Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(15)

Then he turned to me.

“I’ve returned,” he announced the obvious, a smile playing at his gorgeous lips.

“Goodie,” I muttered churlishly.

The smile grew full-fledged.

Ugh.

“Fresh milk,” he said, tipping his head to the jugs. “And ale,” he went on.

Yuck. I hated milk and beer. Still, it was something. Though, I wished I knew how to use that kettle contraption. I’d checked it out and it was beyond me. There was no filter. And even if I figured it out, there was no water. And I needed caffeine, stat.

“Right,” I mumbled.

He lightly kicked one of the sacks with the toe of his boot. “Porridge oats, bread, butter, sugar and salt beef,” he went on.

Now we were talking.

“Fabulous,” I murmured.

He lightly toed the other sack. “Clothes for you. And shoes.”

Oh dear.

I bit my lip.

He smiled again.

Oh shit.

“Now, love,” he started walking toward me, “I hope you spent my time away thinking about how creative you can be.”

Oh shit!

I started backing up.

“We need to talk,” I informed him.

His head tipped to the side but he didn’t stop moving. “Well, that’s creative but not what I was thinking.”

Oh shit!

My back hit stone so I lifted a hand, palm out.

“Noctorno,” I whispered.

His chest came up against my hand and kept coming, pushing it back so it was caught between our bodies.

Yes, that was how close he was.

Yikes!

“Uh –”

“I warn you not to delay, Cora, I’m hungry and it’d be a shame, me eating in front of you,” he advised.

I stared up at him and all I could see were his light blue eyes. They were very blue and very clear. Like the sky on a sunny, cloudless day.

“Your eyes are like the sky on a sunny day,” I blurted and his mouth twitched.

Oh God. Why did I say that?

But I knew I said it because he was that close and he was that hot. A hot guy that close would make you blurt anything, even if he was a jerk.

He pushed closer and I felt his heat hit more than my hand and let me tell you, his heat was hot.

Wow.

His head dipped so his face was close to mine. “Sweet,” he whispered in his deep voice.

Wow… and… nice.

“You’re very hot,” I told him.

“I can get hotter,” he told me.

Yikes!

“Noctorno –”

“Whatever you do, I want you to do it with your mouth.”

Oh dear.

“And tongue,” he went on.

Oh man.

My fingers fisted in his shirt and I said quickly, “I’m not of this world.”

He blinked and he did it slow.

Then he growled, “Pardon?”

“That’s what we need to talk about.”

He straightened to his full height, his head turned to the side, his jaw got hard then he muttered, “Gods.”

“No, seriously,” I said.

His head turned back to me. “Yes, I see. You’ve used your time thinking how creative you could be.”

This wasn’t starting great.

I persevered mostly because I had no other choice.

“Okay,” I began, moving up to my toes which did take me higher but even though I was relatively tall, he was far taller and I didn’t even get close, “listen to me, all right?”

“I told you, I’m hungry,” he reminded me.

“I’ll hurry but promise to listen, okay?”

He stared at me but said not a word. I took this as a yes.

“Right, okay. I’m not from here. I’m from somewhere else.”

“And where are you from, Cora?” he asked with ill-concealed impatience.

“Uh… earth?” I ventured.

His lips thinned before he told me, “I’m from earth too.”

Well, at least we resided on the same planet…ish. Good to know (kind of) I wasn’t beamed to a different galaxy, just catapulted to an parallel world.

“Okay, that answers that but I’m from an alternate universe earth where we have computers and smart phones and, uh… cable TV.”

He scowled at me.

I kept at it. “I’m an administrative assistant. I work at an ad agency. I live in an apartment. I’m single, as in, not married. I had a boyfriend, his name was Brian, but he wouldn’t marry me so I had to cut my losses and break up with him before, you know, life passed me by.”

He continued to scowl at me but at the mention of Brian I felt his body go still and I watched his face go hard.

These were ominous signs but I kept going. “See, I went to sleep and then I woke up and I was here. I mean, I went to sleep at home, my home, where, you know, beds aren’t made of feathers but of…” I didn’t know what mattresses were made of but I was sensing his patience waning so I sallied forth, “Other stuff. And you don’t understand birds and there are no curses. That was why I didn’t know about the Rosa and Dash thing. See, we don’t have curses but even if we did, I wouldn’t know about that curse because I’m not the Cora you know. I’m a different Cora, one who’s fat but polite and doesn’t snore and…”