by Marie Hall
How the stories of the dark genie had come about, Robin would never know, but the woman before him was no more dark than the sun.
“What is the matter, mistress?” Rupert asked when she chugged her tankard of ale.
“Oh nothing.” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and gave him a sweet grin. “I was just thinking about something.”
“Aye?” Another man—Callum—leaned forward. He was the brawniest and strongest fighter of the band aside from John. But unlike the ham-fisted brute, Callum had a way with the women that until now Robin had never really minded much. “And why don’t you share your thoughts with us, Maid Marian?”
They loved her stories, every night they coerced her into telling a new one and Nixie never failed to deliver.
Callum gave her a wide, innocent grin full of flattery and flirtation.
Robin cleared his throat, flicking a pheasant wishbone at the brunette’s head.
Callum jerked, clutching at his skull and glaring at Robin.
Nixie, obviously seeing his fit of jealousy, rolled her eyes. But how could Robin hope to help himself? He couldn’t forget the way she’d held him, how her hips had rolled upon his. Her movements magical, frenzied, and yet completely innocent all at the same time. How she’d teased him mercilessly, but how she’d stayed on him long enough to try and ease his need of her.
And now to see her bronze skin flushed and rosy hued, her hair slipping haphazardly across her face, dangerous thoughts intruded in on him, like how to keep her. Was it even possible? Could they take down Crispin without her magic to aid them?
She sighed. “I was only thinking of a silly story.”
“Were you now, and would you no care to share with all of us?” Rupert asked.
John chuckled and sipped at his tankard of ale. “If you start the sharing, lass, just know that Rupert loves a good yarn and you’ll no be able to get away from him for a good two to three hours until the full telling of it.”
Her laughter was infectious. That sound was so light and carefree, that it wasn’t just him affected by it. All his men leaned forward, even John, smiling back at her. And if Robin hadn’t known better, he’d have thought her the Pied Piper herself, for she held them all spellbound.
Her fingers traced the grilled meat on her plate, and he’d never been more envious of a stupid piece of food as he was then.
“Well, I guess since we have nothing else to do, I’ll tell you. There was once a man and a woman”—her eyes caught Robin’s and her smile was shy as she said—“and this is a story of how they fell in love.”
It was like a fist to his gut.
Was she admitting to being in love with him? He was sure he felt something…well, something more than mere lust with her. But love wasn’t a word he was comfortable using yet. Though their souls and bodies understood they’d been crafted one for the other, love wasn’t instantaneous in Kingdom. It was inevitable, but not always immediate.
“Love,” Callum snorted.
“Oh, but not just any kind of love.” She held up a finger. “This is a story of intrigue. Forbidden lusts. And murder.”
With those words she held his men in the palm of her hand.
“Once upon a time,” she began, “a long, long time ago, there lived a genie named, well…” She chuckled. “Jinni.”
That was the moment Robin realized three things.
One. She was a master storyteller. Better than most. She had a way with her words, a way that painted vivid pictures so that one not only heard the story, but saw it in their mind’s eye.
Rupert stuttered with wide eyes several minutes later, “And what happened then? Was he found?”
She gave him a sad little smile. “Jinni was tossed to the ground by the sultan’s guards, reaching out for his lover, but she denounced him. Screaming that he’d murdered their king.”
Gasps sounded all around. Even John was riveted by the story, barely lifting his tankard to his lips, as if to move would make him miss a moment of her tale.
The second thing Robin realized was that in her own roundabout way, she was telling the men in the only way she knew how, her history. Her story. Who she really was. They’d never know the gift she shared with them, for she could never reveal that she was the daughter of the couple, but he knew, and it was enough.
“The giant metal bird crashed to the ground, killing almost everyone within its bowels instantly, save for a woman named Paz—”
“A metal bird,” Rupert breathed, “was it the same one as transported that man from before?”
She lifted her brows and smiled. “Um, quite similar, yes. Anyhow.” She lifted her hand, making an arcing motion. “It crashed with the violence of an avalanche. But Paz was pulled from the wreckage by a golem. A man made of wax, who many claimed had no heart, no soul left him, and yet”—her eyes flickered to Robin’s—“they were bound from the moment their eyes met.”
The third thing Robin knew was that he could never imagine a life without her in it…
Chapter 14
They lay under the stars. Nixie hadn’t thought it a smart move to sleep together within the tight confines of the tent. Her body still ached. The drink and story time had done wonders for her peace of mind, but she was still horny as hell. And at least out in the open, she wouldn’t be tempted to initiate anything else with him.
Robin laid sleeping beside her, with his arms crossed in an X formation upon his slowly rising and falling chest. The rest of the men were in their tents, and all of the campfires had been extinguished except for theirs. It didn’t really give off any heat, though, it was too small, but it did give her a little light to see by.
The stars tonight seemed almost unreal. Glowing like tiny jeweled dagger tips. For the first time in a long time, she wondered what her parents were doing. Dad had always loved stargazing. Growing up, it’d been a hobby she’d developed an affinity for herself.
“Thank you for the story tonight,” Robin said.
