“You must be tired after your long journey,” she purred.“Why don’t you lay down your weary head for a bit?”
Grateful for that mercy, Cha eagerly laid her head on that pillowy lap, her body melting into the daffodil grass as she folded her arms over her breast and gazed up at the dappled leaves and fluttering wings.Sunshine slid delicate fingers through Cha’s dark curls, soothing and arousing at once, taking away all the minor pains Cha hadn’t realized were there until they’d vanished.She gazed down at Cha, the luscious hair falling around them like a rain of light, Sunshine’s eyes glowing with affection.
“You’re such a beautiful, sexy human,” she said admiringly.“Such a honeypot, aren’t you?I’ve never met a mortal like you, Bandit.”
Cha blushed, terribly pleased.Those perfect breasts swayed alluringly just above, the heavy nipples so delicious that Cha’s mouth watered for them.
“You’re fascinating,” Sunshine crooned, trailing fingertips over Cha’s cheekbones, jaw, and throat.“I must know all about you.Every little detail.Tell me everything, Bandit,” she urged.
She wanted to.Words tumbled to her lips, rushing to give this incredible fae woman all she asked for.“I was born on a farm in Granite,” she began.“My father wore out early working the fields.My mother, she—”
Sunshine laid a honeysuckle-scented finger over Cha’s lips, gently stroking, slightly parting them.She tsked in reproval, making a disappointed face.Chagrined, panicking a little at having failed already with her brilliant new friend, Cha drew that fingertip into her mouth—the fae’s effervescent skin tasted of lemondrops and fine champagne—and eagerly suckled, showing her humble obedience.Her mouth plugged, she widened her eyes, pleading with her mistress to show mercy.Sunshine didn’t award one of her glorious smiles, but her frown dissipated like the sun burning through an overcast.With her free hand, she brushed the curls back from Cha’s forehead, the finger in Cha’s mouth pressing down on her tongue.
“You need to work harder to please me,Bandit,” Sunshine said sternly, emphasizing Cha’s handle.A distant part of her recognized the magical coercion laid into the fae’s wielding of her name—and was relieved she’d had the wit to only give her handle and not her actual name.Most of her mind, however, was fully enchanted and wanted only to please her mistress.Cha nodded eagerly and slowly the fae withdrew her finger, painting Cha’s lips with her own saliva.“Now, begin again, but tell me everything about why you’re here.”
~16~
Frying Pans and Fires
Oh, how Chawanted to tell Sunshine every little thing.But… thank all the stars, some shred of wit jumped up and down and screamed in the back of her mind about the danger she was in.
Don’t tell her about Azul.Don’t tell her about Azul.Don’t tell her about Azul.
Azul.An image of her prince charming billowed into her mind, much as his chartreuse silk cloak had ballooned around him when he first leapt into Katu and urged her to speed away.His intense indigo blue eyes staring into hers.Those wings.That had been real.He was real and this… This was not.This was a trap.
Cha tried to gather her sex-scattered thoughts.
Azul was why she was here.Becausehewas here, in need of rescue, and—though it was unforgivably stupid of her—she’d fallen in love withhimand his enchanting ways, not this Citrine fae woman who’d very nearly seduced her into bamboozlement.
Way too very nearly.
Stupid stupid stupid.And now here she was in the web with the spider wrapping her up in silky threads, already within reach of those fangs.She was insanely lucky that Sunshine had decided to interrogate her first, rather than delivering the bite to begin digesting her while she lay paralyzed with sexual longing.Manipulated and used—just as she’d always feared Azul had weaponized to use on her.
Well, at least now she knew what that felt like when a fae really put the whammy on you.The question was, how to extract herself from the jaws of death.Or from a short life as this fae’s human pet.She knew which she’d pick.
Sunshine, growing impatient, pricked Cha’s lip with a sharp nail.“Speak, pretty one.I’m eager to hear tales of your adventures.”She wiggled a little, so those dangling breasts bounced, nipples like ripe berries for biting.
Yeah, that would go over well.
“I wanted to race the high yellow ley lines,” Cha answered honestly, hoping the earnest truth would buy her a little time.It was a fae trick, to dance around the truth without actually lying, and thus risky because the fae might be more likely to detect the ruse and guess the truth.But some intuition whispered that Sunshine would know if she lied too wildly.
“How did you get through Moonstone?”Sunshine pressed, clearly suspicious.
“Darkened windows and wore my shades.”Cha grinned in a way that human men, at least, seemed to find provocative, and reached up to slide her sunglasses off her head and down to cover her eyes.As she’d hoped, they helped to reduce the overwhelming glamour of the fae a few notches.Cha actually missed Warg’s grounding presence, which told you exactly how desperate she was.
And desperate she was, indeed, because she couldn’t seem to make herself move beyond that.She ordered herself to get up, to move away from that sweetly scented flesh, an odor that now reminded her more of the kind of sickly sweet that rotting flesh emits.She didn’t like thinking about what that leak through the glamour indicated about the fae’s true appearance.
“So you risked life and limb simply to ride the Citrine ley lines?”the fae pressed, clearly unconvinced.
“I love to go fast,” Cha answered.Because she felt giddy—probably the adrenaline rush from being terrified—she hooted and made a zooming motion with her hand.“Vroom!My carriage cat likes to go fast too.Where is he?”She craned her neck to look, but though Katu had initially laid down under the tree with them, she hadn’t glimpsed or heard him since.
“Never mind your jaguar.”Sunshine pressed a hand to Cha’s forehead, her brain obediently swimming back into confused lust.“Tell me about coming to the castle.If you only wanted to race on the leys, why did you breach the wall?”
To find Azul.The words rushed to fill her mouth, banging against her teeth like trapped flies.She gritted those teeth, trying to swallow back the damning words.Sunshine noticed, her frown gathering.“Surely you’re not trying to avoid telling me something, are you, beautiful Bandit?That doesn’t seem at all lovingly obedient of you.”
She picked up Cha’s hand and placed it on one bountiful breast.“You want to please me, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Cha answered honestly, squeezing the Sunshine’s tit hard enough to make it hurt.The enchantment urged her to want to please the fae, but she retained just enough of her ornery nature to cause trouble, too.“Maybe I was looking for a sexy fae to seduce me,” she added, which satisfied the urge to speak the truth.Only he’s purple,she mentally added.