Page 91 of Dare
He was a ruler. I was a fugitive.
He came from Winter. I came from Summer.
Nothing this prince did was spontaneous. He possessed a will of iron and a calculating mind. Every step he took was on purpose.
Panicking, seeking comfort in my arms, dragging his mouth across my neck. Like the night of the lightning rain, none that had been planned, yet he hadn’t stopped himself. Stalking me through these ruins, kneeling at my feet, and licking me into a frenzy had been deliberate.
But when Jeryn’s eyes dropped to my mouth, heat passed through them along with caution. I understood why, yet there seemed to be more he wasn’t telling me.
My limbs flanked his waist, the pome of his cock hot against my pussy, while the shredded nightgown hung off my shoulders. With our lips swollen and hair disheveled, we had made a mess of one another. And if we weren’t careful, it would happen again.
Crawling up his chest, I planted my hands on the wall, on either side of his head. “So we agree.”
A jagged breath pushed from his chest. “We agree.”
Then and there, the clamshell of my heart closed. The rainforest had embraced us, had led us to this point. I wanted this to mean something beyond a mere tryst, and I wanted to savor the beauty of last night. But I couldn’t.
The prince thought me resilient. The rainforest had granted me the vitality to face all threats. So why did this choice feel painful? Why did my chest clench as much as my conscience? Only last night, I’d been sure nothing he did would ever hurt.
I was wrong.
Our silence formed a new blockade, hardened into a new shield, rose like a new wall. Yet it took a long time for the villain prince to release his grip on me, and it took a long time for me to climb off his lap, and it took even longer for us to let go.
***
Days passed, then weeks followed. We kept ourselves busy, diving headfirst into tasks. Not that it often worked, the tension thickening like sap.
Only with the passage of time did we find ourselves arguing, bantering, and talking more comfortably. In between quarrels, we lapsed into conversations. In a series of moments, we discovered each other.
We mapped the rainforest. The underground ruin caves led to different parts of the island, though we couldn’t rely on them to reach every terrain. Over time, we recognized forks in the paths, danger zones, and fauna territories. Then came the day when we journeyed without having to follow our map.
Slowly, I befriended the wild’s fauna. Hummingbirds roosted on my shoulders. Seahorses swam with me in the grotto. Vipers slinked from the crevices, curious as I tiptoed nearer, too fascinated for Jeryn’s liking, who shoved himself between us until I hopped around him to greet the creatures. From a serpent with pearlescent skin to a horned viper, the animals slithered around me with animated hisses, then twined themselves along my arms like bangles while I laughed.
One afternoon, a boa with a barbed face approached. I recognized her as the one I’d battled and released from the tarantula webs. The female skated out of the shadows, her movements hesitant.
I recalled her bafflement when I’d freed her from the webs. Maybe she sensed a kindred spirit. The rainforest seemed to think we should meet, so I trusted its judgment. And what a pretty enchantress!
As we studied one another, a second figure prowled from a shrub. The red and black feline with saberteeth stalked forward, her shoulders revolving sinuously. When an intrigued purr rippled from the animal’s throat, I knelt and tentatively scratched behind her ear, which prompted the female to bump my leg, the motion bringing a smile to my lips.
Minutes later, I found myself galloping on the jaguar’s back with the boa draped over my shoulders. The feline unleashed a roar, the serpent vibrated its forked tongue, and I howled, celebrating what the rainforest had always known, that we were all creatures of nature.
They returned me to the ruins, the jaguar leaping over the bridge gap to the opposite side. Jeryn stalled his movements, gawking from the entrance steps where he’d been whetting one of his scalpel blades. As we trotted his way, the shocked prince rose to his feet. He took in my skimpy camisole, which was sewn to a pair of tiny shorts, the boa strung like a deadly necklace around my throat, and the jaguar balancing me like a steed.
Me and my fauna pack.
“Seasons forbid,” Jeryn uttered. “You fucking reckless woman.”
Something more than alarm filled his tone. Deep and resonant, it sounded very much like esteem.
As more weeks floated by, I searched the ruins for my key, reciting the Summer song for clues, checking cracks in its walls, wading through shallow pools in sunken chambers, and breaking open dusty compartments. I also used my nets to catch fish, some of my excursions turning up treasures from our wreckage, including my parents’ machete lodged beneath a boulder. Elated, I jumped up and down, then gyrated in circles around Jeryn.
The prince might have dipped his head and grinned. A little.
And despite the memory of his mouth on my flesh, a routine developed, and a friendship kindled.
***
Jeryn spent time creating restoratives. One day, I watched him from around a corner. I’d been avoiding peeking into his medical chamber, the place where my legs had splayed around his head. Today though, the sound of him working lured me.