I wonder if Ash had something to do with it.
I wonder if I’m falling too hard too fast.
I wonder if I’m fooling myself.
If she wasn’t, she was definitely fooling nearly everyone else around her. Buster, who met her new “friend” after her fae spent hours guarding the bench outside of Buster’s Photo while she worked. Her parents who could never get her on the phone, and when they did, quizzed her on who she was spending time with and what she was doing since Mitch wasn’t there anymore. Hope, who offered to keep her company while she looked for a roommate, and who threw a snit when Callie refused to let her.
She was used to lying. It came from a lifetime of denying the things she saw if only to put her parents and her sisters’ minds at ease.
But when it came to Ash, she always told the truth. She felt it was only fair. As one of the fae, he couldn’t lie to her. Oh, he could be tricky—and he often was—but he was often honest to a fault. The least she could do was be truthful in return.
Which was why when, about a month and a half after their fateful meeting, she nearly lost her mind when she realized that while Ash was forced by magic to always tell the truth, it didn’t mean that he was as honest as she thought he was.
His seduction was working. Between the small, intimate touches they shared—always with her permission—and the way he did everything to prove that he was a good match for her despite being fae, she’d had her cravings for him sated enough that they didn’t need to take the next step just yet.
They both recognized that the prospect of sex had gone from a possibility to an eventuality, but there was no reason to rush. As an immortal fae with no real concept of time, he was content to wait until Callie was ready. And now that she saw him much more frequently, she could tolerate the gaps when time ran differently and he was in Faerie for longer than they both wanted him to be.
It was those gaps that were bothering Ash. She thought his protective nature had something to do with his being a soldier, but though he insisted he couldn’t stay in the Iron for more than a few hours at a time, he was worried about Callie when he wasn’t with her.
While the fae were limited to the times they could cross into the Iron, most found it too bothersome. They preferred to stay in Faerie, and while a few went hunting for a human companion willing to touch them, it was the lower races of Faerie who would risk the Iron rather than live under Melisandre’s cruel reign.
Callie thought she understood. “Like that kobold, right?”
Ash couldn’t lie, but as she got to know him, she got to understand that he had tells. A way for her to know when he was saying one thing but meaning another, the faerie equivalent to fibbing.
Which was exactly what he did when he said, “The kobold was a threat, yes.”
A casual comment. Only… Callie felt her bullshit meter going off.
But why?
Unless—
The burlap sack. The one Ash had used to get rid of the kobold’s remains. Why did she only just now remember that, seconds before the kobold broke through the veil, she saw Ash holding that same sack?
Oh, no.
It couldn’t be—
Could it?
9
Swallowing roughly, trying to stay calm, Callie said, “I wonder how it managed to escape the veil in the first place. I mean, that’s what you were there for. Guarding the weak point in the veil. Keeping humans out.” She met his gaze. “Keeping dangerous faerie creatures in.”
Ash didn’t say anything.
No, but his silence did.
“Ash… you didn’t.”
“Didn’t do what?”
No. He didn’t get to pretend. He didn’t get to conveniently misunderstand, or twist it around so that she was imagining things.
Concrete answer. She needed a concrete answer.
“Yes or no. Tell me right now. You had something to do with that. With the kobold getting out and coming after me.”
“Callie—”
“Don’t you ‘Callie’ me, Ash. Yes or no.”
He didn’t break the stare, even as he nodded. “Yes.”
She gritted her teeth. “Explain.”
And, for better or for worse, he did.
Furious was too soft a word for what she was as he finished talking. He didn’t ask for forgiveness or even try to make it seem like anything other than a callous decision he’d made once upon a time. To Ash, it was the perfect choice.
To Ash.
Not to Callie.
She got up from the couch, shoving away from it just in time to miss the brush of his fingers as he reached for her.
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped.
Ash fisted his fingers. “I killed it for you. That should count for something.”
Oh? Should it?
“You killed it, then made me give you my name in order to get rid of its body. Listen to me. It. Like that makes it any better that you killed a living being as… as a test.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“It’s not? You just told me that you were either hoping I’d pass or that poor thing would kill me. You set us both up. Because I thought you saved my life by ending the kobold’s. That’s how you tricked me into letting you touch me the first time—”
“It wasn’t a trick,” Ash argued. “You accepted the deal.”
At that moment, Callie fervently wished that Mitch hadn’t taken his cast iron pan with him when he left. Right then? She was so fucking pissed, she thought she might actually bean Ash dead in his perfect face with it.
Instead, she pointed at the door. “Get out.”
“Callie—”
“I can’t force you. Maybe I’ve been pretending all along that I had some power in this relationship, but if you stay here, you’ll just show me that I never should’ve let you follow me home in the first place. Take a portal. Use the door. I don’t give a shit. Just… just go.”
She was so very angry, but some other emotion bubbled up and out of her chest as she jabbed her pointer finger at the door again. As she told him to leave, her voice broke.
It was that more than anything else that had Ash rising from the couch and, within seconds, disappearing through another of his Light Fae portals.
