Of course she was a virgin. He should’ve known, given the absolute purity of the woman. No. On second thought, the purity was just a part of Adeline’s soul. He should’ve known she was a virgin, because it was yet another reason why he shouldn’t be touching her. The universe kept setting up signs for him, but he wasn’t taking the hint. A Voltyn touching a virgin was the stuff of human nightmares. The lynching was inevitable at this point.
…But, so fucking worth it.
“Everyone’s a virgin at one time in their life, Cade.” Addy grabbed up her clothes, looking irritated. “Some of us just stay that way for an unfashionably long time.” She pulled on that delicate and complicated contraption called a “least-favorite bra.” “Besides, we didn’t really have sex, so you don’t have any reason to panic about my dad getting a shotgun. Not that he’d give a damn, anyway. You can relax, alright?”
He ignored that, pinching the bridge of his nose. “How in the hell could someone like you still be a virgin?” Did they keep her locked up in a tower? “How is that even possible?”
“Truthfully? It’s Patrick Swayze’s fault.”
His eyebrows slammed together, fully prepared to hate the unknown man. “Who?”
“I watched Dirty Dancing when I was a kid. You couldn’t have seen it, but it’s about a rich girl who falls for a poor boy, and they dance this big musical number at the end, and it’s basically the greatest movie ever made.” She paused when he just stared at her. “It’s a film. Like… a play. Dirty Dancing is a story of epic romance”
Romance again. Fuck.
“The movie shaped my whole world view. I wore out two VHS tapes and a DVD watching it.” She stood up, buttoning her pants. “Patrick Swayze was the actor who starred in it and I totally fell for his character. I mean I was smitten, in the sappy-love-poems-written-in-my-unicorn-covered-Lisa-Frank-notebook sense of the word. I wanted to have his beautiful, rebellious, dance instructor babies.”
Yep. Cade hated this man even more than Michael Landon.
“There’s this line in the movie where Baby --She’s the heroine-- Baby says that your first time should be with someone you sort of love.” Adeline nodded like that gibberish actually made sense. “And pudgy, unpopular, middle school me was like, ‘Baby is totally right. I’m going to wait for someone I sort of love, the way she sort of loves Patrick Swayze. Then I can have my big dance number and my epic romance.’ I guess, I never really got past wanting that.” Addy focused on the fastenings of her shirt. “Except, like everyone else in my life, my Patrick Swayze never came looking for me.”
“So while you wait for this epic guy to show up, you thought you’d just fvred me?” Now, Cade was pissed. “Well, fuck that.”
Adeline shot him a glare, not liking his tone. “I don’t know what ferovred even means, asshole.”
Cade stifled a winced as she tried to pronounce the oath. Shit. She didn’t understand what it meant, but he did and he’d been wrong to use that kind of language in her presence. What was wrong with him? He took a deep breath, trying to regain his temper. “It’s a vulgarity and I shouldn’t have said it to a lady. Forgive me.”
Green eyes rolled. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not a lady.”
His jaw ticked. Gods, her stubbornness was like talking to a ghaa beast. “My point is, I am not some diversion to pass your time here in the present.”
“This isn’t the present. I live in the present. This is the future.”
“My point,” he continued, unwilling to get into another argument before they finished the first one, “is that I won’t be used.”
“Used!?”
“I know why you did that with me.” Cade gestured towards the sleeping bags. “It’s obvious. Have you ever gone that far with anyone else?”
“No, but…”
Cade cut her off. “No. But, you did with me, because I’m a Voltyn. Because, you think that it doesn’t matter what we do together, because I don’t fucking count.”
“You believe I’m using you?” Addy had the audacity to look worried. “I don’t mean to, Cade. Really.” She bit her lower lip. “I guess I have taken advantage of you. A lot. I’ve stayed at your hotel and you’ve fed me and given me clothes, and now you’re bringing me to Yellowstone. In return, I’ve gotten you arrested and run out of town. So, that is pretty…”
“No.” He interrupted, waving a dismissive hand. As usual, she was mixing everything up. “That’s not what I meant, at all. You don’t even need to ask for my protection, Adeline. It’s already yours.” Voltyn had been created to fight for the people they belonged to and Cade belonged to Adeline. He had from the moment their gazes met. “Whatever you need, I will give to you. Freely and without hesitation.”
