“Alicia,” he mouthed against her lips, uttered with such longing and desire, she knew he loved her.
Her brow furrowed for a moment. Didn’t he?
He kissed her eyes, one with profound reverence, then the other. He moved to her cheeks, doing both of them the honor next. And then her lips again. And she succumbed. No one had ever kissed her with such tenderness, such finesse, such passion. She was in love. Had to be.
Male voices spoken some distance away garnered their attention. Alicia parted her lips to speak, but Deveron covered them with his again. She gave into his loving touch, but then the swirling began all over.
She groaned as her world shifted from golden light and sweet smelling grass to rotating dark and the only scent, Deveron. His subtle spicy fae fragrance drew her under his spell.
When dark faded to light and she managed to focus on her new surroundings, she realized to her horror, she was laying beneath Deveron in a pale blue velvet bed surrounded by the same colored curtains that shrouded them in secrecy. A human girl pinned to a very comfortable bed by her enemy.
She opened her mouth to object, but Deveron shook his head at her and clamped his hand over her lips to keep her quiet.
“Stay here, while I get something for you to wear,” he whispered in warning. “Do not, whatever you do, leave the bed. Neither of us can afford any of the other Denkar fae catching you here.”
“Where are we?” Though she suspected it was his bed—his bedroom—or he would not have been so bold to bring her here.
“My bedchambers at Castle Donao, the kingdom of Denkar.”
Why in heaven’s name did he bring her here of all places? In the middle of the spider’s web where the black widow of them all would devour her in one fell swoop?
A chill trickled down her spine. “Deveron, why did you bring me here?” As if she didn’t know. To play with her as he would with any human girl. And then when it wasn’t safe or fun anymore, give her up to the powers to be.
He grasped her hand. “To keep you safe. To protect you. I promise that’s my only intention.”
She scowled at him. “A promise from an evil dark fae?”
He lips twitched upward slightly. “You’ll have to trust me.”
She gasped as she thought of Cassie. “Cassie! What of Cassie?”
“Micala will take good care of her.”
She frowned at him.
A slow smile curved his lips. “He’s not a dark fae, or I should say…not evil like me. He won’t allow any harm to come to her.”
“But what about me? I mean, she’ll be worried that I disappeared…that I—”
“He’s made sure she only thinks he’s been with her. As far as she knows, she’s alone on this trip, and she and he will share some fun times together, nothing more.”
“Fun times?”
“Pleasant…nothing unseemingly.”
Why didn’t she believe him? Because he was a dark fae…that’s why. “Why did you bring me here?” she asked again. “You had no reason to.”
“The royal guard was after us.”
“Us?”
“I’m supposed to be elsewhere. But if they had learned or were to learn what you’re capable of…” He shook his head. “I didn’t want to have to worry about your well-being. You’ll be safer with me.”
She glowered at him with her most evil, narrow-eyed glare. “It’s because of you that I’m in this mess.”
He smiled at her words. But he hesitated to leave her. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Right. I happen to be in the wicked lair of the dark fae.”
His dark brows knit together in a frown. He whispered in her ear. “Stay put and I will return shortly.”
Alicia nodded, but she wouldn’t release his hand.
His lips curved up again, only this time his eyes warmed and twinkled with a strange mixture of delight and intrigue. “Would you like for me to give you a goodbye kiss?”
She released his hand at once.
“I should world jump with you more often. It makes you more…compliant.”
She slapped his chest and whispered, “Go and hurry back. Then you can…why do I need to change clothes?”
“To blend in with the other blond-haired fae.”
“Why would I need to do that? I mean, why can’t you return me to—”
“You are going to stay close by my side. End of discussion.”
She scowled at him, not caring for his superior male attitude.
He grinned at her, kissed her lips, nipping the bottom one, and when she touched her tongue to his to show him he wasn’t so much in charge, he groaned. “Later, faery princess.”
