Page 53 of Outcast Fae
Chapter Nineteen
“Vaughn. Vaughn!”I shouted, rushing after him down the sandy beach.
He whirled, an annoyed look on his face. When he saw it was me, he turned and started hiking away again.
No. He was not going to walk away this time.
Testing my wings, I rose up in the air. The ache was still there, but the shooting pain had gone. Flying, I caught up with him easily. I zipped around and landed in the sand ahead of him.
He glowered. “Get out of my way, Tally.”
“No,” I said, planting my foot. “This is it, Vaughn. This is where I make my stand. You are not going to walk away again. Tell me what you know.”
He shook his head. “Stop meddling and just let me handle this, okay?”
“Not okay,” I said, trying to sound as mean as he was. “Wally just died so you handling it on your own is not working. Stop running away from us. We can do this together.”
He dropped his head, choosing to glare at the ground instead of facing me.
“Why won’t you trust me?” I said.
“Why won’t you see that I’m trying to protect you?” His eyes darted up to mine, but then away as he began stalking around me.
I ran after him and grabbed his arm. It was twice the size of my own and a hundred times more powerful, but I held on, using my wings to help me pull him back.
He glowered at me as he tried to yank his arm away. “Tally, stop. Let me go. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“That’s news to me.” I gritted my teeth and held on for dear life.
He shook his arm, and when that didn’t work, he tried to pry my fingers off, but my grip was strong. Growling, he doubled his efforts, shaking his arm up and down and twirling his body. I held on, finding it harder and harder to keep my grip, but I refused to let him walk away again. My wings beat the air, swirling the sand around us, making it hard to see.
Vaughn tripped, spilling us both into the sand. We rolled a few times, until settling, me on my back and Vaughn on top of me.
Shocked, I lay still beneath him. Quickly, he pushed up with his arms, taking the bulk of his weight off me, but he didn’t roll off like I expected him to.
I stared into his face mere inches from mine. His eyes were like sea glass, and his skin was dusted with sugary sand. His scent was everywhere, an entirely male musk that was a combination of warm earth and loamy forest. His body was so large it dwarfed mine and yet, I found myself enjoying the delicious weight of it as it pressed against me. To my surprise, my body came alive with desire as he shifted on top of me, yearning springing forth like buds in the spring.
What was this? I pretended to search for a name for it, but I knew what it was.
Desire.
But how? How could I feel this way for someone so foreign, so different than what I’d known? Yet, I did.
I…wantedVaughn.
I wanted him to continue to press his weight on me. I wanted his full lips to trail down my neck. I wanted to run my hands over the expanse of golden-brown skin peeking out of his shirt, explore the rounded muscles of his chest and the flat plains of his stomach.
Our gazes were locked. Vaughn didn’t move, seeming as frozen as I felt. His eyes fell to my lips, his pupils dilating, his pulse beating faster. His lips parted and I swallowed hard, anticipating what came next.
“Don’t follow me,” he said, pushing up.
Then, he stalked away.
* * *
I wasn’t a verygood listener, so when Vaughn slunk off when he thought no one was watching, I made a plan.
He walked in one direction, and I ran in another, heading back to find Gina. I spotted her curled near our campfire. She was huddled against Henry, looking small and weary. Her orange hair was a nest of snarls and her easy smile was gone. The island had been a game to them only a few hours ago. Now, it was a nightmare, a place where nothing and no one was safe.
