Chapter 16

Rosabel La Rouge

When he stopped the car, Taland urged me to stay put, and ran all around it so he could open the door for me, offer me his hand to climb out.

All the while, I giggled.

What a silly man. What a silly, perfect man.

“It’s a safe house,” he said.

“A safe house,” I repeated, looking around at the trees that seemed to lean toward each other from the sides of the narrow road, like lovers pulled apart, reaching out their hands for one another, connecting them over our heads.

“Yes. The actual house is down this road,” said Taland with that gorgeous grin as he stepped away from me, walking backward. “Are you brave enough to keep following me, sweetness?”

“Through hell and back,” I said without hesitation. “Why didn’t I even see this road from out there?” I wondered, pointing my thumb back where we came from. We were in a town somewhere outside of Baltimore, Taland said, and it had taken us over two hours to get here. The sky was still dark and the town was quiet, and at the edge of it were only trees on either side of the road. I hadn’t seen this one at all, though, so when Taland drove right, I screamed, thinking he was going to crash into a tree.

Now, here we were.

“The ward,” said Taland. “Illusion magic, among other things. Come. Let me show you the house.” He raised his hands for me. “If you dare.”

“A little darkness doesn’t scare me, Blackfire.” I meant it—nothing scared me when I was with him. “ Where exactly are we?”

“One of the many safe houses Selem has created for its subjects,” he said.

“ Selem— I read about that. It’s that secret organization you’re part of, isn’t it,” I said. “But wait—what subjects?” And also, “ Why are you smiling like that?”

I mean, I loved it, and his smile pulled up mine, but how could he be so calm and amused and all around happy when we were running for our lives here?

“Why wouldn’t I smile? The world is spinning, the sky is dark, and we’re alive.” Suddenly he was right in front of me, wrapping his hands around me, biting his bottom lip as he looked down at mine. “It’s a wonderful world…” he sang in a whisper.

I couldn’t help but smile wider, shake my head. “You’re drunk.”

“Not yet.”

“Oh, so you’re planning to drink now?”

“I’m planning to eat,” he said, then brought out his tongue to lick my lips, taking my breath away. “I’m planning to get drunk off your sweetness.”

Heat all over my body, especially between my legs. “Taland,” I warned because he wouldn’t even need to do much to convince me—a simple kiss would suffice, really—and he knew we needed to talk. To get to the bottom of this. To figure this out.

“Yes, Rosabel?” he said, and those annoying butterflies went at it in my stomach like always when he said my name like that—like a damn caress.

“We need to talk.”

“We do,” he said with a nod. “We will.”

“Right now.”

“Of course. We’re talking, aren’t we?” But the look in his eyes and that grin…

“Taland, I’m serious.” Because he looked so… high and I knew he wasn’t. He really did look drunk, and as much as I loved it, we were in a very, very bad situation here.

“So am I. Don’t mind my face. My heart is smiling, but my mind is working, I promise you,” he said, touching his fingertip to his temple. “Can you do me a favor, baby?”

Anything. “What?”

“Close your eyes for me.”

I did without even understanding that I’d decided to. My body remained at his command.

Then his arms were underneath me, and my feet no longer touched the ground. Instinct took over and I grabbed him by the jacket when my eyes opened to find myself in his arms— just like in the Iris Roe.

But there was asphalt beneath his feet here, not bones. And Taland was smiling; he didn’t look like he was going to pass out soon. He didn’t swing to the sides, and his step didn’t falter.

“What are you doing,” I whispered, and it wasn’t a question, but he answered anyway.

“Carrying my favorite person in the world to the house at the end of this road. What are you doing?”

Goddess, I was suddenly all warm and fuzzy on the inside. “Being carried to the house at the end of this road by my favorite person in the world,” I said, and on the inside, I thought, is this really happening? Because this was exactly like it used to be when we were in school. When we were madly in love with one another. When we existed to be with each other. It felt exactly like it, and goddess, I wanted nothing more out of life. Just this—forever.

“Sounds like you’re comfortable,” Taland said with a wide grin.

