Fantasyland 03 Fantastical (8 page)

Yippee!

His arm around my waist moved so his hand
cupped my ass and his head lifted so his face was in my neck.

“Fancy earning clothes?” he asked against my
skin.

I shivered. His hand was so big, so warm,
his grip so firm and his voice rumbling against my skin so hot my
first shiver was followed by a full on tremble.

Not to mention, I wanted
out, out,
out
of this nightgown.

Shit.

“What do I have to do for clothes
and
a bath
with
soap?” I asked cautiously.

His head went back to the hides and his eyes
caught mine.

“I have soap,” he told me.

I felt my eyes grow wide. “You do?”

He nodded.

“Really?” I breathed.

He grinned. “Yes, Cora.”

Oh man. He had soap. And I wanted to be
clean from top-to-toe. I wanted it
bad.

Shit!

I studied him as he patiently waited, his
hands still warm on me.

Hmm.

“What do I have to do to get you not to be a
jerk to me all day, from now to bedtime?” I asked.

His eyes warmed and let me tell you, they
looked nice warm. So nice, my belly felt like keeping them company
so it did, getting warm too.
Way
warm.

“That’ll take some work,” he whispered.

“If I, uh… do all the work now, will you,
um… be nice all day?”

His hand at my ass squeezed. “You earn it,
you’ll get it.”

I licked my lips.

Was I going to do this?

Shit.

Shit!

Shit!

I looked into his eyes, felt his hard body
beneath mine then turned my face away, clenching my jaw and closing
my eyes hard.

No. No I wasn’t going to do this.

No way.

He thought I was Cora of this world but I
couldn’t lose my hold on the fact that I was
not.
I didn’t
deserve this even though he genuinely and with reason believed I
did.

I would not whore myself for soap and
clothes and another human being nice to me.

I would
not
.

I turned back to him and whispered, “I think
I’ll make do with coffee and porridge.”

Once I was finished speaking, I looked away
and tried to slide off but his arms wrapped around me again,
holding me where I was.

“Cora,” he called but I stared at the hides
to our sides.

“What?”

“Look at me.”

“Just tell me what.”

“Look at me,” he repeated on an arm
squeeze.

I looked at him and he had that blank look
on his face with his eyes active again.

“I’ll say this once and counsel you to take
it to heart. You can play your game but you don’t play me in
mine.”

“What?” I asked.

“Do not tease me.”

Oh hell.

“I wasn’t –”

“No excuses, no lies, just take that to
heart. Am I understood?”

God, I couldn’t win for losing.

“Understood,” I whispered.

His arms loosened and I rolled away.

He rolled out of the hides.

I watched him walk to the table and thought,
I hate, hate, hate this fucking world and I hate, hate, hate
Noctorno Whoever-he-is.

And I hate, hate, hated them both so much, I
felt the tears spring to my eyes, I rolled to face the wall and
prayed I didn’t make any noise with my crying as I listened to him
stoking the fire.

Luckily, my prayer was answered.

* * * * *

“What are you doing?”

Noctorno was speaking from behind me.

I was at the mouth of the cave, the day had
a hint of watery sunshine which was an improvement but nothing like
the brilliant beauty of the fairytale world I woke up in two days
ago and shattered because I inadvertently caused a curse to fall on
the land.

I was also shaking out the bed hides.

“Cleaning,” I answered, not turning to him
and continuing awkwardly to shake the heavy, huge hide.

“Cleaning,” he repeated after me.

“Yep,” I said, giving up on shaking and I
decided to start beating it with my fist.

That worked. Dust flew out everywhere.

Brilliant.

“Why?” he asked.

“Why?” I asked back.

“Yes, why?”

“Because you’re tidy with your bone remains
but the rest of the place is filthy.”

“Cora, it’s a cave.”

That made me turn to him.

“I know it’s a cave,
Tor.
”

I watched his mouth get tight.

Oh Lordy. For some reason, he was getting
angry.

Jeez, with him it didn’t take much and this
time I didn’t even know what I did. I could hardly be pissing him
off by cleaning, could I?

