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Waking up with Iris in his arms had already made Char’s day.
He smiled and brushed her hair back from her face, careful not to wake her. She had wrapped her arms around his waist in the night, pressing her soft form against him and using his chest as a pillow. A halo of thick chestnut brown hair spread across his torso, her back, and the sheets. Her eyes were still a little puffy from crying last night, but she was still gorgeous, and he couldn’t think of a better way to start his morning.
He’d thought the same thing when he’d woken up like this in the mage’s tower.
Not all his memories with her in that place were bad. That one was good. Great. Even though he knew he’d been pushing his luck with her, and he’d half-expected her to slap him at any moment for all the teasing and flirting. If she hadn’t been so cute about it, he would have stopped, but all her blushing and scolding and feigned annoyance had made him want to keep going, keep testing the waters and see how far he could get with her.
He’d been certain she’d draw the line when he pulled her into bed with him, but she hadn’t. She’d faked being mad. And then she’d cuddled up to him and fallen asleep.
He kissed the top of her head. No pushing it today. Or until this was over. She wasn’t that kind of girl, anyway.
“Mm…”
She stirred and nuzzled into him, tightening her embrace and shifting her curves against him. The sensation sent a jolt through his body.
Maybe it was time for him to get out of bed.
He eased back, trying not to disturb her, but she sighed and squeezed him tighter. Not making anything easy for him. As usual. He sighed and brushed away the loose strands of hair that had fallen in her face. “Good morning, Iris.”
Her eyelids fluttered and opened. Dark brown eyes dimmed by sleep looked up at him, unfocused for a moment, and then they widened as a soft gasp escaped her. A dusting of pink blossomed on her cheeks. She averted her gaze, but a shy smile spread across her lips, and her eyes wandered back to him, peeking up at him through dark eyelashes.
“Good morning, Char.”
How was he supposed to resist that?
He slid his fingers under her chin, tilting it up as he leaned in for a light kiss. She didn’t flinch away. He grinned against her lips, and when he pulled back, a contented sigh slipped into the space between them. He wasn’t sure if it was his or hers. Maybe both.
“How are you feeling?”
“Stiff and sore. It gets better after a few days.” She loosened her arms around him as she pulled back, settling her head on the pillow. The smile on her face made his heart skip a beat.
Rath was right. Char really had been an idiot. How could he not have seen it? Why had it taken him so long to admit he was crazy about this girl?
Things hadn't gone so well when he told her the first time, but everything was different now, and the words were bursting to get out. She wouldn't reject him again. He knew she wouldn't. Hoped she wouldn't.
He just needed to say it.
“I love you, Iris.”
Her eyes widened. Her smile slid from her lips, and for a moment, he had a sickening feeling in his gut. Then those half-lidded eyes returned to him, and that shy smile was back.
“I love you, too, Char.”
That did it.
He cupped her cheek in his hand and moved in closer for a kiss. One led to two, and two led to three, each deeper and longer than the last. Her hand came up to his chest and slid up and around his neck, and he shifted over her, holding her face in both hands and savoring every taste of her soft, inviting lips. He didn’t stop kissing her until he ran out of breath.
And then he was looking down at her smile and her rosy red cheeks, and he wondered, kiss her again, or get out of bed?
He knew what he wanted to do. But he could smell the fairies cooking something in the kitchen, and that reminded him she hadn’t eaten for over twenty-four hours.
He dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose. “We should probably get breakfast.”
"Yeah, we probably should."
He pushed back the covers and climbed out of bed, and when he turned back to her, he glimpsed long, bare legs before she yanked the blanket back up to her waist. Her face had reddened even further. It took him a moment to register the reason.
She was only wearing one of his shirts.
He spun away and cleared his throat, heat rising on the back of his neck. “I’ll just, uh, be a minute.”
He darted into the bathroom and rushed through his morning routine, then he hurried through the bedroom to the living room, careful not to look at her. She was recovering from literal torture, he reminded himself. He needed to stop, take a deep breath, and reset his mind before he walked into the kitchen and faced his brother.