Faery princess. She was a human who was in a whole lot of trouble.
And then he vanished.
All at once her skin erupted in goose flesh. Alone in unfamiliar surroundings a sudden sense of disquiet filled her. What if he didn’t return? What if she got caught in his bed?
She sniffed at the bed linens. They smelled like Deveron. And then the realization sank in that she was indeed in his bed.
Great! If his parents should catch her here of all places, she’d be dead meat.
She scrambled through the bed curtains and meant to stand on the floor, but as soon as her feet touched the woven rug, she collapsed to her knees. Her head swam with dizziness as her stomach grew nauseous.
Then women’s voices grew close to the room, and Alicia’s heartbeat quickened as she grabbed for the bed curtains.
CHAPTER 6
“I swear I was with him one moment and the next, he was gone,” a woman said somewhere outside Deveron’s room as Alicia fumbled with the bed curtains.
Was Ritasia the one who was speaking?
“If you are hiding anything concerning this matter, it will not go easy for either you or your brother,” a woman warned. Her voice sounded older and concerned.
“I had nothing to do with his disappearance,” Ritasia insisted. Her voice grew closer to the bedroom door as her footsteps padded outside the room. “Why should I wish to get into trouble for my brother’s folly?”
The curved brass handle on the door began to twist down. Alicia grappled with the bed curtains, trying to find the entrance into the bed as her heart sped up its pace and a trickle of perspiration dribbled between her breasts.
Work legs, work, she scolded them silently as her whole body seemed to be moving in perpetually slow motion.
“Because, Princess Ritasia, you are like two dark kernels on an ear of corn, clinging side by side. The queen knows you often help your brother out of predicaments he gets himself into. Only this time it’s much too serious. Either your brother weds the Venician princess Lorelei, or you wed her brother. That’s what your mother just announced one of you would do. Strife in the kingdoms and such. The Denkar royalty wish an alliance with the Venicians, too.”
“I won’t. Deveron will have to marry Lorelei.”
Ritasia peeked through Deveron’s bed curtains as if afraid of what she’d find.
Alicia bolted out the other side. And fell on the floor. What was wrong with her fool legs? Her bones had turned to rubber.
“What was that thump?” the woman asked.
Footsteps hurried toward the other side of the bed. The side where Alicia sat on the floor, totally shaken. She crawled under the bed.
“Nothing,” Ritasia said, quickly, worry evident in her voice. “See? Nothing. Must have been something that fell in the bedchambers next to Deveron’s.”
Alicia watched as their golden sandaled feet walked away from the bed.
“Why don’t you continue your search, Lady Manantos? I’ll wait here a while, just in case my dear brother returns anytime soon.”
“You will not attempt to aid him?”
“Hmpf. Why should I? What does he ever do for me, but give me grief?”
“True enough. However, you have done so before.”
The door closed and then footsteps hurried back to the bed. Before Ali
cia could scurry out from under the bed in the opposite direction, Ritasia peered underneath the bed skirt. She grinned. “This is too funny. Whatever are you doing in here?”
“Hiding.” Though Alicia assumed it was obvious what she was doing sprawled out under Deveron’s bed.
Ritasia reached her hand out to her. “Come. If anyone else searches for you here, I can take you safely to my own bedchambers. For now, I can freely move about the castle. Though I don’t know how long before my mother sets the guard on me.” Ritasia helped pull Alicia out from under the bed. “Get back in his bed. Where has he gone to anyway?”
“To get some clothes for me to wear, he said.”
“To get some of my clothes.” Ritasia frowned, then her face brightened. “Can’t be helped. Whatever does he hope to pass you off as?”
“A fae.”
Ritasia giggled and touched a lock of Alicia’s blond hair. “Well, yes I suppose so.”
“I’ve seen blond-haired fae with Deveron. Micala is one even.” Alicia tried to stand, but closed her eyes as a wave of dizziness washed over her.
