“Thank you, captain x-files,” I’d said
sarcastically, saluting him.
“Okay fată, maybe it was all just a terrible
coincidence then.”
I doubted that. I was beginning to think
there were no such things as coincidences anymore and was really
leaning toward magic…er Nature having her creepy hand in getting
Gerik and I together.
Xan had somehow honed in on my thoughts.
“Gerik?” He asked. I nodded.
“You’re still you Trin. You always will be.
No matter what’s happening with Gerik. Nothing can change that, not
magic, not Nature, not anyone.”
I’d thought of Gerik and what happened every
time he touched me. “No.” I’d shaken my head sadly. “I think you’re
wrong. Gerik can change me. I’m not myself around him. He has the
power to change me completely and I have no way to fight it.”
Just like Nature, he has all the control.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
My mind was wandering; I couldn’t focus on
the story Maisera was telling. I had already finished my third cup
of Plum Ţuică and was debating if it would be rude to get another
cup before the story was over. Pitti was sitting right next to the
jug so I doubted my over indulgence would be noticed in comparison
to his.
“Hey.” Xan blocked my path to the Ţuică. My
stomach did a little flip flop at the sight of him in a tight black
t-shirt and a pair of baggy jeans.
“Hi yourself,” I said, trying to get around
him but he didn’t budge and instead grabbed my cup from me.
“Sit down Trin, I’ll get it for you.”
I didn’t argue. I figured him looking like
the drunk instead of me worked just fine in my book. I plopped down
next to Becki my apology practiced and ready.
“Spending a lot of time with Xan,” She said
before I could get a word out.
I looked at her. “Was that a question?”
“Just an observation.”
Good, I thought. Because then I’d have to ask
you who, instead of your boyfriend, have you been hanging out with
lately.
“He’s teaching me how to fight and shoot,” I
told her.
“Are you sure that’s all?” She gave me a look
that told me she wasn’t so sure.
I shot her a look of disbelief. “Why would it
matter to you what my reasons are for hanging out with him?”
“He’s a manwhore, Trinity. Is that really
what you want?”
Disappointment shot through me. I’d wanted to
mend our friendship, not worsen it, but Becki it seemed had other
ideas.
“Have you even seen Gerik lately?” She
continued.
I glared at her and Gods damn her but she
glared right back. “The two of you is a good thing. Right, Hockey?”
She nudged her boyfriend with her elbow expecting confirmation.
Please shut up, I silently begged her.
Looking first at Becki then at me, Hockey
went back to staring at the fire without answering. Becki shot him
a dirty look.
“He agrees with me,” She answered for him.
“Everyone does.”
Becki still hadn’t shut up when Pitti and his
brother Pesha joined us.
“There is chemistry between you two, it’s
obvious. Everyone can see it.”
Chemistry. I almost laughed. Talk about the
understatement of the year.
“So what is this story about anyway?” I
turned toward the Pitti and Pesha hoping to change the subject.
“What, ‘The Fisherman and the Princess’? It’s
about some rich bitch that needs to get the stick out of her ass
and remember that money and status have no place in the matters of
the bedroom,” Xan answered, returning with my drink.
Pitti threw his head back and howled with
laughter.
“Nice Xan.” Becki scowled at him. “I never
knew you were a poet.”
“It’s a well kept secret, my little
bohemian.”
“Trinity…” Becki started up again. “You and
Gerik look great together. His light coloring with your dark is
really beautiful.”
With a calculatingly smirk on her face, she
raised her eyebrows at Xan. “Don’t you agree Xan?”
I was really starting to feel the effects of
the alcohol but because of Becki’s intrusive behavior I was
becoming more agitated than playful.
“Hmm…” Xan said slowly, looking truly
perplexed. “I’m not sure. Let’s find out.”
He put his hand on my exposed thigh, his
expression mockingly quizzical, and squeezed. Seeing and feeling
his hand on me, my breathing hitched.
Pitti laughed so hard he shot liquor out of
his nose.
“I don’t know about that, Becki.” Xan’s hand
inched up my leg, disappearing under the hem of my dress. While he
pretended to study the contrasting shades of our skin his thumb
began moving in small circles on my inner thigh. I stopped
breathing altogether. “I think dark and darker ain’t so bad.” Xan
winked at me.