At least he didn’t hear Rath talking to anybody. No unexpected guests. Just one brother who was a relentless tease and a bunch of fairies who would stuff him like a turkey.
He took another deep breath and braced himself.
Rath greeted him with a smirk. “You didn’t sleep on the sofa last night.”
“Nope.” Char took a seat, avoiding his brother’s eyes. The fairies began dishing up a plate for him.
“She woke up, didn’t she?”
“Yeah.”
“So?”
“So, she was upset, and I… comforted her.” Char cringed inside as soon as he said it, his neck already heating up again.
“Oh?” There was no way that single syllable could hold any more suggestion than Rath had packed into it.
“Not like that. She was crying, and I hugged her, and we fell asleep. That’s all.”
Rath laughed. “I know you wouldn’t do anything like that right after what she’s been through. I just wanted to give you a hard time.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t. So, where is she?”
“Getting ready, I guess. And just to warn you, her voice is kind of rough.”
“Why?”
Char scowled, stabbing his fork at his food with more force than necessary. “Screaming.”
“Ugh. We need to figure out a way to kill that guy.”
“Agreed.”
“I thought about going after him when we busted her out of that tower, but he seemed way too fresh. We either need to catch him when he’s worn down, or Iris needs to figure out how to beat him.”
Char’s green eyes snapped up to Rath’s for the first time that morning. “I don’t want her anywhere near him.”
“Neither do I, but let’s face it. She’s our best chance of taking him out.” Rath glanced over at the stove, and then he did a double-take. “Hey, where’d the fairies go?”
Char scanned the kitchen for them, but they'd vanished. “Probably helping her. When you’re done, go get Kelnor.”
“What makes you think I’ll be done before you?”
Char snorted. “I didn’t say you’d be done first.”
Rath smirked. “Got it. Sending me away so you can have more alone time with your lady. You make me sick.”
“Shut up.”
Rath crammed his mouth full of food, giving Char a few minutes to eat in peace. But try as he might, Char couldn't help looking at the empty doorway every minute or so, and Rath couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tease him about it. Char’s inability to counter didn’t help. He was too distracted by a girl who wasn’t even in the room.
But then, she’d been distracting him since the day he met her.
After breakfast, Rath left to get Kelnor, and Char went to the living room, slumping onto the sofa. He was getting antsy, wondering what was taking her so long, trying not to think about her wearing nothing but his shirt—and then he heard shuffling footsteps from the bedroom.
He sat bolt upright.
She looked pretty good in his robe, too. With her long brown hair wet from a bath. And that adorable blush when her eyes met his.
Her stiff, stilted movements put a damper on things, though.
He got up from the sofa and came to her side, taking the place of the fairies. “You really are stiff.”
She nodded. “The fairies always draw me a hot bath when I first get up, and it helps. Your tub is easier to get into than the one I had in the tower.”
“But harder to get out of, probably.”
The clawfoot porcelain tub in the tower would have required her to step over the edge both ways, while his tub was sunken into the stone floor. Easy to drop into, not so easy to climb out of if someone wasn’t feeling well.
She shrugged. “I still like yours better.”
He swallowed and cleared his throat. Heat was rising on the back of his neck again. With any other girl, he would have made some witty remark after that, but with Iris, he was tongue-tied.
The fairies had set a place at the kitchen table for her. Char helped her into her chair and took the one to her right, frowning at the hot cup of tea next to her plate.
“Thanks.” She took a sip of the tea. “Ah, that always helps, too.”
“Except I don’t have tea.”
Iris looked at him, brow furrowed. “You must have forgotten about it, because that’s definitely what this is. Wait, your hand. What happened to your hand?”
“There she is!” Rath burst into the kitchen, distracting Iris while Char hid his burned hands under the table. “You’re looking pretty good, Iris.”
“Thanks.” She smiled up at him, but her smile vanished when she met Kelnor’s red eyes. Her eyes darted to Char.
“I’m not here to bust anybody,” Kelnor reassured her. “But I need you to tell me everything you learned about the mage.”
