Chapter 27
Rosabel La Rouge
Present day
The water was cold, but it was water. There was some strange-smelling shampoo in one of the bottles, and they only had this tiny tub in there, but I made it work. I scrubbed myself clean, then washed my clothes with the shampoo, too, wrapped myself in the towel hanging behind the door that may or may not have been used by someone before me, and I walked out with my heart in my throat, as if I was being chased.
I wasn’t, but the bathroom door had no lock, and I didn’t want anybody to walk in on me naked.
The hallway was wide, with only four doors along the sides, and so far, I heard nothing. No noise, no voices, no footsteps, just me tiptoeing my way back with my wet clothes in one hand and my boots in the other, feeling a million pounds lighter without all that dried blood on me.
Then I went into the second room left, the one Vuvu had showed me to, pushed the door open, and I almost passed out.
Taland was sitting on the windowsill of the open window, his leg up and his elbow resting on his knee, a mischievous little grin on his face.
I couldn’t even scream because every inch of my body was locked down, paralyzed in place.
“Hello, sweetness. You smell nice,” he said, his eyes scrolling down to my wet hair and the white towel wrapped around my torso, which barely fell to my thighs.
“What…what-what-what are you doing here?!” I said when I found my voice.
“Close the door, will you? I don’t have any silver coins on me. That guy is not going to let me stay if he finds me here.” And he jumped off the windowsill.
“You are not staying here,” I said when his words registered and my lungs began to function semi-normally again, but I stepped inside and pushed the door closed anyway. Because if Vuvu found him here, he might not let me stay, either, and I couldn’t afford that. Not when I didn’t even have clothes to wear at the moment.
Fuck! I’m naked, I’m naked, I’m naked!
Dropping my boots, I brought my wet clothes in front of me, hoping to shield as much of the towel as I could, cheeks flushed.
“My, my, sweetness,” the asshole said, pulling down the window as he continued to look at me. “You still look really good wet.”
His words were slow, like a damn caress in my ear, and every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps despite my better judgment.
“How the hell did you even get here?! Get out ,” I said through gritted teeth .
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he calmly said and slammed the window down all the way.
My brain was having trouble catching up. Taland is here-Taland is here-how in the fuck is Taland here?!
Well aware that I wasn’t going to get an answer, and my panic wasn’t going to change anything about this moment. So, I took a step closer, and because the room was so small, only the bed stood between us now.
“So, kill me then and be done with it,” I said, angry now, so angry. Everything continued to take the most absurd turns when I least expected it and I was so sick of it.
Make some sense for once! I thought at nobody and nothing in particular.
But Taland was really here, and despite what he’d said in the Tree of Abundance, my death was the only reason why. That made me sick, too—and tired. So fucking tired of expecting it. So tired of finding him everywhere I turned.
I mean, it was bad enough that he was actually in the Iris Roe, but here, in this very room, in this inn?
“I can’t do that, either, sweetness,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets slowly, leaning his head to the side, biting his lip, watching me like he was imagining me naked.
My cheeks were so red they radiated heat on their own.
“I am not going to help you break into the vault,” I said, wishing I hadn’t washed my clothes. Wishing I had magic to dry them. Wishing I could just walk out of here, and wishing I stayed right where I was.
He overwhelmed me with so many feelings so fast it was almost funny.
“So you said,” Taland said, completely unfazed. “Your clothes are wet. They’re soaking your towel. Drop them.”
“No.” Fuck, no.
He grinned wider. “Afraid the towel will fall off?” I said nothing, the words stuck in my throat. “Not like I haven’t seen everything there is to see about you, sweetness. And touched.” His eyes scrolled down to my naked legs. “And licked.”
Fuck, it was so hard to breathe in here right now.
“Please just leave, Taland.” I hated that I sounded so weak, but fuck it. I was weak when it came to him. That didn’t mean I was going to let that stop me.
“But I can’t. Night City is a very dangerous place. I need a roof over my head, too. Lucky you happened to have those coins with you.” He arched a brow, his eyes bloodshot. “What did you give away in exchange?”
I bit my tongue and just continued to stare him dead in the eye—and damn it, it was not fair that he was so gorgeous. That face was going to be the death of me for real. With those dark eyes and sharp cheeks and heaven-made lips that tasted like cotton candy, he was made to fuck with my head. I was convinced of it. He could make me set the whole world on fire without much effort, and I’d do it while smiling.
Taland Tivoux was the most dangerous being in the world as far as I was concerned. And once I got my silly heart and all those feelings under control again, I was going to figure out how to get away from him.
That—and once my clothes dried, of course.
“C’mon, I’m trying to be nice here. What did you give away in exchange for the coins?”
Nice, he said. With that look in his eyes he wasn’t fooling anyone.
