Chapter 49 Odessa
Forty-Nine
Odessa
On silent feet, I slipped out of Evie’s bedroom, easing the door closed with a soft click.
After the fiasco in the training center earlier, she’d been quiet and withdrawn. Like those first days after Ellder, rather than tuck her in and say good night, I’d stayed with her until she fell asleep.
We’d both needed to cuddle.
Ransom stood at the windows in the suite, staring over the city’s rain-drenched lights. “I keep hoping I’ll see Zavier and Cathlin’s ship in the bay.”
“Soon.” I joined him at the glass, looping my arm through his and hugging it to my chest.
Zavier and Cathlin could be here any day now, depending on the trip across the Krisenth. I hoped this rain wasn’t slowing them down. I hoped their ship could weather any storm.
And I hoped that ship would be up for a return journey.
We all needed to go home. I only wished we could give Alore more time.
“I’ve spent too many years in the Turan wilderness.” Ransom’s frame sagged. “Too much time roaming free. These walls feel like a cage. And there are just so many people in this castle.”
The castle had always been a bustling, central hub in Roslo for business and politics. But there seemed to be more people than normal lately. More soldiers and noblemen crowding the halls and foyers.
Maybe it was the migration, drawing people into the castle. Maybe it was the weather, driving people indoors. Maybe there’d always been this many visitors, and I simply hadn’t noticed until now.
After my summer spent in the vast Turan wilderness, falling in love with a kingdom and its prince, I was feeling caged, too.
“Is Allesaria not this way?”
“No. It’s…” Either he couldn’t think of the right words or the blood oath he’d taken to keep Allesaria a secret forbade him to say more. “You’ll see. Someday. When it’s safe.”
Would it ever be safe? The realm felt like it was crashing down over our heads and safety was nothing more than an illusion.
“I’m losing control,” he whispered.
“I know.”
“I would have killed your sister today. If she had hurt you, I would have snapped her neck. Just like how I broke that guard’s arm in the stables.” He hung his head. “I am not this man.”
“It’s the Lyssa.”
“What happens when I’m not strong enough to fight it?”
“We’ll find a cure.”
“What if we don’t?”
“What if we do?” I slid my hand down his arm and laced our fingers together. “Alore has already made so much progress. I’m not giving up yet.”
“Mother would have loved Alore. She would have set one foot in that workshop and never left.” He pressed his free hand to his heart. “I miss her so much it’s hard to breathe.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, so I held on to him, waiting for the grief he’d buried for weeks to come floating to the surface.
“When I was a boy, she insisted on cutting my hair herself,” he said.
“If I had a nightmare, she’d crawl into bed with me and we’d burrow under the blankets so she could sing me a song.
She was a horrible singer. She taught me to waltz when I was fourteen so that I could impress a girl at a gala.
Apples were her favorite fruit. She was scared of snakes. Lilies made her sneeze.”
The words poured from his lips as he told me story after story of his mother. Like he was using the good memories to erase the sad.
When he was finished, he cleared his throat and blinked too fast. “If something happens to me, promise you’ll make sure Evie knows about our mother?”
“Promise.”
Gods, I hated this. Ransom spoke as if he were already halfway to the shades. The gods would have to fight me for him. I wasn’t finished with my Guardian yet.
“I love you.”
He kissed my hair. “Don’t forget.”
Not at all what I’d hoped he’d say.
Did I believe he loved me? Yes. He’d told his father that I was his life.
Still, I craved those words. To hear them in his deep timbre.
His silver eyes searched mine. He must have seen the disappointment, because his forehead furrowed. “What?”
“Nothing.” I lifted onto my toes, pulling him down to kiss the corner of his mouth. “Take me to bed.”
“Yes, my queen.” He swept me into his arms, holding me like I was precious, and carried me into our room.
“Close your eyes,” he said, setting me down.
I obeyed, my pulse accelerating as his heat disappeared. Seconds elapsed, one after another, as I stood, waiting. Listening for any sound besides my heartbeat and raspy breaths. A throb bloomed between my legs, an ache for his touch.
