She was a goddess of pleasure, both ethereal and earthy as she rode him, her heavy breasts bouncing as she took control.
He’d said he wanted to worship her but realized he’d fallen short. No mortal could ever give her what she deserved. Except, he reminded himself that he was no mortal.
And, he was the one she’d chosen.
It was that thought that sent him over the edge. His body tightened, and he tried to fight it, but there was no fighting the culmination she demanded.
All he could do was surrender.
Submit.
Worship.
“Open your eyes,” she demanded.
He stared deep into the dark pools of her eyes as culmination took him. Even after he’d spilled inside of her, he was still lost in her.
Phillip realized he’d spent before making sure she’d gotten hers a second time. He simply couldn’t have that. He cupped her face in his palm for a long moment before pressing her back down into the mattress again.
She laughed, but said, “Oh my God, Phillip. What are you doing?”
“Making sure you get what you give, my lady.”
“I got it. I promise.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I might need proof.”
“You weren’t counting? I thought you guys who prided yourself on being good lovers were extra vigilant about counting.”
“I’ll confess, you made me forget my own fucking name.”
She laughed, obviously pleased with herself. “Good. That’s how it should be. It shouldn’t be a one-up competition. I mean, well . . . wait. That could be fun.”
“How many?” He started kissing her neck again. Even though she arched herself to give him more access, she swatted at his shoulders.
“Three. Jesus. I call mercy. At least for the next twenty minutes.”
He eased to his side, pulling her with him to keep her close. “I suppose.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to speak words he’d never spoken before, but he stopped himself. It wasn’t fair to her, and it wasn’t fair to him.
No, he’d keep those close and quiet.
It was enough that he knew.
If he didn’t speak them, maybe that would make it easier for her to forget him when she ultimately had to.
“You know, this didn’t make me any more eager to get out of this room. I could stay here forever. The castle feeds us? What more do we need?”
The idea definitely had merit. “Nothing. Just this.”
She stroked long, soothing motions down his spine, and he remembered having done the same to her on one of those first nights. She seemed to know exactly what he needed, what he wanted.
“Do you think they’re looking for us?”
“You said Rosebud was here? She probably won’t get worried until it’s been a few days.” He chuckled. “She’ll corral everyone who isn’t in the know and give them some plausible explanation.”
“I suppose I’m not going to get any peace until I talk to Alec.”
“Listen, we can . . . what is it the kids say? Yeet? We can yeet him so fast, his head will spin. And the godmothers can wipe all knowledge of Ever After from his mind, if you’d like them to do that. You shouldn’t have to tolerate him if you don’t want to.”
“What about Anna and Jordan?”
“They can wipe their minds of Alec, too. They could make him disappear.”
“You guys are like the mob with that shit. It’s not that serious.” She snuggled closer. “But it’s good to know I’d be safe if it was.”
“I’ll tell him to leave you alone, if that’s what you want.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll take care of it.”
“If you change your mind, let me know.”
“Hey! How come you didn’t tell me about the baths in the dungeon?”
“How did you find those?” he asked, curious. Sometimes he, himself, couldn’t find his way down there.
“I didn’t. Zeva did.”
“That’s interesting. You and your sister both are just full of surprises.”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Are you going to tell me why you didn’t want me to know about that little treat?”
He shrugged. “The castle decides who gets to use the mineral baths. Even I don’t have control over that. Neither does Hunter. He loves them, but oftentimes, the way is closed to him. Which is really a burr in his butt.”
“Your castle is as bad about matchmaking and meddling as the godmothers.”
“You think it’s trying to match Hunter and Zeva?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. Why else would they be running into each other in a place that’s so hard to find?”
“You may be right about that.” He wondered if the castle was trying to help both him and Hunter. “It’s a good old girl, isn’t it?”
“Do you think it’s a she?”
“It must be. She takes care of us.”
“Men can nurture, too,” Zuri said.
“They can, but it’s just a feeling I get.”
“Since it’s your home, I suppose you would know.”
They lay there in silence for a long time, and Phillip felt each second that passed like a gunshot. He wasn’t ready to let go of this, but dragging it out longer than its natural conclusion was just as painful.
“I really should get back. I don’t want to, but I need to,” Zuri finally said.
“Me too. I have some things to work out.”
“I already said this, but it bears repeating. You don’t have to work this all out on your own. I’m sure it feels like you do, but I can listen. I want to help you. I want to support you. The way you’ve supported me.”
Ironically, her words just drove the dagger deeper into his heart. “I know. I want to talk this out with you, but I need to get it right in my own head first, if that makes sense.”
“No pressure, Phillip. I just don’t want you to think that I’m some delicate, breakable thing. I’m not. Even if I feel things deeply, or things hurt me, it’s not going to break me.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I know that, too.”
“Good.” She ran her hand down the wall of his chest. “It should actually be illegal for you to be lying here naked looking like that when I’ve got work I have to do.”
“I thought you cried mercy?”
“That was twenty minutes ago. I’m good.”
