Yeah! Among other things. From the sounds of it, it seemed that Joshlin had turned him into the “assassin” they say, but I see something different in him. In fact, the more I think about it, he didn’t look scary when he snapped the neck on that guy, he looked relieved. And by the way he was watching where I was the entire time it was like he felt protective. My problem wasn’t the killing as morbid as that may be, but the reason behind it. Princess duty or because he actually worried about my safety?
“And you won’t mention the tiny weapons of destruction you keep hidden in your sleeve because I saw what went into the neck of that one guy!”
His neck popped both ways before he answered, “They are not tiny, just useful. And they contain jornete root to dull the pain.”
“You drug the ones you attack!”
His face reddened to a fast boil making me wish I’d shut up a line or two back, but too late now. He fisted his knee and answered through gritted teeth, “They attacked me and yes, I try to make their pain subside faster. It only makes them pass out.”
Sure enough, I knew I’d crossed a major line when Trigger laughed a little too loud at the comment. I’d embarrassed him. It was such a sticky subject for guys and they’re egos, but we were talking about life or death. I couldn’t find the humor or humanity in either guy’s reaction, but I was trying really hard to see it from their viewpoint.
Figuring I couldn’t gain much more from taking it further, I shut up. When five minutes or so passed, I made some sound just to break the silence. I threw in my own kind of humor to lighten the mood since it appeared like Ames’ hands may grind the steering wheel right off the dash even now.
“Can I rub your lamp and make three wishes, cuz’ I need some about now?” I meant I needed some luck. Saying it to my best friend Tonya had sounded less…suggestive.
The backseat warriors laughed their heads off and didn’t stop.
“You can rub me anytime,” one of them said behind me.
A hand whipped behind to the back and a loud “OW” was heard. I turned in time to see Trigger had a red cheek that strangely looked like a handprint.
“I only meant that I could use some luck since my very existence seems to cause havoc to everyone involved. Days ago I was this ordinary girl who lived among the rest with a normal life and normal problems.”
“Yeah, cuz’ a normal girl has the kind of power your body holds. The things your body can do,” Trigger whistled long and low.
Ames growled all caveman again and his hand went up again. What was wrong with him?
“You stop all that. I can handle their crude comments on my own without you defending my honor. Something is seriously wrong with your pissed off meter.” I don’t know why I yelled at him, it just irked me that he kept growling.
“She fits in just perfect don’t cha think?”
I smiled at Wicker despite the rudeness.
“Would you just tell who you are already and get it over with? She would stop acting all bossy if she knew who she was up against.” Wicker was helping me out. I think.
“Later.”
That was all from the big, bad caveman. The we’re not talking about it now look was boring a hole into Wicker’s face.
“Sooner or later you’ll have to tell me what’s going on other than the fact that the evil goblin king, who you deny any relation to, wants me and you’re hiding me out. And I’m not stupid. I caught that you said there were other realms. What I’d like to know is what they think hurting us will solve. What bigger picture are you hiding from me? I can’t live like this forever, Ames. It has to end soon or I’ll just...”
“You’ll what?” he looked away from the road to me with his hair drooping in his eyes. I followed it diagonally down to his open mouth. His lip curved up on one side with that deadly dimple like he knew affected me.
Then it changed to something hard.
I feared him in that moment. The look was deadly and haunted. But I stuck with what my head wanted to say, “I’ll run away when you’re not looking and solve the problem myself.”
So that was the most unintelligent declaration I’d ever announced of myself.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t make a caveman grunting sound and the backseat was unusually quiet.
At the cabin, Ames got out of the Jeep as the two in the back did. Thank goodness it’s a four door. I pushed the handle, but it wouldn’t open. The three of them stood at the front right fender talking as I kept trying to get out. Panicking, I made exaggerated efforts to make them see my stress and come rescue me. It wasn’t an old car or anything, but it wasn’t budging.
Ames was talking at them rather than a three way conversation. His finger went into both their faces and after they both gave a short bow, my mind switched into autopilot. Something about that gesture made me curious.
Trigger and Wicker nodded in unison to him and left my sight as Ames aimed his fierce eyes at mine through the tinted glass now keeping us two feet apart with a door between us. Suddenly, the door clicked and opened on its own accord.
Did I imagine that?
He strongarmed me out of the car and half dragged me into the house without unlocking the door with a key. Was it left open or was that another magic trick?
Once in the door and him with it, the slamming shut vibration made me jump half out of my skin. I pressed against the door watching him pace and push his hands through his hair over and over.
I was not scared of Ames, I was scared for him. He seemed to have some kind of immense pressure on his shoulders that he kept inside and only shared little. The guys knew some of his secrets, but I was guessing there was more to it.
I figured I better say something.
