Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One

T he party had dragged on, but now, as the night slowly began to lighten into the red-tinged dawn, it was over and the veil was finally gone. As had become his habit, Tallon was waiting in the halls outside the kitchen. Zaharya was leaving with me, and I saw how her eyes tracked him, faltering her steps.

He was leaning against the wall with that casual power he wielded so well. While he had already stripped his mask, both the physical and emotional one, I watched as he quickly built it back as Zaharya approached him.

Her finger prodded him in the chest. "You are going to get her killed ."

Both Tallon and I were struck still by her words, by her bravery to approach him directly. He looked over her head at me only for a moment before focusing his attention on the woman in front of him.

"I assure you, I have a vested interest in exactly the opposite." His voice was smooth—Eadric's Tallon was speaking now.

"You should know better," she hissed. "Leave her alone before you get her killed."

"I believe who she keeps company with is entirely up to Odyssa," he replied. While his voice was still that smoky silk, I saw his eyes when he pulled the mask down for just a moment. To let her see the real him. She stiffened at the glimpse. "But I do admire your courage for confronting me. I shall take your words under advisement and I assure you I will do whatever I need to protect Odyssa."

"See that you do," she said. Without a backward glance at me, she stalked down the hall that would take her to our rooms.

Before me now was just Tallon, smirking after Zaharya. "I quite like her, I think."

"Yes, I think I do too," I admitted.

We both watched until she turned the corner and disappeared from our view.

"Are you finished, then?" he asked, pushing off the wall. He fell into step beside me and nodded down at my feet. "Sylviana has been complaining about missing you."

"Was she now?" I looked down at the Soulshade cat and then back at him, a wry smile on my lips. Sylviana had been tucked beneath my dress most of the night, her cold spot comforting against my ankles. "Only her?"

He hummed in affirmation. In one moment he was pulling both our gloves off, and in the next he'd clasped our hands firmly together. I nearly pulled away from the sheer surprise but managed to suppress my reaction. Tallon's focus was firmly on the halls in front of us, but there was no tension in his shoulders or jaw, no taste of ash on my tongue or any other voices in the hall, so I let my own shoulders relax and squeezed his hand gently.

It was different, certainly, but not entirely unwelcome. His hand engulfed mine, and I felt my cheeks blazing as I remembered what his touch felt like around my waist and at my neck.

Based on the quick glances from the corner of his eye, I was far from the only one feeling the rising tension in the halls as we made our way back to his room. I tried to ignore it, to push it back and remember what I needed to be focusing on, but the burn where our bodies connected had no desire to be dismissed.

Finally, his room was within sight, and I slipped my hand from his, if only to take a moment to compose myself before willingly stepping into his domain. He waved me inside, letting his hand drag a trail of blazing fire across my lower back as I passed. The door shut behind him, and once again I found myself pressed between him and the wall of his entryway.

"I've been waiting to do this all night," he said. Before I could ask, he had one hand weaving into my hair and the other cupping my hip as he tugged me to him and met my lips with his own. It only took me a moment to respond in kind, pushing up on my toes to meet him halfway.

The kiss was hot and slow, as he thoroughly plundered my mouth with his own, pressing me back into the wall and angling my head to take even more control of the kiss as he removed all space between our bodies. His fingers flexed on my hip and I clutched at his sides.

His kiss was consuming, burning me from the inside out, and all I wanted was to get closer to him. A teasing bite to my lip had me gasping, and then he was pulling back, both of us panting as he rested his forehead against mine and slowly untangled his hand from my hair to cup the side of my face instead.

"What was that for?" I asked, my voice hoarse from the fervent experience that was kissing Tallon.

He closed his eyes and groaned softly. When they opened again, they were like quicksilver. "A thank you."

It took me a moment to register his words, my attention too fixed on the darkness in his eyes and how his lips were slightly swollen. When they did register, my brow furrowed. "Why would you thank me?"

