Page 57 of Great Falls Cadet
Tye blinks again, his gaze lucid, and it’s all I can do to keep from burying my head in his shoulder. As if all the strength and courage I’ve borrowed have now fled. That’s what I would do with my Tye—but this is not my Tye.
“Leralynn.” Tye crouches beside me, his hands brushing my wrist. His perfect features are sharp with focus now, his silver earring glinting in the barn’s low light. Concern and anxiety roll off him in waves of warm scent, the gaze that held murder moments earlier now focused entirely on gently probing my flesh. “How are ye, lass?”
“Sore.” Very bloody sore. The bastards’ crude attempt to turn me into a pony flashes in my memory, making my jaw clench. “It’s mostly my pride that’s injured.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” Tye asks, his thumb stroking a bead of blood from my lower lip. Penetrating green eyes brush my body, seeing every rip and welt and cut. The clean pine-and-citrus scent of him mixes with sweat—and determination.
Before I can move away, Tye snakes his arms around me and lifts me into the air. I gasp, struggling as I find myself held tightly against the male’s broad chest.
“I-I can walk.” I should walk.
Tye’s arms tighten, his heart pounding so hard that I hear it through his chest. “You are currently wearing magenta strips of silk,” he says, his light voice utterly at odds with his heartbeat. “While the Academy would no doubt enjoy the spectacle, I’d like to keep this little secret all to myself just now.”
I open my mouth to protest, to ask where Tye thinks he’s taking me, but shut it without speaking. I hurt. And for now, just being cared for is enough.
With most everyone in the dining hall, the grounds are near deserted. Wherever Nolan and twins ran off to, I see no trace of the royals as Tye navigates the convenient rows of trees and hedges he plainly has experience using as concealment. Five turns later, even I am lost as to our destination until the low stone bathhouse looms before us. Themen’sbathhouse.
“Wait!” My protest comes altogether too late as Tye shoulders the door open, crosses a locker-lined antechamber, and brings us into a large, softly lit room filled with sprawling bathing pools. From a heavily steaming pool in one corner to a tiny round one steeped with mugwort—which gives it approximately the smell and color of black tea—to a deep, clear pool that looks unheated and long enough to do laps. The thick wet steam caresses my skin, and I inhale a lungful of blissfully warm air. Unlike the female baths, where vases of spring flowers provide splotches of color amidst a white interior, the men’s bath has patterns of smooth round river stones laid into the green tiled walls and around shelves holding soap and towels. The sloped floor takes advantage of a cleverly routed branch of the Great Falls river to easily circulate the water, while always-burning braziers keep hot water readily accessible.
Setting me down on the farthest pool’s lip, Tye closes the drain and tips a flow of scalding-hot water to mix in with the burbling, cool liquid already there. His muscles flex and shift under his skin in the low lantern light. The bathing pool thus drawn, Tye pulls off first his boots, then my own, his deft hands moving with the skill of centuries spent undressing women.
“How did you know there was trouble?” I ask. Next to Tye’s perfectly lithe movements and sweat-mussed hair made only more perfect by its wildness, I look like a tattered rat rolled in muck.
“I was training nearby and Rabbit fetched me. It didn’t make Katita pleased at all.” Tye adds the latter under his breath, as if the words are intended more for himself than me. “Pitting yourself alone against three royals—I don’t know whether that makes you the bravest or most reckless Great Falls cadet. And I’ll have you know, I currently hold the most reckless title, and I’d rather not give it up.”
Tye was with Katita.A jolt of pain I’ve no right to feel twists my stomach. Free of the magic bonds, this Tye is kind and smart and brave—but he isn’t mine. He’s made that clear enough. Which isgood. The farther we stay from each other, the less chance of me provoking the amulet.
Stripping down to his undershorts, Tye slips into the water, planting himself between my open thighs. I do everything I can not to stare at his bare torso—the broad flare of his pectorals and shoulders, the hard ridges of his abdomen, bulging even at rest, sun-kissed by many shirtless training sessions—but it’s a losing battle. His calloused hand cups my cheek gently. “Let’s see the damage, lass. From the little I caught at the end there, you’ve something to show for the encounter.”
I open my mouth, but no words come out.
Taking my silence as consent, Tye pulls down the tatters still holding the top of my dress to my shoulders, letting my breasts tumble free—which, instead of making me rightfully furious, sends a shiver of excitement along my skin. Warm water swirls around my legs, reaching up my calf. When my arms come up to cover my breasts, Tye flashes me a quick grin. “You know that just makes me want to look closer?”
Face heating, I focus on the steam rising above the water in little curls. Curls that look so like the coarse hair I know is to be found around my companion’s cock that I quickly realize I need to be looking elsewhere. But where?
Tye’s fingers probe my ribs, his intense green gaze so focused on my body that my breath hitches. One white canine, dulled by the veil amulet’s magic, scrapes his lower lip in concentration. When his hands slide around toward the front, slipping beneath my tender breasts, I bite my lip and try to pull away.
Tye shakes his head, dismissing my efforts. “I don’t think anything is broken,” he says, pearly drops of water running along the grooves of sculpted muscles. The focus of his gaze makes the rest of his broad, trained body even more beautiful, the tension singing beneath his skin sending vibrations right to my apex. His touch gentles. “But you’ve some bruises to match the night sky.”
“Stop it.” Pushing Tye back, I gather my dignity and slide off the pool’s edge into the water—which has the opposite effect of what I’d intended. Instead of providing greater cover, the water that only reaches Tye’s waist now slaps gently against my breasts, the soft bounce drawing a clear swallow from Tye. Adding to the mess, the remaining bottom of my dress yields to the water’s pressure and billows up to my waist. The welts along my backside sting, but I dare not rub them just now. Dare not do anything that may bring us closer to the line we’ve decided not to cross.
Friends. We are friends. Not even that now. Acquaintances. Partners in crime. Tye came to my aid just as I came to Rabbit’s. There is nothing more in this than that.
With a soft curse, Tye turns his gaze to the ceiling, drawing several deep breaths. When his attention returns to me, the male captures my waist. Sitting himself on an underwater bench, he draws me to stand between his legs. With him sitting and me between those corded thighs, our faces are level. “You are beautiful, lass,” he growls softly. “So much that a man can’t help wondering if you taste as good as you look.”
Line. Not helping.
The thought of Tye’s mouth on my sex is enough to make it clench. Ignoring the wetness slowly coating the inside of my channel, I splay my hand on Tye’s broad chest, feeling the warm, velvety skin damp with steam, the muscles contracting beneath my fingers. “You are obnoxious, Tye. Or have you forgotten that we’ve no interest in bedding each other?”
A shadow passes over Tye’s face, gone so quickly that I’m not sure I saw it. “Aye, but if I stop being a prat, you might notice that I’ve been busy removing the rest of your clothes.”
I blink, realizing the male has, in fact, been busy handling my dress, and now lifts the remaining fabric over my head. I jerk backwards, which proves a mistake when Tye’s large hands close on both sides of my bruised bottom.
I yelp.
The amusement in the male’s face fades, his whole body tensing as he beholds the full results of the royals’ handiwork. “I am going to rip them apart limb from limb.”
I reach for the soap, determined to be wearing at least something, even if it’s only bubbles. “I don’t imagine princess Katita would thank you for it.”
