Odd Melody (Odd Series Book 2)

by Nelson, Virginia

“You cannot break this bond so easily, even with your feelings for another man. Perhaps I have given you too much of a leash, little one.” His voice raked my senses, angry and gritty and full of needs I wasn’t sure I could meet.

  “Chance, you can’t…we can’t. I…oh!”

  His lips traced a path over my shoulder to my ear, his tongue sucking and licking as he moved. “You can. You will. You are.” His fingers and nails proved cleverer than any other lover I had ever had because in our place he knew exactly how much pressure was just enough. He knew how much would create pain, how much would make me scream. He knew how to make me need.

  Unfortunately for him, Chance forgot one major thing. In this place, our place, I had this power too. I tried to rise from the position he held me in, but he kept me there, facing away from him, and yet he breathed so hard. Touching me like that, hearing me breathing, gasping, crying out, killed him. He longed to flip me over and fill me. With all barriers down, with the bond we shared, I could feel what he felt, and I tried desperately to use it against him while I could.

  It became a battle. If he could make me come for him, he would have it over me—I could hear his logic as loudly as if he’d spoken his plan out loud. He would have yet another bit of power to use to control me. I had to stop him or stay his equal by making him lose it as well. So I tried the one thing I had left. I grazed my nails on his hip. I needed to make him ache as he made me ache.

  “Janie, stop. It won’t work.” And then he flipped me to my back.

  I thought I won, and I smiled triumphantly. But my victory last only moments. Before I could assess my new battleground, he went for the kill. With his centuries of experience, he bared all my flesh and took advantage of my vulnerabilities. His thumbs pressed over the tattoos at my hips again in a move that made my head spin and my breath catch in my throat. I arched into him, helpless against his sensual assault.

  Then his mouth settled between my legs although I had not seen him move. He covered me with those clever lips and licked and rolled his tongue in a way I didn’t know a man could. All the while, he pushed power and light through his tongue into my body, from his mouth into me. He pushed power into the most sensitive parts of me, and the combination of pure electricity and his tongue generated almost too much sensation. At the same time, his attack left me trembling on the edge of something.

  His fingers clenched on my thighs over the tattoos in a synchronized movement with his tongue and he rolled those glass green eyes up to gaze at me. My scream went silent and light itself flowed out of my mouth. His light and my light flowed out and my spine bowed for him. And when I flew into space, shattering into a million pieces, only then did he finally give me the weight of his body, still clad in jeans, to push against me and keep me sane. Still he did not give me what I had begged for—him.

  His lips moved against the raging pulse at my throat before trailing upward to stop barely above mine. I lay shaking, quaking, bathed in aftershocks of feeling. His glass green eyes bored into me. “I will win. You will see. You will be mine.”

  “Never.” I whispered, but I whispered into his mouth.

  He kissed me again as I rocked off the last of the orgasm. The one he had not shared with me. He had used it to tie me to him and he was stronger than I. And now that he had bound us, I would not be able to break the cocoon so easily with a thought of Vance. Fighting Chance would be harder. He had proven he could overpower my resistance and make me acknowledge inherent desire despite what my logical mind demanded.

  “Just because of one stinking orgasm?” I muttered into his ear. “What if I had gotten you first? Could I have been the dominant one in this relationship?” But my words lacked force. My hands twined in his hair, and he felt so damned good pressed flush against my bare skin.

  “If I wasn’t able to control you to some extent, I don’t think I could be your soul mate. You are not the weakest of females. And you bite.” He rubbed his face on mine, and I trembled as a wave of need and almost painful sweetness crashed over me in equal measure. “God, I still want you. We really must talk, though. And your game? Can we cancel it now that I’ve proven that I am the boss?”

  Tears pricked at my eyes. “Vance…” I tried to drop my connection with Chance. I couldn’t do it. I was stuck in the tomb of light with him until he released me.

  “I am going to take that as a no.” Chance kissed me, and I remember why I could not shut him out. “If it makes you feel any better, right now, I can sympathize with you.” His voice was little more than a murmur as he bit my ear.

