“Your father took great satisfaction in telling me that Gregory Finn’s father petitioned on his behalf the honor of courting you. He is a priest in service to Palena. I fear she uses him to lure you to herself.”
I drew in a sharp breath. “Oh, shit. You think she’s using him like bait, and I’m the fish?”
Concern filled Tadashi’s eyes. “I cannot be certain, but I would not have you hurt.”
I decided to come clean. “I find Gregory to be very handsome, and he helped me to find the Eye of Kiyohime and return it. I needed his help and Palena’s to find Winks. Last night, I realized on my own that my feelings for Gregory are limited to an attraction and a mutual recognition that Palena is real. He’s a nice person, and I like him. My feelings for Gregory are like waves. They are there, but they come and go and are always changing. My feelings for you are more like these,” I said as I bent down to touch the roots of an old tree.
Tadashi kneeled down beside me. His brown eyes bore into mine with an intensity that made me wonder if he could read my soul. “In binding yourself to me, you would also bind yourself to my pack. Our bonds are closer than those ties formed by mortal families.”
Looking into Tadashi’s eyes with my own determination, I said, “With me comes my father.”
“I suppose if you can put up with Dorian, I can put up with Winks.” We sat down upon the forest floor and held hands. “By our ancient traditions, you and I are married. We spent three nights together, exchanged flowers, and love letters. However, your father wishes for you to have the lengthy traditional courtship of Cassini’s inhabitants. While as of yet your father chooses not to recognize our marriage, I consider you to be my wife as does my pack.” He reached over and pulled me close to him. “However, courting you is no chore and not much different from how I intend to treat you once we reside together under the same roof, and you share my bed each night.”
Tadashi’s eyes had taken on a feral gleam, and I knew he thought of the last time we had been alone together in his bed. I fisted my hands in his shirt, straddled him, and kissed him. I felt Tadashi grow hard against me. When our kiss ended, he looked ready to devour me.
“Now, I know how to show up in your room. Winks sleeps in the basement. All I have to do is wait for him to go to sleep.”
Tadashi’s lids almost hid his eyes. “He will be able to sense each time you meld the realities and know where to find you. You will draw him like a magnet.”
I frowned. “Well, how will we see each other?”
“It will be difficult. Your father prizes you above all else, and I cannot blame him for it. You are worth the wait. Clue, will you agree to be my wife?”
“Yes, Tadashi. I will be your wife, and we happen to be alone right now.”
Laughing, he halted my hands as I pulled his shirt from his pants. Tadashi leaned back, and with the way I was straddling him, his hardness ground against my center. I moaned closing my eyes. He rolled me under him. I could feel myself growing damp. Instead of pulling off my clothes, he balanced his weight off of me and sat on his knees between my thighs. He raised up enough to pull a box from his pocket. Tadashi took a ring from the box, took my left hand, and pushed the ring over the knuckle of my third finger. Then, he descended upon me kissing me thoughtless. His warm strong fingers had found their way under my bra to tease my nipple.
I was attempting to remove his shirt when I heard loud whining at my ear and felt a wet nose snuffling at my hair. Tadashi gave a deep growl of frustration. The black wolf wagged his tail and barked. Then, he trotted off to the pile of clothes and shimmered into human form. Tadashi pulled me to my feet and began brushing debris from the forest floor from my clothing. While Lord Tanaka pulled the clothes he had been wearing from the top of the pile and clothed himself, I managed to push my left boob back up into my bra cup.
“You only have a few minutes before you must return your lady to her father.”
I watched as he pulled a bag from a tree branch and began filling it with clothes. Tadashi grabbed another bag and helped him. Feeling achy and frustrated, I stomped over and tried to reach a bag, but Tadashi had to get it down for me. I began shoving clothes into it.
“If they always end up right here, why not spread out a big net and draw it up to lug back to the transport?”
Lord Tanaka made a soft sound of approval.
Once we were back inside of the transport, I kept staring at my hand. The ring Tadashi had placed on my finger had a large square shaped diamond that was surrounded in pale green jade all set in a bright yellow gold. I looked up to find Tadashi smiling at me.
“Do you like it?”