Becki didn’t miss any of it. “Xan, when was
the last time you spent the night with the triplets? Ooh! Look
there’s Fifi now! Let’s ask her!”
Xan’s drink crumpled in his grip. It was time
to stop this before things turned ugly.
“Becki!” I yelled. “Gods damn! Look over
there!” I pointed to a spot not far from us where Onyx was enjoying
the comfort of Gerik’s large body wrapped around her.
“That’s who you want me to be with? The guy
who is constantly alternating between me and her? Thanks,” I said,
hoping I’d conveyed how insulted I felt. “Thanks a ton.”
Xan laughed until Becki looked like she was
ready to start talking again. No longer smiling, he cut his eyes at
her, frowning. The overall look was threatening.
“Becki tends to think monogamy is overrated,
don’t you puţin sora?”
Hockey’s lack of attention to our
conversation suddenly improved, as did Becki’s posture. She didn’t
say another word about Gerik and I. In fact, she didn’t say another
word the entire night.
I was going to have to ask Xan what he knew
about Becki. As soon as I could concentrate on something other than
the hand on my thigh.
After a litany of rules and warnings and a
pair of bright orange earplugs, Xan finally let me do live practice
rounds with both the pistol and the rifle. My aim was atrocious,
yet to my astonishment, he wasn’t berating me about it or making
any sarcastic comments about women using guns. In fact, he was
smiling an awful lot.
Seeing Xan smile for the first time, a real
smile instead of his typical wolfish grin, was sort of a shock. I
had stopped talking mid-sentence and just gaped at him, causing his
smile to turn into a scowl. He stomped away after that.
The Sava men joined our practice. Stefan, an
experienced hunter, was showing me techniques with a rifle he
claimed Xan did not know. Surprisingly, Xan seemed to find that
funny rather than insulting. Stefan was everyone’s surrogate
father.
While making a bullet ridden mess of the
piece of cardboard Xan had propped up between two sawhorses, I
noticed Hockey gesturing at me.
“Huh?” I pulled out an earplug.
He slammed a clip into the empty handle of
his pistol with a loud crack. “Becki,” he repeated, “Have you seen
her today?”
His hat was pulled down low and he was
refusing to look at me, leaving me unable to gauge his facial
expression but by the tone in his voice I knew he wasn’t happy.
“No,” I told him.
“And yesterday?” He asked. “Did you see
her?”
“No,” I said, realizing where this
conversation was headed.
“Is she sleeping at home?” He pulled the
trigger. I put my earplugs back in and waited until he emptied his
clip to answer him.
He turned to me, expecting an answer. I so
badly wanted to lie to him and spare him the hurt I was about to
cause but I couldn’t. No one deserved to be kept in the dark,
constantly lied to by the people they trusted. It was wrong and did
nothing but cause pain.
I blew out a breath. “No, she’s not. I’m
sorry,” I said to him as gently as possible. I reached out to grab
his hand as a means of support and was caught completely off guard
when he pulled me into an awkward hug.
“It’s not your fault,” He whispered. “It’s
mine.”
“Trinity!” Xan snapped. I jumped away from
Hockey.
Forehead to forehead with me, his eyes
narrowed, Xan growled low in his throat. “What are you supposed to
be doing right now? Practicing? Or…” He glanced at Hockey, “Hugging
strange men?”
I laughed. “Strange men?”
He growled again.
Backing away from him, I asked, “Are you
channeling your inner bear?”
He stalked forward. “Maybe.”
Hockey glanced between us, his expression
curious. I glanced back at Stevo and Stefan, who were also watching
Xan continue to advance on me. I shoved at his chest, “Stop it.
Everyone is looking and you’re acting like a jackass.”
Snorting, “You should know me well enough by
now fată. I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks.”
The end of my flip flop snagged on a hole in
the ground and I started to fall backwards. Xan caught me before I
fell and pulled me close.
“Trin, what’s an Até lover?”
“Huh?”
Warm breath tickled my ear as he nuzzled his
cheek against mine. “You called me that the night we were attacked.
An Até lover. It’s something bad, I’m guessing.”