Ash didn’t stay gone for long.
Honestly, she hadn’t expected him to. As angry as she was, it was both her day off and barely morning when the two of them had sat down on the couch and started to talk. Arrogant as ever, she didn’t really think he would honor her request if only because there were hours until he was forced to return, and he wouldn’t want to miss out on any time he had with her.
As much as didn’t want to admit it, the Ash she knew lately was different from the haughty prick who followed her home after he slayed the kobold. That’s what made her so mad, though. Because she didn’t want to believe that the male she had fallen for was still the heartless fae who thought he could solve his curiosity with a little mayhem and murder.
Callie knew what she was getting into when she started dating a fae. At least, she thought she had.
Considering she was marching around the kitchen, slamming cabinets, banging things, and pointedly ignoring the way she could just… just know that Ash had returned to the apartment, she wasn’t so sure that was the case.
She wasn’t hungry, but hell if she would let him think that she was still stewing over their argument. Though he never came out and said it, she knew Ash thought of her emotional outbursts as just part of her being human. God forbid one of the fae act anything other than haughty and in control. He probably would expect her to be fuming, and she wanted him to think she could shake it off as easily as he could.
So, refusing to look behind her to where Ash was looming in the doorway, she grabbed a Lean Cuisine from the freezer, ripped it open, then tossed it into the microwave. A blank display greeted her when she went to enter the time.
Great. Just great.
Yanking on the handle, she snatched the microw
aveable meal and shoved it back in the freezer. She closed the freezer door, then used the flat of her hand to slam the open microwave door shut.
“Be careful. You could break that.”
Callie scoffed. “Too late. It’s already dead.”
“I’ll get you another.”
Of course he would. How he got his hands on human money, she had no idea, but Ash was very generous with it. He offered to pay for their outings, though Callie insisting on trading off, but when it came to replacing any of the appliances his appearance tended to short out, she had no problem accepting that kind of money from him.
This would be the third microwave. She was on her fifth coffeemaker. And lightbulbs? Phew. The poor clerk probably wondered what the hell she was doing with all of the things she kept replacing, but she hadn’t cared. It had been worth it to spend time with Ash.
Or she thought.
Yup. She was still plenty pissed.
“Callie. Won’t you look at me?”
She had to give him credit. Early on in their… whatever it was… Callie pointed out how much she hated him giving her orders. He did it so casually, and maybe it was one of his habits, but it drove her up the wall. He was trying to put them on an equal footing? He could start by not constantly telling her what to do.
If he had commanded her to look at him, she would’ve kept her back on him just for the principle of the thing. But for him to make it a request?
She turned, arms crossed over her chest.
Ash was back, and he wasn’t empty-handed. A hefty bouquet of sunny yellow flowers was nestled in his arms.
“What? No roses?”
He quirked his eyebrow. “I thought you’d appreciate the freesia more.” He waited a beat. “Anyone could profess their feelings with red roses. But this flower, it stands for unconditional love.”
Callie almost swallowed her tongue. “Excuse me?”
Bold as brass, he added, “It works both ways, though. You knew what I was. I can’t make any apologies for that. But I can promise to be better.”
“Ash—”
“I have been better. I want to be the best mate I can for you. You deserve the best, and I want to make sure you have it. I might make mistakes along the way. I won’t think of them like that because that’s not how I’m made, but I’ll listen to you when you tell me that I’m wrong. Sacrificing the kobold, putting you in danger… that was wrong. I won’t do that again.”
It was a start. As Callie looked at the yellow blossoms on the flowers, she accepted it was a start. To have her perfect fae admit to her that he could actually be wrong… hell must’ve frozen over because that was the last thing she ever expected to happen.
This wasn’t their first fight. Hot-headed human coupled with an indifferent fae who thought he knew better… it was inevitable that they would clash. Usually, though, Callie was the one who smoothed things over because, at the end of the day, he was fae.
But he was a fae who could be better, and who deserved a second chance.
Unconditional love. Those flowers meant unconditional love. And that meant—
Callie gulped. It was too soon. Right? Too soon to talk about forever, but maybe it was right on time for something else.
Something that she wanted.
She lowered her hands to her hips. “Now, when you say you want to be the best mate for me, what exactly does that mean, Ash?” One look in his golden eyes and she thought she knew. “You mean… like sex? ‘Mate’, like the two of us doing the down and dirty, not like ‘mate’ as in friend, right? Fucking? You still want to fuck me?”
Ash’s eyes lit up.
Oh, yeah. He definitely still wanted to do that.
Thank God.
She’d been waiting for him to make his move for ages now. He’d made it obvious that he was waiting for her to be ready, especially since he was the one so sure that they’d end up fucking sooner or later.
Maybe she was still a little ticked off—okay, more than a little. But the flowers had helped to dull the edge of her sharp anger, and his openness blunted it some more.
Plus, there was something about a good argument that really got her going.
During her last relationship, sometimes Callie would go so far as to pick a fight with her ex just because the make-up sex was out of this world.