Smiling sheepishly, I nodded. Lord Tanaka parked in front of 888 Honjo Street. Tadashi got out, opened my door, and walked with me inside. Winks waited in the kitchen.
“Clue, with your father’s permission, will you have breakfast with me tomorrow?” Tadashi asked.
“She has plans,” Winks said. However, when he saw my disappointment, he said, “She should be back in time for a late lunch.”
“Will you meet me at the Wisteria?” Tadashi asked quietly with a sweet smile on his lips.
Taking his hands in mine, I lifted up on my toes and kissed him. “It’s a date. I miss you already.” Tadashi smiled at me but shot an angry look behind me. Turning, I said, “Hey, Cosmo.” Tadashi kissed me, bowed to Winks, and left. I sighed.
Winks took out an eyeglass, grabbed my hand, and began examining my ring. “Three carats, cushion cut, and brilliant isn’t too shoddy,” he said as he released my hand. “Now, after dinner, we’re sailing out to the Shrine of the Widowed Bride. You can still enter it, right? You haven’t let him put his wanker in you, yet?”
“What? No! Winks!” My face felt like it was on fire.
“Good. The Eye of Kiyohime wasn’t the only thing I tossed through the torii gate when I discovered someone was after me. You are going to help me recover something.”
“But, what if the bride’s ghost is gone? How will I find anything?”
Winks put his eyepiece back into one of the pockets in his pants. Then, he rubbed his hands together. “I’m thinking that arm in arm, the two of us can slip through together. Now, be a good girl and go change into that black exercise outfit I bought you and grab a sweater. Well, go on.” Winks motioned with his hands for me to hurry. “Cosmo, go get the kit we packed. No, go through the laundry room.”
“You gave me permission to court her,” Cosmo said sullenly.
“And you’ll have her attention tonight and tomorrow until we get back, apprentice. Right now, we’ve got some gold to retrieve. I’ll even let you have the pick of my recut gems so that you can make her a better ring.”
I caught Cosmo grinning at Winks as I slowly turned to walk up the stairs. I had accepted Tadashi’s proposal and ring. It was obviously on my finger. What point would there be for either Cosmo or Gregory to ask for permission to court me now? My mind was made up.
Chapter Fourteen
I was in charge of carrying the large bags full of food aboard Cosmo’s boat, the Sea Harpy. We had a variety of drinks, a dozen muffins, two dozen cookies, and a bag full of a dinner consisting of fried fish, shrimp, potatoes, and a cheesy pasta dish with scallops. I couldn’t wait to eat. I entered the cabin and stowed our food but left our dinner on the table.
Winks and Cosmo readied the boat, and soon I felt we were moving. While they were busy, I snooped through Cosmo’s things. I knew it was wrong to invade his privacy, but satisfying my own curiosity was more important to me. Cosmo had his own collection of provocative nude holo-images. Luckily, none of them were of my mother.
“Shit, Clue. What the hell?” Cosmo said as he took them from me.
I laughed at him. “Those are tasteful compared to the ones Winks has of my mother and several other ladies. You couldn’t get anyone to take a crotch shot for you?”
Cosmo crowded me against the hull near his bunk. “Are you offering? I’d put a copy over my bed, on my shower w
all, and even a miniature on my motorcycle.”
“How about one beside your bed in the infirmary?” Winks whispered into his ear from where he stood glowering behind him.
“Don’t worry, Cosmo. I’m sure I could find a nurses’ costume and visit you while you recover,” I said with a smirk. Cosmo gave me a devilish grin.
“He might not enjoy that too much with his wanker in a cast,” Winks threatened.
Frowning, Cosmo grabbed his nudie holo-images from me and shoved them back under his bunk’s mattress. Then, Cosmo gave me an innocent smile and held a hand out toward the small booth seats around his table. I scooted into the tiny one against the hull so that the men could have the two somewhat larger seats to either side of me. Winks and Cosmo laughed and told me stories about some of the trouble they had gotten into. Most of it involved Lord Tanaka for robbing his wealthier guests.
“I don’t know why lord fur ball has to get the shits over my activities. It’s not like anything goes missing from within his hotel,” Winks said.