  I held him, even though I didn’t want to, or rather didn’t want to need to. I curled into the scent of him. He smelled of a spring storm and I coiled into it, rubbed my face on it.

  He traced kisses down my chin and across my face. “Holding you like this, I am torn between two thoughts. One screams ‘fucking fairies.’ The other admits I do not want to be your soul mate. I want you, but I can’t have you, not all of you. So right this moment, I hate the fact it’s you.” His fingers traced my face, my hair, my skin and softened the harshness of his words.

  His lips returned to mine to cling and demand and in our place I could allow it. I could respond and touch him and hold him and close my eyes against the rest.

  He nuzzled into my neck with a sad chuckle. “I suppose it’s the closest we have ever come to being of a mind.”

  With his body nearly naked over mine, with mine still throbbing with the orgasm he had brought me to, I couldn’t agree more. And I wanted to weep with it. More than ever before, I split into two Janies…and one of them was not the nicest of girls.

  CHAPTER Six

  Somewhat sated, neither of us felt entirely sure that this thing between us could be satisfied, and he refused satisfaction to tie me to him, Chance and I spoke about the whole purpose that had placed us on the ground in the middle of Fairie, near the sea, nearly naked.

  I tried to ignore my own state of nudity as it still felt pretty good while I snuggled closer to his warmth with a sigh. “One week and she will release me from the engagement and the connection with the council which would be fantastic. However, why would she dare think she could tie you into the deal when you aren’t even Fae? I can’t let them have you. I won’t.” Whether I admitted to his claim on me or not, I wouldn’t let the fairies have him. I decided not to pick at that possessive thought too deeply, fearing what removing the scab would reveal.

  Chance’s fingers, which never seemed to slow their dance over my skin, continued their delicious sliding as his voice soothed simply by its resonance. “Actually, to give Goblin Queen her due, it is a wise choice. She can tell there’s a tie between us, and this power show will clarify that, which is part of the reason I asked for it. Not to mention you called me down here when you were in trouble.”

  “I did not call you down here.” I sputtered, appalled, while playing with one thick red lock of his shining hair. It amused me to roll it around my finger and watch it bounce back to its position.

  “Call it what you will, I say you agree. Either way, we can destroy the mounds and all of Fairie if we have to.” His eyes flashed gold.

  I hit him in the chest. “Not an option. We aren’t the bad guys.”

  He shrugged and held me a bit tighter to keep me propped on his chest when he moved. “We are the live guys. If they come after us, they will be the dead guys. That’s the way we stay the live guys.”

  I glared at him. “That’s not really the way I work.”

  “It is now…now that you’re mine.”

  I shoved up from him, which would have worked better had he not come with me. I began pulling on my clothes, which again, would have worked better without the extra hands and mouth helping.

  Before I had them on, I landed on my back, panting, with his mouth on mine again. I broke the kiss with a glare. “What do you want?”

  “Your word.” As he spoke, he caught my face in his hands so that I had no choice but to look into those mysterious eyes. “We are th
e ones who survive. Agree to her deal, fine. I don’t care about that. We will prevail in that situation. There is no way that Avery will take you from me. But if the queen goes back on her word, you will fight with me. We will survive.”

  His tongue slipped in my mouth again, and I lost more time as he held my hands imprisoned in his, my mouth with his, my body under his. I can’t say it was the worst way to be held prisoner.

  When he finally came up for air, he would not allow me to look away. “Your word, Janie. We fight together if we have to.”

  Blind need had taken over again. My hands fought to be free to touch him. He allowed it and I rose above him. I sat astride his hips and ran my hands down his chest. I felt my own eyes flash. “You are turning me into a monster like you.”

  It was a statement, not a question. I could feel the cold side of me, the siren side and the side that craved power. The same side that needed Chance and would die for him. The side that would destroy for him and for Vickie because, like Chance felt I belonged to him, Vic belonged to me. My daughter would always remain part of me as surely as she had once been part of my body. I tilted my head and listened to the sounds of the air around me. Glancing back at Chance, I tapped his chest with one finger, then ran that finger down his chest experimentally. “I give you my word, then. If it comes to it, we fight. We survive.”

