Rhapsodic (The Bargainer, #1)

by Laura Thalassa

Just spit it out, Callie. “… want to buy you for a night.” Oh. My. Sweet. Lord. Fuck you, mouth. Fuck you to the fiery pits of hell.

“Naughty bugs,” Des chastises, coming over and helping me scoop the firefly up, “stay away from the pretty human boobs.” Did he just call my boobs pretty? The Bargainer captures the bug in his fist, his knuckles grazing my skin. He steps away from me and, opening his palm, releases the glowing critter. The two of us watch it drunkenly canter back to my hair. I can just barely make out their luminescent bodies flickering above me. The whole thing is so ridiculous and strange that I begin to laugh. “Des, are you trying to cheer me up?” But when I get a good look at him, he’s not laughing. The insects’ light dances in his eyes as he stares at me, lips parted.

“Before we go, can we take a gondola ride?” I ask.

The Bargainer’s upper lips curl when he sees one such boat pass by us. “Why would I ever—?” “And can we swing by one of those gift shops so I can get a mask?” I’d also like some gelato—and perhaps a blown glass bottle—but I won’t push my luck too far. He groans. “Haven’t you ever heard the expression ‘Don’t mix business with pleasure’?” A sly smile spreads across my face. “Aww, are you suggesting I’m pleasure?” My heart is thumping way too loud. He frowns severely at me. “I’m definitely rubbing off on you.” He really is. “C’mon, it’ll be fun,” I say, grabbing his hand and tugging him towards a little area along the canal where several gondolas wait. Behind me the Bargainer says, “I’ll only agree to this if you do me one favor—” Me do him a favor? “Yeah, anything.” “Please give me my balls back at the end of the evening.”

Over his shoulder, the Bargainer says to me, “Pick up your bag, cherub. It’s rude to litter.”

“Says the man who just destroyed a door,” I mutter as I grab the bag, my gaze fixed on what’s happening in front of me. The Bargainer throws me a smile. “That’s not littering, that’s B&E.” He pauses, and I hear a series of odd groans behind me. “And now it’s just E.” Without looking, I know he’s fixed the door.

He removes his fingers and, while I’m watching, he licks them one by one. That is so filthy. And Lord help me, I’m aroused by it. He lets out a groan. “Better than my imagination.”

I don’t know what comes over me, what strange compulsion pushes me to say words that I have no right saying to the Bargainer. I only know that my very world has come to a standstill, and if I do nothing, it will fall off its axis. I close my eyes, and words from an old book flow from my lips. “From flame to ashes, dawn to dusk, for the rest of our lives, be mine always, Desmond Flynn.” All I hear is his ragged breathing. I don’t even have the presence of mind to be embarrassed. The old binding verse spoken between lovers felt right leaving my lips. I open my eyes, and the two of us stare at each other. I’ve never seen horror and wonder share space on someone’s face, but he manages to wear both. And then he vanishes in a wisp of smoke. I didn’t know then that he wasn’t coming back.

This shit right here is what keeps me up all hours of the night just to read.

A sly grin lifts first one side of his mouth, then the other. “Callie, I love you. I’ve loved you from the beginning. And I will love you long after the last star dies. I will love you until the end of darkness itself.”

“And mountains may rise and fall, and the sun might wither away, and the sea claim the land and swallow the sky. But you will always be mine.” He runs his knuckles over my cheekbone. “And the stars might fall from the heavens, and night might cloak the earth, but until darkness dies, I will always be yours.”

God, why do men not confess there love like this it isn't fair.