Of Tales and Sorrow: The Curse by DarkandLovely
Summary:

All he had to do was keep the agreement. Enduring life without her was hell enough but one more lifetime and she'd finally be his for good. 

 

 

 


Categories: Original Fiction Characters: None
Classification: General
Genre: Drama, Erotica, Fantasy, Friendship, Historical, Mystery, Romance
Story Status: Active
Pairings: None
Warnings: Adult Situations, Character Death, Dark Fic, Extreme Language, Graphic Violence, Original Characters, Racism, Rape, Sexual Content , Strong Sexual Content , Un-betaed , Work in Progress
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 15 Completed: Yes Word count: 31744 Read: 11421 Published: July 16 2020 Updated: August 07 2021
八 by DarkandLovely
Author's Notes:

 

eight

 

She’d been watching him for the latter part of twenty minutes. He found it humorous that she had stood in the same spot, eyes on his every move. Donghai had commented on it with a grin but left it alone, stating that he had to go on a journey. No questions were asked and he would assume responsibility of his home while gone. Lifting up from picking a horse’s hooves, he wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm. Turning, he found her standing there, eyes watching still. Clearing his throat, he grabbed the reins of the stallion and slowly approached her. She grew still as if someone had dumped icy water on her. 

    “Are you going to remain there?” He asked, a smirk forming. She at once dropped her gaze, finding her feet interesting. 

    “If you fear the horse, I am here to assure you. He won’t hurt you.” Licking her lips, she lifted those beautifully enchanting eyes of hers and met his gaze. 

    “Why?” His eyebrows knit together. 

    “Why…?”

    “Why did you save me?” His heart leapt in his chest at her sweet voice, thick with an accent like that of honey. 

    “Should I not have?” How quickly he answered, greedily wanting to hear another word come from her mouth. 

    “It wasn’t your business.” Lifting his eyebrows, he took her in. 

    “I see.” Taking her eyes off of him, she eyed the horse. 

    “I thought your kind only worked on the railroads.” He smirked again, leaning against the stable barrier. 

    “You thought wrong Miss.” There a cute little nose scrunch and her lips pursed. 

    “How do you know English so well? I thought-”

    “You do a lot of thinking don’t you?” The purse on those delectable lips grew deeper. 

    “What’s your name?” She asked, eyes leaving the horse now. Their eyes met again. Letting the reins to the horse go, he leaned forward a bit more. 

    “Jie.” She was quiet and he could see she was trying to figure out how to pronounce it. She bravely attempted to repeat it. 

    “Jie…” There his heart went, beating faster. 

    “And yours?” 

    “Aur-I…I mean…Eminta. My birth name is Eminta.” He smiled at her before pushing off of the barrier. 

    “Eminta. It’s pretty.”

    “You think so?”

    “Just like you.” Though her cheeks blushed, that purse was back. 

    “You use that line on all the ladies?” Chuckling, he couldn’t help a grin. 

    “You’ve exposed me.”    

    “Mmhm.” It was his turn to watch her now as she walked up to Bao. Gently, she reached out to pet his nose. 

    “What were you doing out there at night?” She inquired, turning those eyes back up at him. 

    “That’s not your business.” He replied with a playful smirk. Eating her own medicine, she smiled against Bao who seemed to be enjoying her attention and let him go. Without another word, she left him entering into an inn. Her eyes said so much that her mouth didn’t need to speak. Grabbing hold of Bao’s reigns, he began to walk him back to the hoof station. He hoped like hell she decided to come by again. 

 

*** 

 

    He had driven her mad. It didn’t make sense why the beautiful stranger consumed her thoughts for going on a week now. She’d seen him now more often than before as Grace was pitching for business. She had never seen a man like him before. Out of all the Chinamen she’d come across there was something about him that was different. Call it a hunch but she just felt it. She’d been trying all week to figure it out. He worked the same as everyone else. She couldn’t say that he looked the same though. No, he looked unreal at times. 

    His beauty surely not of this world. How was it that he had such an attractive build and yet delicate features as though given to a woman? She’d watched him oftentimes as he removed shoes from the horses, she’d seen the way his arms glistened with sweat, the muscle there thick and hard. She’d watched a bead or two of it slip down his broad nose, his temples saturated with it. She’d even watched as breaths left his mouth, his pouty lips a pretty shade of pink.  