“Let her eat first.” Rath took the chair on her left side and sniffed the air. “Wait, is that tea? Where’d that come from?”
Kelnor chuckled as he sat on Rath’s other side, his eyes following the little golden orbs flitting around Iris. “Fairies.”
“What does that mean?” Iris asked.
“Uh, well, you probably wouldn’t know this, but fairies have a bit of a… negative reputation,” Char began.
“They’re kleptomaniacs,” Rath supplied.
“What?” Iris turned her wide eyes on the fairies, who didn’t seem at all bothered by the accusation.
“That’s not quite accurate,” Char said. “They don’t really have a concept of ownership or money, and they like to be helpful. So, if somebody needs something, and they find it, they just… take it.”
“Oh.”
A fairy landed on Iris' hand, then hopped onto her fork.
“Okay, okay, I’ll eat.”
It twirled around her and spun up to the ceiling, and then it darted away.
A rare smile played across Kelnor’s lips. “They really like you.”
She shrugged. “We got pretty close. So, what are they normally like? When they’re not… prisoners?”
“This is it,” Rath replied. “They flit around, looking for people to help.”
“Not in big groups like this,” Kelnor added. “One or two, maybe three at the most. They only get together at full moons for dancing. I wonder if this is the entire population right here.”
“I got the impression there were a lot of enchanted creatures hiding in the forest around that tower from Micah,” Iris said.
“Micah?” Char asked.
She looked up from her plate and nodded. “The king’s mage.”
“Micah. This is the first time I've heard his name. I wonder why it’s been so hard to find anything about it,” Kelnor said, fishing for more.
Iris dropped her gaze back to her plate. “He said there’s something in old magic about names holding power, so he doesn’t give his out unless…”
She stopped, but nobody needed her to finish the sentence. It was easy enough to figure out. He didn’t give out his name unless he knew the person he told would never escape him.
Char clenched his fists under the table.
Rath’s chair scraped the floor as he stood. “Time out. Kelnor and I will wait in the living room. That way you can eat without him plying you with questions. Come on.”
Kelnor sighed, but he pushed his chair back from the table, too. “I give you boys too much freedom.”
“You know you love us,” Rath called back over his shoulder.
Rath’s lighthearted interruption eased the heavy mood a little. Iris watched Kelnor follow him out, and then she turned her dark brown eyes back to Char. The flecks of gold within them caught the fairies’ glow and seemed to dance.
“Which of you is the older brother?”
“Believe it or not, he is.”
A slow smile spread across her face. “I don’t believe it.”
“Nobody does. Better get eating. I’m afraid the fairies will start force feeding you soon.”
Several now alighted on the table around her plate, and several more hovered around her, expectant. Impatient. Insistent.
“I’m eating, I’m eating.” She lifted her fork again, and they twirled together and shot up toward the ceiling, scattering across it like fireworks. “It isn’t that exciting.”
Char smiled. “I think they’re just happy you’re awake. I know I am.”
Iris’ eyes met his again, widening a little at his admission. She blushed and looked away, and suddenly, Char was grinning like an idiot—until the fairies swarmed his face.
“What the—what did I do?”
He pushed back from the table, swatting them away, and then he heard music, and he stopped.
Well, it was music to his ears.
Iris was giggling.
“Leave him alone. He isn’t distracting me that much.”
The fairies landed on the table in front of Char. They had no faces to speak of, but Char got the distinct impression they were all glaring at him.
He held up his hands in surrender. “I give.”
It didn’t feel like defeat, though. Iris’ eyes were sparkling, lit up with the bright smile that had caught his attention when he first met her, the smile he hadn’t seen since he took her to the mage’s tower. If her cute, shy smile made his heart flutter, her wide, joyful smile knocked him off his feet.
She returned her focus to her food, much to the fairies’ relief, and Char rubbed the back of his neck. Rath had been right all along. Love at first sight, or pretty soon after.
Char had never stood a chance against this girl.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzBuZVtvRjb
