Page 45 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

If our marks were signals of how close we’d come to death, then Tallon had come within a breath. The inky black swirls covered both of his arms from shoulder to wrist and cascaded over his chest and stomach before dipping into his waistband. His marks did not creep up onto his neck like mine did, but instead twisted like a necklace around his collarbones and spilled over onto his back.

“There is nothing you can say that will shock me, little wolf.” His voice had lost some of the rough sleep quality, but it was still heavy and deep. He did not move out of the sliver of sunlight that cut through the room, instead letting me look my fill while watching me with the same intensity. The air in the room was charged, though with what, I couldn’t describe. It was like a force drawing us together, wanting me to get up and go to him. His thigh twitched beneath the tight fabric of his pants and I knew he was struggling with the same.

It was a self-imposed torture to keep looking at his torso. I wanted to trace the lines of his marks with my fingers, and the temptation was too great. Pulling my gaze to meet his, I realized looking at his face wouldn’t be any better. There was no teasing in his eyes, no hint of the arrogance or the soft mockery that typically accompanied him. Just a vulnerability and a concern that looked both out of place and uncomfortable. For both of us.

Sighing, I moved until I was lying flat on my back, hands folded on my stomach and staring up at the ceiling. I doubted I’d be able to tell him about my nightmares if he kept looking at me like that—or if he kept his shirt off.

“Ever since I recovered, I’ve had nightmares of this place. A dark and cold place, filled with horrible creatures and screaming and rivers of blood that carve through towering cliffs. I can never escape, and the nightmares always end with me falling or drowning, or some other horrid end.” I took a deep breath that shuddered at the last second. “Recently, my youngest brother has been appearing in those nightmares, in that place. He is now the one trying to kill me in my dreams, and he enjoys it, enjoys telling me how I failed him and let him die. Reminds me that I let my mother die. Warns me that I will be the cause of Emyl’s death, too, and be the reason our entire family is dead.”

The bed dipped slowly beside me, and despite feeling the heat radiating from Tallon’s body, I kept my gaze fixed on the ceiling. The tears burning at the back of my throat would surely spill if I caught him looking at me with pity.

“Go on,” he murmured.

I wiped furiously at my nose, trying to chase away the stinging. “Tonight was the same. My youngest brother tried to kill me in that place, and twice he reminded me of what I had done to my family. And then it was a memory of what it felt like to choke on my own blood. What it felt like to suffocate and cough up blood and not know if I was going to die but wishing I would so it would just be over. Then it was like Rhyon was controlling that memory because we were back in that place, and he told me it was my fault he would die the same way. That Emyl would die the same way. He tried to choke me that time.” I let out a heavy breath, one that did not shake or catch in my throat this time. “And then I woke up screaming and my marks pinning you to the bed.”

The room was still and quiet while my words settled down over both of us. I wanted to take them back, to grab them from where they hung in the air and swallow them down, but they would not disappear. I’d told him my greatest fears, and now I had to accept the consequences and hope that he was not using this as part of the games he played.

I did not feel the bed move again until it was too late, too lost in my own regret and embarrassment to notice until Tallon’s hands were on either side of my head and his body was hovering over mine. The muscles in his arms bulged as he kept his weight off me in an easy and steady show of strength that did not shake against the unsteadiness of the soft mattress. I held my breath as he lowered, bending his arms at the elbows until only a breath kept us apart.

My eyes fluttered shut as he ducked his head to run his nose along my jaw line. There was no doubt he could feel my pulse racing against his lips as they pressed gently to my neck, just above the wounds Rhyon had left in my nightmares. Once, twice, he kissed the skin there before traveling up to my ear.

I felt like I was floating and drowning at the same time, my body too awash in the sensations to tell up from down. I wanted to shove him away and pull him closer all at once, to run out of the room screaming at myself for being so foolish to fall for whatever game this surely was, but also to hook my leg around his foot and knock him off balance just to feel his body pressing mine into the bed. I wanted it all and hated it at the same time. Hated myself.

I kept my eyes closed and tried to keep any expression at all from settling onto my face.

His breath puffed against my ear, and though they were not pressed so firmly against my skin anymore, I still felt his lips curve up into a smirk. “I would like to make you a bargain, Odyssa Duhiva. Would you take it?”

My eyes flew open to see Tallon looking down at me. His face was still open, earnest, but his eyes were dark. “I—” My voice cracked from my mouth being so dry. Licking my lips, I watched his eyes follow every movement, somehow darkening even more. His own tongue darted out to lick his lips in response. “How can I trust you?”

Some of the darkness cleared from his eyes and that smirk was back. I wanted to shift under the intensity of his gaze, but I was also petrified of the same, of what would happen if I brought any sort of attention to the rest of my body beneath his. “You shouldn’t trust me, little wolf. But that does not mean we cannot make a bargain all the same.”

Any doubt I had that Tallon was a normal man vanished. A normal man would have been trembling from holding himself up for so long, and yet he had not even a hint of discomfort on his face. He also had no hint of trickery, no hint of the mocking smirk he wore in the ballroom. “What is the bargain?”

“I will help you get the treatment from the prince for your brother.”

I held my breath.

“In exchange, you’ll spend an hour with me here in my rooms each day.”

I opened my mouth to accept eagerly. There was nothing he could ask of me in that hour he wanted that I would not give, but he shifted his weight to hold himself up on one hand as he pressed a finger to my lips. “Ah, not yet. I also want a favor from you in the future. One favor of my choosing, to call in whenever I see fit.”

I let out the breath and he moved his hand from my lips. “I have nothing left to lose. I accept your bargain, Tallon.”

The chuckle that rumbled from his chest was dark and heavy and it made heat curl low in my stomach. “Odyssa, there is always something left to lose.”

He looked at me a moment longer, and then the hand that had pressed a finger to my lips was tangled in my hair, and lifting my head to meet his and he pressed his lips to mine. A gentle kiss and short, by all accounts, but the touch lingered, his breath mixing with mine as I fought to keep from pressing my thighs together to combat the heat building.

I wanted more, and he seemed to know it too. His hand wove deeper into my hair, and the next kiss was firmer, his mouth hot and open against mine and his tongue peeking out to run over my lips in a whisper of a promise. I couldn’t stop the groan that bubbled up at the touch, my breath falling into his open mouth as our lips moved in tandem.

My skin felt like it was on fire, and his hand tightened against the roots of my hair, tugging gently as he tipped my head back, exposing my throat. His mouth left mine for a moment to kiss along my jaw line, but it returned immediately, pressing one more kiss against my lips, slow and deep.

Pulling away, I was pleased to see his chest rising and falling as rapidly as my own, both of us affected. My lips tingled and I wanted to press my hand against them to see if it was in my head or if they truly were as flushed and swollen as I thought. The kisses he’d pressed to my jaw left a path of flames that still burned even though he was no longer touching me.

He fell to his side, propping his head up on his fist as he looked down at me, the arrogant smirk falling back into place as though it’d never left. “It’s a bargain, then.”

The hairs on the back of my neck prickled and cold washed down my spine, dousing out the arousal that Tallon had foisted upon me with that kiss. Gods, what had I done?

ChapterTwenty-Three

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