I shoved fried potatoes into my mouth to avoid commenting. We didn’t fish on our way out to the island. As I sat on the deck looking out at the water and the night sky, I yawned. I drifted back into consciousness when Winks picked me up from the damp bench and carried me into the cabin where he put me down on Cosmo’s bunk.
“Hush, now. Daddy’s gonna get you all tucked in,” he said as he pulled off my shoes and covered me with warm thick blankets. I felt his lips against my forehead.
The quiet woke me. The only sounds were the gentle lapping of water against the hull and the occasional creaking of the boat. I pushed back the blankets, put on my shoes, and used the tiny bathroom. I splashed some cold water on my face. Then, I made myself a cup of coffee taking a few sips before stepping from the cabin and out onto the deck. It was a cold and foggy morning. The sun hadn’t had time to fully wake up yet either. I chuckled to myself about it. I heard Winks and Cosmo’s voices and scanned for them. They were walking along the island’s old pier toward the boat.
Winks was in a good mood. “Good morning! Are you ready to come and help your adoring father?” Winks took my cup and drank my coffee.
“Sure. For what exactly are we looking?” I asked as I looked into the bottom of the empty cup he handed back to me.
“We are looking for a spherical container about the size of Cosmo’s head full of gold that I tossed through the shrine’s entrance. It’s heavy. It couldn’t have rolled very far. Here put this in your pocket.” Winks handed me a small, plastic, donut-shaped device with a handle.
“What is this?”
“That, my darling, is your very own metal detector,” Winks said as he patted me on the head.
“Gee, thanks, Dad,” I said with a huge fake smile. “So, what have the two of you been doing on the island?”
“Exploring. There’s new vegetation here for the first time in ages. Birds have started to come back since my baby girl broke the curse. With this place being less ominous, I may need to find a new place to stash certain commodities.”
Narrowing my eyes at them, I asked, “Is that what the two of you were really doing? Were you out collecting commodities?”
“Do you really want to know?” Winks asked.
Shaking my head at him in the negative, I turned to Cosmo. He seemed far away. “Hey, are you okay?”
Cosmo blinked at me a few times as though he was struggling to wake up. “I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep much.”
“That’s my fault for taking your bed.”
“My bed has never been happier. I’m jealous of my sheets for being able to touch you all over.”
Winks groaned. “Come on, kids. We’ve got work to do.” He took the cup from me and brought it into the cabin. Cosmo continued to stare at me which made me feel nervous and uncomfortable. “Alright, let’s go,” Winks said as he climbed onto the pier. I took his hand and followed.
Turning to check on Cosmo, I saw him with his head slightly lowered and his eyes staring fixedly at my butt while I walked. He lifted his eyes to mine, and I felt a chill. I hurried to catch up to Winks.
When we stood a few feet from the shrine, I asked, “Why did everything meld when I walked through? I didn’t have to get scared or anything.”
Kissing my temple, Winks said, “This is a fixed portal. There are a few of them on Cassini. Odd things happen with souls and spirits on this planet. The two of us are rich with spirit energy. I need to teach teleportation mastery to you so that you can protect yourself by escaping from entities who will try to latch onto you to strengthen themselves enough to take form.” I blushed thinking of Kiyohime and Palena. “However, right now, we have a job to do.” Winks linked our arms together, and we walked through the torii gate. “That’s my good girl! I won’t have to neuter that mutt after all.”
“Winks, don’t say stuff like that. I think I might actually have kind of fallen in love with Tadashi, but don’t you dare tell him.”
Winks snorted. “He doesn’t need to be told. Even Tadashi with his little dog brain is smart enough to realize that.”
I froze and stared at Winks. “He knows? How? I didn’t tell him. He’s the one who has been pursuing me.”
Winks grinned at me and kissed my forehead in answer. “Look for a metal ball, baby girl.”
“Can we let go of each other?”
“Let’s try. If I disappear, come back out and get me.”
“Okay.” We released our linked arms.
Winks grinned at me. “Well, get out your metal detector and get to searching.”
Pulling the device from my pocket, I asked, “How does this thing work?” After giving me a brief tutorial, Winks began combing the area to the left of the gate. I moved farther away thinking that it could have rolled with the help of gravity. “How would you have gotten here to look for the gold if I hadn’t shown up?”
