After the incident with the homicidal water horse, Beck had taken her back to camp and warmed her up. He’d carefully laid her wet clothes by the fire to dry. He cleaned and cooked a couple of rabbits and forced her to eat. He’d lain under the blankets with her until he was satisfied she wouldn’t die from the cold. Then he’d given her back the dry clothes and packed up their camp. He’d said all of ten words to her, most of them commands. The silence was becoming a little unbearable.
She’d done the only thing she knew to do. If she was staying with him, then she needed to start training him. Sure, it usually went the other way. The submissive got trained by the Dom, but Meg had decided that her Dom was a dumbass, and things would work differently with them. She’d never actually gotten those books she ordered off the internet, so she was on her own. She would have to let her instincts guide her.
Everything she had said or done had been very submissive. She had given in to her urge and let herself cuddle up against him. Even while riding, she held on to his waist and buried her face in the curve of his neck. He probably didn’t notice it, but he relaxed when she clung to him. He preferred to be in physical contact with her.
Meg watched as the forest gave way to what looked like an endless field. Still, Beck was silent.
“Are we almost home?” Meg asked quietly, looking up at him.
“Almost,” he replied stoically.
Another moment and she couldn’t take anymore, but she had to tread carefully.
“I’m very sorry.” She nuzzled against his neck. She loved the smell of him. “Are you ever going to forgive me?”
His eyes were serious as he looked down at her, but he didn’t move away.
“It hasn’t been very long, love. My bones are still cold from jumping in the river after you. Perhaps you should let me warm up before we start talking about forgiveness.” He sighed and rubbed her back soothingly. “I don’t blame you. I should have known you would run.”
“I wasn’t running,” Meg protested. Beck’s eyebrows arched skeptically. “Okay, so I was at first. Then I realized that I want to give this thing a chance. We really do have a connection, and I want to explore that. I know you won’t believe it, but I was trying to get back to you. I got lost.”
“Of course you got lost,” Beck said with a frown. “You don’t know your way around the forest. You could have been killed. You almost were.”
She smiled up at him. “You saved me.”
“Barely.”
Meg thought about the strange little man in his red suit. She shivered now as she considered the fact that he had told her to get on the kelpie and ride. “Are those kelpie things common here?”
Beck shook his head. “No, but they are very famous.”
“So anyone who lives here would know not to ride one.” Meg was starting to believe that little red man had it out for her.
“Well, they are Fae creatures. This is what we refer to as a neutral plane. That means there wasn’t a civilization here when we found it. Fae creatures have wandered off and on the place for centuries. Some stayed. I suppose there are plenty of beings on the plane that might not understand what a kelpie is.”
“So he might not have known.” He might have been confused. Meg had a hard time believing that. He’d seemed to know the forest very well.
“Who might not have known?” Beck’s voice had gone positively glacial. “Did you meet someone in the woods?”
Meg realized she might have been better off keeping her mouth shut. “It was a man, a little man. He seemed old. He said he could take me to my home plane.”
Beck stopped the horse and looked down at her, his expression a mask of horror. “You met a Planeswalker? Oh, goddess, Meggie, that was a demon. What did you promise him?”
Meg shook her head vigorously. “Nothing. I told him I wanted to get back to you, and he pointed me to the kelpie. That was a demon? I thought they’d be bigger. I also thought they would have more style. I guess red is kind of their color, though.”
Beck let out a long breath of air. “He was a short man, dressed in red from head to toe?” Meg nodded. “It was Far Darrig, love. He’s a trickster. It’s his mission to trick travelers. He can read your mind, so he knows how to get to you.” Clicking his teeth, Beck got the horse moving again. “Don’t talk to strangers, love. I don’t want you to be alone until you get used to this place. If you need to go somewhere, you take me or Cian with you.”
Beck returned to his silence, his eyes on the road, watching for threats.
“Will you kiss me?” Meg asked very politely. She didn’t want to think about all the creatures on this plane that might kill her. She had other things to worry about. She had a husband to train.
“You want me to kiss you?” His voice rose slightly as he asked the question, as though he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly.
“Yes,” she said with as much innocence as she could manage. “I have since the moment I met you. Kiss me, please. It makes me feel safe.”
His gray eyes looked slightly mystified, but he bent his head down and softly kissed her lips. Meg held still, letting him control the kiss. It was gentle, tender even, and when he pulled away, he kissed the top of her head as well. He settled his cloak around her shoulders, surrounding her with warmth.
Meg tried pushing her contentment outward. She wasn’t sure about how the whole psychic connection worked, but she knew it was there. He needed to know and come to trust that she was happy with him.
When she felt him chuckle deep in his chest, she knew it had worked. It was the sound of a man who was satisfied with himself. Meg had begun to realize that Beck was very unsure of his ability to please a woman. His instincts were all screwed up. Something had happened to make him doubt himself and turn his back on his true nature. She had to smash that wall down if they were going to be happy. She would use their connection to do it. She drowsed, happily thinking of all the ways she intended to get past his barriers.
“Wake up, love.” His voice pulled her from her nap.
Meg tried to sit up and realized that Sweeney had stopped moving.
“Well, finally,” a familiar voice said from below her. Meg rubbed her eyes and saw Dante standing with crossed arms, looking up at them. He looked haggard and tired. “It took you forever. I expected you late this morning.”
“Meg decided to take a ride on a kelpie,” Beck replied sardonically. “It caused me to push back my schedule.”
Dante’s green eyes were wide and his mouth dropped open. He was utterly fangless now.
“Seriously?” He turned to Meg. “What the hell were you thinking? Kelpies like to eat people.”
Meg stiffened at the thought of what might have happened. “It was going to eat me? You didn’t tell me it was planning on eating me!”
“Well, it wasn’t inviting you to tea, love,” Beck replied as he handed her down to the vampire. Dante set her squarely on her feet. “It was a close thing. The kelpie took her deep. I had to slit its throat before it would let her go. I damn near drowned myself.”
“That explains it.” Dante rubbed a palm across his forehead. “Early this morning, Cian stopped breathing. It freaked me out. I really thought he was dead this time. He started again after a minute of my frantically shaking him. I was surprised that worked. He’s weaker than I thought.”
Beck slapped his cousin on the shoulder. “It’ll be fine now.” He turned to his horse and released the saddle on its back. With an easy strength, he hefted the heavy saddle with one arm and smacked the horse’s rump with the other. “Go on now, go rest.” The great beast lumbered off to wherever it went to rest.