Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(64)

“Think about what? How, while I was falling in love with you, you were playing me?”

“You love me,” he told me.

“Not anymore, I don’t,” I returned and I watched his eyes smile.

“You can’t fall out of love just like that.”

“Trust me, Tor, you can.”

He lifted his forehead from mine and swept his thumb across my lips. I tried to tear my face away but his fingers simply gripped tighter.

“You can’t. I know. I fell in love with her and it isn’t that easy. I know this because I tried.”

“Well, I’m not you,” I spat.

“No, thank the gods, you aren’t.” And his eyes were smiling as his lips twitched.

I looked at the ceiling then back at him. “Will you let me go?” I demanded impatiently.

“Yes, I will, in a moment.”

“Now!”

“A moment, Cora,” he stated firmly, I glared and he continued. “I will leave you to rest, you need some time away from me. I’ll give it to you.”

Really? How was he going to do that? Where was he going to go?

Oh Lordy, he’d probably walk in front of a car or…

“But, I’ll leave you with this,” he interrupted my thoughts. “If you have a twin in my world then it is safe to assume that there is a man in this world who looks like me. And if he was in your life, if you fell in love with him the instant you saw him, if you were convinced by a prophesy written in the sky that he carried half your soul, just like every prophesy that came true generation after generation for as long as anyone could remember… and then he crushed your heart… then I was brought into this world and I was charming, amusing, seducing you with every turn of my head, every look, every smile, every move I made, telling you fantastical stories about how I came from another world, what would you think? What would you do?”

“I didn’t seduce you!” I cried.

“Cora, love,” he whispered, “you’re seducing me right now.”

That shut me up and it made my heart clench.

“Think about that,” he said quietly then he let me go and stepped toward the door.

I watched him go and I knew I couldn’t watch him go.

Damn it all to hell!

I turned and called out to him (really, I had no choice), “Where are you going?”

He stopped in the doorway and looked at me. “Out.”

“Out where?”

“Wherever my feet take me.”

Shit!

I turned fully to him and crossed my arms on my chest. “Tor, you can’t go out in my world without me. Things are different here. Vastly different. You might get… hurt, or something.”

His mouth curved up. “Worried?”

“No!” I snapped. “I just figure you’re destined to go home soon and I don’t want to deprive Bellebryn of their ruler.”

“Right,” he murmured and started to turn. “I’ll be back.”

“Tor!” I cried, taking a step to him, he stopped and looked at me.

“Take one more step away from the bed, Cora, and I’ll have to be inventive in finding ways to keep you in it and make you rest.”

I took a step back and glared at him.

“Don’t worry about me, love. I’ll be fine. Rest, I’ll be back soon.”

Then he went to the dresser, opened a drawer, grabbed a pair of socks then nabbed a pair of boots from the floor before he disappeared.

I stared after him. Then I walked back to my bed and collapsed on it.

Then I stared at the ceiling and muttered, “Shit.”

Chapter Eighteen

Thank God You’re Home

I was pacing my living room and freaking out.

Tor had to get home and he had to get home soon.

There were two reasons for that.

One, night had fallen which meant he’d been gone all day, it had been raining or drizzling all day and, I had to admit (damn and blast!) that I was worried about him.

Two, I had a strong feeling the Cora of his world was in some deep shit.

Earlier, after he’d left, I’d laid down and when the aspirin didn’t work, I picked my way through my (filthy, Tor was right, there were used takeout cartons, dirty dishes and other debris everywhere) apartment to the kitchen hoping to make coffee. However, I found no coffee and not much else except sour milk in a carton I was pretty sure I’d left behind.

I shook the milk out in the sink and threw the carton away, got some ice water, took some ibuprofen and tried the resting thing again. Then I couldn’t rest because my house was so filthy.

So I started cleaning, throwing in some laundry, removing the sheets, picking up sodden towels, putting away my clothes and makeup and the other Cora’s expensive clothes and makeup, not to mention, tidying the glossy department store bags that still held receipts and seeing just how much money Cora had spent which nearly gave me a heart attack.

Where had she got so much money?

I found my purse and there was twenty dollars in it which, if I remembered correctly, was how much I’d left in it. I went to my computer and logged into my bank account. All my money was still there. I checked my on-line credit card statements, all the balances were nil, like I kept them, paying them off monthly.

What on earth?