“Oh,” Ritasia said. “You’re not used to fae travel.” She helped Alicia onto the massive mattress that spanned the width of two king-sized beds shoved together. Why would Deveron need one that large?
Ritasia climbed onto the mattress and shut the curtains.
“Thanks for telling the other lady I was not here.”
Ritasia smiled. “I couldn’t. What fun would there be in that? But as to your remark about the blond-haired fae, well, except for Micala and a few others, I should amend. Most are not of the royal house of Denkar. They serve us and have for many millennia. If any of the Denkar fae found you to be in Deveron’s company, you would be suspect at once. Everyone knows who the royals are. He doesn’t associate with the female blond-haired fae. So he must be planning something else. Though nothing comes to mind.” Ritasia patted Alicia’s hand. “Lie down. Get your strength back. I’m sure Deveron plans to transport you again. Repeated transportation the fae way for one who is not accustomed to it, can be incapacitating at the very least.”
“How would you know?” Alicia asked as she took Ritasia’s advice and laid her head against the soft down pillow.
“When we haven’t jumped from place to place for a while, even the Denkar can become disoriented. Deveron does it so often, he never does. But I don’t transport as frequently as he does.”
“Why don’t you marry the Venician prince?”
Ritasia’s eyes widened. “How would you know...oh, you overheard my lady-in-waiting’s conversation with me. Not only do I not love the conceited Prince Phillinois, I can’t stand him.”
Before Alicia could speak further to Ritasia about the prince, Deveron appeared in front of her on the mattress.
He turned and scowled at Ritasia.
She smiled back at him and raised her brows.
“What in curses are you doing here?”
Ritasia ignored his words. Her gaze shifted to the garments Deveron had taken from her room. “You could have asked my permission.”
“How could I when you were not in your chambers but in mine? Whoever gave you permission to enter mine anyway?”
“Me, after I was grilled thoroughly about your vanishing with Alicia. Where do you intend to take her next?”
“Change,” he said to Alicia. Then he climbed off the bed and Ritasia joined him, pulling the curtains closed again.
Alicia removed her shirt and then her sandals and jeans. She pulled the purple satin gown over her head while wispy sheers of the same color of purple attached to the gown floated down to the mattress. Now she felt like a faery princess.
“I wouldn’t tell you my plans,” Deveron said to Ritasia.
“I’ve already kept your secret.”
“She did,” Alicia said from behind the bed curtains. She figured they needed all of the alliances they could get. Though on the other hand, she wasn’t sure she could trust either of them completely.
“I have to return to fulfill my duties escorting Princess Lorelei,” Deveron said.
Ritasia laughed. “But what about Alicia? Surely you don’t intend for me to attempt to hide her here.”
“She will be our dear cousin…a sixth removed and will accompany me.”
“But I don’t have dark hair.” Alicia pulled on a sandal.
“Some of our distant cousins are blond,” Deveron remarked. “Most don’t live here. Aren’t you dressed yet?”
“I feel as though I’m moving in slow motion.”
“From transporting her,” Ritasia reminded him.
“Oh.”
Alicia pulled the curtain aside.
Deveron considered the way her gowns shimmered over her form. His expression indicated deepest admiration. Did he prefer her wearing the dress of the fae? It appeared so. But she reminded herself he was her enemy as much as she wished in an instant of madness that he wasn’t.
Ritasia socked him in the shoulder. “She needs some of my clips for her hair, if you’re going to pass her off as one of the Denkar fae of the minor royal branches. And pull in your tongue. It’s dragging the floor.”
He frowned at Ritasia.
She shook her head and vanished.
Alicia sat on the edge of the bed, not trusting her legs to hold her if she stood.
His lips curved up in that same mischievous way he had before that totally disarmed and warmed her throughout.
“You know, you have the most charming smile,” she said.
“It’s one of my most gifted dark fae qualities.”
“And you’re terribly conceited.”
