by Lexi Ostrow
“Before we get back to the whole you threatening me for no reason thing, what the fuck just happened?”
He watched her, couldn’t take his eyes off her really, as she went back to the bed and stood in front of it, crossing her arms over her chest. His whole body was shouting at him to apologize and to fucking touch her, but he knew which brother had sent her. Even without the words, the look in her eyes was too cruel and too pleased at her accomplishment to have been sent by anyone else.
“They’re men from another book I’m reading. Not sure how much of the lay down you got, but there’s a document on my computer I saved against one of the brother’s wishes if you need the four-one-one on how my end works.”
Her face twisted with curiosity. “From another book?”
Dale palmed his face and sighed. “You have to have been told you aren’t real. He wouldn’t have left that out.”
A pinch at his throat happened before he’d even realized what he’d said. His eyes stared directly into hers, and then looked down to see the cold metal of her dagger slightly biting into his neck.
“Yes, he did explain all that, thank you for being a jackass about it though. He mentioned things could get to you, that I was to protect you. But you can be assaulted by other book characters?”
“If I’m reading one, yes. Rules were broken to allow you…well, I’d hoped your sister…to come. A friend of mine is tied to another book, those men were likely searching for her. I have no intention of closing the book, she’s the only friend I’ve got, and that just means more will come periodically. Not likely now that I haven’t read from it in a day or so, but still entirely possible with the way one of the brothers likes to break the rules. They’re real pieces of work, killing them seems to be the best way to handle them.”
“So you’re not nearly as annoyed that I did so as the look you gave me insinuated.”
“Move the fucking dagger away from my neck if you want to play twenty-one questions. I’ve got more power than you, and I can make you remove it, but I’m attempting to do something gentlemanly and not knock you on your ass.”
Breena snorted, but he felt the slight sting from where the dagger was cutting him stop, and she took a half a step back to put it back wherever it had come from. His eyes couldn’t help but stare at her breasts and the flat surface of her stomach. The halter-top she wore did next to nothing to cover her, and he’d found her attractive enough when she was a just a description on the page.
However, he wasn’t going to accept her, not until he had the answer to the question he’d asked before the attack. Leather Jacket might not have sent her. She might not be as dark as her story entailed. There had been the slightest glimpses where she’d been nothing but compassionate.
Dale needed those moments to be who she truly was because he had a very strong feeling that there was absolutely no way to ignore Breena, or the way she sent lust spiraling through him.
“Don’t force me to ask again, Breena. Tell me what I want to know, what I need to know, before every cell in my body explodes from needing the information.”
Chapter Five
He stared at her, but no assault came. His shoulders dropped, and his face was lined with traces of defeat. Dale’s voice lacked the power and anger it had held a moment before, and she suddenly felt bad for him.
“Which brother sent you? Please, Breena, I need to know.”
The tone and look of utter helpless in his eyes tugged at her. She knew he was fighting to stay on what he believed was the right path of his war. Seeing her, knowing whatever details he did, must let him know she’s not the sister he would have chosen.
“The man in leather.”
“Leather Jacket.” Some of the anger was back in his voice, “Fucking hell.” Dale spun and seemed to be talking to no one at all as he shouted. “Why the fuck did you ignore me? Couldn’t you have answered me just this once? Wasn’t I worth it? Wasn’t I a priority or something?” His shoulders heaved as he paused for a breath. “Ciara was worth it! You came to her, and yet, you let me do this!”
Breena hadn’t the foggiest of who he was speaking to, or even what about, but she had a feeling he was less than pleased to see her. He turned back around, and the look on his face was one she couldn’t read. However, she could see from the way his plain white shirt pulled across his muscled chest that he was tense, determined.
In a swift motion, his hand wrapped around her waist and tugged her into him. Their bodies connected, and she sighed. He wasn’t erect, wasn’t turned on at all from what she could tell, but she could feel his impressive girth behind the zipper.
“He abandoned me, left me to choose a Guardian that reflected what was in my soul. Well, then, to hell with him.”
A second later, his mouth crushed against hers. He might not have been turned on a moment before, but passion flared between them. His mouth moved against hers, almost angry and controlling. She moaned as his stiffening cock pressed into her stomach, and he wasted no time slipping his tongue inside her mouth. Stroke for stroke, her tongue matched his, and the kiss escalated into pure heat and need. Her head spun from pleasure like she’d never known. Breena was grinding her hips against his body, anxious to take things a step further.
Dale’s hands released her body and tangled in her hair. They pulled gently and sent spikes of pleasure through her. She loved when a man played a little rough in bed, when he had to have her so strongly he wasn’t careful in his passion.
As they stood, locked in the heated kiss, her hand snaked between them, and she rubbed his erection through his pants. She could feel how thick he was, and a rush of liquid pooled between her legs, and the small dark green skirt she wore. She moaned, or he moaned, she couldn’t be entirely certain, but neither of them stopped. Their mouths continued to collide together, and her hand pressed a little firmer into his groin as she rubbed him.
