[Kingdom 01.0 - 03.0] Kingdom Series Collection Read online

  “Gerard Caron, you stop right there!” Betty demanded.

  Shocked, he paused with his hand on the knob.

  “Firstly,” she grabbed his shoulder and twirled him around, “you’re naked, do you have any idea how much trouble I’d get in for letting a crazy Frenchman walk the streets of the bible belt like that?” She gestured at him, a becoming pink flush rose high on her cheeks.

  He glanced down at himself and his lips twitched; nudity bothered her more than him. Though he did not care for the fact that her eyes lingered on his flaccid cock. He squeezed his eyes shut, wanting to shout that if he could, he’d be hard and ready for her.

  “Secondly,” she said slowly, drawing his attention back to her, “I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

  “Why do you care?” he asked after a hearts beat.

  She smiled, and when she moved closer, the hair slid off the nape of her neck, exposing the fluttering beat of her pulse. She was nervous? Of him? Of the situation? He wished he knew. Betty grabbed his hand and led him back to her living room.

  “We need to talk,” she said again, “Danika told me parts of this story. But you really have to give it to me straight. It’s not just you anymore. We’re in this together now.”

  She tucked her long legs underneath her bottom, and Gerard clenched his eyes shut. He couldn’t look at her, seeing her and knowing he could do nothing to quench his lust was as a dagger in the heart. Torture.

  “And maybe you should put this over your lap,” she smiled, tucking a fluffy pink blanket around him.

  He almost chuckled, relieved that even unmanned as he was, he still managed to make her want him. That was, until he saw the large face of a cartoonish cat staring back at him. “Gods mademoiselle,” he curled his lip, “so much pink.”

  “Hey,” she punched him lightly on the arm, “I’m a single girl. If I want to rock the Hello Kitty theme, then it’s my prerogative. Now stop stalling and talk.”

  “Go change,” he ordered gruffly, scrubbing a hand down his jaw.

  “What?” her brows gathered and she looked down at herself. “I’m perfectly fine.”

  “Betty Hart,” he growled, “you wish to talk, fine I’ll oblige you. But change, I cannot focus for want of you, it is a small torture to see you and know I cannot have you. Change.”

  “You couldn’t have me anyway,” she huffed, crossing her arms underneath her chest and his mouth watered seeing the rounded globes inch higher.

  “Now,” he gritted and clamped his lips shut, choosing to ignore her jab.

  Betty narrowed her eyes, but after a tense moment, she finally stood and marched back into the hallway.

  Gerard leaned his head back, rubbing his throbbing temples, wondering how he’d ever last around her. His curse could be lifted, if she fell in love with him.

  Hell of a turn his life had taken. He’d tell her the truth, in all its unvarnished glory. She’d never believe him anyway, what did it matter?

  Her shuffling feet made him lift his head, and he laughed when he saw her glower. She wore a thick white jacket that covered her down to mid calf.

  “There,” she snapped, “better?”

  Still laughing, he nodded. “Much.”

  “Look at me,” she walked slowly to the chair opposite him, “I’m not even going to sit next to you.”

  He bit his lip, delighted to note her breathing hitch ever so slightly. Gerard slouched, stretching out his legs.

  “Ugh! You made me change, I really wish you’d do the same for me. I gave you some clothes earlier, why aren’t you wearing them?” Her nose did a cute wrinkle when she grumbled.

  The jacket might as well have been a big marshmallow on her. But even so, with her mussed hair and sexy glasses, she made him ache for a touch of that supple flesh beneath. For another one of those kisses that had stolen his breath only hours earlier.

  “They’ve been worn by other men. I don’t share,” he said, and her eyes widened. He licked his teeth, knowing she’d caught his double meaning. “What do you wish to know, shrew?”

  Her lips thinned. “For starters, Danika never could tell me why Galeta had a hard on for you. The she demon had revenge on the mind and I want to know why.”

  “Oh gods...”

  “Ah.” She held up her finger. “You promised.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Enfer.”

  She lifted a brow. “Oh hell is right. I’m waiting. In fact, I’ll wait here all night. Out with it. I’m involved in this now too, I need to know why. Danika gave me very little and call me--”

  “A nag,” Gerard supplied with a grin.

