Broken (16 page)

“You
have to
.” He undid my belt and kissed along my shoulders.

“Stop,” I rasped, shaking. “Cypress,
stop
!”

“Why, it worked with
them
!”

“Is
that
what you think?” I cried, collapsing, the only thing holding me up was the wall and him. “Fine, fuck me then, whatever. Just fine, whatever you want, Cypress.”

“I want you to love
me
like I love
you
!” he bellowed before punching the wall hard enough to break the drywall. His chest heaved, his hair hanging in his face as I saw pain fill his eyes like I’d never seen before, something I was sure he’d kept buried for a long time.

A
long
time.

“I’m fine,” I told Aspen and Teak when they came racing back to us, waving them off and closing my robe, Cypress still on the edge of whatever this was. They slowly left us in the foyer and I pressed my lips to Cypress’s ear. “What do you need? What are you keeping from me, Cypress? What are you keeping from
all
of us?” He flinched and pulled away, letting me go as his eyes snapped to mine. I kept my voice as low as possible, barley a breath. “Do you want to go take a drive or have them give us the house?”

He glanced towards the kitchen and nodded.

“Hey, guys? Can you make a Jimmy Johns run? I think a plain turkey and ham sandwich would do wonders for me now, and I’m almost out of Sprite,” I called out. “Maybe get some more soup too just in case. Oh and Gatorade. Aspen drank the last of the blue when you guys were here, and I should rehydrate better.”

“Are you sure?” Teak hedged as he appeared in the hallway.

“Yeah, Cypress and I are going to go lie down and take a time-out. Too many swirling emotions and not enough rest. We’ll be in the guest room. Let us know when you’re back.” I figured not having him lay down with me where Teak and I had just fucked would be best.

They headed out, and Cypress and I went downstairs, lying on the bed facing each other.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, tears filling his eyes. “I treated you like some common whore. I didn’t think having sex made you forgive them. I thought maybe if I could show you how I really felt while making love, you’d believe me how much you meant to me. If I touched you like I want to, as if you’re precious, then you’d
feel
how I do, you’d know like you always know what I’m thinking.”

“I get it.” And I did in some roundabout twisted way, I did. Cypress wasn’t some sex-crazed horndog, there had to be a method to the madness in this case.

He opened his mouth and then shut it, shaking his head. He tried twice more before giving me the barest of smiles. “Once upon a time there was a little elf who was born into a
huge
family of servants, completely invisible, right in the middle of all the children. He was a nobody. Even his parents forgot his name most of the time when yelling at him to get his chores done. No one at his home knew who he was and always called him
boy
just like all the others.

“One day he saw the Prince playing as he had many,
many
times before, but the sweet Prince took no notice of him because he was a nobody. Not to say that the Prince was a pompous little ass, but the servant just wasn’t important. And then the servant saved the Prince and blah, blah, blah, you know that part, and there’s more to that story which Teak will tell you but the short version from my side is the servant was
always
invisible. Aspen is a commoner but to be a mason’s son is right up there with knight.

“He was born the eldest of the
castle’s
mason and tinker. That’s a great honor, so the job fell to him one day. Think of it like this world’s most famous architect. And still I was nobody. They love me, I know that, but that was secret. The rest of my life I was invisible or, even worse, the boy or man who kissed Prince Teak.”

“I’m really sorry that you went through all of that, but I don’t get what that has to do with me and us,” I hedged, searching his eyes.

“Then one day the servant met this beautiful human,” he whispered, reaching out and touching my cheek. “And she was
amazing
. Strong, independent, shy, and invisible like him. But she wasn’t. People saw her, she simply didn’t see it. She was too hard on herself though, calling herself fat and ugly when she didn’t think anyone could hear her even though she was breathtaking. And for the first time in the servant’s life, when he stood next to his two best friends and lovers, someone would look at him first, would talk to him, greet him first, would start a conversation with him first.

“He found her so fascinating and loved to listen to her talk like he never had anyone before, and he would ask to borrow movies he already owned just to see her and speak with her, but still tried not to be a bother. And he wanted to help this human but didn’t know how because there was much at stake and their secret had to be kept. He couldn’t betray the men he also loved to help her. So the first night, he came up with a plan to sneak in and take a little bit off her plate and a little stress from her body because there would be no harm in that.

“She had so much of both, and he wanted less of it for her. There were so many lights in her house. How would she notice a few changed out? No harm there. And all that stress she had. It needed to be healed. Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to go into her house, but since the servant had already been invited and she was clothed, he would ask for her forgiveness later. It was temporary, and he would confess soon. He swore he would. He just wanted to
help
her.

“Because she was so special to him. She would open up to him, and he felt that he was special for the first time in a life of blending in, and within days of meeting this human, he fell madly in love. But the days went on and the stress only grew and it scared the servant. He couldn’t add to the special human’s stress who he loved by telling her what he was and what he’d done. He had to bear all that on his own shoulders until she had less of her own problems and could handle it.

“He loved her enough to keep inside what he was
dying
to tell her and give of himself to her, to share with her because it was what was best for her.” He let out a dark chuckle. “Or so he thought, but obviously he was the stupidest fucking man in all the lands. But even keeping the human asleep, he was okay with, because it wasn’t a drug, it was a healing sleep that drained his sorry ass big time and had side effects on him that he’s still catching up with.”

