Chapter Ten
Meg was surrounded by warmth as she gradually came to her senses the next morning. She snuggled closer to the heat source and sighed as Cian pulled her closer. He was a cuddler. He’d been a perfect gentleman, but he had been very insistent on spooning her and holding her close all night. His hair had gotten tangled around her. It tickled her skin and warmed her.
She had thought she would be up all night thinking about Beck, but Cian seemed to have a soothing effect on her. The minute he wrapped himself around her, she’d heard a low, soothing hum in the back of her brain. It had taken her a moment to realize it was coming from him. It was like white noise, and it hummed her gently to sleep.
It was another noise entirely that forced Meg from the warmth of Cian’s arms.
The door slammed, and there was the unmistakable sound of an engine coming to life. It didn’t sound like any car she could remember, but Meg knew instantly what it was. It had to be that cool-looking Harley of Dante’s. Meg wanted to see it in action, so she scrambled out of her warm bed, despite Cian’s sleepy protests.
There was a robe lying across the end of the bed. Meg quickly put it on and rushed out of the bedroom. She threw open the door with a smile on her face, ready to demand a ride from Dante.
Her smile quickly dissolved as she realized Dante already had a passenger. Beck was seated on the back of the big bike that now hovered two feet in the air. The wheels of the bike had disappeared, and there was a noticeable cloud of dust under the vehicle.
“Crap.” Dante looked up from strapping his gear on the back, his face falling when he saw her. He stood beside the bike. “We have company.”
The last was said to Beck, who turned and stared at her with dark, surprised eyes.
“I left you a note,” he said almost defensively.
Meg felt her heart seize. He’d left her a note? Why did he need to leave her a note if he was just going joyriding with his cousin? That was all it could be, right? “Where are you going?”
Dante backed off. Meg could tell the vampire wasn’t sure this was a good idea, but he seemed determined to stay out of it.
Beck didn’t get off the bike. He turned to her slightly. “I explained it all in the note. I have to go to work. The best work I can get is on the Vampire plane, working for Dante’s company. It’s rough work in a dangerous part of that world. I’ll be back in a few weeks.”
“Weeks?” Meg practically shouted the question. He was leaving her. They had been married for two days, and he was leaving her. All her old doubts flooded back like a tidal wave. At least Michael had stayed for a couple of years. Beck wasn’t even staying for a week. He was leaving her with Cian, a stranger with a bunch of problems. She had no idea how to help him. She was completely lost in this strange land. She didn’t even know which horses would try to eat her. Panic seized her. “I’ll go with you.” She wouldn’t even have to pack. She didn’t own anything.
His eyes seemed cold now, and his sensual mouth was a flat line. “No. It’s too dangerous. I have to work. I won’t have time to do my job and watch after you.”
Tears formed in her eyes and Meg ran to him. “Please let me go with you. I don’t know what to do here. I don’t know how to do anything.”
It went against everything she was, but she felt like begging. She didn’t want to be left behind with an amnesiac and a farm falling down around her. She wanted Beck. He’d been the rock she had clung to ever since she found herself on this plane.
Beck gently pushed her back. “You’ll be fine. Bond with Cian. He’ll take care of you.”
She didn’t think that was happening any time soon. Cian couldn’t take care of himself. Cian couldn’t remember who she was for more than five minutes. “You promised you would take care of me.”
Beck shook his head. He looked so arrogant. “That’s what I’m doing, Meg. When I finish this job, we’ll have enough gold to fix up the place. We can hire a housekeeper so you won’t have to work.”
“I don’t mind working,” Meg promised. She hated the fact that she was crying, but she couldn’t seem to help it. “I’ve worked all my life, but I don’t know what to do here.”
“Nor should you,” he replied as though it was a foregone conclusion. “You’re a bondmate. You shouldn’t be doing housework, and you shouldn’t live in a cottage that’s falling down around you.”
Her frustration made her eyes squeeze shut. “Shouldn’t I decide what I want or don’t want?”
“You don’t know enough to decide,” Beck explained with a dismissive wave. “Back up. We have to leave now.”
Meg backed off as Dante hopped on the cycle in one graceful move.
“I left you my computer.” Dante nodded in her direction. “I showed you how to use it, remember? Look up bonding, and it will give you a description of how to get Cian to bond with you. It’s connected to the web on the Vampire plane. You should be able to find just about any information you need.”
