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Feeling bad about teasing him, I gently knock my shoulder against his and rock back on my heels. “Don’t worry, I avoid Bat-rats if I can, too.”Shifty little bastards they are. Smiling, I refocus on the bubble ride, wanting to get on so bad, but I recognise that it’s probably someone who hates heights’ worst nightmare. “Do you want to go on a different ride then? I think I saw a rollercoaster over that way that was closer to the ground and circled the park? We can do that instead?” I offer. I mean, I’d suggest we do something else entirely, but he literally led me to this section of the marketplace when we met up and told me to pick a ride.
Shaking his head, Corin moves toward the fae worker in front of the empty stationary bubble and I follow. Dipping his head in a nod, he passes our tickets to the fae worker then ushers me into the awaiting bubble.
“We can do the rollercoaster after,” he murmurs, observing how the worker straps us in. His face goes slightly green when the door closes behind us, sealing us in.
“You don’t have to do this,” I say, my worry warring with excitement as the ride gears up, a whirring beneath us.Goddess, this is going to be awesome. I look at Corin again.Probably.
Corin
A groan gets stuck in my throat as my fingers clamp down on the arms of my seat, body tense enough to crack.Shit, maybe this was a bad idea. I wasn’t going to choose this section of the marketplace to hang out with Nessa. In fact, when we discussed it, I was adamantly against it, but both Oscar and Dylan had plans already in mind so I didn’t say anything. I hadn’t thought about it much and was open to ideas, plus I don’t know them as well as they do each other so I didn’t want to get laughed at for beingnervouswhen it comes to heights. Insecurities are a bitch sometimes.
Whirring sounds come to life below us and the bubble shifts. A squeak sneaks past my tightly sealed lips and I blush,again.Goddess, give me fucking strength. Nessa’s eyes are practically burning into the side of my head, but I don’t meet her eyes, instead I brace waiting for the bubble to be thrown into the air like an upside-down yoyo then fall back to the ground just to repeat the action.
When the ball shoots upward, I shout, shock and adrenaline needling through me even though I was expecting it. Nessa stays silent, but my eyes are glued shut so I can’t tell if she’s enjoying this or not. We seem to reach a peak and my stomach swoops with a moment of weightlessness before we plummet back down to the ground. Another yelp escapes me as we hit the pocket of air above one of the launching mechanisms then we’re up again.
I was right—this is absolutely awful. I swear I’m about to have an actual fucking heart attack when Nessa’s voice pierces through the sounds of my blood rushing in my ears and frantic panting breaths. “Corin.”
I groan in reply, biting my tongue with the next jolt of the ball.
“Corin.” She’s more insistent this time and I crack an eyelid a tiny bit, but not enough to see.
“Grab my hand.” Her request stuns me enough that my eyes pop open in question, only to slam back shut as the sky and all the itty bitty buildings filter in through the clear bubble surrounding us.
“We’re gonna die. My god. Why the hell did I agree to this, woman?” I ramble, fingers like fucking claws, gouging into the seat.
“I swear to the gods, you stubborn man, grab my fucking hand,” she growls, concern laced into her voice.
Doing as she says at the command in her voice, I reach out blindly, locating her hand as our bubble swoops through the air again. First my fingers find hers and I thread our fingers together, then all of the sudden my fear just vanishes. My eyes pop open, head turned to the left, staring at her in utter fucking amazement. What the hell? “How are you doing that?” I ask, wonder in my voice.
Nessa smiles at me, cheeks a little pale, breathing laboured and it hits me. She was feeding off of my fear. She doesn’t look as floaty as she usually does after she feeds, though, which is unusual. “I’m not completely sure, I just somehow knew that if you touched me I could take your fear away. Don’t let go of me or it’ll come back, alright?”
I nod, body and mind struggling to catch up after having so much adrenaline running through me, only for the thing causing it to disappear so quickly. “Thank you,” I murmur. Then I realise the ride is still going, we’re still being tossed about, but now I can actually enjoy it. A laugh bursts out of me as we fall towards the ground before being thrown back up, that weightlessness rushing back.
