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The car slewed sideways as he pulled onto the shoulder and she struggled to regain her balance. He yanked up hard on the emergency brake and undid his seatbelt with a loud clack so he could spin around in his seat to look at her. “How do you know this? You don’t know me!”
“I don’t,” she agreed. “At least, not a lot. But I feel like I do, just a little.” She began to count facts off on her fingers. “You agreed to do something you didn’t want to, just to help me launch my career. You’ve got a level head in a crisis. You’re kind to dogs and children—”
“So you are convinced I didn’t sell you out because I like kids?” he scoffed. “Is that the best character reference you can come up with?”
She wished he wasn’t making it so hard. She wished there was a way to convince him she was genuinely sorry, and truly didn’t think ill of him. She wondered whether it would help if she explained how quickly her feelings for him were developing, but her instinct told her it would be dangerous to put that out there. Once spoken, those words could never be taken back.
So she looked away, feeling her eyes sting, and praying that the angry, frustrated tears building up behind them didn’t let her down. Sure, there weren’t any cameras around, but Corbin would see them. And that would be just as bad.
To her surprise, he seemed to be on the same wavelength. “No cameras,” he muttered. “No prying eyes.”
She tilted her head, looking up at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“I mean there are no witnesses, no bounty, no lurking Minions. It means I am free to do this.” He leaned forward to kiss her again, a bit more roughly than he had before. Their connection was seasoned with a hint of anger and frustration this time, laid upon a bed of unexpressed and unfulfilled desires and needs.
She responded to him ardently, eagerly, and when his hands dropped to her body she didn’t complain. She shifted forward, trying to clamber upon his lap, but was thwarted by the brake and the steering wheel. Even though she was now contorted in an awkward position, her body twisted to better connect with his, she didn’t want it to stop.
He was the one who had the good sense to lift his head and sit back, his breath coming in rough gusts. His dark brown eyes were glinting black in the dim light, his teeth a flash in the darkness.
Wordlessly, she nodded, understanding his unspoken message. They were at great risk of getting carried away, and even though this new desire for him had been awakened, this was not the time, and here was not the place.
“It is late,” he said softly. “I should get you home.”
She clicked her seatbelt shut, and he did the same. She wondered worriedly whether the rest of the drive would be awkward, but as he pulled onto the road he reached across with his free hand and took hers. There was little more to be said.
Zanifa’s car wasn’t there when they arrived, so Melanie assumed that they’d made good on their threat to camp out under the stars by the lake. She had no need to worry, as many other amateur astronomers were doing the same, and the campground was well secured. She smiled a little to herself, glad that Rhys was getting out, finding things to make him happy in this strange new country.
She stepped to Corbin’s side as they got onto the porch, and he took her keys from her hand, opening the front door and busying himself gathering up the parcels that the chauffer had placed there so many hours before.
She turned and cried out in such high-pitched horror that Corbin came running back out. “What? What is it?”
She pointed to a piece of paper that was stuck crookedly to the porch wall, and when she peeled it off for a better look it seemed to have been tacked on using cherry-scented chewing gum. The note read:
You may have a queen, but we have a goddess.
Children of Gaia
#FreeMrHappy
The statueof the grinning satyr was gone.