She glanced over at him. “I thought you were sleeping.”
“Can’t.” He rolled onto his side, his blue eyes intense and moody. “I can’t stop thinking.”
“Me either,” she ruefully admitted.
His knuckles grazed her cheek. She closed her eyes, enjoying his touch even as she wanted to cry from it too. From the hollow ache she felt whenever she thought about their limited time together.
“What are you thinking about, my pet?”
Sex.
But maybe that wasn’t the wisest topic.
So she said the next thing on her mind. “My family. I miss them sometimes so much. Like tonight when the stars are so clear. I know my dad is here on Kingdom, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s looking at the same sky I am.”
His smile warmed her to her toes. “I’m sure that he is. How much longer until your release?”
“Twenty long, frustrating years.” She nibbled on her bottom lip, fighting the heat of tears burning her eyes. But they weren’t just for her parents. “An eternity.”
“No.” He grabbed her cold hands with his warm ones and brought them to his lips. “They need not be. Speaking from experience, sometimes it is possible to find joy even in the sorrow.”
She slipped one of her hands out of his and framed his face. So many words battled for dominance on her tongue, but she refused to speak them.
“I’m sorry that you live as you do.”
He shrugged. “Some days I am. But most days, I don’t mind it.”
“Then why?” She shook her head. “Why the urge to take Crispin down?”
Robin took a curl of her hair and wrapped it gently around his finger over and over again. The motion was very soothing and lulled her into a peaceful sort of trance.
“I have my reasons, though I think I should wait to tell them until you’ve seen him in person. More impact that way.”
“You plan to show him to me?” She cocked her head. “When?”
He took a deep breath, moving his hand off her, and she wan
ted to tell him not to stop touching her, but she didn’t.
“As I told you earlier, you’ll be getting a new gown, pet. But it is for a ball that Crispin is throwing a day from now. There, you shall finally meet him. And then I think my reasons will become abundantly clear.”
Wishes.
He’d finally be using them.
She’d prepared herself for this moment. Prepared herself for the fact that once he did, she’d be gone. But she’d not been as prepared as she’d hoped, because the sudden knifing pain to her heart made her want to cry.
The thought of being tossed once again to the wolves, to the whim of one careless master after another, it was like a red-hot poker to the chest. She sniffed.
“What is it?” he asked, his piercing stare making her skin shiver with prickles of awareness.
Closing her eyes, she lay down and placed her head on her bicep. “Nothing. I’m just tired, I think.”
She was moved into the shelter of his body, and a deerskin was draped over the both of them. For a second Nixie thought about moving away, but then decided she was too tired to fight this.
She’d be leaving soon. And the only things that would help her get through it would be her memories, so she might as well make the best of them while she could.
Wrapping her arm around the one he’d banded about her waist, she tossed her leg over his and snuggled deeper into him.
“If I only had one wish…” she mumbled sleepily.
And just as she was about to fall asleep, when her mind was hazy and full of that twilight between dreaming and awake, she felt a soft kiss on her temple and words that whispered, “With all my heart, my pet. All my heart.”
~*~
Robin had sent a man to buy the clothes for Nixie and himself. He’d not thought it wise, considering what they had planned this evening, to go down to the vendors themselves. He was going to take no chances of their getting caught.
But that also meant he had no control over the costumes that’d been chosen. He stared at the skimpy fabric of Nixie’s dress and grimaced.
“This leaves nothing to the imagination.”
Laughing, she snatched it out of his hand. “I think it’s kind of pretty, actually. You should see the stuff back on Earth. I think it might even make you blush, Robin.”
With a wink, she flicked her finger. “Now turn around so that I can dress.”
“As my pet bids, I do.” He bowed deeply.
Though this wasn’t a date by any means, he found himself oddly looking forward to taking his lady to the ball, to holding her body close, and swaying in time to the songs. If all went according to plan, not only would he take his brother down, but he’d be keeping Nixie for his own till the end of time.
There was a quick shuffle of clothes and then she said, “Okay, I’m decent. Or, well…I’m clothed at least.”
He turned around, and his heart slid into his throat at the sight of her.
She was a vision in red chiffon. Her perfect body on display for him to see. She traced the face of her peacock’s mask she held in one hand and smiled back at him. “Now it’s your turn. I’m sure the others will be waiting for us.”
Jerked back to the present, he nodded. The immediacy of the moment came back in a flash. “About the others. We’re all going in separately. It’s the best way.”
She smiled. “You’re probably right, I’ve never been really good at playing spy. Okay, well, still, you should change now. Or, you know what they say, the clock will strike midnight—”
“—and the coach turns back into a pumpkin.” He grinned at her.
“Something like that,” she laughed.
Knowing she would not like what she was about to hear, but needing to do it all the same, he walked up to her and rubbed her arms.
At first her smile lingered, but slowly, she must have realized his intention, because it slipped and she whispered a small, “Oh.”
Clenching his jaw, he nodded. “It’s time for a wish.”
“Oh,” she said again, and he tried to ignore the ache that spread in his chest when she stepped away from him. “What is your wish, Master?”
