Chapter 26
CHAPTER 26
D anger coils off him like smoke. His dark, smoldering eyes bore into mine, searching for answers. His magic strokes against my mind, testing the barriers. He’s trying to coax me open and spread my secrets bare. With an effort, I resist his power.
I pout, my breath coming fast and sharp. “I was bored and alone, as usual. You’re never around.”
The dying sunlight carves his high cheekbones with shadows, and his lips curve in a faint, cruel smile. “So, you decided to visit the castle of a marquis whose daughter is trying to kill you?” His voice is controlled and quiet, but underneath his seductive murmur cuts the cold edge of anger. Goosebumps rise on my skin.
My thoughts flail and crash, storm-wrecked, as I search for a better excuse, but he’s like a tempest, a dangerously beautiful storm, and I can’t think straight around him.
I bite my lip, and his gaze flicks down to my mouth.
My core tightens. Gods, how does he make me feel so exposed without even touching me?
“I wasn’t going inside Val Sans Retour. Lumos invited me to a little country house nearby. By the lake. I thought it would be fun.”
He moves before I can react, pulling my cloak open. The cold air strikes my skin through my dress. His eyes never leave mine, and he studies me closely. His gaze pierces me to my core, and I’m sure he’s seeing everything, sifting through my secrets. Taking me apart one piece at a time.
“Lumos,” he repeats, his voice soft and dangerous. His fingers trace a path up my body, caressing me from waist to chest to rest lightly against my throat. His touch is feather-light, gentle, but there’s no mistaking the control in it. He has me exactly where he wants me, pinned between his body and the rough bark. I am completely at his mercy.
“You go to him for fun.” His silken voice sends a thrill dancing over my skin. Slowly, his thumb strokes the hollow of my throat. “And yet, I can hear how your heart beats around me. I can see your pupils growing larger when you look at me. I can smell the glow of lust on you. I know exactly how your body reacts to me. Does he do the same for you?” His other hand moves lower, teasing the edge of my dress, gathering the fabric between his fingers, but there’s something else in his gaze now, a raw, searing need in the copper. “You want me because you know I could give you more pleasure than he ever could.”
His voice is possessive and tinged with masculine desire.
I swallow hard, unable to take my eyes from him. “So what if I want you?”
Heat flashes in the copper depths. “I want you to say that again, Nia.”
“I want you,” I whisper.
He lightly strokes my skin, but he hesitates like he’s savoring the moment, drinking in the magic power of my words. Feeding off them.
He drags my dress around my waist, baring my thighs to the cold forest air. The breeze caresses my bare skin, and every nerve in my body lights up with anticipation.
I’m at his mercy. And I like it.
He tucks the long hem behind the small of my back, trapping it between me and the tree, leaving me exposed. His hand shifts around my throat, his thumb pressing lightly, a gentle, silent reminder of his control. With his free hand, he toys with the lace trim of my underwear. Light as a feather, his knuckles graze the silk with strokes that are both incendiary and excruciating.
My breath shudders, and my nipples tighten, my breasts aching for him.
His knuckles trace a light path over my clit through my undergarments, and I gasp, each brush of his fingers sending fresh waves of heat pooling between my legs. He’s scarcely touched me, and I’m ready to strip off my panties and beg him to continue. He knows exactly how much control he has over me, and he revels in it, savoring my response.
My eyes flutter shut, and I tilt back my head against the tree.
“Look at me, Nia,” he says in a rough whisper.
Breathing heavily, I open my eyes and stare into his copper-ringed depths. His fingers slip under the silk, and he lets out a soft groan as he glides over my slickness. I gasp, pleasure coiling inside me, tension building to a breaking point. My hips move against his touch, seeking more.
He slides my underwear down my thighs, exposing me completely. “I’ve been wanting to strip you naked and watch you come since the night you first insulted me, Nia.”
As he slides his fingers inside me, I moan, but his breath falters, too. His breath is warm against my cheek, and he inhales my scent. “You make it hard for me to keep my control because I want to fuck you until you scream my name to the skies. But I don’t think you’re telling me everything, are you? And I need you to tell me everything.”
Oh, gods, not now. My hips move against him as he brings me closer to a climax, so close to going over the edge?—
And then he stops. His fingers slide out of me, and I groan with frustration.
His gaze sharpens. “The thing is, I don’t really believe you’re stupid enough to come here just to have fun with Lumos.”
My breathing is ragged and desperate, my body throbbing with need. I reach for his neck and pull his face closer to mine. “What do you want?”
His eyes burn into mine, and his fingers twitch against my skin like he’s battling something inside himself. His thumb brushes against my lower lip, and for just a second, his expression is almost reverent. Then he masters his control again, and it’s gone.
“You need to stop lying to me.”
Slowly, I catch my breath, not wanting to release his hair. He gazes at me, his eyes heavy-lidded.
He lifts his hand to my cheek, his face close to mine. “I want the truth from you. It’s not all I want from you—not even close. But it will do for now.”
“You’re a real prick, do you know that?”
“So I’ve been told.”
“The rumors about you are true. You really do torture people, just not exactly how they say.” A heated flush has spread through my body, and I catch my breath. I pull my underwear back into place and let my dress fall, trying to compose myself after he made me nearly lose my mind.
“I’m aware,” he murmurs. “But do you know what else I know? You are frighteningly clever, and there’s no way you’d ride all the way to Arwenna’s castle just for fun. You also press your lips together when there’s something you don’t want to reveal. Now tell me, what the fuck are you really doing out here?”
His gaze pierces me like a blade, and I fear that he already knows my secrets, as if I were never truly hiding from him at all.
My pulse pounds in my ears, my body aching and my mind still reeling. How the hell am I supposed to think straight after that? But I’m sure that was the point.
I grit my teeth. It’s what Meriadec always said, isn’t it? Stick as close to the truth as possible, or you’ll fuck everything up.
I smooth my skirts, though my legs are still shaking, and scramble for a lie close to the truth, one that will tie everything up in a neat bow. “Arwenna kidnapped my father.” My voice quavers as I say it. “She was using him as leverage to get to me, to lure me out here when Maertisa’s attack failed.” Real tears spring to my eyes. “She captured my father and tortured him to death. You’ll find his body in her family’s lake cabin. So, I hunted the bitch down and killed her, and that’s the truth, Talan.”
A line forms between his eyebrows, and he studies me closely. “I’m sorry, Nia.”
I swallow hard. “Both their bodies are still there. One in a clearing, and one in the lake house.”
“I’ll take care of it. It’s better for you if no one knows about this. I’m going to get you home, and then I will come back to deal with their bodies.”
He pulls me in close to him as we walk back to the horses.
Guilt twists in my chest. Such a strange sensation to have someone clean up my messes, instead of the other way around.