“Oh, really?” He was ready, willing, and able to run that gauntlet again. “Because I could do this all night.”
Just as he was about to prove his point, the door to the room not only creaked open but also disappeared from its hinges, leaving them exposed to any passerby.
“Shit,” she cried. “Looks like the castle has spoken.”
“Indeed.” He looked around the room for something to cover himself with, and the castle supplied him with a towel, which he tied around his waist.
She reached out and tugged at the knot. “Sorry, just needed another look at you before I have to go back to work.”
“You can look any time you like.” He was still looking his fill. He could look at her clothed or naked and never get tired of watching the way she moved, the curve of her hip, or the way she occupied her space.
She bit her lip. “Since our secret hideaway is kicking us out back to the real world, or as real as things can be in Ever After, I need to tell you one more thing. I understand that you may have to take measures to save yourself. I really do. I don’t want you to lose yourself. Whatever that takes.”
Zuri was stronger than he’d given her credit for, and maybe, just maybe, she was stronger than he was. She’d just given him permission to break his own heart. He didn’t know what her other feelings about the matter happened to be, but she’d given him a ticket off the guilt train, at least as far as she was concerned.
Which wouldn’t be a hard thing to do if she didn’t have feelings for him, but Phillip was sure that she did. Maybe that was naïve of him, but he
couldn’t have been feeling those things alone.
Could he?
But if he hadn’t been, why hadn’t the curse been broken?
He didn’t understand any of this, and he didn’t have the time to piece it together.
“Thank you,” he managed. He forced a smile to his face that became real when she smiled back.
After she’d finished dressing, she closed the distance between them and kissed him with a fire that reminded him on a primal level that he definitely hadn’t been feeling those things alone. Her kiss said everything words didn’t.
When she’d gone, he was even more torn about his next course of action.
“You could dress me now. I need to find Hunter. Unless he’s otherwise occupied,” he said to the castle.
He found himself wearing jeans, a sweater, and a nice pair of loafers. A stairway leading down into the depths of the castle appeared, the darkness shredded by torches on the wall.
“Thanks,” he said, taking a cue from Zuri, and headed down to find Hunter.
The stairs led him directly into Hunter’s abode, and it could only be described as a man cave. He had pictures of dogs playing poker on the walls, a bar, ridiculously large leather recliners, which of course they’d have to be to accommodate his beastliness, and a projector screen where he was watching an old western.
“Seems like you and the castle are getting along nicely,” Hunter said as he dipped his snout into a bowl of popcorn.
“You could say that.” He went to the bar and grabbed himself a beer. Phillip noticed a tiny, delicate glass half full of champagne. “Been entertaining?”
“Zeva came by after her soak to watch that MMA fight.”
Shit, they’d been in that room longer than he’d thought. Then he smirked because they’d been in that room longer than he’d thought.
“Nice! I really like Zeva.”
“Good thing, I guess, since she’s your girlfriend’s sister.”
Phillip sat down on the couch with a weary sigh. “Zuri’s not my girlfriend.”
“Oh, please, dude. You know that you two are stupid for each other. By the way, when do I get to meet her? She knows all about magic, right? So what’s the problem? She doesn’t seem like the kind who would have a problem with my . . . this.” He motioned to himself.
“No, she’s dying to meet you, actually.”
Hunter put down the popcorn and turned to study Phillip. After a moment, he said, “You smell like sex, fear, and sorrow. You didn’t come over just to hang out. What happened?”
He’d forgotten his friend’s very delicate sense of smell. “Sorry, my bad.”
“Whatever. So you had sex with Zuri, but . . .”
“I found out that my curse is going to be permanent. Only with added fun. One of the next times I turn into a frog, I won’t be coming back.”
“What?” Hunter roared. “That’s bullshit. Seriously? Who told you this? Can we get a second opinion?”
“This came straight from FGA.”
“What the hell do they know, anyway?”
“Well, I mean, they are the premier experts on magic and especially curses.”
“This is crap. I mean, stuck the way you are now wouldn’t be the worst thing, obviously. But why this?” Then he eased back and deflated a bit. “No, it’s fine. You obviously love
Zuri; she loves you. Curse broken, voilà. Yes?” Hunter looked at him. “No?”
“No. She kissed me when I was a frog and it did nothing. Curse not broken.”
“I don’t understand. The magic’s broken or something. How do we fix it?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Hunter, I can’t be a frog.”
“Of course you can’t. Who would expect . . . oh. I see.” Hunter nodded slowly. “You’re here because Ravenna is the only option you have left.”
“I don’t know what else to do.”
“What do you want from me, here?”
“Your permission. Your forgiveness.”
“Ah, fuck.” Hunter pulled the lever so his big body could recline. “What did you think I was gonna say? No? Fuck you, you have to be a frog?”
Phillip shrugged.
“First, I don’t own Ravenna. She can do as she chooses. I’m into her, but you’re my best friend. Although, I have a question for you.”
“What?” Phillip said miserably.
