31. Taldesa
Taldesa
Tala wasn’t an expert when it came to makeup, but she knew how to salvage eyeliner.
Fixing someone’s makeup who was staring at her face wasn’t completely awkward.
She’d help Avie remove stray eyelashes and smudged lipstick before.
The only real difference was that Casimine’s eyelashes were thicker than Avie’s, and Tala was wrestling with the urge to kiss him again.
Not that she wasn’t allowed. She had kissed the two bards plenty since the day they had crossed the boundaries of professional bodyguard and charges.
No, Tala just wanted to be mindful of their boundaries.
She had taken what they said about how they were a packaged deal to heart.
It wasn’t really logical, but Tala tried to make sure every kiss she shared with one bard, she gave to the other.
Keeping score wasn’t feasible long term, but damn it, Tala had wanted to try least she be an even bigger asshole.
But fuck, it didn’t help keep the lust at bay when Casimine would brush his long fingers against her hips.
The temptation to ease Casimine further into the hedge maze until he was tucked away grew with every caress.
To do things the Valiant Circle would disapprove of was always a plus, but the heat in Tala’s belly was for entirely selfish reasons.
“You have to stop doing that,” Tala murmured.
“Stop doing what?” Casimine asked with an innocent, boyish smile.
“That,” Tala scolded when she felt his fingers slide ever so subtly beneath her belt. “You’re gonna get us into trouble.”
“Trouble sounds nice to me,” Casimine continued, leaning into Tala’s face.
“That’s because you’re a slut,” Tala teased.
“Oh, my!” Casimine mock gasped. “Such slander.”
The subtle flick of his eye past her shoulder wasn’t lost on her. Tala might have been distracted earlier, but she had heard him. It was only a matter of whether or not she wanted to spoil their fun. A smirk broke across her face as Tala gently held Casimine back with a finger to his plush lips.
“It’s not slander if it’s true,” Ameriden said from behind her.
His hands were already on her belly as he stepped close, pressing his front to her back like he belonged there. Ameriden likely thought he did as Tala noticed he had a preference for it, no matter if it was Tala or Casimine.
“That’s rich coming from you Amer,” Casimine replied against Tala’s finger, before sneaking his teeth around it for an affectionate bite.
Tala shivered, trying her best not to let the two of them get too far ahead.
A task that was rather momentous given Ameriden had brushed her hair aside to kiss along her neck.
She nearly jolted out of her skin when Casimine pulled at her belt to lick the groove between pubic bone and thigh.
She was getting way too warm in the cool evening air, and if it wasn’t for her mission, Tala would have probably participated.
Utilizing the skills Cercel had taught her, Tala slid out between them with ease. She tried not to look flustered, but it was difficult when the pair were looking at her—well, like that.
They want me. They want me so bad…
No, she could fuck them after the event and not a moment before.
“Look, it’s not that I don’t like the attention,” Tala said as she fixed the placement of her belt. “But don’t you think this is a little…risky?”
For a pair of bards who stressed discretion when it came to their relationship, Tala had the feeling they were pushing their luck.
Kissing Casimine—even in a secluded garden of the King of Eshorion—was pushing it.
Having them here and staring at her like that was going to be difficult to explain if a guest happened to walk by.
“Risky?” Ameriden let out a laugh. “Please, this is risky.”
And like the bold motherfucker he was, Ameriden hauled Casimine onto his feet and proceeded to give him the sloppiest kiss Tala had ever seen. Reckless was probably the better word to describe it once Ameriden began to reach for Casimine’s dick.
“Amer,” Casimine said, sounding both desperate and disappointed. “We shouldn’t…”
“Really?” Ameriden grinned, licking his mouth. “You seem pretty desperate for it.”
Both Tala and Casimine groaned but for very different reasons.
She could see Casimine’s resolve breaking—something Tala could forgive if they weren’t in the middle of a fucking gala in the king’s castle.
Fuck, if they were anywhere but the castle, Tala would have happily pushed them to the ground and taken turns riding them both.
Fantasies aside though, Tala remembered why she was on high alert in the first place.
And a quick hand job ain’t going to take the edge off this mission.
“Okay, okay.” Tala waved her hand, drawing their attention toward her. “I’m all for this new exhibitionist thing you’re both on—”
“But—” Ameriden began as Casimine waved his hand like a fan toward his own face.
“But I can’t exactly protect you guys if you’re fucking me,” Tala said bluntly. “I kinda need to keep my senses, not lose them.”
A perfectly reasonable explanation and one that didn’t require her to elaborate further on the other reason. The boys didn’t need to know about her little meeting with the Valiant Circle when they had so much on their plate already. Fuck, they hadn’t even met the princess yet—
“You could always watch us,” Ameriden tempted, pulling Casimine flush against him.
Fuck, the princess!
“Shit!” Tala’s hands shot up to her hair in realization.
“I don’t think she’s open to that, Amer.”
“You would think she’d be into it after our last performance—”
“Not that, you assholes,” Tala shook her head, frustration boiling toward the surface. “The princess!”