And Ash? He actually was from another world.
In that moment, Callie made a decision that she would come to question over and over again in the not-so-distant future. But that was the future. In that moment, she was hot, she was horny, and she’d been dying to take the next step with Ash for longer than she wanted to admit.
She smiled. And if Ash looked just a little apprehensive when she turned it on him, well, good.
“Let me take those flowers,” she said, her voice dropping lower as she sidled over to him.
He didn’t resist. When she held out her hands, he placed the bouquet of flowers into her waiting arms. And if he stole the tiniest of caresses as he drew away? That just stoked the fires inside of her even higher.
“I’m going to put this in my room,” she announced. Then, with a sly look over her shoulder before she left the kitchen, she added, “You’re more than welcome to join me.”
“Callie, there isn’t anywhere I wouldn’t follow you.”
Her smile widened. He couldn’t see it, but she was sure he noticed the swivel she put into her hips by the way he let out a soft groan.
Once inside her room, she laid the flowers on top of her dresser. She’d have to put them in water before long, but for now? She was a tad bit preoccupied.
“Ash?”
“Yes?”
“I appreciate the flowers. I really do. But, I’m wondering…”
“What are you wondering?”
“Do you really want to make this morning up to me?”
“More than anything,” he vowed. “Whatever you want, you can have it. I just don’t want that kobold to come between us. I don’t want anything to come between us.”
“Whatever I want, huh?” That’s exactly what she was hoping he’d say. “Because what I want? Is to touch you.”
For a moment, she didn’t think he was going to respond. He stared at her as if he couldn’t believe what his ears were telling him he had heard, but then he recovered, obviously deciding not to ask questions.
Ash opened his arms wide. “You can touch me anywhere.”
“I want to touch you, but with my mouth.”
Just in case he didn’t get the message, she sank down easily to her knees, putting her eyes on level with the erection tenting his pants.
His expression turned hopeful, then longing.
Whoa.
Callie didn’t think it was possible. Catching Ash off guard like that? Except for the first time she gave him permission to touch her, as eager as he was before he made a quick escape, he’d never acted anything less than in control around her. Letting her see his vulnerable side? She’d been convinced he didn’t have one.
It didn’t last. He recovered his arrogance almost immediately, looking down at her with a wry smile as she reached up to fist his linen pants.
His new expression told her that he definitely liked the sight of her on her knees in front of him.
If it wasn’t for the fact that she was more than eager to go down on him, she might have skipped the foreplay and gone straight to the main event. But she’d had dreams about being intimate with Ash, nighttime fantasies that bled into her daydreams. She was desperate to feel his hands on her again, and while he gave her his touch, she was beginning to think that he’d never take it any farther.
Even if she just got the chance to give him pleasure, she’d take it.
Consider it her version of giving him flowers.
For a moment, he stood like… like a statue. He didn’t move. He didn’t blink. His golden eyes flared with something like lust, but apart from the way his Adam’s apple quivered, Ash didn’t react at all.
Callie tucked a l
ock of her white-blonde hair behind her ear. She’d given her fair share of bjs before, but it was usually the guy giving her the “go” sign that allowed her the confidence to take control of the sexual encounter.
With Ash, though, as much as she tried not to focus on it, the power imbalance was too great. Sure, her sight made it a little more even, but he was still fae. With his enhanced senses, his immortality, his glamour, compulsion, and his strength, Callie could never forget what he was—and what she wasn’t.
Maybe she was being too forward. Ash had made it clear from the beginning that, whatever his reasons were, he considered Callie to belong to him. He’d been drawn to her since those early days at the park, and while she refused to ask him why, actions often spoke louder than words. He wanted her.
But did he want her like this?
Hell, what if the courtship rituals in Faerie were different? Did Ash even know what she was getting at when she said she wanted to touch him with her mouth? Maybe he thought she meant kissing, right?
What if he thought the idea of her sucking on his dick was weird?
Why was she only thinking about that now?
She swallowed roughly. There had to be a way out of this without total embarrassment. “If you don’t want to—”
“I want.” Ash’s voice—usually so light and lyrical—came out harsh. “I very much want.”
Callie raised her eyebrows. “You, um… you’re sure?”
In answer, Ash curved his lips and, with a rough shove, dropped his pants down to his thighs.
His cock was already erect. Long and thicker than she would’ve imagined, it was a more reddish shade of his bronze-colored skin; even beneath his linen pants, he was as dark as he was everywhere else. Her mouth watered just looking at it.
“Like I told you,” he grounded out. “You can touch me anywhere.”
Callie wasn’t fae. Unlike Ash, she didn’t need to get permission to touch him. But now that she had it?
She lowered herself in front of him, steadying herself by latching onto his thighs. Even that simple touch had Ash tightening up, the rumble of pleasure starting deep in the back of his throat. His muscles went as hard as his erection. Callie stroked his skin with one hand before reaching for his cock with her other.
Glamour Eyes: a Rejected Mates Fae Romance (Wanted by the Fae Book 1) Page 8