Oh well, let him get angry. I was getting
used to it.

I went back to beating.

I heard a clomp, clomp, clomp and then I
felt the velvet of Salem’s nose against my neck right before he
blew.

It tickled so much, I giggled, dropped the
hide and turned to him. His head jerked back and I lifted my hands
to his nose and held gently.

“It’s okay, boy,” I cooed.

He snorted again.

“That’s it.” I kept cooing and started to
stroke his muzzle.

He clomped a half a horse step closer.

“That’s it, you beautiful beast,” I
whispered, still stroking.

He snorted his contentment.

I smiled at him.

“Salem!” Noctorno barked, Salem pulled his
nose from my hands and looked down his massive body as my head
turned to see the big guy standing, arms crossed on his chest,
openly pissed. “Move away from, Cora,” he ordered his mount.

Salem whinnied.

“Now, horse,” Noctorno growled.

Salem blew breath through his horse lips and
clomped away.

I glared at Noctorno. “Why’d you do
that?”

“Do not think, woman, you can come between a
man and his horse,” Noctorno informed me.

“I wasn’t trying to,” I informed him right
back and I wasn’t!

“Right,” he muttered.

“Jeez!” I cried, throwing up my hands. “What
is
with
you?”

“I warned you not to play me for a
fool.”

“Good God, man, I was just petting your
horse!” I pointed out.

“You were playing your games,” he
returned.

“You know,” I started, “this is getting old.
The Cora of your world must be a huge freaking ass bitch to make
you think she’d use your fucking
horse
against you.”

“There is nothing I’d put passed you,” he
replied.

“Well, again, big guy,
I
am not
her
and I’m getting sick of you treating me like her.”

“Then we share something because I’m getting
sick of you pretending you
aren’t
her.”

I continued glaring at him and he withstood
it.

Then I swung back to the hide, hefted it up
and started beating at it again, hard, all the while muttering to
myself, “I lived a good life. I was nice. If I saw someone drop a
dollar, I’d pick it up and give it to them. If a beggar looked like
a real, genuine, honest to God beggar, I’d give them change. If
strangers walked by me and caught my eye, I’d smile and say hello.
If my friends did stupid shit with guys, I kept my mouth shut and
then let them cry on my shoulder when that stupid shit bit them in
the ass at the same time I kept the mojitos flowing. Okay, so I
didn’t tell on Jenny Linklater when I saw her cheating on that test
in sixth grade but
I
didn’t cheat. I’ve
never
cheated. I’ve never done
anything
wrong enough to land me in
this crazy,
freaking
world with a
lunatic
hot guy.
What did I do to deserve this?”

Salem whinnied and I didn’t know what that
meant.

I looked at him. “I don’t know what you mean
but the way you said it, I agree.”

He jerked his snout up.

“Damn straight,” I muttered, gathered the
hide to me and stomped through the loose stone back to the opening
under the eyes of a glowering Noctorno and I did it only wincing a
little at how much the stone hurt my feet.

When I got to my destination, I slapped the
hides open and then for good measure I slapped them shut behind me
thinking stupidly,
Take that, asshole.

He wouldn’t care if I slapped the hide
closed but it made
me
feel better.

* * * * *

Hours later, the hides opened and Noctorno
strode in.

I looked up from my sweeping and gave him a
good glare.

Then I kept right on sweeping.

“Gods, what the bloody hell?” he muttered
irately.

I ignored him and limped through my
sweeping.

“Cora,” he called.

I kept limping through my sweeping, seeing,
belatedly, the error of my ways as I went about my business of the
day.

I had, very stupidly, gathered all the bones
in the dirty bowl, carried them to the mouth of the cave and tossed
them as far away as I could throw them. I had also beat out the
sheepskins as well as the cowhide. I had also trudged (again)
through the sharp stone of the main cave, back and forth (four
times), to replenish the wood supply. This meant my feet were raw
on the bottoms but I was not, not,
not
going to be bored out
of my mind like yesterday nor give myself the headspace to fret
about my calamitous circumstances.

No I was not.

I didn’t have any lemons to make lemonade
but I was going to damn well do what I could with no lemons and no
nothing.