Fuck, how much had she seen? Had she noticed Casimine was the one she ran after?
Had she followed Tala into the garden? Tala’s eyes swept across rose brambles and hedges, suspicion growing with each dark shadow.
Ameriden was loud—he was always loud but that didn’t mean he was quieter than the princess and Tala seriously doubted the princess had been trained in stealth.
“What about the princess?”
When Tala met Casimine’s gaze, the lust had faded from his expression. Concern for her shining through his clear eyes.
“She was in one of the verandas,” Tala said in a rush. “I found her by accident and she was crying—but that’s not the point. I left her there when I saw you, Casimine. And I have no idea if she followed me here or not—fuck, why did I kiss you out here?”
Fuck up.
Tala was always going to be a fuck up!
And wouldn’t it just be her luck if someone from the Valiant Circle had seen it? Princess Osonia might not have been a master spy, but whoever they sent to meet Tala certainly could have been. They could have seen her kissing Casimine—they could have seen Ameriden kissing her.
They could have seen us together this whole time.
“Tala, I saw Casimine leaving the main hall and I followed his direction, but I didn’t see anyone else out here.” Ameriden explained.
“But that doesn’t mean someone didn’t see you. Both of you—or us!” Tala exclaimed. “I’ve jeopardized this entire mission the moment I slept with you two!”
The thinly veiled chaos that had been building inside of Tala was on the verge of exploding.
It wasn’t enough that she wasn’t smart enough to figure out the origin of the ring or that she royally fucked up when she murdered the poisoner.
No, she’d fucked up by letting herself be swayed by a pair of beautiful men who just wanted to stick their dicks in someone warm.
The same way she’d fucked up her relationship with Avie by blowing up at her.
And the more that mess rolled around in Tala’s head, the worse she felt when Casimine’s gaze softened.
“You didn’t—”
“I did!” Tala tightened her fist. “I fucked this whole thing up like I fuck everything up. I couldn’t find out who sent that ring and the moment I tried?
I got jumped in the street by some poison assassin.
Instead of taking him into the Valiant Circle, I let my anger get in the way and I sent him flying over the gate walls.
I didn’t even think of knocking him out, I just wanted him gone. ”
That was the ugly truth of it. Tala hadn’t been thinking, she’d just been moving.
One brush of a weapon and instincts had taken over.
She’d lost her control—what little of it she had—and completely forgotten the initial goal.
Tala had wanted him to talk, but between her anger and that man’s smug voice—it hadn’t mattered anymore.
“And then, to make matters worse, I mess up by going to you,” Tala huffed.
“Because even delirious, a part of me knew I would be safe with you…but that’s not how this is supposed to work.
The Valiant Circle assigned me to protect you.
One last test to see if I was worth keeping around.
I keep you safe, and the monks decide I’m worth keeping.
And, fuck, I still messed it all up. I’m supposed to keep you two safe, not keep you warm.
I’m supposed to be your bodyguard, not your groupie. ”
The word was said with such disdain, it made Casimine flinch.
Ameriden didn’t look any better, but he was much harder to read.
But it was too late to put the words back.
A messy truth of shame and anger was all out in the open for everyone to see.
Because Tala was always going to be the one to make a scene.
It was one of the things her mother hated most about her behavior.
No matter if they were at a charity ball or in the middle of a museum, Tala would voice her opinion one way or the other.
No delicacy, no decorum, just raw, blunt, uncomfortable truths that had made all the adults in the room bristle with discomfort.
She never hated the silence as much as she did then. The heaviness between them would ordinarily be enough to make Tala bolt. Why she stayed when everything was telling her to run?
The fuck I know anymore.
“Tala, why didn’t you tell us any of this?” Casimine asked.
“Because it’s not your business,” Tala bit back.
Hurt. It broke across Casimine’s eyes like lightening before disappearing just as quickly.
“It became our business when we all decided to share a bed,” Ameriden argued, eyes sharp.
“But it’s not because once your gig in Eshorion is up, you’re all gone and I fuck off to nowhere,” Tala rebutted.
She didn’t know why. It was the truth, but it felt more like a weapon.
Something Tala could hold onto, as sturdy as the batons she kept within arms reach.
Unlike the wooden rods that had been made for defense, Tala’s mouth was like a double edged sword.
The more she said, the more she’d hurt others and herself.
But wasn’t it better to do that then let someone else hurt her first?
“You wouldn’t be nowhere,” Ameriden growled. “We would take you with us!”
No, no, no.
“Do not lie to me.”
A hot shot of anger tore through Tala at that.
Ameriden could talk like that because he didn’t have to worry about having a roof over his head or someone to love at his side.
He was allowed to hope, but hope had only ever ruined Tala.
It had fooled her into believing her parents would love her even though she was so angry.
It had made her think Avie would always be her friend. It had made her think they could love—
“He’s not lying,” Casimine insisted, reaching down to interlock his fingers with Ameriden’s. “Tala…we…we care for you. If your superiors are going to expel you from your duties, then come with us.”
Tala stared at the hand Casimine offered…and she walked away.