  He rolled me and kissed me again.

  “We have to get out of this light before we do something you won’t forgive me for.” His voice had dropped to little more than a whisper. The moment felt oddly intimate, and although we both knew no one could hear us, it seemed a moment for sharing secrets. “Before you drop all you think you want for all you need. Before I take what we’re both so fucking hungry for.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.” I licked his lip as I whispered back to him.

  He groaned. “Get dressed and I’ll try not to hinder as much this time.”

  I smirked and obeyed. Once I was presentable, we rose to our feet. He wrapped his arms around me, and forehead to forehead, he dropped the ball of light around us.

  It fell like snow, like glittering, light colored snow, to land on the jewel bright grass of Fairieland and the air seemed cold and jagged with it gone. Maybe my skin was just too sensitized, but I wanted nothing more than to go back to our safe cocoon far from everything but the magic of us. It twinkled for a moment before fading and melting to nothing. Again the Hidden Folk surrounded us.

  My mother stepped close to glare at us. “Have you come to an agreement, then? That fast?”

  I breathed deeply and pressed my face to Chance’s. He tucked me closer into his arms. Part of me wished desperately that I could allow it to be this simple between him and me. The other part turned away from him.

  He held the tips of my fingers for a moment before letting go. The silver cord snapped with an almost audible twang and the connection broke.

  My breath hissed out between my teeth in a response I could not hide, and I clutched my stomach at the sharp pain of parting, before I turned to my mother. “We have.” I blinked back tears at the agony twisting in my stomach and tried to breathe past the worst of it before I continued. “I will take Avery with me to the mortal world. For one week, he can stay with me. If I return him after that week, you will take him back and you will accept, again, that I am no longer a member of the Fairie and that this engagement remains a farce. If I fail to return him, it’s double or nothing, you get Chance and me both. We agree.”

  “Perfect.” My mother smiled her feline smile and her midget man slipped forward.

  I sighed. I was stuck with another man in my life that I didn’t want for a week. And I was comforted by this, why?

  “So, I only have to keep him with me?” I nibbled a finger, considering. “How, exactly, am I supposed to explain this to Vickie? Not to mention he has wings. He can’t go topside with wings.”

  “He has the retractable sort.” My mother waved an imperious hand, as if this was not of any concern. “The wings will not be an issue. However, you can claim he is a cousin staying from out of town. Victoria is nine. I am sure you can handle this.”

  I glared at her. Sure, I could handle it. Handling things had become my specialty. I spared a glance at Chance—heh, that rhymed—and turned to my fake fiancé. I stared at the space above his head before remembering his height. I sighed and looked down. His eyes glittered like stones. His hair moved in the breeze off the underground sea as he threw glamour to seduce me. “Hungry Eyes,” the music from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack began to play in my head. I glared at him. Really though, if that was all he had, after playing with Chance, dealing with the Ken doll would be a piece of cake.

  “Come on, Shorty.” I shrugged at him and turned to leave the raft.

  “Please remember, princess, that although you may tower over me like an Amazon, I am a man, and one far older than you in both years and experience. I have waited long for you to come to maturity.” His voice was surprisingly deep, sort of James Earl Jones does Mufasa rumbling.

  I spun on my heel and again, had to check myself when my glare went over his head. Huffing out a breath, I put my hands on my knees and went eye to eye with the tiny guy. “If one more man tells me how long he has waited for me, I’m going to drop kick him. And let me tell you, little buddy, you do not want to be that man.”

  Spinning back around, I stalked off. It would have been a more successful stalk had I not been me. Had I been a true superhero or heroine, perhaps I would have stalked gracefully off into the distance and transitioned neatly into the mortal realm. Instead though, I was me.

