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“Shit! I just realized that I should have used my favor to stop Fafnir from abducting me! Why the hell didn’t I think of that?”
“You managed to extricate yourself without using up the favor.”
“True. Plus he already thought he was saving me so it might have been difficult to word.”
Rogue went still at that. He had an inhuman turn to it, as if he turned his body off, making it momentarily lifeless. Yet, within that stillness, his mind spun, a whirling mosaic of thoughts, images and emotions.
“Saving you from what?” he asked, finally.
“I’m sure you know. Do you want me to say it out loud?”
“Yes, I want to hear what he said. Choose your words carefully, but you have more…freedom to say what you wish without consequence.”
“He said that what happened to him, having his mind turned so that he killed Cecily and gave the infant to the Queen Bitch, could also happen to you. He offered to protect me from you.”
After a time, Rogue moved again, beginning with a long breath that sighed out, cold and lonely. “You should know this. He could be right.”
Part III
Human Trials
‡
Chapter 16
In Which I Use a Lot of Feeling Words
‡
In Faerie, the shortest distance between two points is almost never a straightline.
~Big Book of Fairyland, “GeneralObservations”
“Iknow,” Ireplied, feeling remarkably Zen about it for the moment. And touched, that he trusted me enough to admit that. Once, the thought would have scared me shitless and I would have done all in my power to get away. Look at us, and how far we’d come.
Rogue let his head fall back, gaze brilliant blue through his thick black lashes. “You knew, were already in fear of this possibility and yet you did not take the escape Fafnir offered?”
I tucked the grimoire by my feet and leaned over him, brushing my fingers over the pattern on his face that always fascinated me so. “I’ve known since Nancy told me the story. Even before that, I figured something along those lines could occur. That’s part of why I fought you so hard, for so long.”
He considered my words, face grave and somehow vulnerable. “And now?”
I lifted my shoulders and let them fall. “Now I’m done fighting you, my Rogue. You asked me to trust in you, to be your partner forever and I agreed—that’s not something I take lightly. We’re in this together. I don’t believe anymore that you’d willingly hurt me or the child, so we fight the possibly that you could be forced to the same way we’d defend ourselves against any other attack.” As I said the words, I realized they answered my questions too.
“I should have known you’d be as stubborn at my side as you were when I was trying to get you there.”
“Yes, you should have.” I bent over him, kissing the sueded silk softness of the skin just below the temple, then down over his high cheekbone, taking my time getting to his mouth, which waited for me, hot and greedy.
My hair fell around us and he wound his fingers in it, holding me there. Lazy desire unfurled in me, in him, spiraling between us, sweet, hot and heavy. The depth and growth of my feelings for him alarmed me on one level—as if by admitting them I’d somehow provided the catalyst for the chemical reaction between us to rage past all theoretical boundaries. Frighteningly out of control.
To my surprise, he broke the kiss. “Finish your tale and tell me what has you in such turmoil.”
A bit disappointed, I sat back and took up the grimoire again, wondering how I’d messed that up. Not that I’d ever counted seduction in my skill set.
Rogue gazed out the window. “You forget, my lovely Gwynn, how many of your thoughts I hear. I know you worry that I distract you with sex, that I use it as a way of avoiding difficult conversations. Isn’t this true?”
Nothing like being called out on your thoughts. This was worse than going to counseling together. Talk about total honesty.
“It’s true.” I coughed a little, to cover the laugh that wanted to well out at the image of Rogue exploring his feelings on some faux-leather couch. “Though it feels very strange to be having this discussion with you. At least we don’t have to argue about whose family is worse and where we should spend the holidays.”