The moment the words were uttered, a gale-force breeze whipped through his tent, causing his desk to tip on its side and her dress to writhe like charmed snakes about her ankles.
Nixie pulsed with magic.
Robin wanted to tell her everything. Wanted to assure her, but he’d learned long ago to never speak in absolutes. The worst thing he could do would be to give her any kind of false hope.
He would do all in his power to ensure she stayed with him, but for now, that secret would be his alone.
“I wish for all my men to truly appear as they are now dressed until our return to these woods.”
She frowned, blinking at him, but her job as a genie was so ingrained that she did not ask.
“So shall it be,” she whispered, and the breeze that’d rolled from within her cast outward like a spiraling net, clamping hold of each of his men and transforming their appearance so that should she bump into one of them, she’d never even realize it.
When the magic faded away, she frowned at him. “You should change, Robin.”
Grabbing his clothes, he dragged them on, making sure to put on his spelled shirt—the one with the magical pocket—first. Needing to keep her lamp safely on him at all times.
Robin tied a goat-faced mask over face. The porcelain piece of art was exquisite. The planes and dips and grooves of it were so lifelike.
“Turn around,” he whispered to her.
She turned slowly, her look still one of hurt and pain.
“You will understand it all tonight, my beauty. I promise you.”
Nixie ran the tip of her pink tongue along her lower lip. He knew what that tongue tasted like. The sweetness and the spice of her.
He stepped into her. Wanting her desperately.
“I know I can’t stay, Robin, believe me. I understand, it’s just, sometimes it gets easy to forget.”
“Don’t forget.” He grabbed one of her hands and placed it on his beating heart. “I vow to you, all is not what it seems.”
They stayed like that for a moment longer, until finally he felt her relax in his arms.
~*~
She wanted to ask him so desperately what he meant. But she didn’t dare. Already her hope had gotten trampled on. Eventually he’d be forced to make all his wishes and that would be that. She couldn’t begrudge him that, or hate him for it.
This was the way of her kind. It was her lot in life, and she’d do well to remember that.
“I trust you,” she said softly, and then, unable to keep from touching him another second, she ran her fingers slowly up the length of one of its curved horns. Her heart thumping wildly in her chest.
“The way you touch that mask…” His voice was thick and full of the hunger they both kept trying to deny. “Would that it were my body, pet.”
Tired of pretending she felt nothing when she felt too much, Nixie took a step closer. They didn’t dare get intimate again, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make her desires known.
“I haven’t felt like a woman in forever, Robin. Not since coming to Kingdom. Just a vessel. Just a magical entity for others to find their own happiness, their own lusts and desires.” She curved her palm against the hard smoothness of the cool porcelain. “Not until you found me.”
Grabbing her wrist, his fingers dug in almost to the point of pain.
It was easier to be honest when she didn’t have to see his face. Didn’t have to feel desolated if he didn’t feel the same.
His words echoed as he said, “We’ve a job to do.”
The heart that’d been racing with a fever pitch now sank like a rock to her knees. But then he traced her neck. His fingers just barely grazing her flesh. Soft, exploratory touches that made her skin feel electrified, like a conduit for passion. It felt like all the blood in her body rushed to both her cheeks and between her thighs.
> Days. That’s as long as she’d known him.
Nixie knew the stories. She’d grown with a father who’d told them constantly. The truth of love. How it came on like a flash of lightning and the roar of thunder. How it overtook all senses, possessing you mind, body, and soul.
There was nothing like this on Earth. And if there was, she’d never known it. Not this keenly. Not even with Eric.
What she felt for Robin defied logic, reason, and anything else. It was lust, yes, but it was so much more. Standing transfixed before him now, with his neon blue gaze holding hers fast, she felt like she was falling into a deep, dark abyss. But before the madness of that darkness could consume her, there was a light. A faint, but glorious pinprick of golden light, and that if she’d let herself give in to it, there’d be no coming back from it ever.
There were no slow burns on Kingdom when two souls destined to become one finally came together.
And that was terrifying.
“Nixie.”
Her lashes fluttered to hear the brokenness of his voice. As if he too felt it, this yawning chasm of lust and tenderness, desire and obsession drowning them whole.
But she also heard in his voice the fear that gripped her by the throat, the fear of what this was. The fear that if they committed to it fully there’d be no turning back. For either of them. Ever.
Releasing a shuddery breath, she took a giant step back. Grabbing onto her lower stomach as he curled his fingers into a fist.
“Your eyes,” she whispered, because they were glowing.
Only Robin Hood’s eyes glowed like that. They’d never be able to sneak into the castle with his eyes as they were.
He closed them. “Touching you, Nix. It’s like…it’s like coming home.”
Snatching the peacock mask from off her lax fingers, he thrust it at her. She could hardly breathe or think. Had he just said what he’d said? Had she really heard that right?
This couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t.
She knew what Danika had said, what her father had told her, hell, she felt it… But she couldn’t accept this. Her life had been on Earth. Her thinking, her reasoning, it’d been formed on a world where true love took years of pain, of heartache, and joy to build up one cornerstone at a time.