“I am. It’s the most comfortable place in the world, here.” Nothing like his arms—no bed or chair or place.

He chuckled. “Best to hold on tightly then.”

And I planned to do exactly that with all my strength. But I was getting too fucking emotional again, and if I spoke, I was going to burst into tears. Happy tears that pooled in my eyes, but tears nonetheless. So, I rested my head on his shoulder and I blinked them away as fast as I could, and I got my shit together because I didn’t want to ruin this for anything in the world.

I was here now, and it didn’t matter what had happened before—Taland was right. Somehow he knew. Somehow he’d seen.

I knew, too, and it was okay.

Taland hummed a melody I adored, a song we used to listen to in his dorm back in the day— Let Her Go. A song I’d never dared to listen to in the past two years, and now there it was again, in my head and in my ears, wrapped all around me, just like Taland.

“Look. There it is,” he said after a couple of minutes, and there were no more trees to our sides, only the open sky above us. Ahead, there was this two-story house, narrow, made out of wood as dark as the trees that surrounded it, wrapped around it, like the branches meant to hug the dark green rooftop. No lights on anywhere, only what the moonlight showed us, but I did notice that the air was thick with magic. Now that I was focused on my surroundings, I did notice that I could almost see it in the air all around us.

“What are those?” I wondered, looking at the rectangular rocks that stood upright in a wide circle around what should have been the front yard of that strange skinny and tall house.

“The wards are engraved in them. It’s just rocks,” said Taland, taking us up the four stairs and to the front door of the house. There he put me down but didn’t let go.

When wards were engraved on rocks that were magically transformed into these dishes, if you will, for magic to exist, the spells became twice as powerful, and they lasted as long as these dishes were intact. It could be the reason why the IDD had never found this place, or others like this, but I still didn’t feel as safe as I’d have liked. We were still very close to Baltimore and Headquarters was just a few hours away.

“Hey, look at me,” Taland said as he put his hand on the door, palm flat against the wood painted black. His energy charged the air for a moment. “They can’t find us here.”

He was always a mind reader when it came to me.

“I know,” I said, and I did trust him, but this was the IDD. And who knew how seriously they’d taken me running away with Taland or Taland trying to steal that script from the Vault?

And my grandmother…

Goddess, I didn’t even want to think about her at all.

“Then cheer up. Welcome to this safe house, sweetness.” He pushed the door open, and it gave without a sound.

I walked into the dark corridor, and I just now realized that it was a bit cold outside, but it was warm in here. Dark, so dark I hardly saw the other end of the short corridor, but warm.

Then Taland was behind me, arms wrapped around me, his lips on the side of my neck, and the door swung closed.

More darkness.

I wouldn’t have cared if the sun had been shining right over our heads.

For a moment, we just stayed there like that, him with his arms around me, my hand in his hair, the other over his. We just stayed there, and we got used to being so close, to being one again.

Then he planted kisses down my neck and to my shoulder, and I held onto his head, and I melted into his arms, and the world faded away completely. The moment that door closed and Taland wrapped me up in him, nothing else existed but us.

He moved us soon, turned me around to face him, then slammed his lips to mine with a new urgency, like he might die if he didn’t kiss me this very second, and so would I. His hands were on my waist, squeezing me tightly, and my back was against the wall, and I had no idea if he’d carried us into a room or if we were still in that corridor, but I didn’t really care. His lips were my lifeline and I’d gone so long without living, much too long. The Iris Roe didn’t even count—I’d had him for barely hours in total.

I kissed him with my everything—my love and my apologies and all my sorry s. He kissed me with all his promises and his need, and we cleansed ourselves of all that was bad between us. With that kiss we showed each other that nothing had changed, no matter what the world had made us, or where we’d been, or what we’d done since that dreadful night. We were still us and our fire was still there. The embers were sparking to life with every new kiss and touch, and it was more beautiful than the stars in the sky.

No need for words because our bodies were doing the talking, and we were happy to let them. Taland’s hands were under my shirt, and mine were under his, and the warmth of our skins turned up by the second. I sucked on his tongue and he bit my lips violently, and I moaned into his mouth just like he liked.

