The Master of the Realm was in the library, trying to look nonchalant. But I knew the difference between him reading a book and waiting for me to show up. I trudged in and dropped my satchel on the floor. The noise of it hitting the tile cut through the room.
He didn't look up from his book. "So?" he asked.
I shrugged. "They bought it."
A smile crawled over his face and his grey eyes came off the pages, glinting at me mischievously. I looked away before it got contagious.
"So, next month I'm supposed to let them know if you're 'besotted,' –their word, not mine – and then sometime after that they'll kidnap me."
"When?" he asked, closing his book.
"I don't know. Sometime after the next meeting."
"Well, that could be anytime. Even before you come home from the next meeting."
"Yeah, I guess it could," I replied. "Um, Eric?"
"What?"
"Uh, you don't have any of those healing apples lying around, do you?"
He stood suddenly. "Are you hurt?"
Oh geez, I had him all upset again.
"No, no," I replied, backing away. "Well, I'm just a little sore. I thought just a couple bites..."
He stopped. "You're always Little Miss Don't Get Me Addicted. It must be pretty bad if you're asking."
"Nevermind. Not asking," I said, and I left the room.
The truth was, I felt like shit after the ride home. I had barely moved in the last month and my muscles were pretty much dead. But, worse than that was that the plan was on.
And I still didn't know what I was going to do about it.
I should have told them. I should have just told them that he knew and let the chips fall. But he would have known. And then I would have had to tell him what I'd done. Everything would begin to unravel one lie at a time until he knew that I wasn't being coerced into working with the resistance. I had been planning to kill him all along.
Geez! I hurt everywhere!
I pushed open the door to my room.
Eric was sitting on my bed with an apple.
...And I think he changed clothes. His shirt was sleeveless, and propping himself up on the bed his right arm was taut with cut muscle. In his left hand, the apple. His shirt was just a little open over his chest. –Probably because the shirt was so tight he couldn't close it any further. His legs were straight out across the bed in front of him, linked at the ankles. Playful.
Right.
"I said nevermind. You're right. Those are addictive."
"You had enough of these feed the city last month. Two more bites won't kill you," he replied.
I walked over to the bed and put my hand out for the apple. He reached out too, but we weren't going to span the distance.
I crawled onto the bed toward him. He seemed to go still. When I neared the apple though, he pulled it away.
"Fine," I said, easing back off the bed.
He slumped and tossed it to me. "There."
I took the apple to the little slot in the wall that led to the trash heap. I tossed it in.
"Really, Dor!" He jumped off the bed. "You know better than to throw magic into the garbage heap. We could end up with giant rats or something." Wanting to get to the garbage slot, he put his hand on my shoulder to push me out of the way. –And it hurt.
"Oh. Kay." I hissed, rubbing the sore spot.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked, bewildered. "I thought you were healed. You've been telling me for weeks that you're fine."
"And if you had let me out of the palace weeks ago, I would be. Instead, I can't go for a ride or carry some groceries without wearing out because I've been in an apple coma for weeks." He reached out to touch me again. "I'm fine!" I snapped. "Just sore."
"Come here," he said.
"I'm fine."
"Come here."
I walked over to him, and gently, he took me by the arms and turned me around. He pressed me up against the wall. "Uh... Eric?"
"Close your eyes," he said.
No. I wasn't going to do that. I opened my mouth to say so when –
Oh.
His hand pressed into my back and for a second, I thought it was going to hurt. But it didn't. Instead, the place where he pressed felt warm and liquid and the pain was going away.
Then he pressed somewhere else, lower, near my side. Same thing.
Both hands slid up my back, more firmly this time and I squished into the wall in front of me. –Still felt amazing.
His thumbs slid along the edges of my shoulder blades.
He seemed to be pulling me apart and putting me back together. His hands were emanating heat and power and they just seemed to absorb everything that I didn't want in me.
It was when I noticed that I was drooling into the wall that I realized that I may be a little too relaxed. "I'm fa-hing a-slee."
"What?" Eric asked.
I pulled my face off the wall. "I'm falling asleep."
He stopped, and I immediately regretted saying anything. Then he was turning me around again and putting my arms around his neck. I was too sleepy to argue, and then he swept up my legs. "You've gained some weight," he said.
"You're about to lose some teeth," I replied.
He took me to my bed, and I thought – okay, he's just putting me to bed. –Nice of him. I did say I was falling asleep.
Then he rolled me over onto my stomach.
"This isn't necessary," I began. But he was already straddling my waist and rubbing my back again. His weight pushed me into the bed and his hands seemed to melt my flesh into warm dough.
"I need to take your shirt off," he murmured.
"Ha! No you don't," I replied. "Believe me," I added, trying now to wriggle out from under him, "I'm not that sore."
But he just pinned me, lying down on me, his stomach on my back, and said, "No, really. I'll be able to fix you." His breath was hot on my neck, and a surge of desire pounded through my veins like a flash flood.
I had to swallow before replying, "It's okay, Eric. Please get off."
I felt the sudden pause in his already minor movements. Then, he said, "You sound funny."