She paused. “Even though you’re probably not getting the sixty gold coins I promised?”
He rolled his eyes. There was no ‘probably’ about it. She definitely didn’t plan to pay him that rent money. Cade wasn’t an idiot. He’d known that from the first. “I’m not worried about the gold.”
“What in the world are you so upset about, then?”
“I just don’t want to have sex with you, if you don’t…” He trailed off and looked at the wall, unsure how to explain his feelings without revealing too much.
“You don’t want to have sex with me?” She glanced away. “Oh. Well… sure. You’re probably used to girls who are thinner and prettier and more experienced and from this century and…” She shrugged, not finishing that list.
Gods, it was like she set out to frustrate him. Cade’s jaw ticked. No one could be so irritating without a long term plan to drive him out of his mind. How could she possibly think that he didn’t desire her? Was she blind? The woman was the sun in his sky. Why didn’t she see how extraordinary she was?
…Because, no one ever bothered to tell her.
Cade scraped a hand over his face. Adeline’s view of herself was faulty, because the idiots in her own time didn’t value her. She didn’t see what he did. She didn’t see the truth. All she saw were their lies. “Addy, you are beautiful, inside and out.”
Her emerald gaze met his, not convinced.
Her own words came back to him. Use your own head instead of letting other people define who you are. Maybe they both needed to take that advice and readjust their thinking.
Cade tried again. He wasn’t good with words, but he had to get through to her. “I haven’t been able to take my eyes off of you for more than three seconds, since you walked in from the snow. I will never desire another. You are… perfect.” All that was true, but she still wasn’t buying it. Cade sighed at her skeptical frown, giving up on saying anything romantic. He clearly sucked at it. He tried something less flowery, but equally honest. “I want to have sex with you.”
She believed the bluntness, her expression lightening. “Well good! That’s a super-promising start. Then, why are you shouting at me and cursing in other languages?”
“You think I haven’t heard this shit before? Granted, never with a virgin. Usually, it’s some married woman, telling me that it’s not really cheating, because I’m not a human. A lot of them think Voltyn are some kind of loophole to their marriage vows. That being with me is like fucking some inanimate sex toy.”
Red-gold eyebrows soared, shocked by that. Addy was too clean to ever consider that others were filthy. He knew that. Cade had the dim perception he might be overreacting, but acknowledging his emotions was too new for him to be sure. Every rotten experience of his life kept the words pouring out.
“I won’t do that with you, Adeline. It doesn’t matter if I’m human or not, what we do together counts. I count.” That was probably the first time any Voltyn had ever uttered such a crazy statement. It was Addy’s fault for putting the new thoughts in his head, to begin with. Now they wouldn’t go away.
“I know you count, Cade. That’s why I…”
He didn’t even hear her. “I don’t care if you’re waiting for Padrick Sway-zee. When I sleep with you, you w
on’t be a virgin anymore, technical or otherwise, because you’ll have been with me. Me, Addy.”
Adeline studied him, her eyes tracing over his averted face. “I didn’t let you touch me because I’m looking for a virginity loophole. Or despite the fact that you’re a Voltyn. Or because you’re a Voltyn. I let you touch me, because you’re Cade Westin.” She shrugged. “And I sort of love you.”
Cade’s head whipped around, gaping at her. “Huh?”
“How could you miss it?” Adeline looked amused by his shock. “Do you think I go on the lamb with guys I don’t care about? That I stayed a technical virgin by throwing my naked body at everyone?” She gave him a strange smile. “It’s you, cowboy. I was waiting for you.”
Cade couldn’t think of a single thing to say to that. Nothing at all. His mind was a complete blank as he gazed down at her. No one had ever said they loved him before. Not once in his entire life. His brain couldn’t process it.
Given a little more time, Cade might have been able to string together some coherent syllables. Maybe at least a grunt. Unfortunately, before he could regain the powers of speech, loud shouting and the galloping of horses sounded from outside. Cade turned towards the entrance, dread filling him.
“Are your brothers back?” Addy asked, not understanding.
“No.” He looked over at her, knew this was going to be bad. “I think the Outlanders just found us.”
Chapter Twelve
Even on our all-inclusive, highly-rated, exclusive tours, things sometimes go wrong.
You’re entering a natural and untamed wilderness space, so occasionally a true emergency will occur.
This is why we’ve provided you with a trained guide.
Don’t worry.
Rattlesnakes sightings, freak storms, bounced checks… Your glamping-ranger knows how to deal with it all!
(Especially, the bounced checks, because we do demand payment upfront.)
Brown’s Glampling Tours Official Pocket Guide
Being kidnapped by Outlanders was a good news/bad news situation.
Good news: the posse wasn’t following them anymore. Addy could breathe easier knowing that Sheriff Zecker was no longer trying to hunt her and the Westins down for a hanging.
Bad news: The posse wasn’t following them anymore, because the posse was dead. The Outlanders had apparently caught up with Zecker and his men, and were currently cannibalizing their corpses. It was like Alive without Ethan Hawke’s scruffy hotness to mitigate the ewww factor. Addy tried not to look at the large campfire where dinner was cooking, but it was impossible to miss the stench of it.
Good news: At least, the Outlanders hadn’t killed and eaten Addy or Cade yet. They’d dragged Cade away and brought Addy to a tent made of sanbor skin, but they hadn’t done any real damage.
Bad news: The only reason they were still alive seemed to be the Outlanders curiosity over the Hall of Records. Even with the monitors turned off, they knew it wasn’t a normal place. The overhead lighting shocked them as much as it had the Westins. Rather than shoot Addy and Cade with their weird-looking circular guns, they’d taken them back to their camp to see their queen and answer some questions.
Good news: The Outlanders spoke better English than the rest of the people in the time period, so they understood Addy when she talked.
Bad news: She could understand them, too.
“Explain why we should not kill you both, right where you stand, human scaumm.” The queen demanded as Addy was shoved in front of her. Judging from her tone, whatever “scaumm” was, it probably didn’t mean “really pretty friend.”
The Outlander camp was made up of square tents and armed lunatics. At least forty of them had glowered at her from beneath their elaborate white helmets as she was carted through village. It was impossible to know if they dressed like Imperial Stormtroopers to camouflage themselves in the snowy landscape, to look even more badass, or to hide their mutant-y faces.
The queen was the only one who didn’t obscure her features. She was an older lady, who clearly remained vain about her appearance. …Despite the six yellow eyeballs, the reedy hair, and the kind of transparent skin. Beauty was in the eyes of the holder, after all.
She did have some awesome jewelry, though. Unless Addy was very much mistaken, the queen was wearing the Hope Diamond around her neck. The priceless blue gem was no longer locked up in a museum case at the Smithsonian. Instead, it was nestled between a dozen other odd necklaces at the queen’s throat. A bald and melted Barbie doll head dangling from twine… A string of plastic bottle caps from… Some shiny bead things that changed shape every time she looked on them…
A woman with such avant garde fashion sense couldn’t be all bad, right?
“Um, you shouldn’t kill us because we’re super nice people?” Addy tried with an encouraging smile.
Clearly, that wasn’t the answer the queen was looking for. Her six eyes narrowed. There was a top set, a bottom set and one set in the middle, all of them blinking independently and all of them looking pissed. Crap. Wasn’t the Hope Diamond supposed to be cursed? Maybe some bad luck would kick in on Queeny and she’d get hit with a meteor very, very soon.
Addy cast a hopeful look towards the roof of the tent.
A Stormtrooper guy leaned in closer to the queen and lowered his voice. Whatever he had to say, it interested her. Her gaze flicked back to Addy with a speculative gleam. “You travel with a Voltyn?”
“I travel with Cade Westin.” Addy corrected sharply.