  She stuck her tongue out. “Whatever. I don’t care. You owe me. I think I just saved your butt from the fire, and I want to know that it was worth it. So start talking, mister.”

  “Because she tried to seduce me, I spurned her, and she’s never forgiven me for it.” He waited, knowing she’d laugh.

  She laughed. “Oh man, that’s rich. You, the guy with sex on the mind twenty four seven, expect me to believe that. How long were you guys bumping fuzzies before you decided to move on to greener pastures?” She lifted her brow.

  He had no idea what the hell that meant, but he was pretty certain he got the gist of it.

  “Gerard, you’re stuck with me for a month. I’ve got nothing but time.” She tapped her fingers rhythmically on her arm.

  “You don’t know me, Betty. You know nothing of me. Yes, I like sex. In fact, I love it. I know you do, any red blooded creature does. I won’t deny it.” He drilled her with his hard gaze, defying her to deny his assertion.

  After a moment she blinked and looked down at her feet.

  “I did deny her. She’s rather terrifying as far as females go. Those fangs,” he shuddered, “nasty creature that fee.”

  Betty nodded. “I noticed those things too. She’s pretty scary for being barely a foot tall.”

  “You’re taking this very well.” He cocked his head. “I’d have expected most mortals to deny what they’d seen. Run in terror, something.”

  Betty plucked at her jacket. “I’m not most mortals.” She chanced a fleeting glance at him, her brown eyes huge and warm in her beautiful face.

  What was it about the woman, the more he looked, the prettier she became. It was odd, and not altogether pleasing. Gerard frowned, shifting around. The blanket slipped, and like a laser her eyes zoomed to his lap. He patted it back into place. Her face flushed crimson, but she nodded in silent thanks.

  She swallowed and then looked directly at him. “I swear I’ll kill you myself, Gerard Caron...”

  The way his name spilled from her lips with her strange accent made his blood hot.

  “But I’m a card carrying geek.”

  “A what?”

  Betty ran her finger along her jaw line. Why had he never noticed the shimmering green of her sculpted nails? She had such delicate fingers, long boned and finely wrought. What would that hand feel like on him? His blood hummed and his body tingled. Those fingers caressing his balls, running long and slow down his hard length.

  He clenched his jaw, and glanced quickly at the wall. Gerard might no longer be able to harden, but the desire hadn’t waned. And if he didn’t watch it, he’d keep himself in a perpetual state of phantom arousal and pain.

  “Oh jeez, I never talk about this.” Her eyes narrowed, and with an embarrassed twist of her lips, she got up, grabbed her bag off the kitchen counter, and then plopped back down on the couch next to him. She dug around the brown purse. “No laughing. You swear.”

  Did her voice shake just now? And why was that so damn adorable? He nodded. “No laughing.”

  Betty bit her bottom lip, and Gerard licked his own, wishing it were his tongue on her instead. The jacket was doing nothing to dull his desire. For the first time in his life he realized just how often he’d focused on sex and sex alone. Now that he couldn’t have it, he’d have to learn new ways to seduce and woo. The moment he thought it, he knew that’s exactly what he mean
t to do. He’d win his freedom by making her fall in love with him.

  It might be harder without the benefit of his skills in bed, but he’d succeed. He had no choice. Mind made up, he turned to her, deciding then and there he’d focus fully on her needs, wishes, and wants.

  She handed him a yellow card. Betty nibbled on her thumb, her anxiety so palpable his pulse quickened.

  Gerard glanced at the card. A cartoonish picture of two men engaged in a fierce sword battle stared back at him.

  “Hello my name is Betty Hart, librarian by day, and Manga superhero slash anime fanatic by night. I’m a member of the guild of Bleeding Heart Rebels and go by the name Eclipse. I’ve even been known to larp in college,” she squeaked out the last, wincing as she stared at him, looking like a frightened colt of what he’d think.

  Based off her reaction, he was fairly certain what she’d just admitted to was as heinous an embarrassment as they came. Gerard scratched his chin. “And that means what?”

