by H. D. Gordon
“What are you laughing at?” she snapped.
He held his hands up, his smile stretching a little wider. “Nothing, princess.”
Chapter 15
Surah
“I’m glad you decided to come,” said CJ, her voice a little deeper than Surah remembered it being before.
Her eyes flicked disinterestedly at Surah, who found that her nails were digging into the palms of her hand.
“Princess Surah,” CJ added.
Surah felt her princess-smile pull her lips up, the smile she used much more frequently than her real one. “Cindy-Joe,” she said, and nodded.
Candace came over and shooed her granddaughter out of the way, and Surah didn’t miss that CJ used this as an excuse to scoot closer to Charlie. Candace wiped her hands on her apron and gave Surah a low bow.
“Hope you’re hungry, my lady,” she said. “I’m ‘fraid I prepared enough for an army. It ain’t often I get royalty at my dinner table.”
Surah glanced around and saw the house was clean but very cozy. The front door led into an eat-in kitchen with a small table arranged with eclectic dishes and settings, surrounded by four chairs. This opened up into a dimly lit living room with mismatched furniture, and a short hall led off it, which Surah assumed led to the bedrooms and bathroom.
It had been a very long time since she had been in a home so small, and it was a far cry from the high-ceilinged, huge rooms of her father’s castle, but it had a sense of homey comfort about it she knew the castle could never achieve, not if she lived in it a thousand years.
At some point, she had outgrown the vast chambers and endless halls.
“Sit wherever you like, my lady,” Candace said, taking a large platter of fried bird, mashed potatoes and broccoli and placing it at the center of the table.
They all took their places around the table and Surah was so lost in her thoughts that she nearly jumped out of her skin when Candace placed a hand over hers.
“Do you pray before supper, my lady?”
Surah shrugged. “I suppose it never hurts,” she said, noticing that CJ had taken hands with Charlie and her grandmother as well, and was running circles with her thumb over Charlie’s hand.
Surah relaxed a little when he pretended not to notice, and placed her own hand in his free one. He smiled and gave her a small squeeze, and she relaxed further still.
Candace closed her eyes and led a prayer that thanked the Gods for everything from the sun that made her garden grow to the air that flowed in her lungs.
Surah looked up to see that Charlie was staring at her, his greenish-blue eyes burning her across the small space. His fingers were rough and warm in her hand. The left side of his face was still swollen and sliced and had begun to turn black and blue in several places, but she thought she had never seen a man more handsome than him, that perhaps he was more so for all his wounds, both those on the outside, and those within.
After the prayer concluded, they all dug into the food. Surah was pleasantly surprised to find Candace was an excellent cook, a skill that she’d obviously honed over a long life. She was also pleasant to converse with, a quality Surah had found to be extremely rare, and one that had obviously not been passed onto her granddaughter.
CJ hardly said a word to Surah the whole time, and glanced at her even less. The girl’s eyes were only for Charlie, and she was leaning into him as she spoke in that low voice Surah suspected she used when she was trying to be sexy. Charlie was polite, answering her questions and not saying anything more.
CJ repeatedly slapped at his arm and giggled at practically every word he uttered. Surah thought she should have thanked the Gods when Candace had been praying earlier that Charlie was extremely short-spoken. If she had to watch CJ touch his arm any more, she might decide to act irrationally.
She wondered what Samson would think of this, and decided she didn’t want to know.
Eventually, each of them had eaten all they could stand, including a fresh blackberry pie that Surah found more delectable than anything that had ever come out of the castle bakery.
Candace began to clear the table, and when Surah offered to help clean up twice and was refused both times, she stood from the table and retrieved her cloak from the hook near the door where Candace had hanged it upon their arrival. She slung it over her shoulders and fastened it at the neck.
“Thank you for having us, Ms. Waterford. You are a wonderful cook, and I’d be honored to return this favor at the castle someday.”
Candace waved a hand, a deeply creased smile on her old face. “The honor was all mine, my lady. And please, call me Candy,” she added, giving Surah another small bow.
Then she turned to Charlie and patted him gently on the shoulder. “I know you two have places to be, but you’re welcome to stay the night here if you want. The Pass ain’t so safe after dark, and the city is close enough to reach by midday if you start out early tomorrow. You could go with us, since we’re gonna be headin’ to that meetin’ anyhow.”
Surah and Charlie exchanged a glance. Charlie said, “You’ve been kind enough to us already, ma’am. We don’t want to impose—”
Candace waved a hand, cutting him off. “You two ain’t an imposition. You saved me and my granddaughter from big trouble earlier. All I did was give you a meal. I’d hardly call us even. Besides, I got two extra rooms down the hall. You look like you could use a good rest.”
CJ gave Charlie a toothy grin that made Surah’s fists clench involuntarily. “You should stay,” she said, and her eyes flicked to Surah. “But I guess our place might not be up to a princess’s standards.”
Candace rolled her eyes and began to apologize, but Surah smiled and spoke before the old lady could get a chance.
“That’s very generous of you, ma’am,” she said, and looked over at CJ. “We’d be honored if you would have us for the night.”
