tell him not to leave, to get back in bed with her and finish what they’d started, but she did know better.

  This was her making better choices.
/>   Healthier choices.

  A little voice in the back of her head said turning down what was probably going to be the best sex of her life was not a healthy choice.

  Only, her heart felt differently. Her heart definitely wanted her to climb him like a tree, but these tender moments between them that weren’t about the primal burn were better than any kind of superglue, and slowly, the pieces began to fit back together.

  “If you see Zeva, send her in. I’m feeling much better.”

  “She probably knows you want to see her and is on her way.” He went to the door, but paused to look back up at her.

  Zuri was suddenly self-conscious about sickbed fashion, but he winked at her again.

  “See you tomorrow, gorgeous.”

  “Same to ya, Prince Charming.”

  He opened the door, and right after he left, her ever-knowing sister came back in.

  “Well, you look better. Only he wasn’t here long enough to accomplish anything worth a sister conference.”

  Zuri cackled. “Curing me from the green plague doesn’t count?”

  “No.”

  “Come here anyway,” Zuri pleaded.

  “I would say I don’t want to go up to that bed of sin, only I’m sure there wasn’t enough time for any decent sinning to happen.”

  “Oh my God, Zeva. Plenty happened. Bring me a cookie from the kitchen, and I’ll tell you about it.”

  “I can be bribed. I’ll bring the box.”

  It wasn’t long before Zeva was once again up in the bed with her and they had cookies and a pitcher of chocolate milk that managed to appear from somewhere.

  Zuri had realized that the castle knew what she wanted and sought to provide it. Which was cool and scary at the same time, considering how often she thought about what she wanted to do with its owner.

  “Okay, so tell me. What happened?”

  “Well, he’s a frog. But you knew that.”

  “I did.”

  “Kissing me was the cure.”

  “Was it everything you hoped?”

  “It was more.”

  “Then why am I in here talking to you instead of Phillip?”

  “Because we’re taking our time. Because all this is a lot to process. How is it so easy for you?”

  Zeva shrugged. “I don’t know, but Petunia said she had something she wanted to talk to me about.”

  “How long can you stay?”

  “Just a few days, then I have to get back to the kids. I was worried about you, Zuri. You scared ten years off my life.”

  “No, it was the twin thing that scared you. I did nothing.”

  “Fine, I suppose you’re right, there. But it felt like you were deathbed sick.”

  “Phillip did tell me if I didn’t take the cure, I’d turn into a frog, so . . .”

  “We can’t take you anywhere, can we?”

  “Nope, guess not.” Zuri ate a cookie.

  “I love it here, Zuri. I love everything about this place. I met a . . . a person in the hallway. I got lost going to my room, and he’s the most amazing . . .”

  “Tell me,” Zuri prompted.

  “He’s kind, generous, and strangely handsome.”

  “How strange? There are levels here, and I need to know.”

  Zeva laughed. “He’s level ten. He’s a cursed prince. Or he was, much like Phillip. His name is Hunter.”

  “Phillip told me about him.”

  “I think we’re going to be friends.”

  “Oh yeah?” Zuri nudged her sister.

  Zeva took a bite of one of the cookies. “Yeah. Just friends. He’s got it bad for Gorgeous McEvil.”

  “Ravenna?”

  “Yeah, that one.” Zeva sighed. “Too bad for me, huh?”

  “Maybe not. You never know.”

  “Well, I won’t go into a new friendship wishing for him not to get what he wants so I can have a chance at what I want.”

  “You’re a good egg, Zeva.”

  “I know. So are you.”

  They curled up together in the bed, and the lights dimmed of their own accord and little glow-in-the-dark stars appeared on the velvet canopy of the bed. It was so much like when they were children.

  “See? Magic is real. You just have to be willing to see.”

  “Do you think zebras can change their stripes, Zeva?”

  “I think that men aren’t zebras. People evolve and change, but you must always take them for who they are in any given moment.”

  “Complicated.”

  “Yes and no.”

  They turned to look at each other and laughed.

  “That’s how I feel about Phillip. Yes and no.”

  “So you just need to figure out if it’s more yes or more no.” Zeva pulled the blanket up over them. “Even then, sometimes more no is still a yes.”

  “Not helpful.”

  “No, it isn’t, is it?” Zeva laughed.

  “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Me too. I wish I could stay longer.”

  “Be careful what you wish for. I think the castle has a way of anticipating wants and needs. You might find yourself trapped in the dungeon.”