  She covered her face with her hands. “You were supposed to be talking to me about this stuff, and here I am the one suddenly on the spot. Look,” she peeked out at him from between her fingers, “if you’re real nice I’ll show you what I mean some other day. Can we just get back on topic?”

  “But this is on topic,” he grinned, enjoying her sudden display of shyness as much as anything else. “I asked you why you’re so okay with all this, and I’m not sure what this,” he lifted the card, “has to do with that.”

  She snatched the card out of his hands and shoved it back into her purse. “That’s only part of it, the other part, and I guess the most relevant, is that Daddy was an astrobiologist.”

  Again he shook his head. “And that means?”

  “He believed in life on other planets. In fact, he was so sure of it, he wrote several books based on the truth behind popular mythos and the science of the fall of alien man. I guess you can say I came by my geek status honestly. Daddy taught me all he knew, and when I grew up, his words still made sense.” She shrugged. “I went to college, got a degree in psychology which I put to zero use, and discovered my dad wasn’t crazy, but brilliant.”

  “What made you certain he wasn’t simply a raving lunatic?” Gerard asked, genuinely intrigued. This woman was so different from what he’d known, gorgeous yes... but stimulating as well.

  Her smile was brilliant as she bounced up again and ran back down her hall. She came back seconds later with a large leather bound book in her hands. Gerard’s heart flipped when she opened the book and handed it to him. She pointed to a spot on the page. “Read this.” She fairly vibrated with enthusiasm.

  He glanced at the black smudges, nodded as if he had a clue what it said, and closed it. “Yes.”

  “Yes! That’s it. That’s all you have to say about that? It’s amazing, it’s true, and my Daddy knew it all along. The Fermi paradox, space is so vast... surely we’re not the only ones to exist in it. Out there, beyond time and matter were other civilizations, peoples.” She pointed to him. “You.” She clapped her hands and he had the sudden sick feeling that she viewed him more as a bug beneath a viewing glass than a man all of a sudden. “Riddle me this, Gerard. Did you happen to travel here through a worm hole?”

  He lifted a brow. The woman was insane, he was still stuck on the Fermi-whats-it paradox thingy, and she was talking wormholes... and what the hell was that anyway? A giant worm eating holes in air? Why the devil would that make her so excited? He brushed his fingers through his hair. “I’ve not a clue. Danika swished her wand, and I was yanked through.”

  She laughed. “Was there a tunnel?” Her brown eyes glittered. She’d the fevered look of a wolf snapping in for its kill. “Did it shimmer? Swirl? Glow?”

  Gods she was gorgeous, skin all flushed and dewy pink. If he could somehow mute her voice, he could stare at her all day. But she was giving him a massive ache in the back of his skull. Gerard squeezed his brow.

  “It was blue. What are you saying, mademoiselle?” he grumped.

  She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  Suddenly memories of another woman-- just as lovely as this one-- intruded in his mind. Belle had wielded her sharp wit and keen brain better than any blade. More than once he’d suffered the knowledge that she’d thought him beneath her. Heat stoked the glowing embers in his gut to an incendiary level and his nostrils flared as his fingers clenched.

  “There’s life in other planets, dimensions... whatever!” She clapped her hands and laughed, a full throaty sound so sexy and alluring he couldn’t help but lean in to her, even while still fueled with anger. Her brown eyes sparkled, and then she cradled her face in her hands, and sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Oh my gosh, I did it again, didn’t I?”

  “What?” he grumbled, scooting back on the seat, trying to maintain some distance between them.

  She grabbed his wrist. “Oh, Gerard, I’m sorry. Trisha gets on me all the time about how rude I come off sometimes. I’m sorry, I... I just, jeez. How lame. I love science and science fiction and all the weird stuff girls shouldn’t like, which is why I work in a library, and I hope you don’t think I was talking down to you. I swear I wasn’t. I just get wicked excited.”

  Not once in all the years he’d known Belle, had she ever apologized for making him feel intellectually inferior. Had Betty truly not meant to offend him? Was her enthusiasm for a subject he found mind numbingly boring, truly that exciting to her?

