The Book of G

by Lily Archer

“By concealing it the way you do?” I snap back. “Sometimes.” She pats the saddle bag. “Why do you think Madge made you this mask? You have to work with your limitations—even if they aren’t fair or if they’re placed on you by someone else.”

“Thank you,” she says, her tone still soft like the edge of a rose. “You’re the only one who can read the map.” Her shoulders tighten. “Ugh! I was trying to have a moment and—” “It’s still a moment.” I smirk. “Asshole!” She kicks my foot with her heel. “Look, you can call me Charlie, all right? That’s not my full name, but it’s closer to it than Charles, if that makes you feel any better.” “It doesn’t make me feel better.” And I still can’t figure out what to do with my hands. “Relax. We have a long ride. Stop being ridiculous about me being a woman.”

“Some day soon, you’re going to tell me you want me. And when that time comes, I won’t hold back, Charlie. Not for a single second.” Fuck, I want her to tell me right now. I’d do viciously depraved things just to hear those words fall from her lips.

Her golden hair tickles along my cheek. “As if you’d know what to do with a woman.”

“I know what I’d do with you.” I drop my palms to her thighs and let them rest there. “I’ve thought about it quite a bit. First, I’d get a taste of you, every bit of you. I want to inhale it, lick it, fucking bask in it. I think about how you’ll feel on my tongue, and I already know it’s sweet. It’s that scent I catch every now and again, the one I thought was pie.” I chuckl...

But I hear her muttering, the words ‘oaf’, ‘dense’, ‘idiot’, and ‘sweet’ all making an appearance. I only focus on the last one. The others are just flirting.

“I was thinking ‘morally gray’ but you’re more like a midnight abyss.” She mutters something under her breath, ending with the word ‘wicked.’

“By the time we’re through with this trip, you’ll understand there’s no amount of wickedness I wouldn’t do for you.” “You’re the worst.” She sighs, her breath tickling my lips as she leans closer, her lashes fluttering. “I know.” I kiss her, pulling her against me as I taste her again, a groan in my throat. I want to drown in her. She clutches me tightly, her mouth opening as I slide my tongue against hers. How have I gone so long without this? It’s been pure torture. Every night, I think of that kiss we shared in the pool. Every day, I want her so fucking bad it hurts. I pour all that into this embrace, into each brush of our tongues and the press of our bodies. I want her to feel what I feel, that longing that goes so deep it must be embedded in my center.

She pulls back, her breath shaky as she meets my gaze. “What are you doing to me?” “Anything you’ll let me.” She swallows hard and licks her lips. “L-let’s go.” She turns. I groan. “I think what you meant to say was ‘take me, G, take me right here on the street while everyone watches.’” She shivers as I press a kiss to the back of her neck. “Just tell me what you want, Charlie. Tell me and I’ll burn down heaven and earth to give it to you.”

I have to adjust myself, my cock sitting straight up against her lower back. She notices, her posture getting even more tight. “No, Charlie.” I pull her back, forcing her against me. “You should feel what you do to me. What you keep doing to me.” Her breathing hitches, and I swear she moves her hips, just a little, just enough to make insanity flood my mind. “Don’t do that,” I grate out. “You’re the one stabbing me with your cock,” she hisses. “Now that’s a pretty picture,” I breathe in her ear, loving the way her skin pebbles. “Oaf,” she spits. I smirk and wrap one arm around her waist, then grind my erection against her backside. “Tell me more. You know what your insults do to me.”

“Look at me.” I pull her closer. “Just look at me.” Reluctantly, she meets my gaze again, her eyes still glistening with unshed tears. “I love you. Don’t you know that? I don’t think I’ve ever loved anything other than myself. I don’t remember how I used to be, but somehow, I know that’s true. At least it was, until you. I feel like maybe I’d been empty, like whatever life I had before was only a buildup to this. To you and me. I can’t explain it, but I know this is real, this is where I’m meant to be, because it’s where you are. I’d follow you anywhere, Charlie. I’d do anything to keep you safe, to make you happy.” A tear spills from her eye, and I wipe it away with my thumb. “I know you could never love me. Not when I look like this. Not when I’m so fucking broken and scarred, but once I find the Graven—” She puts her palms to my face. “G, shut up and kiss me.”

I take her arm and keep walking her up the street. “See?” “No. I just see a bunch of fools.” “Don’t go insulting other men. I’ll get jealous.” That gets a laugh from her. “You’re demented.” “Charlie.” I slip my hand to her ass and squeeze. “I warned you.” “Ugh, focus.” She leads me to the stables.

