The Tempting Touch Of Fire (Elemental Awakening, Book 1) Page 8

  "This will not end well," the King said, throwing the knife across the room so it landed with a twang, hilt deep in an expensive piece of artwork hanging on the wall. "Mark my words! You have no idea of what you have done."

  "She is mine," Theo whispered, unable to speak at full volume, I was guessing, out of true anger. The earth trembled, but I was the only one who noticed it. Theo's complete attention was on the King, even as his arm wrapped around my shoulder protectively.

  "I could have you exiled for this," the King pointed out, fingering the bottle of Scotch before him. I think he was contemplating drinking from the bottle. Only his upbringing held him back now.

  "I ask for this not as a subject, but as your son," Theo said and I guess that answered that question. Theo Peters was a Prince.

  "Four weeks," the King whispered. "Play with her, feed from her, enjoy her. Then she must go, or you both do."

  With those words Theo's father, the Rigas of Pyrkagia, left the room in the same fashion he had entered. In a storm full of rage.

  Chapter 7

  Leaving Me Panting For Breath

  I didn't say a word as Theo ushered me outside and helped me into his car. I was too shocked to open my mouth, to form a sentence in my head. To think at all. The King, the Rigas, was scary. And he was Theo's father. How did I get myself into this situation? What had I done in my life to deserve this mess?

  Theo slid behind the steering wheel with fluid grace and started the car. He looked remarkably relaxed. Completely unfazed by what had just happened. Not even a thread on his expensive suit was scorched. I stared at him, dumbfounded. He had been out of sorts in there, rightly so, but now he seemed... pleased.

  "Seatbelt, Cassandra," Theo chided, not even looking in my direction at all. I fumbled with the buckle, but managed to secure it before he hit the gas.

  The car smoothly glided down the driveway, but I couldn't shift my gaze from Theo's content mask to take in the immaculate scenery around us. I'd missed something in that room. I tried to play the scene over and over in my head, but all I could come up with was fire, the King's rage, and Theo's distress.

  "OK," I said, "why are you so happy?" Happy may have been a stretch of the word. I mean, he wasn't even smiling, but he did look at ease. And he shouldn't have.

  "That went remarkably well," Theo replied easily.

  "If that was what you call 'remarkably well' then I'd hate to see bad," I pointed out.

  "I dare say, you would," Theo said softly. "But we achieved what we desired, did we not, Cassandra? You have been given leave to remain in the city for four weeks. In that time, I am sure, you will remember your history and know where to go when you leave."

  When I leave. He expected me to work this all out, as though I'm suffering from an inconvenient bout of amnesia, and then go on my merry way.

  "And did you get what you desired?" I asked, a little numbed by his callous suggestion.

  "Absolutely. For four weeks you are mine." And obviously four weeks was sufficient.

  What the hell was wrong with me? Why was I even upset by this? I now had four weeks without Theo or anyone else threatening to take my head, so I could prove I belong in my city. Then, when the King realised I was a victim he'd let me stay. Or, and this is by far the preferred option, I could find a way to become human again, to get myself extricated from Theo's bizarre world. In none of those scenarios did it include falling for Theo Peters.

  Just an arrangement. It's just an arrangement. And every little reaction, every little crumble in his façade, in that room, was Theo acting out a role to conclude that arrangement. It meant nothing. He was fooling his father the only way he knew how, by acting besotted with me.

  Oh, I was the fool. An incredibly naive and gullible fool. I needed to slap myself awake. This was not a fairytale. It was a nightmare.

  "I'm tired, Theo. Just take me home," I said, sounding way too defeated. But I couldn't even be alarmed at that. Once I got home, I'd refortify myself. I'd strengthen my resolve, so tomorrow I could face Theo and get some answers. Right now, I just needed a little distance and solitude.

  "Of course," Theo said reasonably. "The guest room has been prepared for you."

  The what? "Um, no. My home. I meant my home," I said, now sounding nothing like defeated, more like frantic with fear.

  "Casey," he said, sounding frustrated and a little angry. "Do you even have a bed to sleep on?"