Her whole body was screaming with need, and her core was wetter than she’d ever been. The human man had her tied up in knots, and all she wanted was for him to slam her into the wall and slide deep inside her body.
He pulled back from their kiss, his eyes dilated and radiating lust. She watched as his nostrils flared with each labored breath and knew she must be looking back at him with a similar expression.
He pulled his hand from her hair and stepped back with a strangled snarl. “Damn it. Damn you!”
Breena wasn’t certain if he was shouting at the not present person from before he started to kiss her, or her. She took a step toward him, not to comfort him but to insist they continue the path he’d started. Her body was humming with need, and she couldn’t even remember that she shouldn’t desire someone who wasn’t Fae.
“Stop right there,” his voice was hoarse and laced with lust, but when he raised his hand a small ball of fire lay in his palm. “I don’t want to hurt you, Breena. It’s not your fault you are what you are, but what just happened, it can’t continue.”
She took another step forward, choosing to believe he wouldn’t send the ball flying toward her because he was just as much in lust as she was. “I would say that I think it has to, Dale.” She closed the space between them fully and pressed her lips to his.
There was no hesitation. His mouth devoured hers as it had a moment before, and this time, his hips bucked into her body. She saw stars from the pleasure of it all and ground her hips against his fully erect dick. Liquid rushed between her legs, and all she had to do was pull his zipper down and straddle her legs around him. She knew he would pick her up from the ground and fuck her.
Dale didn’t let her though. He pulled back and growled, definitely at her that time. The ground beneath her feet shook and sent her stumbling backward.
“I don’t know how Ciara was able to kick a Guardian out, so I can’t do that with you, but you’re staying right where you are. I want to fuck you, trust me I do. I promise you, there is nothing like the sex a Guardian and a Word Speaker have. It’s fucking mind blowing, and I want you. I wanted
you the moment I opened the book, knowing it was wrong. Knowing that it would lead me down the wrong path, and I had no control over my gift to stop anything. I can practically smell how hot you are for me.”
Despite his words, he took a step backward, and, that time, she didn’t budge to go after him.
“I am better than who I was. I am sorry, Breena, but this…us…you being my Guardian. I can’t accept walking down the path Leather Jacket wants for me. I won’t. “
Hearing the name, Leather Jacket, she supposed it fit that even Dale, his coveted prize, didn’t know the man that essentially hunted him.
For the first time, anger didn’t burn inside her at his words. She’d never enjoyed being spurned, but for some reason, his abject rejection of her snuffed out her lust but didn’t invoke her anger.
Maybe Guardians can’t get mad at their charges.
“I’ll figure out how to make it up to you. To send you home and see if I can’t keep your world progressing forward, not just a story.”
Tears pricked the corners of her eyes at the reminder that she was nothing more than a character in a storybook.
“Don’t do me any fucking favors. And next time you’re pissed off at whoever the hell brother number two is, don’t shove your damn tongue down my throat.” Venom poured out with each word, and Dale had the good sense to look apologetic before walking past her.
She heard the open and close of a door and knew that he had left her alone, in a world where no one but he could see her.
Eldan was still standing slack-jawed behind the mighty tree. He'd witnessed the entirety of the strange interaction, and yet, couldn't believe a word of it. As king, he was connected to his clan, especially his children. Breena's distress had flared in his mind so hotly, he’d had no way to ignore it. At first, when he saw the Elixir bottle on the ground next to her, his temper almost shot off. They had no business drinking the nectar of the Seelie. Then he'd looked twenty paces back and saw the man seemingly assaulting his daughter without moving an inch.
He scrunched his eyes and stared at the spot where his daughter and a strange man had stood. Neither was there presently. She had stepped through what appeared thin air, and he had just vanished. Needless to say, he had watched as his daughter had stepped through some sort of mystic door and the man in leather had simply vanished from sight once she’d gone through.
"You have troubles when the king of the Unseelie Court is questioning magic," he muttered to himself. For good measure, he rubbed his eyes once more.
Only Megara and Sontan remained. Both were moving again and didn't seem aware anything had frozen them in the first place. The idea that someone had enough power to supposedly walk through worlds almost superseded the ridiculous claim that they were nothing more than make-believe, fictitious creations of someone’s mind. He would certainly know if his actions weren’t his own.
Wouldn’t I?
He growled at no one at all. There was a distinct possibility the man was an agent of the queen. The lies would have been used to distract them from the fight, and stealing Breena away would hurt his forces. Both his daughters fought, but Breena was the one that did the work that needed to be done to win. The seductions, the random acts of violence to instill fear—all of it would stop without a daughter willing to bend the rules.
However, if the man wasn’t lying? If they were a construct defined by someone else’s destiny that could only be changed by a small group of people, then it stood to reason he wanted every single one of them on his side. The man claimed that only the human, Dale, could do what was needed to be done to free an entire world from the construct of a book.
