Page 67 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

Murmured words brushed against my skin between his kisses, but my ears could not make them out in the ringing haze of desire. A third finger entered me and the stretch burned so good, balancing on a knife’s edge between pleasure and pain.

“Give yourself to me, little wolf,” he said. His fingers pressed against a spot inside of me that had me arching off the bed. I felt his smile curve against my neck as he continued sweeping over that same spot, over and over and over. “Come for me, Odyssa.”

Words stuck in my throat and I was powerless to do anything but obey as his thumb pressed down on my pleasure point and his fingertips did the same inside of me. I was lost in a sea of Tallon, and I was content to drown in it as I reached my peak.

His fingers slowed as I came down, leaving my skin as he continued kissing my neck. In the clarity of the moment, I felt exposed, my dress still rucked up around my waist and my arousal shining on Tallon’s fingers. I wanted to cover myself up, but as I moved to pull the dress down, Tallon raised his fingers to his mouth and licked them clean with a groan. And once more, I was struck by the depths of his desire for me.

“I shall have to taste you properly next time, I think,” he said, after he’d captured every drop of me from his hand.

Heat spurred once again in my belly, though it battled with the exhaustion that was creeping up on the trails of pleasure. Before I could move, Tallon reverently pulled my dress down and the blankets back up around us.

Acting before I could talk myself out of it, I surged up to capture his mouth, tasting myself on his lips and pouring everything I could not say into the kiss. Only once we were both out of breath did I settle back into the bedding, reaching up to trace my hand across his cheek. “Thank you, Tallon.”

“You never have to thank me for that,” he replied. With a kiss to my forehead, he pulled me beneath his arm and settled my head on his chest. “I am proud of you, little wolf.”

I jerked my head up to stare at him. I’d done nothing for him to be proud of, certainly not recently. Beyond the solidarity I’d shown in the ballroom, I had no inkling of what he was proud of me for. “For what?”

He smiled and gathered me back against his chest, smoothing a hand over my hair and rubbing my scalp. “You did something because you wanted it. You. Not anyone else. I’m proud of you for putting yourself first tonight, and I am utterly thankful you decided to use me to do it.”

Words stuck in my throat and tears blurred my vision, sending me curling deeper into his side.

Thankfully, he did not seem to expect a response as he continued running his hands through my hair. The steady thump of his heartbeat was better than any lullaby, and I found myself even more tired than I’d expected. He chuckled at the yawn that clawed its way out. “Sleep now. We have quite an ordeal ahead of us, I fear.”

“You will still be here when I wake?” I asked, curling myself tighter into his side even as my eyes grew heavy. I could not bear it if I woke and he was gone, not after this. Something had changed between us tonight, with his fingers inside me and our bodies pressed together, and I feared I would not survive if he put his mask back on now.

“I think you would find that nothing short of Kalyx himself could pull me from this bed right now, Odyssa.”

“Good.” And I fell into the embrace of Tallon’s darkness and let sleep claim me, even if just for a little while.

ChapterThirty-Two

Wakefulness came on the palms of Tallon’s hands as they ran up and down my back. I relished the moment, pressing my face further into his side and chasing the warmth.

“It’s time, little wolf.”

“I know,” I mumbled into his shirt. It was everything I’d been pushing for and yet, in this moment, in his arms, I didn’t want to leave for anything. My cheeks flushed, hearing my mother’s admonishment coming from the Beyond. There was everything at stake here, and failure was not an option. I had nothing left to lose and everything to gain by getting the treatment to Emyl before it was too late. “I know.”

Tallon’s hands stilled. “You do notneedto do this, Odyssa.”

His words were more effective than cold water splashing across my face. With a sigh I pulled out of his embrace and sat up, twisting to look down at him still sprawled out across the bed. “Yes, I do. And you will not convince me otherwise.”

He raised his brow. “A feat I’d surely never attempt.”

“Don’t patronize me, Tallon.” I moved to the edge of the bed, pushing my hands through my hair as the enormity of what I was about to finally accomplish soared through me. My stomach was a pit of anxiety, gnawing at my spine. “I cannot fail.”

The bedding rustled and I closed my eyes briefly as he shifted closer to my back, his body radiating warmth into me once more. He pressed a kiss to my bare shoulder. “I did not mean to sound patronizing, little wolf. I was speaking the truth. Convincing you to do anything you do not already want to do is an exercise in futility. If you saw yourself as I see you—how you truly are—you would have taken over the castle by now.”

“My brothers convinced me to come here, to leave them behind for the sake of money.” I whispered my confession to the curtains. “I abandoned them to die, because I was too cowardly to stand up against them and make them let me stay.”

“Did they convince you to leave? Or did you simply take advantage of the opportunity to escape from beneath their thumb?”

“You know nothing about us,” I hissed, pulling away and stalking over to the window. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying desperately to hold myself together. His words had struck true, right in my heart, in my deepest failings.

“I know everything I need to know about you, Odyssa.” He did not move from his place on the bed. “I know that you are a survivor, that you are a caretaker, that you would rather give away pieces of your very soul to ensure those around you want for nothing. I know what I saw in your face that night you learned of your brother’s sickness. I know what I felt from you in the ballroom when I had to murder Talyssa. If you had truly wanted to stay, nothing your brothers said would have stopped you.Youleft. To prove a point, to try to earn their love, to protect them…whatever reason you want to give. But you chose to leave. And you wound up here with me. I will not allow you to feel guilty over the circumstances that led us together.” He stood from the bed and tugged me into his arms, tucking a finger beneath my chin to raise my gaze to his. “I certainly will not allow you to feel guilty for what my magic has taken from you.”

Tears blurred my vision and some of the anger bled out of me as I slumped against him, burying my face in his chest. “You make it difficult to hate you.”

His laugh rumbled through his chest and against my forehead. “I am immensely grateful for that.”

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