He smiled and let his hands fall away from my body as he stepped back. I mourned the loss of his heat against me and had to press my fingertips back into the cold stone to keep from reaching for him. He pushed his hand through his hair, looking at me with a fond smile I'd never seen on him before. "You stood up for me at the party, to Eadric. It was foolish and you put yourself in entirely too much danger, but I…" He shook his head. "No one has ever done that for me, especially not at their own expense. So thank you."

And with those words, nearly all the lingering anger from the night before had faded and I wanted nothing more than to burn the castle to the ground for what had been done to him. "You never have to thank me for that."

"I do, but if I show my thanks the way I truly wanted to, we'd never leave this room. And unfortunately, I have news to share with you that does require us to leave it at some point."

For a moment, I almost let myself ask him what he truly wanted to do, but the appeal of news on our bargain won out in the end, just as he knew it would, based on the smirk across his lips. I sighed, pushing myself from the wall and moving further into the room to settle in the chair that had quickly become mine. "What news is that?"

Tallon did not follow me to the chairs as he had the past nights, instead choosing to sit on the edge of the bed and stoop to unlace his boots, kicking them haphazardly away. He stretched out on the bed and tucked an arm behind his head, reaching across his body to pat at the space next to him. "Come lie down with me and I will tell you."

I didn't even pretend to protest, just removed my own shoes and settled in beside him. He huffed a breath of a laugh and pulled me closer into his side, my head resting on his shoulder. His arms came around me to hold me in place and I couldn't stop the laugh. "If this is what having no manners gets me, I would hate to see what being polite would do."

His arms tightened around me and when he spoke, his voice was dark and smoky. "I don't think you should put the image of you saying ‘please' in my head right now."

My body heated and I shifted, pressing myself tighter into his side at the same time as I pressed my thighs closer together. I cleared my throat, trying to distract myself from the images he was painting in my head. "What news do you have, Tallon?"

A tense silence, one that nearly sent us crashing even further into each other, reigned for just a heartbeat more before he sighed. "Eadric will be out of his study at midday. That will be our only chance with any certainty to enter anytime in the near future."

My body froze against his. He'd kept his word. I swallowed back the sob of relief, not wanting him to know I ever doubted him. I hadn't even realized I still doubted him, not until he laid this out in front of me. Curling deeper into his chest, I let my hand come to rest on his stomach, relishing the way his muscles flexed beneath his shirt at my touch. "Thank you," I whispered.

"I am sorry again that I did not tell you the truth sooner. I am sorry for what my magic did to you and your family." He pressed a kiss to my hair and pulled me even closer until I was nearly atop him. "I am very glad you were stronger than my magic."

I swallowed hard, not knowing what to say to his confession until the words began to spill out. "I loathe that I am in any way grateful for the events that led me here, but I find I am. In this moment, at least here in your arms, I think the darkness might not be so bad."

"I think you'll find you belong in the darkness more than you might think. You survived me; you survived death. Eadric has no hope of stopping you, little wolf, now that you know the truth." He pulled the blankets up around our waists. "Sleep now; I will wake you when it is time for us to go."

"What if I don't want to rest?" I asked, breathing in the smell of warmth and spice that clung to his shirt. The party and the cleanup and the emotions of the night were beginning to catch up to me, and now, tucked into Tallon's side and surrounded in this cocoon of warmth and security, my own confidence was blooming. I had to be sure, though, that this was not another moment he would come to pretend had not happened later. "I do not think I could sleep now if I tried."

"I suppose I could find something to occupy your time or to help you sleep." He sounded more awake now, amusement, desire, and a careful caution all equally evident in his voice.

"Oh? Such as?" Emboldened by the wanting in his voice, I let my own trickle into my words as well.

He hesitated, sweeping his hands over my back and down my arms as he pressed another kiss onto my hair. "What are you comfortable with, little wolf? What would you let me do to you? Anything you can imagine, anything you ask of me, it will be yours. Just say the words."

