Chapter Three #4
“Is that sarcasm I detect?” Onyx asked with a tsk and withdrew his hand. “Allow me to rescind my earlier sentiment about not wishing you harm. I now have every mind to throw you off this balcony.”
I scrutinized his perfectly composed expression. “I don’t know if you’re joking or not. Hard to tell with you.”
A subtle smile touched his lips. “You are no good to me dead. Who would brew such delicious coffee and bake delectable apple cobblers?”
“Wow. That’s all I’m good for, huh? Coffee and pie.”
“Cobblers,” he corrected. “I hear they’re best when made in a stone oven.”
Flutters swarmed my heart as a memory surfaced. One where Onyx had caught me in the kitchen baking a cobbler late one night. We had eaten a slice together before he’d taken me to his room and shared some of his past with me. Lowering the walls around his heart, if only a little.
Then, as rain tapped against the windowpane and the fire crackled in the hearth, he’d taken me to his bed. Our fated mate bond had surged between us, and the emptiness in my chest that cried out for him had finally been filled.
That same place wobbled now.
“The hour is late,” he said. “You should return to your lovers.”
“What if I’m not ready to leave?” I asked, still lost in the memory of that night. Haunted by it.
“I’m tired and wish to retire for the evening.” His expression iced over. “And it will take much more than the cookies you brought to sway me otherwise.”
“Cookies?” I asked, confused.
Onyx held eye contact with me as he, ever so slowly, reached inside my cloak and withdrew the bundle I’d tucked away inside. “A bribe?”
“Kind of,” I answered. Honestly, I had forgotten all about them. “Can’t go wrong with a chocolate chip cookie, am I right? Not even Draven can resist them, and he doesn’t like anything.”
“Then perhaps you should take it to him instead.” He returned the bundle before stepping back a foot or so. “For I have no use for it.”
I peered up at him, unmoving. Moonlight washed over his porcelain skin and kissed his long lashes. His bow-shaped lips were the shade of pink snow blossoms, and I wanted to capture them with mine… but didn’t.
Couldn’t.
“Let’s return inside.” Onyx turned and left the balcony, stepping back into the room.
I followed him, wanting to say something—anything—but my mind went blank. The words to explain the complicated feelings in my heart wouldn’t form, so I said nothing, leaving those feelings to stir inside me with nowhere to go.
A pressure built in my chest as I spotted the couch where we had sat as he told me about the legend of the red spider lily.
The bed he’d laid me out on and devoured every inch of me, the two of us finally coming together.
And the water basin in the corner, where he’d stood afterward, refusing to look at me as he told me to leave.
As he reached the door and opened it for me, there was a restlessness inside me, one that made it hard to leave him.
“Good night then,” I said, wavering in the doorway with one foot in the hall.
“Good night.” He kept one hand on the door and rested the other on the frame beside my head. “I sense Lake and Rowan at the end of the hall. They’ll escort you back to your quarters.”
I smiled at that. Of course those two had waited for me. The worrywarts. Although, their worry more than likely had nothing to do with Onyx and everything to do with me getting lost trying to find my way back.
Which was… fair.
“Will I see you at breakfast tomorrow?” I asked, trying for a lighter tone. “Hopefully there aren’t any more casualties.”
“Casualties?” He frowned.
“Fane told me about the teacup. Poor little fella. All he wanted was to serve you tea, and you killed him for it. Broke off his little handle.”
Onyx’s composure slipped, revealing a trace of a smile. “I’ll have the cup mended. Will that appease you?”
“I suppose.” I stuck up my nose in mock snootiness. “But he better be pampered afterward. Only the best tea and coffee will be allowed to fill his little body.”
“All of this fuss over a teacup.” Onyx moved his hand from the doorframe and cupped my cheek. His skin was hot against mine, setting fire to my blood.
My breath hitched as he leaned in closer and ever so lightly brushed his lips along the curve of my jaw. “L-Lord Onyx?”
“I once called you dangerous,” he whispered, his breath tickling my skin. “And you are. Far more so than I ever realized.”
“Because I’m the saint?” I asked shakily. “And you hate me now?”
“I hold no hatred for you, little bird.” His lips brushed the edge of my brow. “This would be much easier if I did.”
“What would be easier?”
Onyx stilled against me. And then he drew back, his expression reverting to a cool calmness. “Off to bed with you. Morning comes early.”
A dismissal that left little room for protest.
It wasn’t until later, after Lake, Rowan, and I had returned to our room and were undressing for bed, that I noticed the bundle of cookies missing from my cloak. That sneaky demon lord. Unable to resist a treat, just like the other men I loved.
And it also showed that maybe his trust in me wasn’t as broken as he’d made me believe. That things between us could be mended, like the handle on a teacup.