Dust (Of Dust and Darkness) - By Devon Ashley Page 0,60

tingle, so I’m guessing my roots are still pretty dirty, but as I reach up to stroke my hair, I can tell it feels cleaner than the last time I touched it wet. My hand accidentally grazes over Jack’s, and he yanks it from my hair fast. Weird…

I twist my hair and use the length to secure it in a loose bun on the back of my head. Jack’s hands resurface on my shoulders. There’s a slight hesitation, but soon he begins kneading my muscles once more. No one’s ever rubbed my shoulders and neck before…and I’ve got to say, it feels really good. My neck gently sways in every direction, trying to elongate the muscles he’s kindly stretching out for me. I give in to the relaxation and lean back on my hands. When I do, my arm gently brushes his leg, and I can tell he’s sitting directly behind me on his knees. I let loose a long sigh, which practically comes off as an embarrassing moan.

Suddenly, Jack abandons my shoulders and jumps to his feet. He almost seems uncomfortable, rocking back and forth on his feet, looking at everything in the hole but me. “Are you okay?” I ask. I sure am after that rubdown, still feeling all dazed and tingly inside.

“Do us both a favor,” he says, his voice shaking a little. “If Finley shows up, drench your hair with water and tip over the bucket. That way your hair will still look all oily and it’ll look like I threw the bucket at you.”

With that, he takes off, rocketing straight up and out of sight before I can even figure out what the heck just happened.

“Jack?” I call. No answer.

Did I do something wrong? I’m not exactly cultured in the ways of faeries, so I’m not sure if what’s appropriate for my species would be appropriate for his. Did I do something offensive?

In his haste to leave, Jack left the lantern behind, so I can only assume he’ll come back some time later today. After all, his shift pixie-sitting me just started.

I don’t know when I fell asleep, or for how long, but when I awake, there’s food and a fresh bucket of water. Also, the lemon-honey water has been dumped, leaving the bucket available for its original purpose. The lantern’s still here, barely illuminating a weak glow, close to burning off the remaining oil. I don’t have much time until it’s completely dark again.

“Jack?” Still no answer.

Once Jack left, and the wonderful feelings he’d embedded dissipated, I came to my senses and realized why he bailed. How, oh how, could I have been so stupid as to moan in front of him? No wonder he flew out of here. He departed so fast I’m surprised there wasn’t a supersonic boom upon takeoff. Here he was, doing a nice thing by massaging my cramped-up muscles, and I allowed myself to overindulge in the feeling and actually moan over it! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Now he’ll never come back and let me apologize.

And why the heck did I moan anyway? Sure, it was nice to have his fingers massaging my muscles, caressing my skin. No, not caressing! Mother Nature, Rosalie! If he meant the movement to be caressing, he wouldn’t have fled from you like you were a flippin’ swarm of bees!

The last of the oil burns off and my prison slowly fades to black. Too bad my humiliation can’t fade with it.

I’ve been in darkness for several hours now…I think. Usually I’m only in darkness during the night, not during the daytime. Finally, a glow creeps toward me, the lantern’s flickering light licking its way down the rocky walls. I keep my gaze set to the floor, even after Jack’s feet make contact. I’ve gone over in my head a hundred different ways to apologize, but now that he’s here before me, I’m too cowardly to face him.

“Sorry I left you in the darkness. I thought there was more oil than that.”

If he hadn’t said that with a softened voice, I’m not sure I could’ve found the courage to look up and say, “It’s alright.” It was my own fault, after all, him running out of here like that.

We stare solemnly for a moment, neither of us sure what to say. Once again he’s creating a stir of feelings within, but this time it involves a sickening twist in my gut. He trades out the filled lantern for the dried out one. I’m afraid he’ll disappear again,