The Ballad of Aramei (17 page)

“What?”

He nods to himself as if still coming up with all of the details as we speak. “Yeah, I can say that in addition to repairing the basement wall that we’re having pavement laid in the driveway, too.”

“That could work,” I say, though I’m really not sure how well.

“So, are you actually going to pay to have the basement redone and the driveway paved?”

“The basement, yes—reinforced steel, like a friggin’ bomb shelter to keep
someone
I know inside once a month,” he says, squeezing my hips gently, “but not the driveway.”

“Where do you get the money for all this stuff anyway,” I say, running my fingers through his wet hair. “The only one around here that actually works is Nathan and I know his salary at Finch’s isn’t enough to pay for an FJ Cruiser.”

“What?” Isaac says with a grin and I feel his fingers pinch my hips. “Are you with me for my money?”

I wrap my legs around his upper chest and squeeze really hard. Isaac fastens his hands firmly around my hips and pulls me off the dock and into the water. My body slides down against his until we’re face to face, his hands holding me at the center of my back. I wrap my legs around his waist underneath the water.

Isaac kisses me once. “Being a six hundred year old Alpha has its perks,” he says. “I guess you can call us a bunch of spoiled royal sons living off daddy’s money.”

“I wouldn’t call you that.” I press my lips softly to his once in return. “Your life is different and those human stereotypes really don’t apply.”

“I guess so,” he says.

“You said ‘sons’—what about your sisters?”

He pushes farther away from the dock, easily keeping us both afloat.

“We give them money,” he says, “because we take care of the girls. Technically, they’re not allowed to take care of themselves—well, financially anyway.”

My eyebrows crumple with perplexity. “Seriously? That’s kind of messed up.”

Isaac nods and looks away from my eyes. We’re drifting farther and farther away from the bank and my mound of clothes is getting smaller on the dock. I can just barely see a light shining through the trees off in the distance from inside the house.

“I agree with you,” Isaac says, though he seems lost in thought. “But hopefully that will change soon. Hopefully a lot of things about our way of life will change.” The last of his words seem to drift away into the warm night air.

“How so?” I don’t like the feeling I’m getting from him. For a second I think of opening my mind and listening to his thoughts which are unreadable all over his face, but I decide against it. If it’s something he wants me to know then I want him to tell me on his own time.

Isaac breaks free from those deep thoughts and smiles in at me. He kisses me on the nose. “Being a twenty-year old Alpha also has its perks.”

I curl my fingers around the soaked fabric of his t-shirt and unpeel it from his body. He lifts his arms and slips it the rest of the way off, letting it fall into the water. Cradling the sides of his neck in my hands, I pull him towards me, instantly feeling the heat of his bare chest through my shirt. “We’re alone out here, you know.” His breath is warm and sweet on my lips and I shut my eyes softly, intoxicated by his closeness.

“But for how long?” I whisper against his mouth.

He teases my bottom lip with his tongue until I fold and kiss him hungrily, digging my fingers into his hair. The waist of his jeans is thick with water, scratching against my inner thighs. I wish he would just take them off.

He moans against my mouth, kissing me savagely. His fingers press aggressively into my back and my insides shudder.

And then
splash!

I yelp, jerking around in Isaac’s grasp to see behind us.

Two more bodies leap off the edge of the dock and barrel into the water afterwards.

The first head that emerges, bobbing at the top of the water is white-blond, short and still kind of spiky despite being soaked with pond water.

“Zia!” I yell out, turning around so that my back is pressed into Isaac’s hard chest, “you scared the
crap
out of me!”

“That was the point!” she yells back as she begins to swim closer. “Yeah, so if you two were gettin’ busy aquatic-style, please do us all a favor and stop!”

“Jesus, Zia,” I laugh, “you are so frickin’ sick!”

“I know,” she says, “I can’t help it.”

When she’s in retaliation distance, I thrust my hand on the surface of the water towards her, sending a gush of water in her face. Seconds later, we’re in a splashing war and I can’t tell if Isaac has joined in too, or if he’s swimming backward and away from us. Our screams resonate across the pond, until suddenly I’m pulled under. Water is flooding my nose and my mouth as I didn’t have enough warning to prevent it. I kick my legs free from Zia’s hands and swim around her, emerging at her back.