He nipped at my ear. I simultaneously
shivered and shuddered.
“Até is the Goddess of mischief,” I
whispered.
“Is that all?” He asked, laughing. “What
about Eros? I don’t remind you of him?”
A man who knew his Gods. My heart triple
timed it.
I shook my head vehemently. “No way. Maybe
Ares.”
He was still laughing when his teeth caught
my ear again.
“Fuuuck me….” Pitti said loudly. Where had
Pitti come from?
“Language!” Stefan snapped.
“Who cares about language?” Stevo said.
“Xan’s gonna die cuz’ Gerik’s gonna murder him. It’s gonna be a
bloody, messy death.”
“True, frate,” Pitti replied. “There might be
anything left to bury.”
“Does anyone know how this is even possible?”
Hockey asked, always the voice of reason. “Doesn’t she…belong
to…Gerik?”
I frowned at that last comment but all
coherent thought fled as soon as Xan tugged me behind a large
grouping of Pine trees and began trailing feather light kisses down
my neck. Using just enough pressure to feel pleasure from and yet
not repel.
“I’m sorry Trin; I didn’t hear you, say that
one more time for me. How do you clear a malfunction?”
I groaned and rolled my eyes. Xan was a
stickler for making me answer the same question about fifty times a
day.
“Wait at least ten seconds before trying to
clear it in case it’s only delayed. Then pull back the slide.
Release the slide and fire. If that doesn’t work, take out the
magazine, eject the round and give you the gun, oh wonderful master
of mine.”
He was smiling, I knew I was right. I stuck
my tongue out at him and did a happy dance.
Xan gaped at me. “Never do that dance again
fată. Promise me.”
“I can’t make promises I won’t keep, Gypsy.
But I will tell you-
I trailed off as soon as I realized where we
were. I had been so caught up in our conversation that I hadn’t
been paying attention to where we were going. Xan was holding the
door to his trailer open for me.
As I continued to stand there staring, saying
nothing, his eyes darkened.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He turned
abruptly and disappeared. The screen door closed behind him with a
slam.
I stood there alone, wishing I could just
walk away before things got even more complicated. Or difficult.
Because if I went in there things were definitely going to become
more difficult. At least for me.
Regardless, I couldn’t leave with him
thinking I’d left because I didn’t want him. Not when, in reality,
I felt the opposite.
Taking a deep breath, I opened his door and
found Xan sitting on his kitchen counter, smoking a cigarette,
wearing only his boxers. He glanced up in surprise.
“Forget something?” He asked, blowing out a
stream of smoke.
His skin was still damp with summer sweat and
exertion from practice. The lingering scents of bonfire smoke and
gin that always clung to his body hung heavy in the air. Bringing
up his arm, he took another drag of his cigarette and exhaled. I
watched as the muscles in his biceps flexed with the movement. My
belly tightened in anticipation. I wanted him and I wanted him
now.
“Fată?” He said, his lips twitching.
I didn’t know what to do. It hurt too much to
kiss him and yet standing here looking at him, half dressed with
his long hair falling over his golden brown chest, it was hurting
not to. His smile slipped. Sliding off the counter, he stubbed his
cigarette out in the sink.
“Veni la mine, frumos,” He said softly,
crooking a finger at me. My stomach took a wild leap into my throat
and my breathing became labored as I approached him.
His lips hesitated near mine and, oh Gods, I
desperately wanted for things to be different. Sensing my
hesitation, instead of kissing me he changed course and went for
the sensitive skin on my neck. As his kisses grew urgent, the urge
to force him away from me began to flare.
But before I knew it his hands were skimming
the curve of my hips, his fingers biting into my skin through the
thin material of my dress as he roughly pulled me closer.
The shadow of his beard was rasping
delightfully against my skin as he nuzzled and kissed his way down
my neck.
When the ribbon holding the back of my dress
together loosened causing the sleeves to slide off my shoulders, I
arched into Xan, rubbing my bare breasts against his chest.
I felt him hesitate.
I dug my fingernails into his back. “Please,”
I whispered.
Pushing the dress down over my stomach and
past my hips, I let the soft material puddle on the floor at my
feet. Suddenly tense, he closed his eyes at the sight of my naked
body.