I moved not of my own volition to the table where I found all...my favorite foods. I surveyed the table. It was covered with chocolate, strawberries, cheese, the little sausages, crackers, and more. I saw a drink was poured for me. I was leery of that.
How did this guy know what I eat? And why did he do this? Maybe it was a coincidence. Sensing my disquiet, he answered my mind’s confusion with his own question.
“Is there something missing?” the dark, too deep voice asked.
“Uh, no. It’s fine. Just wondering why it’s here.” Nervous didn’t describe what my mind was thinking for real.
“I just want you comfortable. Ease you into this.”
Red alert. Ease into what? I didn’t flinch though. I got the feeling I shouldn’t make this man mad.
“I’m all good here.” I gave a furtive glance back in Ames direction just for the sake of knowing where he stood in relation to me.
“Would you like to indulge?” he spread his hands across the table. His sultry voice might be construed as inappropriate.
Yes. “No. I’m good.” Now I was repeating myself. Heck, he made me mushy gushy sounding.
He moved over to a section of the long table where three high back dining chairs sat. A guard was taking away the third chair and leaving just the two. I wondered why there was a third and if I’d interrupted something by being here. Where was the rest of the family? I looked around the room. Guards. Ellen.
Ames.
He stood on the bottom step of the huge floor to ceiling velvety room. I surveyed him noting he was standing alone like he was important or something. That made me wonder. I turned back to the hot dude sitting all swag happy and waiting for me to make my next move. His knees spread out and his arm leaned across the back of the chair like a GQ male model.
“Who are you?” I asked slowly. I had a bad feeling. Remember those bad intentions? They were crawling up my leg and settling somewhere in the vicinity of my stomach.
“Joshlin. I am at your service, as you will be at mine.” He kissed my hand again, stared at my eyes. I’d fall under the lull of his voice if it didn’t creep me out a bit, but right now I just wanted to be back with Ames. I chanced a look at him. He just watched giving me nothing but I still got the itch behind my brain that he wasn’t happy with any of this.
I’m supposed to know who he is? I am sure he must be the king talked about, but he is so young. “Joshlin who? You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve only recently learned I had a family of freaks like me.”
There. That would ward him off his sex appeal like Ames asked me too. Only Ames and I stood out so dag-blad much.
“Milady. Your lineage is exquisite and your abilities I am told are astounding. You would be a most fascinating queen for the realm. Please accept my apology for my guard as he has not informed you well of your needs or affairs. I will remedy that shortly. For now.” His face drew up at something giving Ames a nasty look. Then his face changed altogether and I noticed his attention wasn’t on any direction it should be. I looked back to see a very pretty girl standing in the door.
Queen? Did he say that in the same sentence meaning me or the girl he was now staring at? I just didn’t get the whole call me princess-and-queen thing but this guy gave me false feelings that more felt like the heebie-jeebies and the very opposite of Ames. He was all Casanova, but Dracula scary.
“For now, I must leave you and return at dinner. Please enjoy the pleasures before you and I will see to it you are well informed before I return.”
He nodded at Ames who did the same impassive glare, but once again I saw the flicker of anger cross his face. I didn’t get to ask what the guy meant by the “queen” statement?
Joshlin walked quickly out the door with the girl and the doors were closed. Well, so much for meeting the kinfolk.
AMES
He was such a filthy piece of crap. He hid his bimbos from her to snag her in. He spread out a bribe to snare her senses and he still left with one of them under disguise. Not that they chose it, but he still indulged in lust and evil. He was wrong for her and she deserved better.
No, that wasn’t me either. But still.
Trigger and Jones were there too fast. I was thankful I knew all the guards, but I was no fool. Joshlin had others on the outside in the human world watching me and anyone else he wanted surveillanced. I remained watched when need be, and hidden all the rest of the time. These two would side with me in the end though. Help me get her away from him. Trigger was good for his name. It might just go off.
“Man! That was unreal. He totally played her.”
“Shut up, Trigger,” I snapped before he could release things I wanted to tell her myself. Or rather I didn’t want anyone else telling her.
Emma stomped down the steps and right up to me. She put a finger to my chest making my mind go in places it shouldn’t especially given the present circumstances, but she the one who kept with the habit.
“Who is that really, Ames? Who are you? Something is very wrong with all this. What little info you gave is not adding up. Tell me now Ames Cahn what the heck else is going on.” She was the fuming kitten at full speed ahead. I couldn’t let her hear the truth about the real Joshlin. It was sick.
She was too pure. I never, never thought I’d ever want something more.
She had to be mine. I had to play the cards right if it was to happen. Now, if only my friends here would help me out with the right kind of help.
“Why my dear Emma, your guy here is the kings very own assassin.”
That wasn’t the right kind of help.
“Dude, discretion would be good here.” I wanted to puke. And murder him. I didn’t need any more mirth behind my eyes right now to tell him what I was going to do to him.
“You were sent to kill me?” It was an accusation, not a question.
“No, I was sent to bring you back.”
