Page 67 of Into The Green

"Did she succeed at least?"

I looked down at Cece, her dress a mess, her lip still a little split, her cheek still bruised, her ankle wrapped with endless strips of thin fabric, with my dried blood all over her dress, covered in dirt and sweat. And still, fucking still, she was the most beautiful thing I had seen in a long fucking time.

"Maybe."

"Oh, fuck off with that," Doyle said, exhaling hard. "I can overlook Jade's hunch. She's been wrong before. Not often, mind you, but it happens. But that necklace thing with the pixies? Jasper on that invisible piece of magic? You want to call that a coincidence, sure. Let's. But then a gnome pops up out of the ground and digs out a jasper too? Come on."

"So you're saying it's some fate shit? Isn't that a little cheesy for you?"

"I don't know who you think you're talking to here, but I was the guy who bought your sister three-hundred and sixty-five daisies on our one year anniversary. I'm perfectly comfortable with cheesy. And, yes, I do believe some things are fated."

"So we don't have a choice?"

"You have a choice to turn your back on fate, sure. People and fae do it every damn day. But do you really want to be that guy? We have been through a lot of shit in the course of a couple days. We are standing outside a camp we are about to charge into and there is a pretty fair chance at least one of us won't make it out. You want to tell me that you're willing to fuck up what could be your only chance to give this a shot because you're pissed it wasn't fully your doing?"

"What? A confirmation of life fuck? Come on, who wants that?"

"People who might die want that. You want that. Wake her up, see if she wants that too," he said, standing, reaching for his backpack. He opened it and dug around inside. "Me and Onyx will walk ten minutes out and do a border patrol. We won't see or hear shit and we'll make sure no one else does either. Here," he said, grabbing a condom and tossing it down on the ground beside me.

"You packed condoms?" I laughed, shaking my head.

"We both knew what would happen when I came in here. At least I prepared for it." He moved to walk away then turned back. "Wake her up, Jasp," he said as if sensing I was still debating whether or not to.

With that and a grumble from Onyx as he followed (I suspected had some sort of dog-crush on Cece) we were alone for the first time in a long time.

I waited the ten minutes, continuing stroking her hair, not fully realizing I was thinking about touching her finally until she started getting restless in her sleep again. I looked down, surprised, to find her flushed, her breathing a little fast and shallow, her legs pressed together tightly as if... "Fuck," I said, shaking my head at myself. As if I was projecting my desire onto her. I dropped my hand and she settled back down. "Honey," I said after giving her body a few minutes to readjust, not wanting her to be turned-on because I made her that way without her being a willing participant.

She stirred a little, grumbling, fighting consciousness. But then her mind must have cleared of sleep fully because she shot up, her eyes snapping open. "Is it time?" she asked, looking around a little wildly.

"No. We have a while yet."

"Why aren't you sleeping? Where is Onyx and Doyle? Did something..." she started, pushing fully up, throwing her tangled hair back.

"Everyone is fine. Take a breath," I said, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear.

Her head tilted, watching me. "You're being weird."

"I'm being nice," I countered with a smile.

"Exactly. It's weird," she said, smiling back at me.

"Trying something new," I offered, sitting down in front of her, slipping my legs up under hers, grabbing her hips, and pulling her forward. Her brows drew together and her hand reached up, touching my face, making her brows furrow all the more. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing if you have a fever."

I chuckled, shaking my head at her. "Really helping my confidence here, honey." My hands moved back to her ass, pulling her fully against my lap, making her pussy rub up against my cock.

"Oh," she breathed out.

"Yeah... oh."

--

Cece

Sleep snapped backward, my system flooding with anxiety instantaneously. It took me an almost embarrassingly long minute to realize that Jasper's voice was doing that soft thing and his touch was gentle and his eyes were heated. Hell, I didn't notice it all until I felt my heat press up against his cock. But it all came at me at once then, flooding my system with a need so strong it was verging on painful.

"What?" he asked, watching me as a thought crossed my mind.