Chapter Text
“Do you wanna get out of here?”
I can’t remember the guy’s name. Did he even tell me? But he has dark hair and pale skin, and if I squint in my drunken state, I can almost imagine he’s Cardan. I shouldn’t be thinking of him, but the tequilas have numbed my self control, and I just want to feel something. Anything. I nod, not arguing as the stranger grabs my wrist and pulls me out a side exit, but when he starts to lead me toward the road, I decide I’m too impatient to wait for a cab.
I yank him back and press my mouth to his, trying to stoke the warmth from the alcohol into something hot enough to burn. My movements are probably sloppy, but he catches on quickly, pushing me back into the dirty wall of the building and kissing me hard. He's strong, but his body is soft and clumsy, and instead of becoming lost to passion, I find myself absently wondering how quickly I could incapacitate him in a fight.
His hands are starting to wander when I hear a familiar, cold voice cutting through the haze in my mind. “You would be wise to remove your hands from my wife.” My eyes fly open, and I shove the poor guy away from me so that I can see the figure standing behind him.
Cardan.
I’ve never seen him in mortal clothes before, but they look far too good on him. I would’ve imagined him in a full suit, or perhaps a leather jacket, but he looks dangerously handsome even in the plain black coat and jeans.
His expression is hard and tightly controlled, and for a moment I find myself sick with dread and fear. I think of Madoc’s face when he found my parents together, of how he killed them both in his fury, and for a wild instant I wonder if I’m about to meet the same fate. But no, his rage that day was fueled by love for my mother, and Cardan has no such emotion for me. Madoc was seeking the wife who escaped him, but Cardan is the one who banished me here in the first place.
“Who the hell are you?” My unfortunate date, only slightly drunk, actually takes a stance in front of me, as if to defend me. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. To his credit, he even holds up fairly well under the icy sneer Cardan sends his way.
I don’t hear what Cardan whispers to him, but judging from the glazed look in the man’s eyes, it must have been a geas. He walks woodenly back into the bar without looking at me. Left alone with my supposed husband, and still far too tipsy, I scowl at him to cover my shock at his presence. “Did you come all this way just to ruin my fun?”
He prowls closer, and answers my question indirectly, as always. “I doubt that mortal would have the slightest notion of what to do with a woman, let alone one like you.”
With each step that closes the distance between us, it becomes harder to breathe, until he’s only inches away. His glittering eyes are locked on me, but I can’t tell if they’re full of rage or annoyance. Either way, that edge of danger is familiar, and I find myself leaning into it. He hasn’t laid a finger on me, but my skin tingles as if he were touching it. The heat that I was looking for is here, simmering in the air between us, and I’m hungry for it. I should say something cutting, something to knock him off balance, but my mind is too foggy to remind me to be cautious, to wonder why he's really here. Instead, I smile.
“Kiss me.”
“What?” I seem to have knocked him off balance anyway, or at least startled him, but his now-parted mouth just makes me want him even more.
I lean close enough to share breath and whisper, “Kiss me till I'm sick of it.” I wonder if he recognizes his own words, drunk as he was when he said them. I can’t resist pressing close, skimming my nose against the column of his neck to inhale his intoxicating scent, and I feel his hands land on my back.
“Jude, are you drunk?” I laugh at the almost approving note in his voice and nod against his skin, unwilling to pull away even to look at his face.
I brush my lips over his throat and whisper, “Perhaps a little,” while watching his pulse jump. His skin is warm, and the air around me suddenly seems cold. I slide my hands under his jacket and nestle into his chest, feeling more at home than I have in months.
“Jude?”
He sounds surprised again, and I sigh. I probably should have greeted him with hostility and violence, but it feels too good to be close to him again. “Why did you have to come when I'm too senseless to remember I hate you?”