So much for friends. I would put some action behind my eyeful of warning when I got Trigger alone next.
“I don’t believe you!”
Smart girl.
“For who?” She quizzed with her heart growing more nervous the more we talked. She waited for an answer.
I didn’t get the chance. My friend did. “You didn’t tell her who she is, pal of mine. How could you lead her on and not tell her the single most important detail to her existence?”
I am going to put a fist through his face and break every bone in his jaw if he doesn’t...“Shut up. Just shut up, Trigger.”
“No pal. She has a right to know. He’s heading back for her in an hour. He’s a room away from her as we speak waiting to strike. Once, when they sent me to retrieve a beekeeper, I got stung on the—please don’t ask—and the guy was going to attack me while the litter buggers were—
“Dammit. I’ll tell her alright. Just disappear so I can.”
Emma’s fear spiked therefore jolting mine. I ran my fingers through my hair twice to keep my hands off her. Whatever happened next, she promised she wouldn’t run. She promised. I told myself that three more times before I had her yanked away from prying ears.
EMMA
“Just out with it, Ames. It will be easier if you just say it. You owe it to me.”
I stood too close. The hot guy syndrome had some kind of lulling voice thing going on, but nothing like how he affected my nerves when he was close to me. Everything went haywire.
He gulped a large amount of air and said to my face with huge eyes, “You are Jem. The daughter of someone high up on the food chain and Joshlin won’t stop until he has that status.”
I blinked back my fear and laughed feeling chastened but relieved all the same. “I thought you were gonna say I was in trouble or something. Like a bad guy or villain was a room over and he was here to kill me.”
He took another breath and squared my shoulders with both his big arms. “It is worse than death, Emma. Worse in your eyes I know that now. I know you. I thought I could pass you off as useless in power to thwart him o
ff a while longer so I could come up with a plan. He means to take you as his bride.”
“HIS WHAT?” I screeched in his face. Somewhere around us I heard a laugh. The guard named Trigger heard me. The other one didn’t speak at all.
He screamed a triumphant hoot and holler to the air.
“He wants to take you back to this compound of horribleness and marry you so that he can stay king," the one named Trigger offered attempting humor. I ignored him and aimed for Ames.
“Why on earth does he need me?” I blasted my arms out beside me feigning anger to hide the fear. I could blast this place to another continent. And I was so caught under this suave guy's spell for the brief few minutes that I didn't contemplate the game plan of the devil. Now I felt like the room was getting heavy with liquid fire and someone might light a match just to see me explode.
“Because you are the lost princess who can make him the king forever. He just needs you to make it all complete,” he blurted out like it hurt to say.
I was still in denial of this catastrophic event and totally denying that he just called me a princess. “Why now?”
“Because you will turn eighteen in a month. If he takes you,” he squirmed about, “into his bed, he thinks it makes you bound to him forever.”
Ahhh! So the magic deed on the magic night. Not.gonna.happen.
“Sorry to inform you boys, but I’m not available that night. Busy. If he thinks for one second I will go with him or let him do anything to my body, he is crazy loco.”
“He won’t ask permission,” he whispered letting his sorrow seep through me like a disease. I felt everything he did.
I looked at my hand burning with secrets. His emotions were running wild and extremely indecipherable. “What is this with you? Why do I feel your emotions so strong and no one else?”
He drew me further from the eavesdroppers. He smiled for the first time since we came to the place, a dimple showing on the right side. His dimples. My heart smiled until he said his next words.
“You bound yourself to me in a different way. Our connection is strong because you...well it just is.” He pushed away from me instead of closer.
I tried to breathe, “What? That’s impossible. As in you believe that there is no other?”
“I believe you are bound to me and no other, yes.” Strands of hair fell across his forehead the way I imagined in my own fairy tale knight story. Just, it’s supposed to be a dragon, not a relentless goblin princess rescue. I was in so much trouble. "It wasn't something I saw coming."
He was so maddening. Didn’t he see what I meant to say? “And how about you...to me?” I asked. It wasn't that I wanted to look hopeful, just explanations.
He looked at me solidifying his gaze like a lock on target. “I am bound to you and will be whether you choose me or not.”
Bound, but it was different for one than the other. I am so confused. Like soulmates? Choose. He had some kind of hidden secret in the middle of that statement.
“And you are okay with that?” I asked to confirm his intentions though at this point he seemed all too eager to get away from me, not closer.
Was it really a choice or was it some crazy magic that hooked up the honey’s of this world? What if I didn’t want to hook up with the likes of any of them?
His hands stayed glued to my shoulders curling almost possessively as he whistled through his teeth in a tight lipped pull and then said, “Emma Steele, I found you because someone sent me on a mission to take you and I didn’t.”
I waited for him to show a sigh of remorse like he was sorry for doing it, but it more seemed like he was sorry for not. I didn’t see how this answered anything. He released my arms and shifted some kind of weapon around in his pants that finally revealed as a long jagged knife. How had I missed that?
“I’ve never not finished a mission.”
“Oh! I’m an exception to the Ames Cahn planned out life.”