Meg nodded her head dully. Beck was really leaving, and he hadn’t kissed her goodbye. Hell, if she hadn’t woken when she did, he would have left without seeing her at all. She took a deep breath and tried to come to terms with the fact that she had, perhaps, been wrong about him. He hadn’t really wanted her. Men could feel lust for women they didn’t really care about. He had explained it at the time. His brother was dying. They needed a bondmate, and she was the only one to be found. Was it such a surprise that, having done his duty, he would want to be away from her?
All that other stuff, all the stuff about caring about her and never cheating on her, had been lies. It wouldn’t be the first time some guy had told her what she wanted to hear to get her to do something. She had to give Beck a little credit. At least he had done it to save his brother.
“I’ll be back in a few weeks.” Beck looked slightly concerned for the first time. He slid off the bike and came to stand in front of her. He towered over her, but this time his massive size didn’t make her feel secure. “You’ll be fine.”
He moved to touch her, but she stepped back. He was just trying to keep her in line. Being physically affectionate with her had worked so far. It wasn’t surprising he would try it again. “Sure.”
He reached out and pulled her into his arms. “Meggie, don’t cry. It will be fine. We need money. I have to work. I told you I spent the last of our gold on the tournament.”
She stood stiffly in his arms, knowing better than to try to break free. She would only make a fool of herself, and she’d done enough of that lately. “Fine.”
He sighed and seemed reluctant to let her go. His hands found her hair. “I’m sorry about last night. I hope you won’t hold it against me.”
She shrugged and wished he’d just go ahead and leave. “I won’t bother you with it again. I didn’t understand.”
She knew he’d been fighting something. She’d just been wrong about what he had been fighting. He didn’t want to have sex with her. She was convenient, and he was male. He needed sex, but he’d obviously found the experience distasteful. He always shut down the bond. Now she knew why. He didn’t want her to know how he really felt. It should have been obvious even without the bond. After all, he had chosen to sleep in a barn rather than sleeping with her.
And yet she’d felt his need the night before. It had broken over her like a wave crashing on a beach. She’d seen little pieces of his soul. There was a kindness in Beck that didn’t mesh with his current cruelty. He loved his brother. He’d risked his life to save her. At times, she’d felt a genuine affection come from him. The confusion had her in knots. But in the end he couldn’t possibly want her if he was willing to leave her.
He smiled slightly, a little uptick of his lips. “You just don’t understand our ways, yet. It’s going to be fine. You’ll see.”
“Sure.” She replied because he seemed to want a response. She couldn’t see that anything would be fine.
He reached out and tilted her head up. A lazy, warm look came over his handsome face. “May I kiss you, wife?”
That seemed to Meg to be the cruelest thing he could do. She pushed away from him. “Don’t call me ‘wife.’ Call me your bondmate or whatever, but I’m not your wife.”
His eyes flared at the challenge. “You damn well are, and you better not forget it.” He took a deep breath and got back on the bike. “Don’t try leaving, Meg. I’ll find you, and I won’t be happy when I do.”
He patted Dante on the shoulder. The bike levitated roughly ten feet off the ground, and they took off.
“Where the hell would I go?” Meg asked, to no one in particular.
She was alone in a world that was so foreign it was legendary on her home plane. She was a city girl who didn’t know how to make dinner that didn’t come neatly wrapped in plastic. She was, once again, in love with a man who couldn’t love her back. Meg sank down, put her head between her hands, and cried.
Cian dropped down behind her wordlessly. She wasn’t sure when he had come out, but he’d probably heard everything. She didn’t fight him when he gathered her into his arms and rocked her while she sobbed.
* * * *
An hour later, Meg had dried her tears and gotten dressed for the day. Cian sat at the kitchen table watching her as Meg tried to figure out how to cook the eggs she’d found when she’d bravely ventured into the chicken coop. She had felt bad. It seemed to her that all the chickens were looking at her like they knew she’d eaten their sister last night. There was judgment in those little black chicken eyes. If she hadn’t been so hungry, she would have run out because those beaks looked dangerous. But her stomach had warred with her fear of being pecked, and hunger won.
She had gathered five eggs when she heard a low sound. She had looked across the yard and seen Cian milking a cow. He still had to be told her name every few minutes, but he seemed happy enough to follow her around and do the odd chore. He hadn’t tried to get back into bed. Meg had feared she would spend the day coaxing him out. Instead, he shadowed her.
Now he sat patiently, watching and drinking milk from a mug. Meg had tried it, and despite her fear that warm milk would be gross, she found it slightly sweet.
There was a strange little oven that Beck had used last night, but there was no stove top. There was a grill in the hearth, though. After poking her head into all the cabinets, she came up with an iron skillet. She might never have been camping, but she’d read enough books to know how to cook. At least in theory.