I take in the view and Nessa joins in, enjoying the ride with me, though she’s more subdued about it then when we started. When the ride comes to a stop, we’re unstrapped and I let go of Nessa’s hand, almost expecting all that fear to come rushing back, but it doesn’t. I climb out of the bubble on shaky legs, the stable ground odd after being at the mercy of gravity for the last ten minutes. Smiling, I glance at Nessa and find her watching me, her expression solemn.
“What’s wrong?” My brows draw down, unsure as anger tightens her features.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, throwing her arms up again, before staring at me wide eyed, nostrils flaring like an angry bull. I swallow and take a step back. This is a side of Nessa I haven’t had directed at me before. She’s actually a little terrifying. Tugging at the collar of my shirt, I watch her carefully. “You seriously did not just say that!”
She starts pacing, muttering to herself about stupid, idiot men. I roll my lips in, determined not to laugh. What started out as scary, now reminds me a little of an angry kitten. She whirls on me, jabbing her pointer finger into my chest. “Don’t you dare laugh at me, Mister. You gave me a freaking heart attack.” My eyebrows dip, my amusement fading a tiny bit. “Scared of heights.What? Me?Nooo. I just avoid heights,” she says in a mocking voice, drawing out the words sarcastically. I’d be offended but I know this is stemming from a place of worry. It makes my primal side purr. The side that was mysteriously fucking absent from my panic on the bubble ride.
A furious growl tumbles from Nessa’s lips and my focus jerks back to her. “Don’t you dare make that sound right now, big guy. I’m mad at you.” The purr I didn’t realise I was making so loudly falters before I cut it off. I reach out to her, ready to apologise, but the vixen spins around staying out of reach and storms off in the direction of the rollercoaster.
Fingers crossed she isn’t so mad at me that she decides to withhold her power of removing my fear from me. I groan, rubbing a hand over my face as I try to get my thoughts in order. All I can focus on though is the warmth growing in my chest at how worried she was about me. I had no idea my little mate cared about me so much.
Focus. Apologise, and get in her good graces again. Preferably before she chooses to put the fear of the Goddess through you. Shaking my head, I jog after her. My long strides have me catching up quickly and I go to say something, but she huffs at me and takes off at a run. My eyebrows furrow, and I halt.The heck?As she’s about to dip down a path between two rides though, she peers over her shoulder at me, a challenging smirk on her lips.Oh, so that’s how she wants to work off her anger at me, huh?
My nostrils flare and I take off at a run, a low growl rumbling in my chest. I’m going to catch her so fast. Knowing where she’s heading helps and I take another track, one that’ll put me out right where she’ll be. Little does she know I came early this morning and canvased this entire area so I could keep us safe. Turns out that’s paid off. My arms pump at my sides, chest rising and falling sharply as I gain on her. A strong whiff of her scent ghosts over me before I launch out of the alley and pounce on her.
To her credit, she doesn’t scream. In fact, she shocks the shit out of me. Rather than go limp or try to fight like a wildcat, she simply rolls me over her shoulder, taking me down to the ground. She has a knife at my throat and another digging into my cock through my jeans before I can even get my hands beneath me.Holy shit.
My breathing speeds up, heat rolling over me.Goddamn that was fucking hot. Swallowing hard, I try to will my erection away with no luck. She’s looking right at me, but doesn’t seem to recognise me, her eyes blank and cold. I croak, “It’s me, princess.”
She drops her weapons immediately and climbs off my chest, shaking her head as if in a daze. Though the sun is starting to set, it’s plenty bright enough to recognise me, but it’s like she was suddenly shocked into kill mode. Or ninja mode. I don’t know, but either way it’s an intriguing new tidbit I now know about her. I file it away for later and refocus on the situation.
Nessa doesn’t react the way I’d expect. She’s already hidden her knives while I was distracted and leans down to offer me a hand. I take it and she yanks me to my feet, surprising me again at her strength. “So, rollercoaster?” she asks casually.
Blinking at her stupidly, I nod and follow her, still a little dazed from her taking me out. As we continue on to the line for the rollercoaster, a tiny grin curls my lips. Even though our chase was cut short, my mind floods with images of another scenario where it is just us and our chase ends differently.