  “With a terrible beast?” Zeva giggled.

  “That would be the worst. Just the worst.” Zuri sighed overdramatically.

  “Whatever would I do?”

  They dissolved into laughter.

  “I wonder if Hunter has super hearing. Do you think he can hear us giggling?” Zuri asked.

  “Maybe. If so, I should probably not tell you all the thoughts I had about his loincloth.”

  “He wears a loincloth? Good Lord.”

  “He has pillaging thighs.” Zeva bit her lip. “And I quite like his eyebrows. They’re very masterful.”

  “Masterful eyebrows? You’re killing me.”

  “Fine. Your turn. Tell me something about the cursed prince. Yours, I mean.”

  Zuri considered. “Okay. I think kissing him is the closest I can get to heaven without dying.”

  “Whoa.”

  “I know.”

  “This is serious.”

  Then they looked at each other and were overtaken by another fit of laughter.

  When Zeva stopped to catch her breath, she said, “Told you so.”

  “Nobody likes a know-it-all.”

  “You’re stuck with me, wombmate.”

  Zuri found that the normalcy of these moments with Zeva was exactly what she needed.

  Chapter 14

  It had been a few days since he’d told Zuri about magic.

  Since they’d made their own magic with the kiss they’d shared.

  A kiss.

  That didn’t begin to describe what had happened between them. How could something so extraordinary be described with only two words? It couldn’t.

  He’d thrown himself into helping with Anna and Jordan’s wedding, and he’d gotten to spend a lot more time with Zuri. Especially now that he didn’t have to hide anything about himself. They spent their evenings working until a late dinner, and then they talked over wine for hours, until neither of them could keep their eyes open.

  He watched her across the Once Upon a Time Ballroom as the castle assisted her in hanging the soft, tiny flower bud lights Anna had wanted for the reception.

  Zuri shook her head and directed the castle to move the latest string. She laughed when it obviously took her instructions way too literally. The string of lights jiggled at her in midair, and she continued to laugh. He heard her apologize to the castle for not being clear.

  She. Apologized.

  The castle was enchanted. It didn’t have feelings.

  Did it?

  He was always polite to his home, but he’d never considered the prospect. Phillip had been living like this for three hundred years, and she’d discovered magic only recently.

  Her heart was kind. It was the most beautiful thing about her.

  She stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him. When her lips bloomed in a
smile, he couldn’t help but smile back.

  He loved watching her work. He loved watching her do most anything, honestly. He was completely smitten with Zuri Davis.

  She wiggled her fingers in a wave and turned back to what she was doing, although she tossed him one more sultry glance over her shoulder and shook her ass in a little tease.

  He found himself for the first time imagining a future. Not just all the things he would do once he no longer had to spend his days green, but he imagined this. With Zuri.

  Phillip liked working on the weddings. When he’d first opened the castle as a B and B, he’d thought it was going to be another tour in hell. Too many people in his space, too many people asking for his time and attention, too much to do.

  Only the castle took care of everything. As the town’s supply of love and magic increased, so did the castle’s efficiency.

  The guests mostly stayed out of his wing, and the castle kept them from bothering Hunter.

  This new normal wasn’t the way he’d imagined his life turning out, but that was okay with him. For the first time in a long time, he was happy.

  One could even say content.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t still strive for things, or he didn’t want more, but he could see the path unfolding, and he wanted to take that journey with Zuri.

  He’d never thought that about a woman before. Not even when he was courting Petty and Bluebonnet. He assumed he’d choose one of them, and they’d settle into a life. These feelings he had now were completely different.

  He looked up again from his task of hand-lettering all the dinner cards, something he quite enjoyed, to watch Zuri.

  Only instead of Zuri, he found Petty in his line of sight. She wore a dust cap with a few of her white curls peeking out from the lace, and a pink smock.

  “Why do you look like Mrs. Claus?”

  She raised a brow and crossed her arms. “You think you’re funny, do you?”

  He shrugged. “You’re the one who left the house looking like that.”

  “I’ve come to finish the plans for the frog-kissing booth at the carnival.” She looked down to his quill and ink. “Why don’t you let the castle take care of that?”

  “Because I like calligraphy.”

  “Hmm. Well, it’s just going to have to wait. We need to talk about how to get your frog self to stay in the booth. We can’t very well have people traipsing all the way to the fountain, unless we held the carnival in that little clearing, but I really wanted to do it in the town square. That way, it’ll bring more people into the shops.”