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She watched and knew his body trembled with the effort to restrain himself as he knocked their heads one against the other, and allowed them to slither to the well worn and dirty wooden floor.
The remaining fellow named Josh stared with abject fear and misery before he actually made an attempt to escape. Graely growled as he picked him up by his neck, just under his chin, and pointed him toward the middle of the room, where a great number of people scampered to get out of the way, sure of what was coming.
Again Frankie, touched his arm, and seemed to assuage him and the force he was about to unleash on the hapless man. He threw him, he threw him hard, but she saw that he had managed to restrain the force he used.
They watched Josh land with a thump, a very hard thump on the hardwood floor. Frankie knew the guy would be bruised, really bruised, but at least not dead from his hard landing.
An uproar broke out before laughter and cheering resounded in the huge room and all around the bar. Clapping started and Graely frowned as he turned to Frankie and said, “Humans are mad, you know. Completely and utterly mad.”
She laughed and as the band grinned at them and then at each other before resuming, she called out the name of a Lady Antebellum ballad. They nodded, looked well pleased and began pelting out the words to, “Need You Now.”
Graely however, had made up his mind, picked Frankie up as though she were a child, cradle-like and began walking toward the exit.
“No, Graely, I can’t go. I have to wait for m’new friend, Fiona.” She didn’t mind his man-handling, and in fact, found that she enjoyed being in his arms so much, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to set her on her feet.
He, however, did just that and said, “You are a sore trial, Frankie,” he looked around, “Find her then, because I am taking you back to the Highlands, to Jazmine Decker. This place is not for you.”
“Well, she must be here somewhere, but while I wait for her, Graely, would ye dance with me? Would ye then? Would ye make this night better for me? If I have to go home, would ye not, give me a dance, and not let those curs ruin m’night?” Frankie said as she swayed to the soft music, singing the words to the inviting music, and telling him, again, “Dance with me, Graely.”
“No, Frankie.” He frowned and she could see he was torn. He wanted to say yes.
She beat a path to that yes hanging at the tip of his tongue, determined to pull it out. “Ah but do ye mean to disappoint me, Graely?” She looked up into his eyes and saw the moment he caved and took advantage of it. Shoving herself against him and putting her hands up his chest close to his shoulders. “Just this one dance.”
“Right, just one dance,” he said low and sweetly, but she heard the huskiness in his voice and smiled to herself.
She knew what she was doing as she pressed herself against him. She knew that his body was responding to hers against his will. Why did he fight this? Why couldn’t he see that they were meant to be? She looked up to find his eyes burning with hunger, and her heart began to flutter.
“Graely…”
“Frankie, don’t do this. Don’t look at me like that. Don’t think of me that way. Can’t you see what I am? Don’t you know I’m not right for you? Don’t you realize what I have done? I’m not worthy to look at you, let alone touch you. I will never let myself touch you. It can only end in hurt…for us both.”
“Not for me. A moment with you is worth a hundred moments with anyone else. You would never hurt me, Graely, unless you walk away from what we could be. That would be a hurt that would never go away,” she said softly.
“You are wrong, my sweet girl.” He clucked his tongue, “You will get over it once you find the right one. And I’m not him.”
“Ye are, ye are the one,” she boldly told him.
“You are a child, you don’t understand these matters.”
“I am eighteen. I am not a child, and I understand a great deal. A child? You have forgotten just who I am. I want ye Graely—ye, no other. Don’t ye want to give me what I want… what I need? Ye are the one, Graely. Don’t ye believe me when I tell ye? I grew up that day—that day when I killed thousands of those creatures. I grew up, and it made me who I am, and who I am, wants ye. No other will do. It has always been ye, no one else.”
“No, you think that because I am always coming to your rescue. I won’t do that anymore. You are on your own, Frankie. You have everything it takes to save yourself. This is my fault. I didn’t realize I was doing more harm, than good…”
“Graely, oh Graely, don’t leave me like this…don’t…” Frankie cried. “If ye don’t stay with me now, then say ye will be there when I need ye. Ye must always come when I call, or I will pine, Graely, and that is the worst danger of all. Ye don’t want me to pine, do ye? Ye might as well put a knife in m’heart, and end me now.”
He held her then, held her tighter than she had ever been held before. He lifted her into his arms, in an embrace that rocked with devotion, and then they were wrapped in a cloak of passion as his mouth closed on hers.
His kiss rocketed sensations through her body.
His kiss awoke the grown female inside of her, electrified her with emotion—a female that would never again doze in the background.
His kiss took all that was bright and shiny inside of Frankie and turned those lights into fireworks, her inner budding flowers into blossoming bouquets riotous with color.
His kiss did something else as well. It tickled the darkness she had been suppressing since she had taken part in the war against the Unseelie. That darkness had tried to come to a peak inside of her, and she had always beaten it down. It was a darkness that demanded a voice, because it was filled with power.
His kiss awoke and teased that dark power into new growth.
Suddenly, he tore himself away, and the sound that came out of his throat and boomed out of his mouth was that of soul wrenched with agony. He set her from him and dropped his hands to his side. “I am the worst of all cads, a blackguard, and a devil. Frankie, you are the one thing that makes me whole, and I’ll not take advantage of you.” And Graely shifted off.