“Oh, you bitch!” Zia screams just before her head goes under, forced down by both of my hands.

Knowing she’ll get me back in worse ways than I can imagine, I swim away from her fast, looking for Isaac who is just a few feet to my right. I swim in behind him, hiding at his back for protection, all the while laughing hysterically.

“Zia,” Camilla says from the water in her small voice, “maybe we should leave my brother and Adria alone.”

“No way,” Zia says. “Camilla, you need to grow a pair!” She swims toward me and I shriek as she gets closer, holding onto Isaac for dear life. My arms are tight around his neck and my legs straddle his waist. Isaac may not have wanted any part of this war, but he doesn’t have much of a choice now because there’s no way I’m letting go.

If Zia wants me she has to go through him.

The third person, whose identity I’m only now realizing, swims in behind Camilla and cackles with laughter. I think I’m more surprised that Zia is out here with the likes of Cecilia than I am about Cecilia still being here since we left her with Camilla earlier before we set out for Providence.

Cecilia bobs next to Camilla with her trademark crazy grin that always shows her full set of teeth. Her plain-Jane brown hair, short and spiky like Zia’s, is plastered to her head making her look like a boy in the darkness. “I don’t know why you didn’t invite me over here sooner,” Cecilia says to me. “I’ve never met cooler people—well, I did know this girl once who had a baby skunk for a pet—Oh! And I did meet this guy when I lived in New Hampshire whose life goal was to be a UFC fighter, and my God that was once serious piece of eye candy—.” She stops abruptly and puts her hand vertically against her mouth as if to whisper and says, “He flipped me all kinds of ways one night,” and my face sort of freezes right there. “But really—I love it over here!”

Same old Cecilia. Eccentric and easily entertained, but never lacking the ability to stump a person in just a few sentences.

I hear Isaac cough a small laugh and feel his hand slip between my thighs underneath the water. My body locks up and I tighten my legs around his waist from behind; my way of warning him that he better not go there right now. But something tells me by the way he’s turning his chin to see me with such a devilish grin at the corners of his lips that I’m going to have to try harder than that.

“You better not,”
I warn him telepathically. I fail miserably at sounding serious and it probably isn’t helping that I can’t stop smiling, either.
“I swear it, Isaac. I won’t give you any for a week.”

His grin just gets bigger.
“Really?”
he says and his hand easily wedges itself in-between my crushing thigh and his waist.
“A whole week you say?”
he taunts.

I gasp as his fingers move closer and I try to tighten my legs around him even more intensely.

“You better stop!”
My face feels like it’s on fire.
“You are so cruel!”

“Girl, you have some ‘splainin to do,” Zia says, pulling me out of my little bubble with Isaac and his magic fingers.

“Huh—what do you mean?” I’m paranoid she knows what’s going on with me and Isaac and my face just gets hotter.

“Why you didn’t invite Cecilia sooner,” she says and relief washes over me.

Zia is starting to calm down, now floating on the top of the water rather than forcing her way violently through it to get to me. Maybe she has given up because of my strategically placed Isaac wall.

I look over at Cecilia, wiping the dirty water from my eyes, which only makes them burn a little more because my hand is also wet. And my nostrils are burning. I think about Cecilia’s earlier comment and want to reply with: “But I didn’t invite you over here at all.” I settle with:

“Well, it wasn’t ever really my place to invite you.”

Isaac says, “This is more your home than it is anyone’s.”

I look down, trying to conceal the blush in my face, but also the awkwardness. I hope Zia and Camilla don’t take offense to his words.

“So true,” Camilla says, beaming, her pretty oval face glistening in the moonlight from the water dripping over her plump cheeks. Her hair, naturally dark brown like Isaac’s, looks black when it’s wet.

I’m still trying to toil my way through Zia’s unexpected acceptance of Cecilia. It wasn’t that long ago she couldn’t stand the girl. Something extraordinary must’ve happened while we were in Providence. I don’t know, like maybe Cecilia revealed that she was related to Dax Riggs—Zia’s man-crush underground singer from about a dozen different bands—or, maybe Cecilia offered Zia a friendship in the form of money with any number that has a lot of zeros behind it.