“I get that you have secrets you’re afraid to tell me. I’m not afraid of you and I won’t be bullied either. I get that you’ve had to do terrible things, but it doesn’t make you evil or able to change your own future. I will stop badgering you. But you have to give me more than you’re giving. You took me from my home, my family, took me to a weird place where they want to keep me as a pet, took me again saying you were going to save me from them who are now the bad guys in my fairy tale, and hide me where we are socially allowed to do nothing. I can’t live like this. Either we do something about it, or I just give in and destroy the place because I’m not staying there. I’d love to forget it all and go back to my life.”
That’s when he finally looked at me.
“You’d just forget it all?”
Was that hurt in his eyes?
“Yes.”
Something flashed across his face that looked definitely like hurt, but it was gone so fast I couldn’t be sure.
“I mean that I could do without the drama. Meeting you was nice, but it’s all too much.” I blushed so heavily at my admission, I had to move away to keep myself from saying something else foolish.
He caught my arm and pulled me to him. He hugged me.
I still haven’t seen any sign that the almost kiss was real though I know from the tingle on my lips that it did. It had to have happened.
But right now Ames Cahn stood so close to me I thought I might die from the heat.
AMES
Maybe this is what a protector does when he feels twined with who he is protecting. She’s my target now. This is why, even as I find myself leaning toward her and unable to look away, I tell myself I don’t want this.
She leaned in to me too.
A voice choked and cleared signaling we are not alone.
She took a step back at the same time I did, my own heart beat two at a time.
“Are we...should we leave.” Trigger was noticeably looking down.
“No,” my voice cracked. “We are through. We came to an understanding. We will travel to Joshlin in the morning and I will make a claim that Emma is stepping down from her position as princess. He will accept it and take his reign and she will be free to go. Assuming that is what you want?”
I directed the entire speech to
her. If she wanted out of all this, that is what she would get.
She shook her head saying nothing. The guys stayed kind of in a dropped mouth awe before Trigger opened his big mouth and said to her, “You really just don’t care what happens to any of us?”
The deer in the headlights look came as fast as her next words did. “That’s not what I said at all. No one told me that everything depended on me. How could it? I just said I’d take it all back and go back to normal, whatever that may be. I don’t want anyone hurt.”
“Then don’t leave us,” Trigger practically begged stepping closer to her than I liked, but what could I do if she didn’t want me.
She looked to me. “I don’t want to make it worse. I just don’t want to live the rest of my life in this cabin with three guys and well...a girl. I want a life where I go to school, get married, have children. You know, normal.”
“But you’re not normal. You were never meant for normal,” Wicker started the begging now.
Guessing I wasn’t the only one aware of her next decision, I spoke up.
“I need to talk to Emma alone. You two can check the perimeter again and come back in fifteen.”
“But we—
I slammed my fist on the small kitchen counter, “AGAIN!”
Wicker sighed, grunted, and mouthed words I shouldn’t repeat.
Once alone I asked her to join me on the sofa and if she wanted a drink. She hesitated looking straight forward, but I caught her quick glances at my fists. She knew I was stalling.
Emma said yes luckily and found a spot on the far corner where she tucked her feet up under her legs like a wounded animal. I’d screwed up again.
I pop the top on two sodas and we both watched and listened to the fizz settle before she asked, “Why am I so important that I can’t just leave?”
Perhaps she was just scared. If it had been me, I would be. Maybe I’m overestimating her confidence.
“I think if you shun the king he will let you step down from your position. I realize all this is overwhelming and that maybe I have put too much pressure on you.”
“Ya think!”
I kept on over her sarcasm, “You will not have to stay at the cabin indefinitely, but life would be easier if we did. It was selfish of me to assume so. I don’t wish a life of servitude upon anyone and I know that’s what you are destined to if you go with him. I think you deserve better than that.”
Her mouth opened to interject something and I cut her off. “I also think that you are wrong in your assessment for what you want. I watched you at that human school and you were in no way comfortable with your abilities around them. I understand that you want “normal” by what you define it, but normal is what you make it. You could spend a lifetime in the house you grew up in and never once feel normal.”
I understand this well.
She picked at her shoe. “You speak like its experience.”
“It is. I lost my father when I was very young and my brother brought me up.”
I could tell her some things about myself and feel like I was being honest with her. I just didn’t want to see her hate what I was. I hated her existence for the longest. Now, I can’t feel anything but how much I care that she is happy. Content with the life she was given.
“I’m sorry that happened to you. I don’t wish that upon anyone either.”
Her softer words spoke to me like it came from within her and not the surface tension she let everyone else see.
I took the plunge. “Do you really wish you’d never met...any of us?” Okay! So I chickened out on the how she feels about me part.
“I didn’t mean that. I was just being a brat. I know how much you have risked for me and I am thankful. I should be more thankful and hope that you will still rally to help me. I don’t want to stay in this cabin for the rest of my life, but I don’t want to be a wife slave either. It doesn’t seem like I have many personal choices.”
Oh, but she does. I can protect her. I just can’t have her personally.
“I will take you then. He will see it my way.”
She mumbled under her breath something I couldn’t understand. Soon I would have to tell her that our realm wasn’t the only one who wanted her back.
