either of them could have had any female on the planet. I cleaned up okay, but I wasn’t in their league. I’m average-plus on a great day and only average on every other. So as usual when it came to men, and especially these two, I was already conflicted. Even my newly developed skills of logic wouldn’t help me out with this one because lust shuns rational thought. I answered as honestly as I could—I stayed quiet.
Tarrek stared at me as if trying to divine a response. Finally he said, “I am better for you than he, Maddy. I am able to offer you more than Bahlin can even dream of. Dragons are selfish and manipulative, and they care little for anything beyond that which brings them pleasure in the moment. At most you will have his passing affection. Consider that before you do anything rash.”
I was quiet for a while before I turned toward him again, curiosity once more getting the best of me. “You act as if you’re sure I’ll choose one of you as a partner, lover, whatever. Why does it matter so much, Tarrek?”
“Your decision matters more than you can imagine.” He reached for me, but I shifted slightly so that I kept some distance between us. Tarrek sighed, removing his arm from the back of the seat. We rode in silence for a while, the shifting rev of the engine, the hum from the tires on the road and the sounds of our breathing the only noises.
Tarrek turned toward me as if to say something but the car began to slow and he paused, sitting up straighter. “We’re almost there.”
Chapter Five
The faerie mounds were out in the middle of a large field. We turned off a paved two-lane country road and followed the single dirt and grass lane until it came to a dead end directly in front of the mounds. Lacking the disruption of the city’s lights, the stars shone brightly in the pre-dawn sky. The mounds were equivalent to gently rolling hills placed very close together in an otherwise flat expanse of pasture. Sheep grazed nearby. There were no distinguishing markers that announced we were near any supernatural location other than four copses of trees, one at each point of the compass, at the farthest edges of the mounds in each direction. Tarrek got out of the car at the same time the driver opened my door. The driver was much shorter than I’d expected. I took in his appearance and, belatedly remembering Tarrek’s directive not to stare, hastily looked away. What I’d gathered in my initial glance was that he was around five feet tall and dressed in very odd leather clothing, with decorative stitching at the cuffs and a large, rusty knife hanging awkwardly from his waist on his left side and strapped to his thigh. He wore a gun, holstered, on his right. As previously noted, his eyes were orange and his nose was slightly bulbous. He had grinned at me before I looked away, and his teeth looked rather sharp.
Tarrek was suddenly at my side, and I jumped. He put his arm around my shoulders and turned me toward the north, where his contingent of guards had appeared. They were all brutally attractive men, though there was something in them that I recognized as distinctly inhuman. One of them, apparently the leader, stepped forward and Tarrek walked to meet him. The guard offered Tarrek a lump of something dark. He accepted it and said something in Fae and then turned back to me and held out a new jacket. It looked like it was about my size. I shrugged out of the borrowed suit jacket and he nodded, stepping toward me. I slipped my arms into the sleeves, and it drew a sigh out of me. It was some type of leather, but it was softer than anything I’d ever touched. It fit like a glove, without being tight, and hung to my knees. Because it came from Tarrek it was black. I instantly loved it.
“Thank you,” I said. “I appreciate the use of it.”
“It’s a gift. Our seer gave the head seamstress general dimensions and the information that you would visit us on a cold morning. I couldn’t have you getting cold on your first visit to my home.” Dimples decorated his cheeks when he smiled like this, and they made him even more appealing.
I couldn’t help but smile back. “Then thank you even more,” I said, and