“I never saw you coming. But the second I saw you, I was caught in something I couldn’t find my way out of.” The knife was very interesting to him because he had yet to look back at me as he stroked the handle. I ignored the delicious shudder that raced over the tops of my shoulders where his fingers pulled away.
Is that guy talk for “you’re so hot and I gotta have you” or is it “you’re unnatural like me and I have no choice but to be caught in the trap that I don’t want in”? Either way, I went with it.
“I still don’t see the point?” I shook my head confused. "You can't expect me to believe the princess part any more than the soulmate thing. Besides, you hate me."
“Emma, dang it. I can’t see reason when with you or even when I’m not. I can’t even form sentences. I wasn’t talking about anything but just wanting you. I want you, not the powers. Not anything else but you. I wanted you safe before the dang cursed connection found its way to you.”
“So that’s guy talk for I wasn’t this mushy before Wednesday and you want me to accept that you feel some obligation to me. I should jump up all giddy or something and say to the world, ‘he doesn't hate me’. And be a trophy girl on your wall for being his first unfinished business.”
“Emma,” he growled, his voice low and raspy. “I didn’t choose this.”
We’re back to the choice thing. I kept my heart in check from jumping to conclusions. Elizabeth denied her feelings for Mr. Darcy many times and he eventually came around. Besides, I was still in denial that I really wanted him and he seemed more confused than me.
“So you do feel trapped with me,” I panicked and blurted out before thinking it through.
He pulled me to him and at the same time the door slammed open with a very surprised guard. His hands were swift, strong. His breath was warm, open on my face. He pressed me even to his slouch leaving me exposed to the wall behind me where I felt it slam against me or rather me against it. I couldn’t comprehend any coherent thought as the guard apologized profusely and bowed to Ames closing the door as fast as he opened it.
When he let me up back for air, I caught that his eyes were bright. Too bright. What’s with the eyes and all these emotions...whatever they are? It wasn't normal and suspicious wasn't the right word for what I felt. The hooked up emo inner lingo meant something.
“What else are you?” I examined those eyes closer still. He wasn’t completely like me, or Joshlin, or any of these people. If the "king" and his intentions were true to happen, then I needed an ally. Ames seemed willing to help. Whether it was for the reason he liked me or felt obligated, I didn't care. Mostly. I just wanted out of this now.
AMES
The question of the hour. She knew I wasn’t the same as her. Now I would lose her.
“I’m not the same as you. You are the princess of the king who made a bad decision and acted on it before he thought carefully. He ended up suffering the consequences. My father worked with him on some occasions, but they were natural enemies in the end because of greed on both their parts. I never knew my father well or yours. I am also what Trigger says...when I need to be.”
“You’re skirting the question, Ames.” Her confidence made my mouth twitch with unwise thoughts for the moment. She didn’t even bat an eye at the fact that I’d killed before.
She had me so figured out it, it scared me. With eyes down I told her, “I am what they call a gold miner of sorts, or my ancestors were. It’s like I told you before, the world you’ve lived in for eighteen years calls them goblins to you.”
“It’s not like it escaped my mind, Ames. I’m not slow. What else?” she demanded. Emma stepped back letting my shoulders go where she now held them. I eyed the door I’d hid us behind still scared of being caught but more to avoid her criticism or laughter that was sure to come since she already started it up with the small snicker emitting from her curled up lips.
I left it to her next move.
She eyed me up and down stopping on various spots across the length of me that would not leave her in “good girl” status very l
ong if she kept it up. She waved a hand all around me and said too sultry like, “This is not what I pictured for little men in cute hats and licking gold coins when they snatch them from unsuspecting passerbyers. So tell me what you’re hiding.”
Funny, I would gladly put on a little hat and lick some gold if it would mean I would get her. “That’s all a myth. The gold part only holds because we used to be in the trade business with it as our main source. We worked alongside others like us.”
She looked at me for a long time. “Then why are you in the position you are and what job do you actually have?” She knew something was off and just dodged around till she fished it out.
“There was a war. Your father...and mother were destroyed by the current king.” There. I would make her hate him. “You obviously see who won. Our people were taken and made as workers in his realms but many of us escaped. Joshlin made sure they would suffer.”
We lost so he took their princess.
I was at the bottom seeing her see me as weak or at the very worst, less than a man should be. Maybe the king was better for her even if he was a sleezeball. At least he could provide for her. What could I give?
Her hand went to my shoulder giving herself her own calming mechanism by touching me. I’d noticed it on several occasions now, but denied it for my own. It seemed we both needed it. Perhaps we both held that in common. The lack of worth. She was worthier than me. “Ames, I’m sorry.”
What was I thinking?
I wanted her close. Closer. Mouth, lips. All of it. She was compassionate and caring. He didn’t deserve her no matter what it took. Even if it wasn’t me.
“I need to take you back.”
“What will happen next?”
Dinner. “He will announce you for whom and what you are.”
I’m going to be sick.
Denial (Goblin's Kiss Series Book One) Page 11