“How are you so perfect?” His voice was closer than I’d expected, a murmur not far from my ear.
Ransom’s hands settled on my neck, roaming across my shoulders and down my ribs. He skimmed my breasts and gripped my waist and massaged my hips. He was everywhere at once, like he’d forgotten the shape of my body and was learning its curves all over again.
I melted beneath his touch, losing myself in the darkness.
His palms splayed across my ass, pulling me close, pinning me to his hard body. He hooked a hand behind my knee, drawing it up until my aching center was pressed against his arousal.
My lips searched for his, but he just held me to him, letting me feel it as he grew thicker and harder, his entire length rocking against my core.
“Feel how much I want you.”
“Yes,” I panted.
“Only you, Dess. Only you.” His mouth slammed onto mine. He swallowed my moan as his tongue delved deep, twisting and tangling with mine as our teeth clattered.
It was a reckless, frantic kiss. Wet and ruthless.
I rocked against him as he bucked his hips closer, but with these godsdamn clothes between us, it wasn’t enough. My fingers dove into his hair, pulling and tugging at the strands.
A hand closed around my breast, squeezing and digging into my flesh. His thumb rolled my nipple through my shirt.
The desire flowing through my veins, pooling in my center, bordered on the edge of desperate and painful. My hold on his hair tightened as I fought to get closer, aching for more friction.
Ransom tore his mouth away, breathing hard as he fisted the hem of my shirt, whipping it and the thin camisole beneath over my head. They puddled on the floor as he dropped to his knees to unfasten the clasp on my pants and drag them down my hips and thighs.
The air was cool against my hot skin and the wet slick of my sex.
“Fuck.” Ransom sat back on his heels, staring up at me. His eyes were hungry and as dark as the room. “You’re perfect.”
His hands came to my thighs, stroking up and down my skin, leaving tingles in their wake. Then his mouth was on me, and I nearly collapsed.
“Ranse,” I whimpered, my hand diving into his hair to keep my legs steady.
He ran his tongue through my slit before he fluttered it against my clit.
My head was spinning, dizzy and drunk on his tongue. My body went up in flames as he took me higher and higher, driving me toward a cliff’s edge.
I exploded on a cry, every muscle in my body quaking when I shattered. My knees weakened, but he held on to me, keeping me balanced as he continued to lick, drawing out my orgasm until I was spent.
He kissed a trail up my stomach and over my ribs to my breasts. He took a nipple in his hot mouth, sucking hard before moving to the other and giving it the same treatment. He let it go with an audible pop.
Then he stripped off his own shirt, and the sound of fabric tearing filled the room. His cock bobbed free as he shoved down his pants. Ransom fisted the shaft, giving himself a few hard strokes, staring down at my naked body. “Look at you.”
“Fuck me,” I breathed, my hand replacing his. My thumb caught the wet bead at the tip, smearing it over the head of his dick as I stroked. “I need to feel you.”
He took my face in his hands, his fingers tangling in my hair. “Your wish, my queen.”
Ransom dropped his lips to mine, the kiss languid and torturous. He lifted me off my feet and onto the bed, settling his weight on top of me.
When he brought us together, it was slow and methodical. Inch by delicious inch. Stroke by toe-curling stroke. Until finally, he filled me completely, my body stretching around his length as he thrust as deeply as he could get.
“Gods,” I whispered. “I love you.”
“Mine.” He withdrew and thrust forward, hard, earning a gasp. “You’re mine, Odessa.”
“Yours.” I captured his mouth, kissing him as he fucked me through the night. Every time I thought he was spent, we’d start over again.
He claimed my body until the rain beyond the windows eventually stopped. Until the sun peeked through the cracks in the curtains.
Until the silver bled from his eyes and gave way to magnificent green.
The color wouldn’t last. I knew I’d wake to silver, but I’d take whatever little moments I could get. I yawned, collapsing on top of his chest, my eyelids too heavy to keep open. “I love you.”
He kissed my hair.
And as I drifted off to sleep, I dreamed that he said it back.