“That was delicious.” She tosses the bone into the fire and licks her fingers. A jolt of desire shoots through me, and she looks at me with a sexy expression that tells me she knows exactly what she’s doing. “Have I told you all the ways I’ve imagined having you?” I ask. She smirks. “No, you’ve never graced my ears with such filth.” “Allow me to remedy that.” I take her hand and pull it to my mouth, sucking one finger after another. “Tonight, I want you on your knees, crying out like a wild animal while I rut you from behind.” She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip. “But that’s just one scenario. There are plenty more. Your mouth around my cock, my tongue inside you, you sitting on my face while I lick you until you scream, taking your tight little asshole, marking your body with my teeth—” She laughs. “You’ve put more thought into fucking me than you have into anything else, ever.” I shrug, not denying it. “You haven’t had any thoughts along those lines?” Her cheeks are already pink, but they go scarlet at that question. “Oh, you have.” I grin. “Do tell.”

I can’t get enough of her. Not her mouth, her body, her clever fucking mind. I can’t live without her. I know that now.

I hold her close, listening as she falls asleep in my arms. I may not be whole, but in this moment, I know I will be. I have to be.

“I ran away, didn’t I?” She cups my face, and this time I let her. “I refused my fate, the one my father chose for me, and I left. I went out into the human world looking for my destiny.” She steps closer, her warmth like a touch. “And then I found you.” On her tiptoes, she tilts my face down to hers and kisses me. I drop my sword, grab her ass, and lift her, pinning her against the door as I take her mouth. Not slow and sweet, anything but. I need her to feel my claim, to know I’ll never let that twatty ponce touch her, much less marry her. She wraps her legs around my waist as I grip her hair, pulling roughly and angling my mouth over hers. Her moan rolls through my chest, my body still tensed, still ready to fight. I press against her and feel the curves of her breast, the heat between her thighs. She’s intoxicating, the most heavenly creature I’ve ever come across. And she’s fucking mine. I pull her from the door and carry her to the bed. She gasps as I grip her pants and yank them down. “G, we can’t.” “Why not?” I’m already freeing my cock. She licks her lips, her gaze on me as I stroke myself. “B-because—” “That’s what I thought.” I strip her panties, then spread her legs. “Tell me you want me, Charlie. You want us.” I pull up her shirt, her hard nipples taunting me as I take one in my mouth. “I-I—” She moans as I bite down on the hard peak, my cock rubbing against her wet slit. “Tell me.” “I want you.” She buries her fingers in my hair, and I slide inside her. “Fuck...

“I want her here, too. I love her. I think you already know that.” I look up at the sky, the stars here so much brighter than the ones I’m used to. “But she doesn’t love me.” Fuck. Why does saying it out loud gut me? I stand silent for a long time just trying to gather what’s left of me. “She said some things that I thought she didn’t mean. But then …” Belinda puts her chin on my shoulder. I pet her cheek. “I thought if I could fix my face, she’d be able to love me, you know? But I don’t think it’ll be enough. I’m not enough. Because I’m broken and an oaf and wicked—everything she’s ever accused me of. She was right. You should’ve seen her at the palace.” I sigh more deeply than I ever have in my life. “It’s like … it’s like we never happened. Maybe I was just a pet, like her father said. And now she’s tired of me. She’s moved on.” I swallow thickly. “Even though I never will.” A huff of breath, and she presses herself against me harder in another hug. “I want her, but I don’t want to get in the way of her being happy.” The hurt goes even deeper, all the way to my center. “I want to be selfish and march in there, slay that Tristan the Twat, and throw her over my shoulder. I think … I think that’s what the old me would do. I wouldn’t give her a choice. I’d just take what I wanted. But I’m trying to be better. She’s made me better. And as much as it fucking destroys me, I have to let her choose her happiness. Even if it doesn’t include me.” I swallow the lump in my throat, f...