“Are you hungry?” Meg smiled at Cian as she cracked the eggs into the skillet. She used a fork to whisk them. There were only four forks, two knives, and three spoons. None of them matched.
“I am.” Cian studied her for a moment, his eyes moving across her face. “Did my brother send you to take care of me?”
“Yes.” She gave him a sad nod. It was the truth. Beck had bought her to save his brother. She had a job to do.
“You’re very pretty,” Cian said, almost shyly.
Meg wondered how old he thought he was. Sometimes he came off as almost childlike. Other times he looked at her with barely controlled lust in his eyes. He hadn’t acted on it. Meg felt perfectly safe with him, but it could be difficult to keep up with the changes. After they ate, Meg intended to get this bonding thing done, so she could have another fully functional, non-crazy teammate.
After she had broken down, Meg had made a few decisions. She was stuck here. She wasn’t getting home, so she had two options. She could lie down and cry. She could bemoan her fate and become bitter, or she could get off her ass and make do. She could be dependent on the people around her, or she could learn really damn fast. As she didn’t intend to act as Beck’s wife again, she decided she’d better be a fast learner.
She had discovered a small room while exploring the barn. It had a cot where Beck had slept the night before and a little stove to keep it warm. It wasn’t much, but she could stay there and be fairly comfortable. From what she’d read on the computer Dante had left behind, she understood that the brothers needed her to remain close to at least one of them. Somehow, her brain formed connections with theirs and allowed them to function. There had been a bunch of brain-numbing chemistry and science that she’d skimmed over.
There was nothing in the vampire information that claimed sex was needed at all, so Meg thought it best she slept apart from them. She doubted Beck would have a problem with it. Once she made it clear to him he didn’t have to worry about her sexual advances anymore, he would probably get on board with her plans.
If she wasn’t the type of woman who brought out a man’s protective instincts, then she’d better learn to be independent. A room of her own would help. It would be far too hard to sleep beside them every night and not be able to touch them. Once Cian was rational again, Meg had no doubt he would be slightly horrified to find out he was married to someone his brother had such distaste for.
Meg pulled the pan off the grill using a thick towel. The eggs were a little burnt, but edible. It was a minor triumph. She scooped the largest part out onto a plate for Cian. He was bigger than she was and looked like he could use the calories. She was going to have to figure out how to fatten him up.
“Thanks,” he said gratefully as he dug in. “My sister likes eggs, but she likes them fried. When she gets up, will you make some for her, too?”
It was easier to play along than to explain over and over and over. “Of course,” she murmured as she picked up her fork.
They ate in silence for a few minutes. Cian then seemed fascinated by the sight of his hand. He held it up in the light and looked very confused. His head whirled around, and he took in the cottage.
“This isn’t my home.” Cian looked around the cottage. He sounded the slightest bit panicked. “Where am I?” He looked so lost. He caught her hand and held it tightly. “I don’t know where I am.”
If Beck had been standing in front of her, she would have clocked him with the iron skillet. Cian needed him, and he’d left. She understood that they needed money, but it could have waited a day or two. She held Cian’s hand in both of hers. “You’re safe. I promise you.”
“Is he having a rough day?” a voice asked from the window in the kitchen.
Meg turned, slightly startled to see a lovely blonde woman standing at the window. “I wouldn’t know what a normal day is like.”
“Sometimes he remembers, but that’s only when his brother is around,” the blonde explained with a tight smile. “With Beck being gone again, he’ll probably deteriorate. It’s terrible that he had to leave again so soon. He just got back yesterday, and now he’s off to the Vampire plane.”
Meg felt her heart drop to her toes. “How did you know he was gone?”
As far as Meg knew, Beck hadn’t been into the village. No one had visited them yesterday.
There was no small amount of sympathy in the other woman’s eyes. Meg got the feeling the blonde was trying to tell her something. “He told me last night. He asked if I would come up and see if you needed anything. Cian can be difficult.”
Cian was looking at the blonde. He came around and put his hands on Meg’s shoulders. He seemed to be concentrating very intently. Every muscle in his body seemed bunched and tight as though he was ready for a fight. “You shouldn’t be here. Go away.”
“You see. He’s difficult. I hope he doesn’t get violent with you. I don’t know what Beck was thinking, leaving you with him. He can be so insensitive some times. You know men.” There was now a slight sheen of tears in the woman’s eyes. She made a scene of trying to hide them.
