Chapter 25 #2
Vade braced himself with his palms flat on the ground behind him. “Is this your attempt at flirting?”
She loosely draped her arms around his neck and tilted her head. “Just one dance. It’ll be fun.”
He blinked rapidly, his gaze landing on her thighs wrapped around him. The leaves of her skirt had parted, showing off the majority of her legs.
Vade swallowed hard. “It’s just the moon making you act like this.”
Orelia pulled his eyes to hers with two fingertips under his chin. His beard was soft on the pads of her fingers, and she wondered what it would feel like in . . .other . . .places. She felt herself drifting closer, her lips drawn to his.
He stopped her with a hand on her chest. “Don’t.”
The roughness of his palm on her skin ignited her. “Why not? You kissed me in Ricaboro.”
He didn’t push her away, but his hand was firm, not letting her get any closer. Full lips were inches from hers, taunting her. She wanted to taste them.
“That was playing a part,” Vade said. “And I don’t kiss, I fuck, remember?”
“But you kissed the barmaid.”
He cocked his head. “Did I?”
She pictured the woman sitting in his lap similar to how she was now, growing flustered with jealousy. “The two of you were at the table for quite a while.”
He looked into her eyes, face only a few inches from hers. “I never kissed her. She tried, but I didn’t allow it. Besides, you don’t want to get involved with someone like me. I would destroy you.”
“It’s just a kiss, Vade. I’m not asking you to be with me forever.”
There was a flash of a soft emotion across his face she couldn’t place, but the tenderness quickly melted away. “If you want soft and gentle, look somewhere else.”
She leaned into him, bringing her lips almost to his. “What if that’s not what I want?” She had never been so forward, and a hot thrill ran through her.
“Orelia . . .” Her name came out strained, his hand sliding up her neck and into her hair. Vade swiped a thumb across her cheek, his body tight as a bow string, like it was taking everything in him not to kiss her.
She cupped his face, body aflame from his touch. “Please, Vade. I want this.”
When he brushed his thumb over her plump bottom lip, a masculine growl came out of him.
Orelia went in for the kiss.
Vade stood up so fast that she fell off his lap.
He paced, raking a hand through his hair.
She rose, wiped the dirt off her clothes, and blew out a frustrated breath. “You sleep with a woman in every town we go to, yet you can’t fathom kissing me just once?”
He shook his head. “Those women can handle me. You can’t.”
“I can handle myself. I’m not some inexperienced girl. I fucked Tommen plenty of times, and a few other men.” Though she knew that with Tommen it wasn’t fucking, it was something softer. It was love. Something Vade wasn’t capable of.
He froze. “Don’t throw your sexual escapades in my face, witch.”
“Why not? That’s what you do. Mr. I-have-to-go-to-a-brothel-and-pay-a-woman-because-I-can’t-fathom-true-attachment-to-anyone.”
Vade’s heaviness burst through the room, feeling like someone was squeezing the breath out of her. Shadows snaked around his elbows. “You get into a revealing dress and all of a sudden you think you can tempt me?”
Maybe it truly was the moon making her this way, but Orelia wanted to ride the high the night had given her. “I felt you watching me dance with the pixie. You were very concerned for someone you say you don’t really care about.”
He took a few steps closer until he was right in front of her. “I was making sure he didn’t hurt you.”
“Because of the binding spell, or because you actually care about me?”
A slow smile spread across his face, accompanying a deep chuckle that made her press her legs together.
“Oh, little lamb. It’s because I care that I know you couldn’t handle me. Can’t go breaking such a fragile little thing.”
She reached out and closed a hand around his throat. “I’m not fragile.”
Vade’s wicked smile grew. “Still feeling confident, I see.”
She glared up at him. “You’d make fun of me regardless. Whether I was timid and shy, or forward and cocky, so what does it matter? Knowing you disapprove of everything I do makes me not care anymore.”
Orelia squeezed his throat tighter, enjoying how he licked his lips in what appeared to be enjoyment.
“Is that so?” Vade asked, his perfect smile infuriating her.
In a flash she was up against the wall, his arms bracketing her head.
The orb floating behind him cast him in dangerous shadows. “Tell me then, what would a confident, self-assured woman like yourself do in this situation?”
She knew he was toying with her, but his gaze was scorching, pressuring her to explore the side of her that was tired of being reserved.
“I’d say that you think I can’t handle you, but you’re wrong. I could handle you just as well as any pleasure girl could.”
He chuckled. “If I bent you over and fucked you in this shithole, you’d never be able to walk out.”
Her chest heaved at the thought, brushing against his chest. “Is that what you do? You don’t even let the girls look at you?”
“I get in, do my business, and get out. I don’t need to look them in the eyes to get what I’m there for.”
“Detached. Why am I not surprised . . .”
Another arrogant chuckle.
Orelia looked at him. Really looked at him.
Beneath the layers of bravado and endless stream of vitriol spewing out of his mouth, there was something else there.
Something he kept buried deep in a place darker than his onyx eyes.
Something that had hardened and calloused over time.
A hurt she would never be able to heal. Her willingness to taunt him faded until sympathy took its place.
Her desire to have him was replaced by bitter disappointment that he would never be capable of giving her what she wanted.
Even for a night, no matter how much he taunted, he would never give any part of himself to her.
Vade gave her a strange look, his smile slipping.
Orelia placed her hand over his heart and he froze. Pity laced her words. “I feel sorry for you, Vade. You hold no joy in your heart.”