Page 12 of Taken By the Blood God

Her mouth snapped shut at my words. There was no way she would kick me out now. I had issued a challenge, and I knew she wouldn’t back down from it.

“I’m sure I won’t have any issues keeping my hands off you.” She smiled, but it was sharp and lethal. “Unless you count the urge to strangle you. Then, we might have a problem.”

I chuckled when she turned back over, putting her back to me. “If you say so.”

“Good night, Talant.”

“I mean?—”

“Talant, shut up or so help me…”

I smirked as I shut my eyes and let exhaustion pull me back into the depths of sleep.

And back into dreams that were haunted by a witch with wild golden eyes and fiery hair.

Chapter

Six

Minerva

I should have known I couldn’t trust Talant. He was sneaky, underhanded, arrogant, and…well, a lot of things, and none of them were good.

I had no clue why I let him sleep in my bed with me. The only way it could end was in disaster. Which was why I woke up with my hand in the center of his chest and my cheek resting on his shoulder. His bare shoulder. Sometime in the night, he’d removed his shirt and crawled beneath the blankets with me. The bastard.

My heart was already pounding in my chest before I even opened my eyes, but when I did, I blinked repeatedly.

I was no longer on my side of the bed. I wasn’t even in the middle of the bed where I tended to sleep. I had thrown one of my thighs across Talant’s hips, and my foot was hanging in the air off the other side of the mattress because he was almost on the edge of the bed.

And while I had my body all but plastered to his, Talant’s hands weren’t touching me. At all. The arm I was lying on was bent up so that his bicep cradled my neck like a pillow and his other palm rested on his bare stomach.

It looked like an uncomfortable position, one he’d picked so he wouldn’t accidentally touch me when I basically welded my body to his.

I should have known better. I should have kicked him out of my bed no matter how much his little admission of loneliness made my heart ache.

What did that get me?

Nothing but trouble.

Biting back a growl, I eased my thigh off his hips, moving slowly so I wouldn’t wake him. Based on the amount of sunlight peeking around the curtains, it was just after dawn, almost a full twenty-four hours since I found him in my backyard, nearly incoherent.

He was going to wake up soon and be just as insufferable as he always was now that he wasn’t weak from having all his magic drained.

I eased my body away from his, rolling my legs and hips in the opposite direction before I started to withdraw my hand.

He didn’t even flinch. His breathing was as deep and even as it had been all day yesterday when he passed out in my bed. Maybe luck was on my side for a change.

As I rolled onto my own pillow, I tried to ignore the sensations coursing through my body. The residual heat of his skin still lingered on mine, and the smoky scent that I would forever associate with him filled my head. I was no longer touching him, yet I felt surrounded by him.

My sigh of relief was silent…and premature.

The moment my body began to relax and I thought I’d managed to escape without waking Talant, he rolled over. Right on top of me. His dark hair fell like a curtain around our faces, and his eyes were only a few inches from mine. From the twinkle in them, I’d say he’d been awake for a lot longer than I had. Which meant he’d let me lie on top of him while he gloated.

I scowled up at Talant, putting my hands to his shoulders and pushing. He didn’t budge. Instead, he tangled his legs with mine and slid one hand down my side, the calluses on his fingertips scratching at the silky fabric of my nightgown.

“Good morning,” he greeted me, his voice low and gravelly.

He sounded sleepy. And sexy.

---