“I didn’t think that far ahead to tell you the truth. My main concern was how humiliating it would be to have someone steal from me what I had rightfully stolen in the first place.”
I rolled my eyes at Winks’ back. My metal detector began to beep. I bent down and brushed away at the dirt. My finger caught on something. As I pulled at it, the dirt and leaves fell away. I lifted up my find. It was an old broken necklace. I gave it a little shake to clean it off. Tiny pink beads were stationed at intervals along the chain.
“I wonder if this was hers.”
I carried it over to the torii gate and carefully draped it over one of the structure’s end pieces. Winks’ device gave a loud series of beeps.
“Here, we go!” I walked over to where he squatted near some scraggly bushes that looked somewhat better with leaves. He shoved his metal detector into a pocket and lifted a dirt covered metal ball to himself. He gave it a shake and smiled at the heavy rattling sound it made. “Let’s go stash this on the boat and see what Cosmo managed to find.” Winks held the sphere under one arm and linked the other with mine. Cosmo stood leaning against a tree waiting for us. “Have any luck?”
Cosmo shook his head in the negative. The three of us returned to the boat. While Winks stashed his gold, I went into the cabin, used the waste unit, washed my hands, ate a muffin, and drank a bottle of sweet tea. When I stepped out onto the deck, everything was quiet. I wondered if they had gone back to the island without me and moved toward the ramp.
“Hey!”
The Sea Harpy had floated away from the pier. Squinting, I thought that I saw someone on the island’s beach. I felt a fierce chill all along my back that made my hairs rise up. I stiffened. Then, I felt hands gripping my outer arms as I was pulled back against someone’s chest.
“Don’t be alarmed. For so long, I have waited to be alone with you.” The voice belonged to Cosmo, but the accent did not.
“Cosmo, is that Winks on the island?” The pressure on my arms became painful.
Angrily, he said, “Don’t speak of another man when you are with me. He doesn’t love you as much as
I do. Can’t you see that? Are you so blinded by his pretty words that you fail to see the treasure we could have between us?”
Cosmo released my arms long enough to spin me around. Then, his vice-like grip on my arms returned. “Sabina, my love, I will do anything for you. You are all of which I think and the only one of whom I dream. You will be my wife and have everything you desire. All I desire is you.”
Shocked, I looked up into Cosmo’s eyes, but Cosmo wasn’t the one looking back at me. Cosmo’s eyes glowed with an eerie light. The wind blew through the island’s trees making a sad wail of sound like a cry of helpless anguish. I tried to free myself of his hold, but he was at least twice as strong as me.
“What did you do to my father?”
He released me to strike me hard across the mouth with enough force to knock me to the deck. With the right side of my face flattened to the deck, I could taste blood in my mouth. Friend or not, the possessed mother fucker was about to get his ass handed to him.
“I told you not to speak of him, Sabina. Why must you be so difficult?” He dragged me up from the deck before my head had stopped spinning. “You belong to me, Sabina. No one else can have you.”
He ripped my sweater from me while keeping a hand fisted in my hair. I shifted to bring up my knee, but he blocked it with his thigh, so I punched him in the throat. He released me to suck in a breath. I ran for the side of the boat, but the Sea Harpy had drifted too far away, and I didn’t know how to swim. He grabbed me and threw me to the deck where he punched me hard in the face. The flash of pain had me seeing black. The roof of the boat came into view along with the top of Cosmo’s head as he tugged my pants off of me.
However, it wasn’t Cosmo. Now, I assumed him to be the ghost of the jealous fisherman who had murdered Sabina. While he attempted to free himself from his pants, I rolled away before he could trap me with his weight between my thighs. I lifted my legs up and drove my heels down against him as hard as I could. I might not have a lot of upper body strength, but I could compensate with my legs. I had been taught how to fend off a rapist. I knew I had more strength with my legs while on the ground. As he tried to roll away from my kicks, I landed a few to his gut and managed to knock the air out of him. I brought my heel down on his throat, grabbed my pants, and scrambled on my hands and knees to a floatation device hanging on the side of the cabin.
Clue and The Shrine of the Widowed Bride (Clue Taylor Book 1) Page 16