  I made a sound. It was filled with frustration and anger and incredulity. It was stunningly good. I felt infinitely better having made it. So I did it again.

  Theo turned his head slowly to look at me, one imperious eyebrow lifted in question.

  "You are the most infuriating man I have ever met!" I announced. He smiled. "Do all Pyrkagia carry out threats to the nth degree? Is that why you know my bedroom has been destroyed as well?"

  "It was a guess," he replied, evenly. "I gather it's accurate."

  I made a growling sound at the back of my throat. "Did it not occur to you, though, that I could just move in with Sonya?"

  "Do you really wish to involve her in this?" Oh, no. He knew my worst fear. "Until now, you were considered a human, even by those Pyrkagia who have seen you with me. It will be all over the city now. You are Gi. I am with a Gi. My father may have given you four weeks, but that does not mean all of his subjects will."

  What? Did the Rigas have so little control? I wouldn't have considered that, what with the way he ruled with rage in that parlour alone.

  "They will, at the very least, come calling to view you," Theo continued. "I cannot protect you at Sonya's. I cannot protect Sonya. But the sooner I show you off publicly, the sooner their curiosity will be met. Perhaps then you can return to your flat."

  I put my head in my hands and just breathed. It felt painful, as though my lungs were straining, or I was drowning in water. I couldn't inflate them fully. A pressure existed on my chest I simply couldn't budge.

  This was truly a nightmare. Not only was I a freak now. But I escaped one executioner's axe for a mob lynching instead.

  My head buzzed with so many fears. My heart fluttered in my chest like a dying moth. So many unanswered questions left me reeling. Left me feeling wanting, lacking. I wasn't sure what I needed to fill that void, but I needed something. I searched my brain for the answer to my unquenchable desire. No, it wasn't just a desire, it was a necessity. If I didn't figure out what I needed soon, I was going to die.

  I heard Theo call my name, it sounded so far away. I think he swore again. In Greek. I liked that, it sounded so musical, so beautiful. So him. But even that couldn't fill the emptiness that suddenly existed inside my soul. And it was my soul crying. I don't know how I knew this, but it was. My very essence was calling out for what it needed to be complete.

  Sitting here, in Theo's car, I couldn't find it. I was strangely bemused by that fact. Theo had, inadvertently, given me so much before now. Attention. Belief in myself. Encouragement. Joy. Excitement. Life. Thrills. Challenge. Adventure. Sweet happiness. Protection. Why was he not giving me what I needed now?

  "I have you," I heard him say in my ear. I was out of the car and he was carrying me. I don't remember that. How had I got here? Where was I?

  Darkness enveloped us, blocking out the city’s lights. Cocooning us entirely within welcoming walls. Maybe I was blacking out, but I felt better, not worse. Theo shifted to his knees, me securely held in his arms still, but quickly that sense of safety disappeared. The scent of earth surrounded me instead, enveloped me, wrapped me up and welcomed me home. Letting me know the hard surface I'd been placed on was grass.

  "Feed, Oraia," Theo encouraged. "You have been under stress and not fed properly for several days. Feed."

  What? My eyes flicked open and tried to take in the scene. I could tell Theo was leaning over my body as it lay on the grass, but I couldn't really make him out above me. My head shifted first to one side and then the other, but all I registered was vague outlines of trees. The only th
ing that truly made any sense was the earth's smell. I inhaled deeply, received an encouragement from Theo that I didn't understand. Maybe it was in Greek? I don't know, but my confusion and strange sense of desolation made comprehension impossible right then.

  "Casey," Theo urged. "Pull what you need from the plants."

  "I...I don't know how," I admitted, sounding weak and stuttering obviously. Even I could hear the panic in my tone.

  Theo moved, my eyes hazily tracked his motions. His jacket came off, then his tie was removed. Then suddenly he lay down beside me, his length along mine, and wrapped me up in his arms. Both of us lying in the grass under a canopy of trees.

  "You really have no idea what you are doing, do you?" he whispered in my ear. I think I nodded. He shifted closer, his body practically enveloping mine. "Relax, Oraia. Let me hold you, let the trees do the rest."