  Betty flicked her hands. “Look, truce okay? Let’s start over here. You’re stuck with me for a month. Let’s try to make it pleasant.” She stuck her hand out. “Hi, my name is Betty Hart. What’s your name?”

  Her smile was pure innocence, and his heart tripped when he took her hand. The woman was nuts, and yet she excited him on a level he’d never known before.

  “Gerard Caron,” he said. “Good to meet you, folle.” Her skin was so soft, he didn’t want to let go. The feel of her small hand in his large one, the way she looked at him with a mixture of awe and shyness-- he wanted to see her like this always.

  “I guess I am kind of crazy.” A good natured laugh spilled from her.

  Something strange happened in the center of Gerard’s chest. A tickling flutter of weirdness he’d never felt before, mainly because he’d only ever looked at women with one desire in mind. He couldn’t do that with her, it made her different. But he wasn’t sure yet how.

  “There’s something I’m dying to know,” she continued, and he noticed she seemed as content to hang onto his hand as he was to hang onto hers. He thumbed her knuckles.

  “What?”

  “Danika told me about Kingdom.”

  He nodded.

  “How it’s a realm full of immortals of legend. What we here on Earth call fairy tales.”

  Gerard let go of her hand and squirmed, knowing where this line of questioning was headed. “So why have you never heard of me?” He pierced her with his steely eyed gaze. “Is that what you’re wondering?”

  Her lips stretched into a crooked smile as she nodded.

  He sighed, and placed his elbows on his knees, staring at nothing in particular. Again she touched him, her fingers grazed his jaw and he jerked.

  “You don’t have to tell me now,” she said softly, “not if you’re not ready.”

  He shook his head. “If I tell you, you’ll not believe. None do.”

  “Try me.”

  She’d told him that once before, he hadn’t trusted her then. Still wasn’t sure he could now. The soft glow of lamplight washed across the top of her head, highlighting the natural gold in her hair. It made her appear almost angelic. Gerard glanced down at the beige carpet.

  “She was the youngest of three. Daughter of a merchant. Stories would have you believe she was all that was kindness and grace. The girl was a demone. Breathtakingly beautiful with her soft brown eyes and chestnut colored hair.” He looked at her. “You look a little like her. Although I think I prefer the black of your hair
to hers.”

  Betty’s lips twitched.

  He sighed. “I was young, and a fool. I fell hard, and did anything she asked of me. Kill the neighbor’s dog for digging up her sister’s garden.” He clenched his fist, staring at his knuckles. “Hit the town drunk for daring to look at her wrong.” Gerard squeezed his eyes shut, the hated memories pressing in on him like a wall closing in.

  “Are you talking about Belle, Gerard?” Betty’s soft voice was a gentle caress. “As in Beauty and the Beast?”

  He nodded.

  “Wow. But, there was never any mention of a Frenchman in the original book, and the one in the movie...” She grimaced, letting her sentence die off.

  “Wasn’t me. That,” he pointed to the empty case sitting next to her television, “is the perverted version Galeta pandered about. My name is Gerard. I never tried to kill the Beast, he was an idiot that deserved that cold blooded, money hungry chienne. The Beast detested my love for her, when it came time to pen our story to tale he had coin enough to sway Galeta’s black heart. Wasn’t hard, she hated me enough as it was.” He laughed, a bitter, scornful sound. “I can never escape the witch, no matter how hard I try. Did you know she’s the fairy of the arts as well?”

  Betty shook her head.

  He snorted. “The bitch has ruined me. I’m forever a joke in Kingdom. Congratulations, Betty Hart, you’re stuck with me.”

  “But, I don’t understand--”

  “What is there to understand?” he snapped.

  “I just want to know you better--”

  He stood, uncaring that the blanket dropped, that she got a good eye full, let her. Her eyes widened, and she glanced quickly away. Gerard was tired of talking about it. “Don’t. Where am I to sleep?”

  “Gerard, please understand...”

  “Non.” He sliced the air with his hand. “If you’d rather, I’ll find accommodations elsewhere.”

  Betty’s smile was sad, soft. She pointed down the hall. “Take the guest room. It’s always made up for Briley whenever he wants to have a surprise sleepover.”