He grinned. “Now there’s my Alicia. I thought I’d lost you.”
She made an annoyed face at him.
He chuckled under his breath.
Ritasia appeared next to him. She reached over and fastened golden clips decorated in sparkling amethysts to Alicia’s hair.
“Thank you, Ritasia. I will always be in your debt.”
“Yes, you will be,” the girl said, and Alicia was afraid that didn’t bode well.
“Come, we must go, Alicia, before we’re discovered here,” Deveron said, pulling her up from the bed.
“Wait.” Ritasia slipped a gold medallion, dangling from a gold chain, over Alicia’s head. “Now you are officially a sixth cousin of the dark fae of the kingdom of Neferon.”
Alicia glanced down at the medallion that pictured an embossed turtle. “Turtle?”
“They live by the sea and revere the power and steadfastness of the giant sea turtle,” Deveron said.
“Ah.” It just didn’t seem half as proud and strong as the lion, the Denkar’s symbol. Alicia took Ritasia’s hands and leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Thank you, Ritasia. I’ll never forget this.”
Ritasia’s eyes widened and her lips parted. Then she turned to Deveron who grinned.
He said, “You’ve made my sister speechless, which believe me, rarely happens.”
He took Alicia’s hand and pulled her close. So close she could feel his breath on her cheek. And then he kissed her lips again.
She thought she heard Ritasia say, “So that’s how you’ve done it.”
And the room faded to black.
CHAPTER 7
When light replaced the dark, Alicia breathed in the delightful fragrance of lilacs dripping in purple grape clusters over sandstone walls. And red roses gathered at their base. Grape hyacinths nestled at their feet making the place smell like a bit of fairyland.
It was a fairyland. The Venician kingdom of fae.
“Venicia,” Deveron said, holding her arms to steady her. He moved her to a stone bench and sat her down. “I’m to escort Princess Lorelei at her whim to wherever she wishes to go, but I will have to take you, too, as frail as you are. You need your cousin’s assistance in your delicate condition.”
She rolled her eyes. Though she did feel slightly incapacitated with fae travel again. Not as bad this time. Was she adjusting to it
?
He smiled. “Despite how becoming you look in Ritasia’s gowns, your cheeks are as white as the clouds above. You appear ready to faint.”
“I’m not faint,” she said, firmly. Though if she stood…
Footsteps closing in on them caught their attention, and they turned to see who approached.
A blond-haired male, tall and thin, wearing a highly embroidered dark blue tunic, bowed low to Deveron. “My lord. Princess Lorelei has been unduly concerned that you left so all of a sudden.” The elder man looked at Alicia with disdain, then turned his attention again to Deveron. “Have you returned to take over your duties where she’s concerned?”
“Yes, Lord Carsonet. But my cousin, Princess Alicia, needs my attention as well.”
The man frowned. “Surely you do not mean to escort Princess Lorelei while you…” He glanced at Alicia. “Why does Queen Irenis not have someone else look after Princess Alicia? A physician perhaps? She looks unwell.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. This man said it in such a hateful manner, her temperature elevated a whole ten degrees. Her cheeks must have flushed red as hot as they felt.
“I will be fine after a bit,” she said.
“A week,” Deveron amended.
She glared at him. How was she to look sickly for a whole week?
“The whole week you will be here with Princess Lorelei?” Lord Carsonet said, his voice raised in disbelief.
“Do you have some trouble with this?” Deveron folded his arms and pinned him with a glare. He didn’t appear to be a man to be trifled with.
“No, Prince Deveron. I will inform the princess you are here. I’m sure she would delight in your walking her in the gardens. They are a great pleasure to her.” The man bowed, then turned and hastened back to the courtyard.
Alicia took a deep breath, not liking the role she had to play now. How could she pull off being a fae? “He sounded displeased, Deveron.”
“He is the castle steward. But he has no business telling me how I am to handle my affairs.”