  I shuddered as his hot breath washed the side of my face. Heat from his body - normal heat, body heat - seeped into mine. The beat of his heart sounded through his chest into my ear, his pulse fluttered in his neck where my face was nestled. My heart was bounding, trying to race itself right out of my chest. His was steady and true.

  I'd never been held like this before. It was intimate, but not erotic. It was comforting, but also frightening. It filled a part of me up that had been empty for so long. As that part of me unfurled, another part, a deeper part, opened up and let the sounds, scents and sensations of the forest of plants around us, sink in.

  I took a shattering breath in. It was so encompassing that my body arched off the ground and a gasp tore from my throat. Theo growled a sound out beside me, crushed me closer to his hard body and began nuzzling his nose in my hair. Was he smelling me?

  And then, all of a sudden, the embrace I was in was more sensual than before. My senses burst alive. Every sound around me felt like it was blasting through high quality stereo speakers. The trees whispered their relief. Their concern at my weakened state palpable, but they were appeased. I had fed, they said. They had given me what I needed, and returned to them what they craved. It didn't make sense, but it sounded beautiful. I breathed in more and more of their scent in order to make them happy, to fill me up with that divine sensation. My body again lifting off the grass and making Theo groan.

  The groan sent shivers right through me.

  Then all I could feel was him.

  His strong arms around my shoulders and waist. His large palms spread across my naked skin. One on my bare shoulder, the other, alarmingly, wrapped around my bare thigh. How had he got his hand under my dress? When had he done that? And then I felt his chest rising and falling too quickly, the pressure of it against my side making me want to writhe. I fought the urge, dug my fingers into the soil at my side and felt the earth wash through me, surge through me, making me moan a sound out I had never in my life made before.

  "Oraia," Theo breathed into my hair. "You are sensational."

  I wasn't so sure about that, but this, whatever it was, was sensational. I'd give him that.

  "Theo, what's happening?" I breathed, sounding just as husky as he had.

  "You are fuelling your Stoicheio, and by God it's fuelling mine." His fingers on my thigh flexed, then shifted marginally higher. I felt them slip under my panties. His thumb brushed the curls between my thighs.

  And suddenly he was suspended in a tree. Wrapped up in vines, several feet above me.

  "Huh," he said, sounding amused and not at all put out. "Was that you or your pets?"

  I scrambled to a sitting position, returning my dress to my ankles and making sure every possible inch of skin that could be covered, was covered. I realised, belatedly, that the dress, although long, didn't nearly cover enough flesh.

  "I don't know," I admitted, cursing the breathless sound of my words.

  "Well, we know not to do that again," he announced, as though quite happy to forgo copping a feel whilst under the branches of trees. "Care to let me down?"

  I smiled up at him, I was guessing it was pretty calculating, because he reacted with that one eyebrow lift.

  "I'm not sure. I rather like having you contained."

  "Oh, Cassandra." He shook his head. "Must I remind you, that you are playing with Fire."

  "Don't burn them!" I shouted, jumping to my feet with my hands outstretched beseechingly. Strangely, I still didn't ask the vines to let him go.

  "I wasn't talking about burning them," Theo said in a silky, smooth voice. "I was referring to what I am capable of doing to you."

  "Oh," I said, confused. He started chuckling, which looked a little ridiculous in his current position.

  "Sweet, innocent, Casey Eden," he crooned and I gave him my best glare. Not nice pointing out my shortcomings. "Already you have proven how rewarding this arrangement will be."

  And there was the arrangement thing again.

  Release him, but make him fall, I instructed the vines. They tittered happily and suddenly unravelled, making Theo's body spin like a bobbin on a sewing machine and then plummet to the ground.

  "Temper, temper," he said, blithely jumping to his feet and dusting himself down. "And I thought Pyrkagia women were a handful," he muttered, reaching for his jacket and tie. "Gi are meant to be so relaxed and accommodating. What the bloody hell are you?"

  "Your worst nightmare," I shot back, falling into step beside him as he strode out of the forest. I soon realised, it was the small forest of trees on his property. He'd brought me home to his house as planned, and then rushed me out into the trees. The same trees I could have used to harm him. The same trees I had used to get on his property and cause a landscaping mess.