“Because I’m suddenly believing I’m a damned book,” he snarled and gave his position away.
“Father?”
Megara’s voice didn’t sound as affected by the Elixir as Breena’s had when she’d first spoken, and he wasn’t the slightest bit shocked. He, however, was forced to step through the trees and place a false smile on his lips. “Daughter, there you are. You had me quite worried.” The words sounded contrite to him, but Megara simply smiled.
“Sorry, Father. Breena may have convinced me to stop and celebrate a little.” She flushed and looked at the ground.
“No matter, if you were celebrating, I take it your sister was able to siphon enough energy for me to attack?”
Megara’s face paled as she finally noticed her sister wasn’t present, and she turned to the man who would one day be king, if Eldan died that was. “Sontan, did you see where she went?”
“Knowing Breena, she stole enough Elixir to stupefy herself and wandered off. I’m sure she will be fine.” Sontan seemed displeased that they were even speaking on the subject,
Eldan knew the reason was because Sontan and Breena had slept together before he’d fallen for Megara, and he probably regretted it. Eldan was torn, to tell the truth would likely have his heir turn on him and have him locked up. To lie, well that could get tricky.
”I am sure your sister is fine. Come, let us return to the palace and share the news that, for the first time, we have gained a leg up on the Queen of the Seelie!”
His voice boomed off the trees and a few birds flew off into the dark night sky. There was nothing he wanted to be celebrating, but the look on his daughter’s face dimmed his anger and curiosity over the notion that they were merely living out the tales of someone’s creation.
Wrapping his arm around his daughter, they walked back toward the castle, shielded from human eyes by magic. He loved Megara, but she was too much like her mother—too unwilling to do the things that won wars, and too willing to believe that every life had purpose and redemption.
But she is the daughter still here. The thought shocked him. He hadn’t realized he viewed Breena’s actions as betrayal until that moment. Perhaps he had been too consumed with confusion to realize what his daughter had done. She’d accepted an offer with no out clause and without so much as a word to anyone. Nothing in the conversation had seemed as if she needed to decide that instant, but she had. She’d turned her back on her people, on her family.
He couldn’t see her face from where he’d been hiding. Perhaps she had been conflicted or pressured. He would never know unless she found a way to come home to him. If the human, Dale, decided he didn’t want her. Eldan needed Dale to not want her, at least at first. He needed her to return home, so she could report on this catastrophic revelation, and, so he could plan a way to get Dale on his side. If his power was perfect enough that someone from a parallel world—or real world, as the man in leather had called it—wanted him, then he might be what it took to finally end the war between the two Fae clans.
If Megara and Sontan were displeased with his quiet as they walked the short length to the castle, neither spoke on it. He waved his hand, and the veil that cloaked the castle came down. He wasn’t interested in hiding. It was a day of celebration and confusion, and for the first time, he didn’t feel like hiding where they were from the Seelie Queen.
He was uncertain of so many things, but the one thing he was certain of was that he wanted Dale’s powers for himself.
Chapter Six
Her hair was draped over his waist, and her mouth was working over his dick in an expert fashion. Back and forth, her mouth slid over him, and he felt as if he was ready to boil over. He couldn’t remember the last time anything had felt so perfect.
“Breena, stop, wait—”
Dale flew upright in bed, panting as he stared off into the darkness. His hands flailed uselessly over the bed, looking for his glasses. He remembered he was at his parents’ and his hand reached out to the nightstand and grabbed them.
The room was empty. Breena might have invaded his dreams, but she hadn’t come to him. He hadn’t reached across the link and dragged her to his side.
“Thank fuck.” Dale sighed and lay back down in bed. It had been the most cowardly move he could have made, running away from her to his parents. He didn’t know how to put Guardians back
in their books, and Nessa had seemed to know how to leave when she felt like it—all of his prior Guardians had. He had to believe Breena had left and wasn’t lingering around his condo.
His cock was throbbing, that much was very real. Breena could control the tone a dream took and even kill people by trapping them in one and draining their energy. He hadn’t been certain she wasn’t doing that to him.
His hand snaked between his legs and stroked his shaft through his boxers. She hadn’t. He was every bit as attracted to her now that he’d held her against him as he’d been when she was just a story character. However, that didn’t mean he was going to act on it. Guardians were only created with a connection. If he could keep reading, or read something else, perhaps he could sever the link.
“You didn’t run far enough, you know that right?”
Her sultry voice slammed into him, and he forced himself to not bolt upright a second time. “Breena,” her name came out clipped, and he ground his teeth together. “How did you get here?” He was fighting off the urge to grab her, fighting off the lust. He’d seen her joy in killing earlier, there was no way they could work. Even if he wanted to harness the power she held in an effort to break through worlds to get Nessa back.
“Oh, I don’t know. Something tells me Leather Jacket…I think that’s what you called him, didn’t tell me all the rules. It wasn’t until I was almost through the door that he thought to mention the fucking invisibility thing.”