    “What you lookin at?” She heard a voice and turned away to face Mable, a freedwoman. 

    “Ah…nothin.” Smiling, her eyes lifted from her face outward. 

    “He is pretty ain’t he? I’m sure he gets in a lotta trouble with both men and women.” Feeling her cheeks grow warm, she straightened up and attempted to walk by her but a hand stopped her in her shoulder. 

    “I felt somethin for you on your bed. You’ll find it very useful.”

    “Miss Mable-I-” The woman leaned down and pressed her lips against her ear. 

    “This ain’t Mississippi. This here is the Wild West. You can have whatever you desire. Be it that Chinaman or not.” Smiling at her knowingly, the older woman pressed a kiss against her forehead and walked away from her, entering out into the road and down. Swallowing, she wiped her hands on her dress and left the window, eager to get to her room. She suppressed it knowing it would have to wait. 

 

*** 

 

    “The next time I saw her, it was at the market. It surprised me that she was alone, the shadow of her overbearing overseer gone. I hadn’t been used to seeing them apart but I took full opportunity of the moment.” 

 

*** 

    She stood in an aisle, reading something. A small straw hat sat atop her head hiding her hair. The simple cream patterned dress she wore was light and airy, feminine and girlish. She was simply beautiful. He hadn’t been aware that she was so short, his guess that she stood at a delicate 5 foot. Smiling to himself, he watched as her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. 

    “Need help?” Gasping, she jumped and turned towards him. Relief entered her features at her recognition of him and lifted a hand dainty hand to rest on her chest. 

    “My God…you shouldn’t scare a girl like that Jie….goodness sake…” Biting his lip in a grin, he easily peeked over her to the jar she held in her hand. 

    “Indigestion issues?” He asked, plucking the jar from her hands. 

    “What? No!” He couldn’t resist the chuckle that escaped him. 

    “I was just lookin is all.” Handing it back to her, he watched in amusement as she placed it back on the shelf. 

    “What brings you out here other than to bother me?” She asked, cutting her eyes at him. 

    “None other reason than that.” Sucking her teeth, she called herself storming away but her steps were so short he caught up to her in more than half the time. 

    “Where’s your overseer?” He asked, voice losing some of its playfulness now. Picking up on it, she sighed as they entered another aisle. 

    “Grace is away for a bit.”

    “He didn’t think to take his most precious possession with him?” She stopped walking and looked up at him. 

    “Should he have?” The flutter of butterflies danced in his stomach. It had been such a long time since a woman had roused a reaction out of him. And how easily she did it with those gorgeous eyes of hers and the slight part of her full plush lips. 

    “Perhaps.” He found himself answering, delighting in a pale red blush that decorated her high cheeks. 

    “Well, I don’t think so. I’m glad to be free of him.” She pushed past him. 

    “How long will he be away?” He asked, bowing his head at those he brushed past now trying to catch up to her little body as it attempted to run away. 

    “A few days time.” She answered, turning a corner. 

    “Then we have time.” 

    “Time for what?” He barely stopped himself from crashing into her as her turn was abrupt. He’d lifted his hands to the rack above her head to give himself halt, his heart now beat rapidly in his chest. Up close, she was even more lovely than afar and here he could see that she carried a small little beauty mark oft by the right side of her mouth, just under her bottom lip. And yet another, peeking out from the round necked collar of her dress above her collarbone. 

    “Time to know each other.” He breathed, eyes intense and lidded. 

    “You want to know a Negro slave?”

     “I want to know you.” She lifted a hand to his chest, gently pushing him back.

    “And why would you want to do that?” For once, he couldn’t answer and she took the opportunity to slip out of the close proximity. 

    “I don’t know if every Chinaman is as bold as you are. But being bold in a place like this can get you killed if you’re not careful.” Lifting those eyes up to his one last time, she decided not to say a thing else and quietly walked away from him, leaving him there watching as she left the store.  

End Notes:

A/N: Jie said I SEES YA AND I WANTS YA. *busts out laughing* Okay I quit. Minta tryna play hard to get but baby she know she like her some him too LOL. She know she do lol. Have I mentioned how much I love them?! LOL One note, Jie is really going to be important to her later on for a number of reasons. Y'all see what I'm talking about when we get to that chapter~ hehe. 

D&L~

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