  Two feet into my stalk, I tripped on my own feet and stumbled. Not much, but I heard Chance chuckle. His deep rumble reverberated through the silver cord somehow, even though it stayed invisible at that point. I thought it had snapped when we had broken the connection. I heard the elves and goblins and assorted creatures and fairy all break into mirth. Even the strange deep chuckle of my new fiancé grated on my ears. I shrugged it off. Well, that was me. I was the biggest and baddest creature in all of magical history…and the biggest joke.

  ~~~

  The night air above swirled with snow and I remembered Ohio lay in the middle of a snowstorm. Somehow, that had been lost on me earlier. I mean, yes, there had been fewer people at the bars and perhaps the drive out to New Lyme had taken a bit longer, but other than that, I had somehow tuned out the near blizzard. And then we had gone into the land of Fairie, which had entirely different rules than we had topside anyway, further skewing my sense of the passage of time

  Rip van Winkle had gone to sleep and awoken a hundred years later because of fey mischief. Although I was sure my relatives would not have messed with time to such a degree, especially with my daughter topside, one never knew exactly how long one had been in Fairie. That is, unless you checked a watch that you had left topside before going below and then again upon rising, perhaps. As long as you left it far enough from the mound and house itself. And as long as no fairies had messed with it while you were below.

  Fairies had a terrible sense of humor. They truly enjoyed messing with people on whatever level they could. I mean, who didn’t, but perhaps that was my own fey lineage cropping up. Regardless, the fey did everything from stealing one sock from the dryer to stealing your grandmother. They are evil buggers. How they have managed to put such a pretty spin on their image has got to have something to do with either glamour or the fact that they are pretty. I mean, most fairies are sparkly and have wings. Who cares if they lead you into a bog to your demise like freakish, mini sparkling sirens?

  I wasn’t sure how long we had been down in the land of glowing green grass and warm fragrant air. I didn’t know how long we had been washed in a breeze off the golden seas and lit by the glow of an underground sun. However long it had been, a bitterly cold Alberta Clipper with snowfalls above my knees—which put it nearly at waist height for the fairy—had settled in with vengeance. Even the darkness above was an unwelcome and bi
ting shock to the system.

  Chance waved his arm in the air and produced a coat. I didn’t ask how, but allowed him to shove my arms into it, and I burrowed into the hood. He did some of the neatest things. Other than the fact I still hadn’t cataloged all of his abilities, I noticed that his nicest acts seemed to be ones designed to either take care of me or protect me. I really had to figure out what he was.

  The fairy’s lips turned blue. Chance sighed and produced another coat from thin air and gave it to the short man. In his too-deep-for-his-body voice, my fiancé thanked him.

  Santino came running out of the mound behind me. “Come on.” He dashed to a car parked in the long drive, which I noticed was running to keep it warm.

  Chance, without asking permission, picked up my fiancé, slogged through the snow, and stuck him in the car. I trudged through the snow after them and got in the front with Santino. Chance paused outside my door.

  He leaned in toward me. “We’ll need to make further arrangements for your safety with these new…changes.”

  Turning away from him seemed easier in the mortal world. Our bond had grown stronger, harder to ignore in fairie, impossible once he lured me into the light ball. I couldn’t throw up shields there, and I feared now that he had proven his control over my body, I wouldn’t be able to break away, anywhere. I couldn’t say as I wanted to talk to Chance at all, about any of it. Deny all and pretend it did not happen…true friends of the dysfunctional.

  “Yes, well, tonight I have some things I still have to get to. I’ll call you.” I’ll call you, don’t call me.

  He nodded, but not in a way that made me think he believed me and disappeared.

  Santino got us back to the Harbor and dropped us off by the lift bridge. We still had a bit of a walk back to Odd Stuff, but the route took us past four more bars, and as I still had quite a bit of work to do regarding the Hammer situation, that worked for me. I hugged Santino before he drove off. My fiancé, apparently deciding not to argue, followed me as I trudged down the sidewalk. He still tried to glamour me. I could feel it coming off him in waves.