“Why should Ravenna agree to marry you? What’s in it for her?”
“I have absolutely no idea. I have nothing to offer her. We’re not even really friends. She has her own magic, her own money, her own castle . . . I don’t know.”
“You should think about that before you talk to her, if that’s what you’re going to do. And I don’t think I have to tell you this, but I’m going to. Make sure you talk to Zuri. Because you don’t just smell like sex. You smell like love.”
“Love has a smell? Do I want to know?”
Hunter laughed, and his beast belly shook as he did. “My friend. Yes. All emotions have a smell.”
“That might not be her scent. It’s mine.”
Hunter sat back up. “What? Did you tell her?”
“No, it seemed like a stupid and cruel thing to do knowing that we can’t be together.”
Hunter slapped a paw to his face. “I swear to the old gods, why I am the one who knows these things and I’m still an old bachelor beast all by myself, I’ll never know. Tell her. Love isn’t about what you expect to be, or do. It just is. Tell her.”
“It’s better if I don’t. I know I love her.”
“And you’re still going to ask Ravenna to marry you?”
“She’s my only hope of not losing my humanity. Of staying me.”
“It’s like you’re not paying attention, Phillip.” He shook his head. “But you do what you need to do. I’ve got your back.”
“So now all I have to do is summon the courage to tell Zuri. She told me tonight she understands that I will have to take measures. She said she wants me to do whatever I have to do.”
“Huh. That sounds a lot like love, doesn’t it?” Hunter drawled.
“It does,” Phillip replied. “But it didn’t break the curse.”
“If something that pure can’t break it, why in the name of all that’s Grimm would you expect an arranged marriage with Ravenna would?”
Chapter 17
Zuri finally agreed to have breakfast with Alec. When they’d spoken on the phone the night before, she was surprised that he’d not mentioned anything about the fact she’d disappeared from the dressing room mid-conversation. Zuri had a feeling that the castle wiped his memory for her.
Aside from more magic, breakfast was the only reasonable way to get him to stop demanding her time, trying to cause trouble, and basically interfering with her daily life.
Of course, she’d decided that if this didn’t get him to stop, she was going to take Phillip up on his offer to zap him out of Ever After. Then she could say she’d tried everything before she’d resorted to magic, which she knew was supposed to be used for making people happy, not giving a lobotomy.
So she sat at a table in the large dining hall where a giant breakfast buffet had been laid out so all the castle guests and anyone from the town could come and enjoy pastries, sausages, pancakes, omelets, bacon . . .
She’d chosen a Belgian waffle along with an omelet to fortify her through this conversation.
Zuri was aware of him when he entered and watched him cross the room to her. She saw many a head turned to give him an appreciative look, but when she saw him, all she could think about was seeing the look on Jenn’s face.
The betrayal.
The heartbreak.
The stoic determination.
She had wanted to be that stoic, and somehow, he’d been completely exorcised from her heart. Zuri realized now that anything she’d felt for Alec had been infatuation, mostly because, like others had said, he checked all the boxes in what she thought she’d been looking for.
Z
uri realized she was lucky things hadn’t progressed with him. Not that she was grateful he was a lying two-faced fucker, but the end had been something she’d needed. It had pushed her forward onto this new path that was taking her everywhere she wanted to go.
“Thanks for finally agreeing to talk to me.”
“Before you start, we need to set some boundaries.”
“Boundaries like I’m not allowed to say the things I need to tell you, you mean?”
She tried not to roll her eyes. “Alec, you can say whatever you need to say, but you need to know before you start, I do not want a relationship with you. Period.”
“Without even hearing my apology? You’re not even giving me a chance?” Alec asked her.
“No. You had your chance.”
“I am willing to work to earn your trust again. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“Alec. I know this is hard for you to process, but the minute I saw how what you’d done affected Jenn, anything I ever felt for you died a sad and lonely death.” She took a sip of her Bellini. “Why don’t you go get a plate, and then you can say whatever it is that you wanted to say to me.”
“You’ve already said that you’re not going to listen. I don’t know how to make you understand.”
“Same,” she said. “We’ve been talking in circles.”
“I know, and I want to fix that. I’ll listen to you, I promise. If you listen to me.”
Zuri nodded, and Alec got up to go fill his plate.
When he returned, he had his usual spinach-and-salmon omelet with a cup of black coffee, and he eyed her plate.
“You shouldn’t be eating all that butter. It’s bad for you, love.”
Zuri wrinkled her nose. She didn’t need anyone telling her what to put in her mouth. She didn’t care if he was a doctor. “I like butter.”
“Don’t we all?” He took a bite of his omelet and chewed.
She noticed he didn’t seem to be enjoying his food.
“Is your omelet not good?” she asked.
“No, it’s fine.”
Had he always hated his food choices, or was this new? Alec put down his fork. “First, I want to apologize. What I did was wrong.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“The generic answer is I was selfish.”
She nodded along, agreeing completely.
Men Are Frogs Page 17