I can’t think of anything else that might cause Zia’s change of heart.

Isaac slips his fingers under the edge of my panties and I squeal. Thankfully, he’s just messing with my head and isn’t actually going to touch me where he shouldn’t with others around. At least I hope like hell he doesn’t plan to. Regardless, I don’t think I can contain myself much longer.

“You didn’t answer my question,”
Isaac says in my mind, slowly moving his fingers closer.
“Are you
sure
you’ll hold out on me for an entire week?”
I want to kiss that confident grin off his lips, but I can’t move any part of my body now but my eyes.

Finally, Isaac moves his hand away, pulls me around in front of him, my legs still straddling his waist, and crushes his mouth against mine.

“Ahhh!” Zia yells out. “Come
on
! I’m not into porn!”

Isaac breaks the kiss and says without taking his eyes off mine, “I guess I’ll just have to wait a week.”

He won this battle a long time ago and knows it.

I lean in and gently tug on his bottom lip with my teeth and then kiss it softly.

I don’t have to say a word.

We leave Zia, Camilla and Cecilia in the pond and can’t seem to get to his room fast enough.

Chapter 13

ISAAC HAS ME AT Aramei’s cabin before the sun comes up the next morning. On this day, there are fewer guards outside; at least those in plain sight anyway. Raul is one of them, standing outside at the front of the cabin with a sword sheathed at his hip. I think he’s Trajan’s number one guard because he’s the only one I’ve seen consistently since the first time I laid eyes on Aramei months ago.

“Another day of volunteer work,” Raul says as we approach the front porch.

The early morning sky is borderline dark. A faint blue hue bathes the forest in just enough soft light that I can see everything clearly but it makes me feel like I should still be in bed.

“Unfortunately,” Isaac answers in a sullen tone. He pats Raul’s shoulder with one hand.

I leave them to their usual conversations, kissing Isaac once on the lips and slipping inside the cabin. It looks exactly the same as it does every day except that just like the guards, there are fewer servants working on the bottom floor than normal. Eva, Aramei’s chief caregiver, stands on the top floor overlooking the bottom and she smiles down at me.

As I make my way up the stairs, I realize how relieved I am to be with Aramei again. The more that I see her, the more I sometimes feel like I never want to leave and although I find that strange and maybe even unhealthy, I don’t care to seek the answers why. Aramei is special to me. I think maybe she always has been since the moment I met her. Being connected to her like this has only enhanced my feelings for her and every day it drives this insatiable need to help her and maybe to protect her.

I don’t know, but I truly feel like our connection means more than helping Trajan to know what’s going on inside her mind. I feel like I’m here for Aramei and not Trajan and that he really has nothing to do with it. And the more I think about this the more I feel like I want to lie to him, keep him out of my time with her entirely. Because after all, I think if Aramei were trying to communicate with him, it would
be
him she has called out to. She would have said his name and not mine.

“Good to see you, Milady.” Eva bows and I put up my hand and shake my head.

“You’re really gonna have to stop doing that,” I say. It seems I have to remind her of this every time I come here, but she is a slave to habit.

She nods her apology, her soft hands folded together in front of her laying against the black sheer fabric of her gown.

“She’s awake,” I say walking over to Aramei sitting on the edge of her immaculate bed. I lean over her and comb my fingers through her light-colored hair, brushing it back behind her ears and I look across at Eva. “Has she seemed any different since yesterday?”

“Yes,” Eva says walking up to join us, “she has appeared more anxious than usual. Just an hour ago she could only stare off at the window overlooking the driveway. I could be wrong, but it seems as though she could sense that you were on your way.”

I smile at Eva, glad to hear this news and then I kneel in front of Aramei so that I can be more at level with her eyes. The lantern on the bedside table casts a soft orange-yellow glow on one side of her face, accentuating her long, thick eyelashes and her angelic, unblemished white skin. Her legs are bare and I reach up and gently pull the ends of her sheer white gown down from being pushed near her thighs, and smooth the fabric over her knees. Her restful hands lay in her lap, sinking slowly in-between her legs in the slope of the thin material. As always, she smells wonderful, like vanilla and jasmine oils that have been rubbed into her skin.