“Enough with the story,” I whispered, cover his lips with my fingers. “Teak does that because he doesn’t do well with talking and explaining. You and I do. It’s what we do best. I could tell you anything, and I
thought
you could talk to me about anything. Tell me what’s going on, Cypress. What side effects?”

“Apparently obsession,” he choked out, covering his face with his hands. “I couldn’t get rid of your stress, so I kept pushing them to take more of it away and more work to be done around here to help you. I’m the one who made everything worse. And I felt the dreams too when I went to bed. I had them of you. What we did to you, you would to do me like nature balancing back out, and for every night you slept well, I slept horribly. Lately I’ve been going
nuts
that the more I love you the further you slip away from me.

“I was practically climbing the walls when you were in Chicago. Staying away these past few days has been torture, and they just about had to fucking chain me down.”

“I don’t get it though? If you stopped making me sleep, then how come things haven’t gotten better?” I asked, pushing his hair off his forehead.

“Equal and opposite forces or some shit,” he mumbled. “We called an elder and asked. I’m not trained in that kind of healing magic so using it that many times in a row left a mark that will take that long to wear off and I have to use that much opposite magic for it to wear off.”

“Fuck,” I groaned, hugging him to me. “So you’re going to feel like this for months.” I cringed when he nodded. “Okay, so what’s opposite magic? Shooting me up with caffeine?”

“Not funny, Cara.”

“I really wasn’t kidding. I was thinking, what’s the opposite of sleep and it’s uppers,” I muttered with a shrug. “You didn’t kill me, so it’s not waking the dead. There’s always a yin to a yang so what’s the yin?”

“Waking. I have to wake things,” he bitched.

“So grow a garden,” I chuckled, rubbing his back, and kissed his temple.

Cypress slowly lifted his head and blinked at me. “What?”

“Grow a garden.” I shrugged. “I’ll show you how. It’s really—”

“What does that have to do with waking things up?”

Now it was my turn to blink. “You don’t actually know what the elder was telling you to do, do you?”

“No. He said
waking. Wake things up, young elf.
But that’s all the douche bag said, because elves like to be cryptic jag offs and teach everyone lessons.” He frowned at me and shook his head. “I still don’t get the garden. Cara, we’ve been trying to figure this out since you went to Chicago and we called the elder. All three of us banging our heads against the wall, going over any teachings we’ve ever had. What’s a garden have to do with
sleep
magic?”

“Nothing, I’m sure,” I answered, trying not to laugh when I saw how frustrated he was. “But that’s what you do with seeds. You
wake
them up. They come in little packets, and they’re dormant. Then you put them in little pods or pots or in the ground if it’s the right season, water them, sun, food, whatever, and you ‘wake’ them up. I’d say that’s waking things up. And hell, if you can get new seeds to grow in
August
in the Midwest, that would take some fucking
magic
, honey.”

“Fuck, I
love
you,” he breathed, his eyes wide before he mashed his mouth down to mine. Then he kissed along my neck and up to my ear as he hands slipped under my robe. “Of course, my perfect Cara would figure out the answer. Gods, you are so smart. So wonderful. You just saved me. Let me thank you. No sex. This isn’t for me. I need to please you.”

“Cypress, you sound a little like a crack head needing a fix,” I worried, trying to bite back a moan as his thumbs flicked my nipples.

“Maybe, but it’s me, I’m here.” He slowed down, teasing me but not so frantically. I watched as he lowered his lips to my right breast and teased my skin as his hand moved down my now almost flat stomach to between my legs. “Please, let me show you that you’re not what you said you were to me when I was walking out the door. This is about you.”

Right because
any
sane woman would pass that up? I gave a slight nod, and he went to it. I came so many times from his hand I lost count before he moved his mouth lower and threw my legs over his shoulders. Teak was right, the man was very,
very
talented in the art of oral sex.

So talented in fact that I was distracted by what he could do I didn’t even hear them come home. They walked in on us, Cypress dressed still, eating me out as I was screaming in pleasure, and dropped the bags of food.

When I was spent, I couldn’t even move, splayed out naked for their viewing pleasure and not even caring.

“So you guys made up?” Aspen asked, clearing his throat as he adjusted himself in his shorts. Cypress glanced at me as if willing to go with whatever I said.

“We’re getting there,” I answered after three tries. “I figured out the elder’s riddle so I was getting a
thank you
.” Then I looked at Cypress. “Babe, Teak wants to learn to do that, and I’d
love
it if you’d teach him, so can we do that again after dinner, and I’ll pull out my little seed starter and seeds and get right to work on making you better?”

“I want more right now,” he growled, but I held up my hand.

“Need a break and I’m starving,” I giggled, trying to close my legs. He got the idea and went to help me.

“Can I just have a taste?” Teak hedged, coming closer. Before I could say anything either way, he actually leaned over and licked me. “Mmm, yeah, way better than I expected.”

“Shit, now I want to try too,” Aspen mumbled.

And he did before I got to eat. I had a very,
very
bizarre life. Granted, I was no longer
complaining
about that life, but it was only fair to acknowledge how truly bizarre it was.

Cypress did give that tutorial after dinner. I couldn’t even walk when they were done with me, in the
best
kind of way. I sat on Aspen’s lap at the counter as I explained to them how to work my little seed starter. Cypress did his thing and seriously it was like witnessing a miracle as little baby sprouts and then plants formed. My mouth fell open and it was actually
hot
. The man made plants appear out of nothing.

He was just
that
good.

“Did it work?” I asked after he did about a fourth of the tray of seventy-two. “How do you feel?”