He pressed me hard against the wall until I felt every inch of him—his chest, and his cock, ready for me, pulsating with need same as I was.

I needed him—goddess, I needed him now. I didn’t care about finding a bed or making sure we couldn’t be seen—I just undid his belt and the zipper of his pants, and I slipped my hand underneath until his cock was in my hands.

He growled and moaned and moved his hips up, eyes squeezed shut and my lip between his teeth. Blood on my tongue but I didn’t feel the pain, and then his hands moved, too—one under my bra, squeezing my breast, the other on the zipper of my jeans, pushing it down.

Yes, yes, YES , I wanted to scream, but the best I could do was moan and whisper his name. Don’t stop, don’t stop, please, don’t slow down, I begged in my mind, and Taland must have heard me, or maybe he was just as desperate for me as I was for him.

Neither of us slowed down, and when his fingers slid under my panties and down my soaking wet folds, the house came alive with our moans and whispers and screams.

I pushed his pants down as far as I could. “I need you,” I said, or maybe I just thought it. Either way, he heard.

That’s why he pushed down my jeans the next second, and I was shaking, my knees weak, but I still somehow managed to turn around. There was no way I could wait for him to get all our clothes off—no way. I wasn’t kidding when I told him I needed him now.

Taland cursed under his breath when he pressed his body against my back. His hands were everywhere, pushing down my panties, grabbing my ass, my boobs, pressing his hard cock between my buttocks as he moved up on his tiptoes, then back down again.

My cheek was pressed to the cold wall. Taland’s warm lips kissed the other. I grabbed his arms as well as this position allowed and I thought I begged— please, Taland, please. He moved away just a little, both hands gripping my hips tightly, and he pulled them back until I was almost completely bent over for him. I held onto the wall with both hands and screamed when he slapped my ass. It stung and the feeling was fucking delicious and the sound even better.

Taland whispered about how much he loved the view, how perfect I was, how deep inside me he wanted to get as he played with me. He brought his cock down my wet folds, and to my clit, then back up to my entrance, and he slapped me again, caressed my skin.

I raised on my tiptoes when he moved his cock up, desperate to take him in, so desperate. Thank goddess he couldn’t resist. He pushed his hips forward all the way, coming inside me at once.

Finally, we were one for real.

He never once took his cock out of me when he pushed me to stand straight and pressed me against the wall again. He wrapped his arms around me tightly and pushed deeper inside me, so deep I felt him everywhere. My screams could awaken the fucking dead, but I couldn’t care less if someone heard. My head fell back on his shoulder and my eyes rolled in my skull and I was thankful he was holding me up because my legs had already gotten too weak.

“Fuck, your voice,” he whispered in my ear. “Fuck, sweetness, your pussy is my paradise.”

His teeth sank on the side of my neck and he moved back just a little so he could thrust inside me again with twice the force.

“Don’t stop screaming, baby. Let me hear what I’m doing to you,” he said, mouth against my ear, his heavy breathing matching my own.

And I thought, I couldn’t stop if I tried.

When he brought his hand in my front and pressed his fingertips to my clit, I screamed even louder. When he gripped my boob with his other hand, then started to fuck me faster, the sound of his pelvis slamming against my ass could have been louder than me. He raised on his tiptoes and gave me every delicious inch he owned, and my eyes rolled in my skull again, and the orgasm exploded everywhere inside me, taking me away from the safe house and the city and the world.

Goddess, he felt so good it should have been impossible, but here he was, pressing me against the wall still, fucking me like it was his life’s mission to hear me scream.

He came, too, not a whole minute later, because we were starved for one another and we didn’t hold back. He came with my name on his lips that might have been the best thing I would ever hear.

When the high let him go, he pressed against my back and rested his chin on my shoulder, and he whispered dirty things about my pussy and my body and my screams in my ear until both our legs threatened to give.

Just like that, nothing seemed all that bad anymore.

The world could really be a beautiful place.