  "All things can be moulded to compliance," he answered swiftly. "Some just take more force to break than others."

  "Is that supposed to be a threat? Because I'd like to point out it was you tied up by vines, not me."

  "And it was incredibly enjoyable. You are introducing me to new delights every day, Cassandra. I cannot wait to see what you will do in our bed."

  I stopped in my tracks. Theo just kept walking, chuckling loudly, highly amused at himself. He bounded up the stairs and didn't look back. I was standing on the edge of the tree-line, just before the half destroyed pavers that surrounded his house. Going any further seemed like a really bad idea. So I sat down on the edge of the grass and just sighed.

  I did feel better, there was no denying it. Whatever that was in amongst the trees had done it. Whatever I now was, obviously needed that, and that's why I was so weak. Theo had said I was stressed and needed to feed. Had I just fed? I felt full, but that was just bizarre. Feeding off trees.

  Oh God, I needed answers and the only person in this world willing to give them had just walked in that house. The only person I could turn to, even if I couldn't trust him, enjoyed making me squirm. I wanted to be angry at him. I wanted to find that hatred I'd felt from before. But Theo had rushed me to what I needed. He had stayed with me when I continued to panic. He had placed himself in a compromising position, well aware I should think, of what I could do whilst surrounded by nature. Yet he didn't walk away, he held me closer and closer still.

  He was an anomaly. A contradiction of himself. I was meant to be his enemy, and I truly believed that hadn't entirely changed, but still he invited me into his house. He risked... something; pain, ostracism, to get his father to let me stay. That couldn't have endeared me to him, yet when he held me, in amongst those trees, I could have sworn I was held by someone who cared.

  Who was I kidding? This was an arrangement, nothing more, and Theo intended to collect payment for all of this. And payment involved his bed.

  A bubble of hysterical laughter erupted from my mouth. Oh, he was going to be disappointed on that one. Not that I thought I could fight him off, I wasn't stupid. Theo had a hold on me stronger than anyone had managed to have in the past. I swear all he would have to do was look at me in that way he does, with hunger and desire and intent, and I would melt. To hell with his ability to make me feel lust,
I wasn't sure I could deny him if he hauled me to his bed, even right now.

  So, he would get his payment, there was nothing I could do to prevent that. But I sincerely believed it wouldn't be payment he was used to. How could it be? When I was completely and utterly inexperienced in that department. He was going be so disappointed. It almost made the whole thing worth it.

  But then, no one likes to be the worst experience someone's ever had. Not only was I a hated Gi, I was also going to be a let-down. I wondered if he'd brag about it. I wondered if, after all this was over, Pyrkagia in the city would come to my deli just to point and whisper harsh words.

  My fingers absently ran through the blades of grass at my sides, soothing me, making it impossible to get nervous about probable embarrassments to come. I glanced down at the beautiful dress I wore, saddened to see dirt smeared across the delicate material, ruining it beyond repair. I'd have to remember that, if I needed to feed again. I wondered how often I did. I wondered how it actually worked. If I fed off plant life, what did Theo feed off? His father had instructed him to, play with me, feed from me, and enjoy me. So, could Theo feed off me?

  It sounded a little creepy, at least the way I replenished involved nature not humans. He was sounding more and more like a vampire, but without the blood.

  Suddenly a shadow fell over me. I looked up expecting to see Theo and hearing some smart comment about taking too long. Instead I met the compassionate looking eyes of his butler.

  "Miss Eden. Your bedroom is ready. Would you care for a meal before you retire?"

  "What's Theo doing?" I said, getting to my feet and stretching. I really had wallowed enough for now, might as well get some answers.

  "He has already retired, Miss Eden. He will be dining in his room tonight."

  Ah, no. I had questions for the man, he wasn't going to get out of it that easily. I eyed the butler, he seemed to be waiting on my instructions. He'd also prevent me from doing what I wanted to do, I was sure. He looked somewhat frail, but I could see steel glinting in those hazel eyes.

  "Thank you...?" I left the sentence open.