Taland had always looked very mischievous when he wanted to, but now? Now, he was at a whole new level. Now he oozed borderline-psychotic energy, and his cockiness complemented the rest of him perfectly .
Wouldn’t change a single thing about him, to be honest, and that had always been the problem. Girls wanted to change the boys they were with. There was something poetic about I can change him or he’ll change for me. Meanwhile, I’d found him perfect with his biggest imperfections, and I never, ever wanted to change a hair on his head.
Even now. Especially now that he’s an ex-con who can show you a really good time if you let him…
No, no, no, stop! I shouted at my own self.
“Weapons. A gun and two knives,” I said through gritted teeth, throwing the clothes at the edge of the bed because they really did wet my towel and it was uncomfortable as hell.
“And why would someone care to exchange their coins with you? I’m sure you saw the residents here don’t care much for us players,” Taland continued. Though he kept that smile on his face, he was dead serious about wanting to know those things.
I spoke just to keep myself distracted. “Because I made her laugh.” Crossing my arms in front of me, I said, “I can always call for Vuvu. He’ll kick you out himself.”
“Ah, but you won’t,” the asshole said, slowly stepping to the side of the bed, coming closer. I risked a glance at the closed door—yep, still only two feet away. The room hadn’t gotten any bigger, unfortunately for me. “You won’t because you need me. Favor for favor—how about that?”
He was close now, too close, so I stepped back, trying to act casual. Didn’t work all that well because…well, first, he was tall. Like six foot three tall, and second, he had broad shoulders, and third, I remembered how he handled me. Like handled me effortlessly, spun me around and had his way with me with those big hands, and then his fingers? —
STOP!
“I don’t need favors from you,” I spit, so pissed off I was seeing red.
What the hell was the matter with me? We were all alone in a room, and when he came closer to me and looked at me like he wanted to eat me, I forgot all about everything and everyone and considered begging him to take me in his arms?
Shame on you, Ro. Shame.
“You do,” Taland insisted. “You need magic to complete this challenge. I already have.”
And again, he looked down at my naked legs, but if I pulled the towel lower, I was going to flash him for sure.
“If you have magic, dry my clothes first. Then we’ll talk.” Because if I wasn’t wearing a damn towel, I’d feel better. I’d have my weapons on me. I wouldn’t be so fucking exposed, and I could focus on the situation for a change, not the state of my body.
“Hmm,” said Taland, looking down at my clothes. Good thing I’d put my underwear under the jacket and pants in case I ran into someone in the hallway. “I can certainly do that—for a favor.”
His eyes sparkled. That’s how amused he was—they sparkled .
“I’m not screaming for Vuvu right now—that’s your favor.”
“No, no, that’s for the game. This is something else. I’ll need payment for it,” Taland said, slowly reaching his hand down to grab the sleeve of my soaking wet jacket. The next second, he whispered three words hastily, and warmth came out of him together with black flames, his magic wrapping around the leather, drying it before I could blink twice .
Goddess-damn it.
“What do you want?” I forced myself to say because that sleeve was so, so dry, and I wanted all of my clothes on me. On my body. Just as dry.
“I absolutely love that question,” Taland whispered with a chuckle. “I’ll dry your clothes for you, sweetness, but you have to put them on in front of me. Slowly.”
My jaw touched the fucking floor. “ No! ” Was he absolutely out of his mind?!
Taland shrugged. “Like I said, I’ve seen everything there is to see about you. You’re not that impressive, don’t worry. But that’s my payment—take it or leave it.”
Steam could be coming out of my ears. Not that impressive? Was he fucking kidding me right now?!
“You’re a fucking prick, you know that?”
I would not cry these angry tears in front of him. Not a chance.
“And you’re tired, Rosabel. You need to lie down. Let me watch you put on those panties and your shirt, and I’ll tuck you in myself. You need to sleep.”
Fuck if that didn’t sound like a damn fantasy, unfortunately for me.
“Please, just dry them,” I whispered, defeated, wrapping my arms around my torso, regretting having washed my clothes. I should have just left them like that—so what that they were dirty? I was in the Iris Roe!
“I will. But you have to put them on in front of me.” He took a step closer and reached for my wet hair, pushing it back behind my shoulder. Then he reached his other hand for my face, too, and I made to move away and say, don’t touch me or something like that, but he didn’t let me. “ Stay,” he ordered in that husky voice. “Don’t move.” And I didn’t.
Because I was a damn fool, standing in front of the same guy who’d watched his brothers torturing me just three or four days ago. Or was it five?
Regardless. It was that same guy.
Yet I stood still because I was never good at disobeying his orders, and he ran his hands through my hair, came even closer until he was deep into my personal space. I closed my eyes, unable to stand myself or him, and then he whispered those words again, and I felt the magic, felt the heat that came alive in his hands, and felt my hair drying quickly.
