Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(60)
And Tor’s answer made my entire body lock.
“She says she’s from a different world.”
Uh…
What?
I said I was from a different world?
He didn’t believe me?
I thought he’d come to believe me.
I heard Algernon’s sharp bark of surprised laughter before he asked, “A different world?”
“Yes. A different world,” Tor replied. “Gods, it’s unbelievable. She lives it and breathes it. She’s even created words to go with it. She tells me extraordinary stories of the make-believe architecture and fantastical gadgets they have in her world.” He paused and my dazed brain imagined him shaking his handsome head in disgust at the same time it hazily recalled the many nights over dinner or when we were in bed when I’d tell him stories of my world and all the things in it when he went on, “I must admit, it’s stunning how clever she is, how sharp her mind. She’s astonishingly imaginative and she never forgets a word of it. She has to be making it up as she goes along but every lie she tells, she remembers and uses it again.”
Every lie I tell?
“How bizarre,” Algernon muttered.
“It’s remarkable,” Tor said with what, if I wasn’t about to melt into a puddle of steaming heartbreak, I would have noted was clear respect.
“So she’s playing you?
“Indeed,” Tor answered. “I gave her permission to do so and clearly she took me up on the offer.”
I stepped away from the door in order to lean against the wall beside it so my shaking knees wouldn’t fail me.
He thought I was playing him.
He thought I was playing him!
Weeks of it! Nearly two months of it!
He thought I was playing him!
“You gave her permission?” Algernon sounded shocked.
“Certainly. It’s living a lie but living Cora’s lie is better by far than living with the old Cora.”
“It doesn’t make you angry?” Algernon asked.
“Gods no,” Tor replied. “It comes with her sweet body, that charming mouth of hers, her skillful tongue and the possibility that she’s already carrying my heir.”
Holy crap!
“So you’re getting something out of it,” Algernon stated.
“Every bloody night,” Tor replied and I felt pain sharp in my gut, like I’d been punched. “And if my wife lives and breathes her deceits with exuberant imagination out of bed, you can well imagine what she treats me to in it.”
Algernon chuckled a low, manly chuckle.
But I closed my eyes. Slowly.
He thought I was the Cora of this world.
He didn’t believe I was me.
I was falling in love with him…
Fucking shit, I’d already fallen in love with him.
And he was using me.
Using me!
Using me to get his heir.
He was trying to get me pregnant and enjoying himself doing it. And I was letting him.
And enjoying myself doing it, too.
But I loved him.
And he did not love me.
He didn’t even like me.
He was playing me!
Why, why, why did guys have to be dicks in my world and in fairytale world?
Why?
“Well done, sir,” Algernon stated as I made up my mind, straightened from the wall and then walked right into the room.
Both men started when I did, their heads swinging in my direction.
But I only had eyes for Tor as he stared at me walking across the room carrying the swirly, creamy frosted cake with its blue birthday candles that I’d wanted so badly and worked so hard to make for him (seriously, the kitchens in his castle were warm and jolly but the utensils and appliances were so far away from KitchenAid it wasn’t funny).
“Happy birthday,” I whispered and even I heard the ache in my voice.
When Tor heard it, I watched him flinch and the flinch was so reactionary he had no hope of hiding it.
He knew I heard.
Good.
“Cora –” he started.
“In my world,” I cut him off and moved my what I was sure were heartsick eyes to Algernon, “we don’t serve birthday tarts with birthday sparklers, as Perdita told me you do here. In my world,” I looked back at Tor who was frozen to the spot and watching me stop at his desk and set the cake on it, “we serve birthday cake with birthday candles.”
I touched the stick to a candle on his desk, lit it and started lighting the birthday candles as I kept explaining.
“So, for your birthday, since I have no money but I wanted to do something special, I decided to give you something that was special to me, a piece of my world, kind of literally. I scoured the city to find all the right ingredients and Perdita had the candlemaker make special candles. So here you are.” I gestured to the cake with a flick of the stick. “A my world birthday cake.” My eyes went to his. “My birthday present to you. And now what you have to do is make a wish, blow out the candles and your wish is supposed to come true.”
Luckily, there were only ten candles (I guess I didn’t explain very fully to Perdita). I’d finished with them so I blew out the stick and set it on the desk.
“Cora –” Tor started again, beginning to move toward me.
“No!” I cried, lifting up a hand and he stopped.