Candace smiled and began running around grabbing extra blankets and towels for them. CJ slipped out of sight around the corner of the hall with one last flick of her hair, saying something about how she was going to make herself more comfortable.
When they were semi-alone in the kitchen, Charlie gave her a look that said What the hell?
Surah leaned in close to him and her jaw clenched when she picked up a whiff of CJ’s cheap perfume on his shirt.
“We have nowhere else to go,” she whispered, not about to admit that CJ’s little jab had caused her to agree to stay just to prove a stupid point. “And we’re better off hiding out here than somewhere in the city.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Besides, these two seem relatively harmless.”
One side of Charlie’s mouth pulled up. “Relatively?”
Her next words came out before she could stop them. “Well, CJ seems as though she could jump on you at any second, so yes, relatively.”
Charlie’s smile grew, causing a little blood to trickle from his split lip, and only as she saw this did Surah realize how childishly jealous her last words had sounded.
Now she knew her cheeks were going red, and she was grateful when Candace spoke from behind her in the living room, giving her an excuse to turn away from him.
“There’s a shower out ‘round back,” she said, handing Surah two towels and a bottle of soap. “The water pressure ain’t so great, but it comes out nice and hot cuz it’s pumped up from the natural hot springs nearby.” She paused, smiling sweetly and casting her eyes down, something Surah was used to from commoners, but felt somehow shamed by in this setting.
“I don’t mean to imply nuthin’,” Candace continued, her gray eyes flicking between Surah and Charlie. “But you both look like you could use a good washin’… Your clothes, too.”
Surah looked down at herself and cringed a little to see that she had various kinds of blood splattered on her attire. It was why she always wore all black, because no color could stain it. It was something that came in handy more often than she would like.
But even on all black, if someone got clo
se enough, the spots of darker black were always evident.
Surah took the towels and smiled. “Thank you, Ms. Waterford. Your hospitality is most generous.”
“My pleasure, my lady. I’ve always had great respect for the Stormsong family. You kids make yourself at home now, and if ya need me I’ll just be in the room there at the end of the hall. You two can take the rooms on the right. I change the sheets once a week, so they should be nice and clean for ya. I gotta get me some sleep now if I’m s’posed to be up at dawn. Good night, you two.”
Surah watched her until she disappeared around the corner. Then she turned to Charlie and tossed him a towel. He caught it and raised his eyebrows.
“You can shower first,” she said. “You need to get those wounds clean before they get infected.”
Charlie held her eyes for a long moment before nodding. “I’ll be quick, and come let you know when I’m done.”
Surah shook her head. “Take your time, make sure you clean the cuts well enough.”
One side of Charlie’s mouth pulled up. “Thank you, my lady,” he said, and turned to go.
“Charlie?”
He didn’t turn back, but he paused and looked over his shoulder.
Surah took a deep breath, and when she spoke, her voice came out just above a whisper. “Please don’t address me by my title.”
He swiveled around to face her, his eyes finding hers and locking there. Her breath caught as she looked at him. She swore she saw pain underlining the passion in his eyes, but it was gone before she could be certain.
After a moment, Charlie nodded.
Surah watched him go, a small, genuine smile on her face. She stared down at the soap bottle Candace had given, her but didn’t really see it. Her mind was too occupied by the weight of the world that had fallen on her shoulders.
That, and Charlie Redmine.
She didn’t realize she was holding the soap Charlie would need until nearly three minutes later.
Chapter 16
Surah
Surah followed a small path around the side of the house, soap in hand.
She paused in her tracks when she saw Charlie and CJ, and her heart thundered in her chest as she stayed within the shadows.
Surah watched as CJ reached out and put her hands on Charlie’s shoulders. Charlie tried to step back, but was blocked by the stone wall around the shower.
CJ closed the space between them immediately, her blue eyes blinking up at him slowly.
Fire raced through Surah’s veins as CJ reached down and tried to remove her towel, but to Surah’s ultimate relief, Charlie reached up and caught her hands, stopping her.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “I’m sorry, but I have nothing for you.”
CJ pushed herself closer to him. Her brow was creased now, her lips pushed out in a pout. “Why?” she asked. “You married?”
Charlie shook his head and went to move around her, but she blocked him with her arms. “You gay?” she asked.
“Not a bit,” Charlie replied. “I don’t want to be rude, so you should probably just be on your way.”
Her face fell a little, but she recovered quickly, pushing closer to him than before. “Then tell me why,” she said, her hand moving slowly down his chest.
Charlie gripped her hand to stop her, but then he looked over CJ’s shoulder and saw Surah standing there, the bottle of soap in her hand. CJ spun on her heel to see what had distracted him.
CJ saw Surah and rolled her eyes. She turned back to Charlie. “I guess you got business with the lady, so we can continue this later,” she said in a mock whisper.
CJ blew him a kiss and began heading back around the house, giving Surah a mockingly low bow.
Surah’s outward reaction was nothing but a small returned bow and a sweet smile, the fire raging in her not at all evident.