The Stormtrooper’s head whipped around. “He’s a Westin?” The helmet muffled his voice, but she heard the venom in it.
Clearly, he knew the brothers. Did anybody like those guys except her?
The queen’s six eyes watched Addy with reptilian menace. “Deke Westin was our prisoner during the Wilderness War. Do you have any idea how many of our people he killed, before we captured him? Hundreds. That’s why we took his arm! So he could never use it to hold a weapon against us, again.”
“You cut off Deke’s arm?”
“We ate it to steal his power.” The Stormtrooper snapped. “And seven of his toes. We wanted him to suffer for years, taking him apart a piece at a time. But someone broke him out of his cage, after just a few weeks. Someone came to our camp and took him.” He glowered at Addy like she was his prime suspect. “They killed eight of our best men in the escape.”
Cade.
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind he was the “someone” behind the rescue and he was currently tied outside, at the mercy of these maniacs. The last thing she needed to do was point their attention his way. She wanted to hurt these assholes for what they’d done to Deke, but lying seemed like a much smarter idea. Unfortunately, she still sucked at it.
“Well, ‘Westin’ is a really common name.” Addy tried.
“No, it’s not. It belongs to one family. Deke Westin’s family. The Madman of the Wilderness. Who waged war on our kind like a rabid ghaa beast and then escaped his just punishment.”
“See, that’s a whole different group of Westins. Like… the bad side of the family. Cade is barely related to them, at all. In fact, he’s not related to them. He pronounces his name ‘Wes-teen.’ Way, way different.”
“You just called him Westin.”
“Um… I have a really strong accent. It sort of comes and goes.”
“Whatever this man calls himself, he’s a Voltyn.” The queen interjected. She clearly wanted to be the center of attention and didn’t appreciate their bickering stealing her spotlight. “And humans usually shun his kind, so why are you with him?”
“I’m smarter than most humans, I guess.”
“My son says this Cade was very angry that you’ve been taken from his sight.” She waved a hand at the Stormtrooper. “The man was causing such an uproar outside, we had to tie him up at the edge of the camp.”
“To be fair, he’s always kind of angry.” Hopefully he wouldn’t get himself into too much trouble while she was gone. Cad
e had a temper and the Outlanders already didn’t like him. Addy’s mind raced, trying to think of some way to get them out of this mess.
“Most humans aren’t so tolerant of lesser beings, like the Voltyn.” The queen’s son/Stormtrooper guy said. “Especially not women who have access to magical caverns.”
The queen snapped something in another language, annoyed with the continued interruption.
Addy glowered at him, too. “Cade isn’t a lesser being. He’s my boyfriend. Sort of.”
The queen puzzled over that word. “Boyfriend sort of? You… mate with the Voltyn?”
“Not yet, but it’s my plan for later tonight. If I can convince you to let us go, anyhow.” She smiled her most persuasive smile. “Say, how would you guys like to trade boring old Cade for a state-of-the-art bear whistle?” She pulled it out of her Glamp-pack™ and held it up for them to admire. “Shiny, right?”
They didn’t seem impressed.
The Stormtrooper took off his helmet, revealing his not-mutanty features and Pez colored hair. She’d expected him to look like Sloth from The Goonies, but he was actually handsome, with two eyes and a square jaw. He grabbed the backpack away from her, rifling through her belongings. His yellow gaze flicked to the queen, saying something in that language Addy didn’t recognize.
“Don’t be an idiot, Quel.” The queen sounded derisive. “She’s just a human. A bit odder than most, but still nothing more than food. She has no magic.”
He switched back to English. “You didn’t see the cave, Mother. Or these objects in her satchel.” He took the guidebook, flipping through the pages in something like awe. “This woman must have some sort of…” The Stormtrooper’s words broke off abruptly when the queen hit him.
Her hand cracked across his cheek hard enough to leave a red mark. “Stop your childish obsession with the supernatural, Quel.” She ordered coldly. “And do not ever contradict me. Look at your paltry number of eyes. You were not meant to lead. You follow. It’s all you’re destined for, so keep your place.”
Cowboy from the Future Page 18