Page 126 of Trial of Bronze and Blood
He takes a deep breath, his chest rising and falling against her. “Nowhere else in the world holds such a sacred place; the Imperium would try to invade Anziano for this reason alone.”
Her mouth hangs open, words escaping her. For Marcus to bring her here to this place, to share this secret with her…
“How did you discover it?” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“Cato told me about it, though he said few could actually find it.”
She smiles, though he can’t see it. “You went looking for it just to prove him wrong, didn’t you?”
He chuckles, the sound rumbling through her. “Of course. He was so smug about it.”
Laughing softly, Dru finds herself leaning back into him, so comfortable in his presence. Marcus, in turn, shifts his hands away from her shoulders and wraps them around her, crossing one over her upper chest and the other grasping her arm over her midsection.
Everywhere he touches feels as if it’s on fire, spreading quickly through her veins. He draws her closer, his fingertips curling along her forearm. Taking a stuttered breath as he leans down again, his lips couldn’t be any closer to touching the sensitive skin between her neck and shoulder.
She turns her head slightly and places a hand on his arm across her chest, wondering what he’s waiting for. Why he won’t kiss her even though he clearly wants to.
When he brushes his lips against her neck, barely a whisper of a touch, she gasps. Her grip around his arm tightens and she turns her head toward him.
Before she can think, he extricates his arms from her and steps away so quickly that she nearly falls backward into the water.
Confused, she whirls on him, but he won’t look her in the eye. Hiding his face with his wet hair, he heads for his tunic, which hasn’t had nearly enough time to dry in the sun, and throws it back over his head.
“We should go, before it gets too late.”
“We have the whole day, Marcus,” she argues. “And we left before the sun rose.”
He still won’t meet her gaze. “Cato will be wondering where we’ve gone.”
Another excuse.
“Cato’s with his mother.” She softens her voice. “What’s wrong?”
“I just need to get back, that’s all,” he says, impatience rising in his voice. “My guards might need me.”
“That’s a poor excuse and you know it.” Her own frustration surges. “When will you stop hiding things from me?”
He snaps his jaw shut, confirming he’s hiding plenty from her and will continue to do so. Though he divulged one secret, a dozen more remain left untold.
She throws her soaking tunic that somehow fell out of her grasp into the water back over her head and marches up to him, which isn’t easy to do given most of her legs remain in the pool. “I know I said before that I don’t need to know everything you’re planning, that I trust you. But things are more complicated and dangerous now, and I don’t like being left in the dark.”
He watches her in silence, his stare cold and unfeeling. She hates how much that look breaks her heart, that she let him bury so deep under her skin.
When he stalks off, he leaves her no other choice but to follow.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
MARCUS
The moment they enter the palace, Dru heads straight to her room and slams the door shut. Marcus sighs, wishing he could go after her.
They didn’t speak the entire walk back through the wildlands of Anziano, and he’s fairly certain the only reason she followed him is because she knew she might not be able to find her way out again without his help. After what he did, though, he can’t blame her for not wanting to speak to him.
Wrapped in his arms like that, he nearly blurted out his and Cato’s entire plan, his feelings for her, everything. The power she holds on his heart, over his whims—it’s unfair. He would tell her anything, do anything for her.
Which is why he had to step away while he still maintained some control over his emotions.
Who knows how far things might’ve gone if the breath she released when he pressed his lips to her neck hadn’t broken the hold she had over him? Yet, his entire body aches over it. As if she opened up his chest with that single look of betrayal and pulled out his beating heart.