The scent of him filled my nostrils—his chest was almost pressed to the tip of my nose.
“See how easy that was?”
His voice was a whisper, more than a caress now. It was a need all on its own.
I stopped myself from letting out a very embarrassing whimper, and I couldn’t believe I was wet. Not from the bath, no, but between my legs.
Weak, Rora. So fucking weak…
“I’ll be on the other side of the bed. C’mon, you can do it, sweetness. You can do anything,” he said—exactly what he used to say to me back then. When the new school got overwhelming. When I was suffering and in pain, and I hid it from the world, but he always saw right through my facade even if I never told him why.
He always said I could beat it, whatever it was—and I did beat it.
It just…broke me.
And him as well.
“Why?” I whispered, forcing myself to open my eyes. “Why are you doing this now? Why?” He said it himself. He’d seen me naked before, plenty of times.
“Because I need to,” he said, touching the tip of my nose just slightly as he continued to smooth my now dry hair behind my head with his other hand. “Just to see if you were real.”
The words slipped from him—he didn’t mean to say them. I saw the heartbreak in his darkening eyes for a moment there, the sparks gone.
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I did the best I could do, I’m sorry, I wanted to say, yearned to say, but stopped myself because why bother?
Not only was he not going to believe me—why would he?—but he was not the same Taland I once knew no matter that traces of the pain were still on him. No matter that he slipped sometimes, this was still the same man who watched his brothers torture me.
And I really was as tired physically as I was mentally. Emotionally .
So, in the end, I caved.
“Go on, then. Go to the other side.”
Taland was surprised.
But I wasn’t going to call Vuvu on him, and I wasn’t going to try to force him out there where he could die. I’d sleep on the floor if I had to—it was okay. But I needed my clothes and my weapons on me first, and if this is what it took, I’d rather get it over with it quicker.
“Good girl,” Taland whispered, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. But he let go of me and slowly walked backward to the window, rested his elbows on the windowsill, and whispered his spell.
Blackfire magic slipped from his outstretched fingers and toward the bed, my clothes bundled up at the corner. The heat of it reached me, bringing my blood near a boiling point .
The next second, I pulled the towel off my body and let it fall to the floor.
I did it fast—he said to put my clothes on slowly, not to slowly take off the towel. And I needed it off me all at once, hoping it would hurt less. Hoping I’d be less ashamed, less embarrassed.
I wasn’t.
“Eyes on me,” Taland said, and I had no chance of disobeying now for other reasons—because I was at my most vulnerable. Naked and completely at his mercy, while those eyes, like black jewels, shone and took in every single detail of my naked body.
My hands were shaking so badly and my idiot brain was trying to remember how much hair I had on me since the last time I shaved and I was trying to keep myself from being so damn turned on, but it was impossible.
I reached for the clothes on the bed, still warm like they’d just come out of a drier.
“Slowly,” Taland said, and his voice was thick, heavy, low. His eyes red. His cock hard.
Damn it, don’t look!
I looked.
He wore a pair of black pants, not leather, and he did not care at all that I could see the bulge in them perfectly fine. I could see it and I was having trouble not salivating, and my hands shook even more as I went through the leathers to find my panties first, and my bra.
It was torture.
Taland’s lips had fallen open, and his eyes had closed halfway, and his hand had come over his cock, and he just kept it there as he watched me. His brows were narrowed, and for a second I saw a flash of him in my mind, when he came, when he looked like he was both in pain and lost in bliss.
Fuck, my clean panties were wet again.
I put on the bra and then my shirt, and I reached for my pants, but…
“Leave them. Get in bed,” Taland said, and he finally moved.
He grabbed the cover and pulled it down, then his magic slipped from his fingers and into the sheets, warming them up for me.
I couldn’t say no if I tried. I had no voice to speak with, no thoughts to think. So, wearing only my panties, bra and shirt, I lay down on the warm bed, barely breathing.
Taland stood there with the cover still in his hand and looked at me. One last, lingering look down every inch of me.
Then he put the cover over my body.
“Sleep well, sweetness.”
He turned around and pulled the window open.
I sat up, heart in my throat. “Wait—I thought you were gonna stay?” What the hell was he doing, jumping on the windowsill again?
And what the hell was I doing being panicked about it instead of happy?!
“I can’t—” He cut himself off and gave me a look, this one ice-cold, like he was suddenly a different person altogether. “I’ll be back.”
He jumped off the window and landed on that balcony I’d seen earlier with a thud, then Blackfire magic spread onto the glass and pulled the window closed within the minute.
I was all alone in the room again, feeling like I’d just been chewed up and spit out by a giant monster who was coming back to devour me soon—and I just might step into his mouth willingly.