“Why is that? He not wicked enough for you?” “No.” She shoves me again, fire in her eyes when I meet her gaze. “Because I’m in love with you.” I stop. Everything stops. I’d imagined those words from her lips more times than I could count, but actually hearing them is … It’s something else, something I never could’ve conjured in my wildest dreams. I may not remember my past, but I know without a doubt that I’ve never felt this before, because it’s something more powerful than memory. Something unforgettable. “Didn’t you know?” Her voice is softer now. “No.” I swallow the lump of emotion in my throat. Can this be true? How can she love me when I look like this, when I’m so fucking broken inside and out? “God, that look.” She presses her palms to my cheeks, her voice soft now. “You, G. Not you with a different face or you with a past you can remember. I’m in love with you.” She gets on her tiptoes and kisses me, her lips tender against mine. “Never doubt it.” My mind wants to doubt, to tell her that she couldn’t possibly love me. Not like this. Not when she’s the most beautiful creature I’ve ever beheld. But my wicked streak is still here, still branded beneath my skin, because I don’t care if I don’t deserve her. I want her, and I’ll gut anyone who comes between us. “There he is.” She kisses me again. “I can tell when you decide to do the wrong thing.” I bite her bottom lip. “How’s that?” “You get this vicious look in your eye.” She kisses one corner of my lips. “And you smi...

“G.” She wrinkles her nose. “You need healing.” “I only need you.” I lay her down, covering her with my body as I kiss her.

“This is mine.” I bite her shoulder. “Tell me, Charlie.” She jerks as I stroke her clit, my fingers circling it again and again. “Yours,” she chokes out, her breath coming in pants. “Always mine. Forever.” I grab her hair and pull her face around to me, then claim her lips.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I crawl forward then stretch out by the fire. When I pull her against me, she tries to resist. “I need to see about your head.” “My head’s fine.” I swipe the sweaty hair from her forehead and kiss her, then pull her on top of me. “Lie here with me for a while. Belinda needs more rest before we go. And I need more of your tight cunt.” I lift a thigh, pressing it against her swollen sex. She bites my shoulder, and I love the sting. “You’re so filthy, G.” “But you love me.” Fuck, that warms my black heart in ways I can’t fathom. “I do.” She gives in and goes limp, draping herself over me.

“Did Belinda rat me out about the wine?” I ask. She snorts. “No. It doesn’t work like that. But it makes more sense now. You were drunk.” “I had to do something about my heartache, now didn’t I?” I shoot back. She reaches across and grabs my hand, squeezing it in hers. That’s enough to melt me. I think she knows it. I’m weak for her.

She reaches out and touches my arm. “Hey, we’re going to get the phylactery, all right? I know how important this is to you, and I’m not going to try to talk you out of it. Besides, I won’t let you die. You have your uses.” “I’m handy with a bow,” I agree. “You do plenty of other things. Mainly with your tongue.” “Just you wait, Charlie. When we have time, and I’ve got you in a proper bed—let’s just say I’ve been making a list.” She laughs. “You can’t be serious.” “I mean, it’s not a written list. But I have been imagining quite a lot.” Just the memory of her skin against mine sends heat sizzling through my veins. “How have you had time to do all that?” “I started the list the moment I saw those perfect tits.” “Just because I had breasts—” “No. It wasn’t just the perfect tits. I liked you, even before you were you. I can’t explain it, but I feel like I’ve never truly cared for anyone the way I do for you. Like that part of me was covered in dust and forgotten. I don’t know who I used to be, but I’m pretty sure I was a lonely, miserable asshole.” “And now you’re just an asshole?” She smirks. “Worse. I’m an asshole in love.” She shakes her head. “And I’m in love with an asshole.” “A perfect pair, Princess.” “Ugh, don’t call me that.” “But you’re a princess. Oh, your royal majestyness.” “Not a thing.” She sighs. “Wait.” I reach out and grab her wrist. “Holy shit. Does this mean I can be a prince?” “Have I mentioned you’re the worst?” She yanks her arm back.

I grit my teeth and urge him onward, racing after my stubborn, beautiful princess who is no doubt leading us both to ruin. Too bad I’ll follow her anywhere.

“It’s dead. You killed it.” She wraps her arms around my neck again. “You stupid, oafish, doltish, idiot!” “Charlie, now’s not the time for foreplay.” I kiss the top of her head. “Why would you do that? Why would you …” She pulls back, her eyes swimming with tears. “Why?” I press my forehead to hers. “You know why.” She sniffles. “Don’t ever do anything like that again. If I hadn’t had the vitae eluvia—” “Oh, that’s what that was.” I wipe my mouth again. “Tastes like ass.” She laughs and sits back. “It saved your life.” “You saved my life.” I grip the nape of her neck and pull her back to me. “From the moment I met you.” I kiss her hard and she answers, her breath mixing with mine as we share parts of our souls.