"Touch me," I breathed. My head tilted up so I could look at him. "Please?"

Lips split into a lazy smile and fingers flexed across my back. "I am touching you."

"Tallon." I didn't want him to tease me; I wanted him to distract me, to make me forget all the horrible things going on around us.

In lieu of an answer, he settled me on to my back and propped himself up on his elbow to look down at me. Agonizingly slowly, his hand settled across my stomach. "Did you want me to touch you like this, little wolf?"

Butterflies with wings of fire swooped through my belly at his touch. "Not quite, but getting closer."

"Perhaps you should be more specific, then." The carnal hunger in his eyes warmed every bit of my body as he looked down at me.

Once again emboldened by Tallon's easy acceptance of himself, of his desires, I gave in to my own. I took his hand in my own and slid it slowly, so slowly, up to trace the swell of my breast. His lips parting in surprise was nearly as satisfying as when he flexed his fingers against my flesh, warmth radiating through the thin gown I still wore.

"How far do you want this to go, little wolf?"

"Just touch me, Tallon. I will tell you to stop if I need it." I couldn't think, didn't want to think. If I did, I knew I would retreat and curl back into my feelings of unworthiness and remember what was at stake. For now, I wanted him, and I wanted to lose myself in him.

"As you wish." His touch transformed from the tentative exploration that I'd initiated into something wholly more and all his own design.

My hand fell away from his as he took the lead, sweeping his palms over my breasts and squeezing just so. He dipped his head down to press wet, open-mouthed kisses against the exposed skin at the neckline, never staying in one place too long as he travelled up my neck and nipped at the skin beneath my ear.

Before I could ask for more, his hand left my breasts to skate over my stomach, coming to a stop just below my navel. Between kisses to my neck that left me tingling and floating, he murmured, "Is this what you want, Odyssa? Can I touch you here?"

My hand found his again and, through the silk of the gown, I pushed his hand between my legs. He needed little direction, letting out a breathy groan against my neck as he cupped my center. His palm was scorching hot where it sat against my skin, rubbing softly against me, but it wasn't enough. I flexed my hips, biting my lip as I chased his touch.

"Shh, little wolf," he said. He nipped at the skin of my neck, running his tongue over it right after to soothe the sting. "I will take care of you, I promise."

A challenge sat at the tip of my tongue but was lost to a moan as he kicked the blankets down the bed and pulled the hem of my dress up in one smooth motion to expose my body all the way up to my sternum. This time, he grabbed my hand, guiding it to hold the bunched-up fabric that settled beneath my breasts.

He groaned and pressed his forehead against my shoulder briefly as his hand returned between my legs. The aching had grown almost unbearable, and I didn't try to stop myself from rolling my hips against his touch. His fingers traced over my flesh, dipping into the growing slickness only briefly.

"Have you always worn these gowns with no underwear, Odyssa?"

"There was none in the wardrobe," I admitted, my voice nearly unrecognizable with arousal. Earlier, he'd said I belonged in the darkness more than I knew, and here, pressed against him with his hand pressed against me, I agreed.

He didn't reply for a moment, his focus entirely on how his fingers moved against my body. "Are you trying to kill me?"

Thankfully, without waiting for a response I wasn't sure I could even give, his fingers dipped lower and he slid one inside me. My mind quieted, my focus narrowing to only where he touched me, to the pleasure that he wrenched from me with only a finger as he plunged it in and out of me. A second joined the first and I let out a cry I might have been otherwise embarrassed of.

"You are stunning, little wolf," he breathed, bending his head to capture my lips in a scorching kiss. He plundered my body as he plundered my mouth, his thumb reaching up to press at the nerves above where his fingers split me. Pleasure was all I knew, Tallon was all I knew, and I was glad for it.

My body bowed against his touch, hips rolling with his hand as he brought me higher and higher.

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.