Page 36 of Escape from the Green

My dream had come true.

Why then did I feel so utterly unhappy?

SIX

Drake

I felt two things at the same time.

The Green trying to pull me back.

And something deep within me trying to pull me back toward Amy.

It was a deep-rooted urge I actively had to fight when it pulled me to a stop every few feet.

There were no sex fae here, I reminded myself. No fae to feed off her desires.

There would be men, though.

Human men.

Ones who maybe meant her harm, sure, but ones who simply wanted her desire for pure reasons.

And that thought set my teeth on edge.

I had no claim on her, of course.

We'd kissed. That was it.

There could have been more.

If I hadn't stopped it.

But I had to stop it.

Because I knew it was going to be important to her.

And I maybe had a feeling it would be important to me. Because it had been so long. Because she had saved me. Because I already felt bonded to her.

Then throw in the fact that I knew we were parting ways, and I knew we couldn't go there.

Even if my body was begging for it.

My body had been begging for it since I felt her climb up onto my lap to get warm in the woods. Her hand had moved innocently between my thighs, but had set my body on fire. I sat awake for hours trying to get some control over my response, only seeming to manage to do so right before she woke up, realizing the predicament, and trying to disentangle herself slowly.

Spending another night with her wrapped up over me when we weren't freezing, when it wasn't life and death, that had almost undone me.

I hadn't been able to stop my fingers from seeking out the hair that I had seen so many times - catching the light, dancing in the breeze, looking softer than anything I had ever known in my hard life.

It turned out I was right.

The tremble that moved through her set my cock to steel in an instant. Her climbing over me then demanding a kiss had been like a lifetime of fantasies coming true. And somehow better than I could have imagined.

But no matter how much I wanted her, I had to stop it. Because I had this distinct feeling that once I got her, I would never let her go.

Maybe that was just simply my feelings of gratitude talking. Maybe it was just the freedom I owed to her.

But something within me said otherwise, said it was more, said I had wanted the sunflower in the tower since the day she became a woman, that I had cared for her long beyond that as anyone would when they had saved them more than once.