The blonde before her was tall and delicately feminine. She had a perfect face with light blue eyes and cheekbones any model would have killed for. Meg didn’t buy the tears, though. They seemed fake. “What can I do for you, Miss?”
“I am Liadan.” The introduction came with a slight sniffle. “I live in the house on the other side of the fields. I have known the brothers for several years now.”
“Beck likes her, but I don’t,” Cian said stubbornly.
Meg didn’t like her either. There was something very cold about the blonde though she was obviously trying to be friendly. “All right, Liadan, what can I do for you?”
She seemed put off by Meg’s forwardness. “Like I said, last night when His Highness visited me, he asked me to check in on you. He wanted me to see if there was anything you needed. He was concerned about his brother, you see. He told me he brought you in to save Cian. The king loves his brother very much. He is willing to sacrifice his own happiness for his brother.”
“His happiness with you?” Meg asked boldly because she was done playing around with the woman who had obviously come to size up the competition.
Liadan gasped. Her cornflower blue eyes narrowed. “Well, if we’re going to be plain, then, yes, he’s sacrificing the happiness he’s found with me. We’ve been together for almost a year now.”
“I haven’t been with her.” Cian seemed very intent on making Meg understand he had nothing to do with his brother’s mistress.
“Like I would have you.” There was a sneer on Liadan’s face as she looked at Cian. It didn’t go away when she turned back to Meg. She didn’t seem so pretty now. “Look, I’ve heard you’re human, so you don’t know how this works. Beck is mine. He has been for a while now. He chose me. He’s just stuck with you. He hopes you can keep Cian alive, and he’s willing to endure this marriage because of it.”
Cian was getting upset. His hands twitched. Meg could feel his anger rising. It made it easier to ignore her own emotions. She put her hands over his and rubbed. It seemed to help. “You’re upsetting him. I’m not going to do some hair-pulling, name-calling thing with you. If you want Beck, feel free to have him, sister. I don’t consider myself married to him, anyway. I am well aware of the place I have in his life. If you can make him happy, more power to you.”
Now her husband’s honey looked seriously confused. “You don’t care that he will continue to come to my bed?”
“I have no intentions of sleeping with him, so go for it,” Meg said as simply as she could. Meeting Liadan helped a lot. It explained why Beck would be as hesitant as he was. He was in love with someone else. Meg just wished he had been up front and honest with her. She would have helped Cian regardless, and she wouldn’t have had her heart broken.
The blonde nodded. “As long as we understand each other.” She turned to go, but then came back. “He’s going to kill me for this, but I can’t just let you do it. You should think twice before you bond with Cian.”
“I want to bond with her.” Cian’s hands tightened possessively. “She is our wife.”
Liadan sighed and rolled her eyes impatiently at Cian. She focused on Meg. “He’s too far gone. If you bond with him, he’ll pull you into his madness. You’ll end up just like him. Beck didn’t mention that, did he?”
Meg shook her head. He hadn’t mentioned that possibility.
“Of course he didn’t,” the other woman said. “You would be safer walking away. There is the slight possibility that Beck would die, but he’s the stronger half. He would most likely live if Cian faded. It would be hard, but he could be stronger for it.”
“I won’t fade,” Cian swore. He seemed to be talking to himself now.
The blonde shrugged. “I just thought you should know. You should give it a lot of thought before you risk your life trying to save a stranger’s.”
Liadan walked away, and Meg got Cian calm again. She sat down and pulled out the computer Dante had left her. She pulled up the articles she’d found and reread them. She then went deeper. She found more information on Fae psychic bonding than she could have hoped for. Vampires were very interested in it as it mirrored their own bonds with consorts. Sure enough, there was a possibility that bonding with someone as far gone as Cian could hurt her. It wasn’t a big possibility, but it also wasn’t recommended.
And despite what Liadan had said, if Cian died, Beck would more than likely go insane.
She looked at Cian as he sat by the fire. He was watching her, waiting for her to do something or go somewhere so he could follow her. He reminded her of a puppy, eager to please.
If she had half a brain, she would take her husband’s mistress’s advice and just flee the scene. She should take a day or two to decide if she really wanted to risk this for one man who had dumped her after two days of marriage, and another she barely knew at all.
“You’re a very pretty lady.” Cian’s voice was all smooth tones. There was a deliciously decadent look on his face. “Can I buy you a drink? My name is Cian Finn, by the way.”
Meg set the computer down. She had never been one to slowly peel a Band-Aid off. It was better to just rip it off and get the pain over with. “Oh, we’re so doing this now.”
Cian stood up, a seductive smile crossing his face. “I was hoping you would say that, gorgeous.”