So, when I saw the dried grass was filled
with dead insects (ick), yes, you guessed it, I trudged right back
through the cave (knowing big guy and his sweet horse watched me)
back and forth, back and forth, yanking fresh, long blades of grass
that grew close to the mouth of the cave and piling them up outside
the antechamber we slept in. Then I inspected the entirety of the
cave and its cave chambers, found a long stick and enough pieces of
twig to build my own freaking broom, which I did, braiding the
bristles at the top with a blade of grass and attaching it to the
stick with more blades (this, by the way, was tedious and took a
long time but, by God, I did it) and now I was sweeping out the
old, dry, dead insect-ridden grass (as well as whatever else my
admittedly not very great broom could pick up) even though my feet
were killing me.

“Cora,” he repeated when I didn’t
answer.

“Right here,” I replied.

“Stop.”

“No, I’m almost done.”

“I said, stop.”

“No,” I kept sweeping the big pile toward
the pelt curtain, “just a bit –” The broom was suddenly yanked
clean out of my hands and my head snapped up to see Noctorno had
it. “What are you –?
Oof!
”

Clatter went the broom as up I went on his
shoulder again.

“Put me down!” I beat at his back with my
fists.

He did, dropping me on the hides I’d bunched
up in the corner to get them away from my sweeping. I barely got my
body under control when his strong fingers closed around my ankle
and he yanked it up.

“Hey!” I yelled as he bent low and to the
side to inspect the bottom of my foot.

“Bloody... damned…
hell!
” he roared
and I jerked my ankle from his hold partly because I didn’t want my
ankle in his hold and partly in a reaction to his scary roar.

“What –?” I started but stopped when he
planted his hands at his hips and scowled at me so ferociously my
breath caught.

Okay, now he wasn’t just pissed, he was
pissed.

“You’ve scraped the soles of your feet
straight to hell,” he gritted at me.

“I’m perfectly fine.”

“Your feet are scraped to hell,” he
semi-repeated.

“Noctorno, I’m fine.”

“What, by the gods, were you bloody
thinking?” he demanded to know.

“I was cleaning.”

“Yes, love, you were cleaning
a cave
which,” he leaned into me, “by all that is natural, is
dirty.
”

“But we’re living here!” I sat up to lean
into him. “So, being humans and with opposable thumbs and the
ability to cogitate, means we can better our surroundings so
I’m
doing that.
”

“And injuring yourself in the ridiculous
process,” he shot back.

I felt my eyes narrow. “It isn’t
ridiculous.
There are dead
bugs
in the
grass
under the
bed
we sleep in! That is pure
ick!
” I
shouted.

“If you weren’t so bloody stubborn, you need
clean rushes, you’d bloody well kiss me and I’d give you some
bloody shoes!” he shouted back.

“I don’t want to bloody kiss you!” I
yelled.

“Then you should have sat on your arse and
kept your feet healthy and clean!” he returned on his own yell.

“I did that yesterday and I can’t do it
again. It’s boring and my mother told me only stupid people get
bored and I’m… not…
stupid,
” I fired back.

He leaned back and his brows knitted. “Your
mother told you that?”

“Yes.”

“Your mother didn’t tell you that,” he
declared bizarrely decisively.

“Yes, Tor, she did.”

“She did not.”

“Yes! She did!”

“Bloody hell, woman, she’s sweet as syrup
and wouldn’t harm a fly but Dara Goode isn’t smart enough to
think
something like that much less enunciate it.”

I scrambled to my feet, planted my hands at
my own hips and snapped, “Are you calling my mother stupid?”

“Gods, Cora, she’s beloved but she’s not
bright. It’s not nice but it’s well-known. Even you told me she’s
dull as a post,” he retorted.

“I never said such a…”

Oh shit.

I never said such a thing because the Dara
Goode in my world, my mother, was not dull as a post. Nowhere near
it.

But the other Cora probably said that about
her mother.

Blast!

“God!” I exclaimed, looking at the ceiling.
“I hate the Cora of this world! She’s an utter…
oof!
”