EMMA
The night went well. We played cards around the small table, ate chips and salsa from our leftovers, and downed the last of the soda. BOTH twelve packs.
I headed off to bed first after a bathroom trip and letting Ames in next. I wanted to be in the bed and hidden before I had to face him alone again. I almost said things during our two private conversations today. Like, how much I really didn’t want to be anywhere but with him. No matter where that may be. My heart wanted one thing, while my brain kept telling me I’m jumping into a ship of sharks.
Either way, I’m drawn to him. He seems to care where no one else ever has. He protects me. Refrains from yelling though he’s angry with me sometimes. Aims to see this through no matter the cost I fear.
“I know about the two of you,” Wicker stopped me before I made it in the bedroom door giving me a hard stare into my not so odd anymore eyes. I squeezed the doorknob so tight the handle was loose from my anger.
“Great!” I flushed making the quick assumptions he was leading me to. “But there’s nothing to tell.”
“I can deal with it. It’s not a sin. The only other hitch in the get up is that you belong to a king.” He tilted his head like he was analyzing my eye color again and getting nowhere.
Only one hitch, right? Other? “What are you going to do about it?”
“Well, I can do one of two things. I can destroy your boy by taking you away with me where you will get married and have lots of goblin babies or...I can help you. I don’t want to see Ames done wrong.”
Going for option two would be good!
“Your boyfriend will be none too happy when he knows I know how you feel.” He raised his razor sharp eyebrow at me indicating the loosened doorknob and smirked. “You will see.”
“I never said there was anything to know.” Anger started to rise again in me. “What do you call help?”
“You’ll see.”
Ames walked up to the two of us thumbing his lips and stopping on the same corner as before in his same pajama pants. I straightened looking every bit the guilty one.
His eyes darted back and forth, “Something I am missing?”
“He seems to think...we are more than friends.” How do you say that when we never really termed it? I really wanted to just disappear.
As quick as lightning Ames was covering my body and aiming a knife at his friend. Whoa! Where did that come from?
“What did I say?” Wicker looked at me.
“If you hurt or take hold of her in any way, I will—
“What Ames? Kill me. I don’t think it’s in you. Besides, if I wanted her kidnapped or dead she would be just that so quit your heroics and move aside. Let us figure out this huge dilemma you’ve got us in so that the two of you can move on and not make just goblin babies but rather more normal ones that one day I can train.”
Ames dropped his mouth sideways and down. Wicker had a way with words.
I thought maybe Ames would say something more, but he just left and went into the bathroom again. I left Wicker standing alone.
The night was long after neither of us seemed to ever fall asleep. Fifty times I tried to get the courage to say something. When my eyes finally closed, I felt like I’d slept a hundred hours when my eyelids found the sun. I was too warm. Never having woken up warm before, it unnerved me. However, something comforted me at the same time allowing me to succumb to a very deep sleep for which I was also unaccustomed too. Enveloped in something strong and heavy weighted, I instantly knew it wasn’t the sheet.
Cautious to move for fear of alarming the person whom the weight had to belong too, I wiggled just slightly to perhaps awaken him. Did he know his arm was draped over my hip with a hand a little too close to areas I didn’t know yet I’d
want a guy to be near?
I tried crawling like an inchworm out of the fold of his arm when his leg crossed over and trapped my feet to the bed. Alright now! This was getting crazy loco.
Deciding awakeness was my best option, I wanted to make him aware I was indeed awake and then escape before he noticed where he rested his appendages on my parts. My failsafe plan was to pry his fingers off and over to his own hip, then slide out of the end of the bed and stand next to it staring at his closed eyes. I could see it all in my mind. It’s just not how it actually went down.
Instead, his wrenching fingers trapped my own under his concrete block hands across my stomach while my feet just ended up entangling more into his as he woke and stared blankly at me. His face somewhere between confusion and realization, a light bulb went off the instant he realized where all his body touched mine.
Trapped still like a fish in a net, I glared at him like he was the culprit denying all the while that I liked every second of it.
“Morning. Trying to seduce a poor guy in his sleep?”
That did it. Arg!
I flipped him off me, a little easier since he helped this time. His devil smile did things to my insides, but I dismissed them easily enough and stomped two feet away from the bed.
“What, you think I might grab you and hold you down. Tickle the frown from your face?” He stood on his knees and came across the bed. Lord, he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
I stared like an idiot who’d never seen a guy half naked. Well, I haven’t much.
He looked down smoothing his hand over his tight thoroughly well defined abs, “What, you like? It’s not like I slept in a shirt before. Why would I start?”
My mind took a nosedive as I eyed that he did indeed have his sleep pants on. Unfortunately, his eyes followed mine.
“I didn’t think you’d let me go commando. Just looking out for your best interests here.”
I frowned worse and turned away mad that he could read me so easily. Dang girl genes. His abrasiveness had to have come from the turn of events from the night before. He knew I liked him and was poking fun at me now.
Denial (Goblin's Kiss Series Book One) Page 17