Then CJ was gone, and it was just Charlie and Surah. For a long moment neither said anything, and the only sounds around them were the calls of the night bugs, much louder here than anywhere near the city, filling the air with their song.
Surah tossed him the soap, and Charlie opened his mouth as if to say something, but she cut him off before he had the chance.
“Thought you might need that,” she said, and spun on her heel, disappearing around the corner before he had a chance to finish exhaling.
Her initial reaction was anger.
She couldn’t believe the nerve of CJ. Maybe she should have just knocked the girl’s teeth out earlier when she’d given her that exaggerated bow, brought her knee up and knocked a few incisors right out of—
She was over-reacting. She sat on the small front porch steps with her elbows resting on her knees and took a deep breath. In and out. She was not only over-reacting, she was being ridiculous.
In reality, she had no claim over Charlie.
She took another deep breath.
No more thinking of Charlie. She had to concentrate on the bigger issues she was facing. Like the public meeting that Theo was holding tomorrow. Or the fact that she knew nothing about how her father was fairing. Or Samson. Or Charlie’s crazy brother.
And then she was back to thinking about Charlie again, because now he was walking toward her, having just turned the corner of the house. She looked at him long enough to see that he was shirtless, and then she yanked her gaze away.
She would never admit it, but it was quite a task. In just that small glimpse she had seen sun-kissed skin and carved muscles, and she tucked her head now and gave him a wide berth, feeling slightly childish but unable to help it.
When she got to the shower she turned on the faucet, removed her clothes, and began methodically rinsing the blood from her skin and hair, wondering why she suddenly turned so sensitive when it came to Charlie.
She had been with men before, not many, by anyone’s standards, but enough to know that she had never been like this before. She had never gotten jealous, or angry, or anything, really, over any other man.
In fact, she was always the one to start the relationship, and end it. Being who she was, most men dared not even approach her, and so she supposed she had just taken her pick over the years, and then tossed them away when it suited her.
But Charlie wasn’t like other men. He was not afraid to touch her without permission. He didn’t hold his tongue with her, either. Nobody spoke to her the way he did other than her father and Samson.
Today, he’d stood by and watched her do some things that would—and had in the past—send most people running in the opposite direction. When Charlie looked at her, he saw what she really was, and he didn’t flinch or turn away.
She tilted her head back and let the hot water fall over her, staring up at the stars and thinking again about how she had felt when she’d seen CJ with her hands all over Charlie.
Surah finished up and wrapped her cloak around her. Then, she went into the house, which was quiet and warm and dimly lit. She made her way to the room Candace had pointed out and flipped on the small lamp inside the door. It gave off a weak, orange glow.
Suddenly, Surah felt very tired. She unclasped her cloak and tossed it over the twin bed that was pushed against the wall. She set her leggings and boots on the floor, deciding she would sleep in her undergarments and tank top and wrap her cloak around her, as she had never been fond of sleeping on strange sheets, and always liked to keep her weapons close.
She was about to collapse down on the bed when a familiar deep voice spoke from behind her. She spun around to see Charlie reclining in a wooden chair near a small desk in the corner of the room.
“I think I like you better without the cloak,” he said, and his mouth lifted in that half smile as his emerald eyes travelled the length of her.
Her heart flipped, and what would follow felt like a decision made right then and there.
But, perhaps it had been written long ago, on the blackboard in the sky.
Chapter 17
Surah
Suddenly, she was wide awake, a
ll thoughts of sleep forgotten.
She stood immobile, feeling very exposed, but not necessarily uncomfortable, standing in front of him in only her tank top and underwear. She crossed her arms over her chest when she felt her cheeks going red as his eyes moved over her.
“I didn’t know you were taking this room,” Charlie said, but he made no move to stand.
She raised an eyebrow at this. “Really? Because I could swear you put your boots in the other room.” She pointed to the pillow on the bed, where her sais were resting. “And I suppose you missed those as well?”
Charlie shrugged, his posture relaxed and indifferent, but his eyes burning her wherever they fell.
“Okay. I did know you were taking this one.”
Surah waited, but he didn’t elaborate, just sat there leaning back, staring at her.
She put a hand on her hip. “What are you doing?” she asked.
Charlie looked down now, and she felt his eyes leave her the way a lover feels her mate slip free of the bed in the middle of the night. She watched the way the dim light in the room made his thick, dark eyelashes cast shadows on his cheeks as he stared at his hands.
He was also shirtless, but Surah avoided looking at his bare skin, and it took an almost comical amount of effort.
His eyes slowly came up, and she thought he may as well be running his fingers over her skin, because she felt them graze up her ankles and thighs, her stomach and chest, and finally, settle on her face, leaving a trail of tingles behind them.
“I wanted to explain what you saw out there,” he said.
Surah shook her head and looked down at her feet. “You don’t have to explain anything.”
Charlie sat forward, and his eyes went distant, as if he were looking at something from long ago. For a moment he was silent, battling with some demon Surah knew was a secret to everyone but him, just the way she battled so many things that were secrets of her own.