Ravishing Rapunzel (Passion-Filled Fairy Tales, #6)(20)

Bradyn’s easy smile returned, and he said, “I see.” He scooted a bit closer to her on the sofa and slipped his hand around hers. “It’s just an old wives’ tale, but it’s a bit of a scary one. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

Rapunzel nodded. She wanted to know exactly what he’d heard about the FaeRisen.

“Well, they’re tales the townswomen tell, especially the young maidens. They warn that the demon sorceresses of the FaeRisen will make you pay if you treat them poorly. There are rumors, sometimes. There was a young man in our kingdom who had been a bit of a scamp, dallying with lots of maidens, promising them everything and delivering nothing but a string of broken hearts. He disappeared, and no one has seen him since. The maidens all say he was taken by the FaeRisen. That they tortured and murdered him.”

Rapunzel shivered, a well of fear and disgust pooling in her core. A group of demon sorceresses. That hadn’t been what her mother described. She’d said their aim was justice. Was murder just? “Are people sure he didn’t just leave town?” Rapunzel asked, her face creased with worry.

“And this is why I didn’t wish to tell you such things. You’re worried.”

She shook her head. “Not entirely worried,” she said. “Just curious if the townspeople could be wrong.”

He smiled broadly. “I think they are. He may have just realized his reputation was poor and decided to move on. It makes more sense than demon sorceresses.”

Rapunzel nodded.

He took her hand, lifted it to his mouth, and planted a butterfly-soft kiss. She smiled reflexively. “I didn’t think this was a good story,” he said. “You’re sad now.”

Rapunzel shook her head. “No, not sad. Just thoughtful. Sometimes when you hear new stories, it takes a moment to let them settle on you. Takes a moment for you to get used to it.” Rapunzel smiled at him and then leaned her head on his shoulder.

He patted her arm gently. “It’s fine, Rapunzel. Take all the time you need.”



*

Mother Gothel would be gone for a week. She’d told Rapunzel that she was visiting a new town and needed time to get settled in. Bradyn had spent the night again, sleeping on the sofa and being a perfect gentleman toward her. He was everything her mother said men weren’t. He had let her lie there on his shoulder the previous day, simply stroking her arm, as it sunk in to her that perhaps her mother wasn’t the kind woman she’d portrayed herself to be. And he’d not asked about her mood, sensitive enough to discern she hadn’t wanted to talk about it. He’d not been a libidinous cad, happily sleeping on the sofa. And this morning, not a word of complaint about the sofa, happily awaiting whatever she wanted to make for breakfast.

He was a good man.

Dressed in loose pants he’d changed into to sleep and no shirt, he stretched his arms as if to ward away lingering fatigue, stood, and walked over to her. Rapunzel was bent over the table, slicing apples her mother had brought on her last visit. “Would you like some help?” he asked.

She looked up from her cutting as he arrived at the table and found she couldn’t help ogling his shirtless chest. She looked down at the table again. “You slice apples?”

“Never in my life,” he replied. “But you seem like you’d be excellent at teaching.”

She giggled and said, “Well, never in my life have I taught a person to slice apples, but I suppose we shall both experience something we have never done today.”

He raised an eyebrow, and something about his look seemed more intense and sensual than talk of apples should have inspired. “Did you need to get your shirt?” she asked.

He shook his head. “I would want it to get messy.”

She nodded as if that made sense, but apples weren’t that messy. She wasn’t complaining, though. His broad shoulders and chiseled chest made her breath catch in her throat. She swallowed as he sidled up close to her. “Teach me,” he said.

Rapunzel reached to the counter nearby and grabbed another small knife for him. “Do you prefer them peeled or with the skin on?”

He stroked her cheek and said, “I adore skin.”

She felt a tremor of pleasure with his touch. She cleared her throat as his fingers left her cheek. “I meant on the apple.”

“I adore it everywhere,” Bradyn said. “Silky smooth like yours or the apple’s.”

Rapunzel set the apple on top of a plate and picked up her knife. “A simple way, the way my mother taught me when I was younger, would be to set your apple down on a firm surface, hold the right side of your apple, place your knife so it will cut off about a third of the apple on the left side, and then press straight down. That way you don’t cut yourself.”

Rapunzel sliced into her apple, cutting it so you could see the faint outline of where the seeds were going to be in the portion that retained the core. Bradyn imitated Rapunzel, slicing a chunk from his apple. “I liked that. A nice hard push, and then you get your reward,” he said picking up the chunk of apple and taking a bite out of it.

“You seek your reward a little too quickly,” Rapunzel said, a smile cocked on her lips. She took her apple chunk, placed it flesh side down, and cut it into thirds. “Smaller slices.”

Bradyn shrugged. “I figured you were the type of gal who could handle ‘em big.”