I can practically hear her grind her teeth. I don’t know why riling her up makes me so fucking excited, but it does. She’s got spirit, and I didn’t know I liked that in a woman until right now.
Standing again, she turns to me with something fierce blazing in the depths of her blue eyes. With her gaze locked obstinately on mine, she starts to strip off her coat and then toes off her boots. But when she starts to pull at the sleeves of her dress and tug them down her shoulders, I startle. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“What?” she says with careless indifference. “This is what you want, right? You want me to pay for your services, Captain? I’m just a disloyal saddle, so I’d better compensate you for your generosity.”
I stand here like a fucking idiot as she tugs the sleeves the rest of the way off, revealing a set of perfect tits inside a dainty corset that’s squeezing them for dear life, making her curves swell with plumpness that begs to be let out and handled.
I go rock fucking hard. So hard, in fact, that all the blood I need for my damn brain to work has rushed in the wrong direction, so it takes several seconds for me to realize what she’s said.
As soon as I do, I get really fucking pissed.
“Pull your clothes back on,” I snap.
“Why?” she lobs. “This is what men want in exchange for anything. I’m just doing what I do.”
When she continues to stand there like an indignant tempest, I toss the bowls down and then stomp over to her. But when I move to jerk off my coat, she flinches.
She fucking flinches.
Like I was going to hit her or some shit.
And that just pisses me off even more, because flinching is a learned response, and now I know that she’s been hit before. Probably by some of those saddle-toying fucks who like to mistreat women. Maybe even by Midas himself.
Glowering, I go more slowly as I take off my coat and drape it over her. She stares at me without moving, not even breathing.
“I’m an asshole, but I would never take advantage of a woman,” I say gruffly.
Despite doing her best to shock me, it looks like I’ve shocked her now. She blinks like she doesn’t understand that I’m putting clothes on her instead of taking them off.
Graceful fingers come up to clutch the coat.
“You’re...giving me your coat?” she asks, and her voice is in a completely different tone now. Quieter. Confused. A hint of vulnerability behind that thorny exterior.
“I am,” I say with a nod, and I can’t help but let my eyes drop down to her lips. Fucking pretty. “I’ll make sure you both have some extra clothes. You can’t be tramping along Fifth Kingdom in a fucking gown and corset.”
Rissa eyes me dubiously. “You’re going to give me all of that?”
“I just said I was, didn’t I?”
“And…you don’t want me to fuck you?” she asks bluntly, as if she can’t quite believe it.
A grumbled chuckle comes out of me. “I didn’t say that. I said I won’t take advantage of you,” I reply, making the frown between her brows deepen. I give in to temptation for a second and lean in closer, and just like I suspected, she smells faintly of flowers. “When we fuck, it’ll happen because you want it to happen.”
There’s a spark of heat in her eyes right before she puts it out, and that petulant, pouting look comes back over her face. “What makes you think I’d ever want to?”
I give her a crooked smile before I turn and scoop up the bowls. “Because, Yellow Bell, you might be poisonous, but you’re not immune. There’s something here.”
“Yeah, loathing.”
With a grin tucked behind my beard, I head for the tent’s opening, stopping to look over my shoulder at her one more time as I push back the flap. “What’s the fun in it if you don’t loathe each other just a little bit?”
I walk out, leaving her sputtering, but I didn’t miss the blush that covered her cheeks.
The long journey back to Fourth Kingdom just got a lot more enticing.
CHAPTER 10
SLADE
It’s been four days.
Four days, and Auren still hasn’t stirred. She lies on my bed silently, only moving when Hojat changes her dressing and adjusts her sleeping position so she doesn’t get sore. And despite the fact that the sun has risen and set multiple times, not a single thread has been gilded by her touch. Not the fabric of the pillow beneath her cheek, not the new gloves or leggings on her body. Not an inch of power has come out of her, and I don’t know what to think.
The storm has raged and raged, as if trying to seek revenge for the fact that we avoided its wrath and beat it here. To get back at us, the tempest has now decided not to leave.
My attention jerks to the door when Ryatt strides inside without warning, a pissed-off look on his face, green eyes flashing as they level me with a glare.
“Ever heard of knocking?” I say, though there’s no energy behind my words.
He stops in front of my chair, toeing past the half dozen books discarded on the floor beside me, forgotten and shoved aside since my mind won’t allow me to actually read anything. I can’t—not when Auren still lies here unmoving.
“You need to get out of this room.”
I snort. “You’re giving me commands now, brother?”
“No, brother. I wouldn’t dare to order the great King Rot around,” he bites back. “But you aren’t eating, you’re barely sleeping, and you smell like shit.”
I roll my eyes, ready to shove him out of my room. My mood plummets more each day when Auren doesn’t wake up. I haven’t left her side a single second, concern and fear risen up to my ears so it’s all I can feel and hear and think of. “Get out, Ryatt.”
He lets out a disappointed sigh. “You need to get a grip.”
My eyes flash up to his face. “Get a grip?” I snap, on my feet in an instant, my face in his. “You think that I don’t have a white-knuckled grip on myself every second of the day? I don’t have the luxury of never not having a grip on myself.” My entire body is tense, my tone gnarled. “Since the moment I had to use my magic against her, I’ve been this fucking close to snapping. Do you get that? I have to hold the reins around my power constantly, can’t give it a single fucking inch. So no, I don’t need to get a grip. Because I haven’t been able to loosen it since I got here and realized she’s not waking up.”
Ryatt takes in my fuming expression, but we’ve gone head-to-head many times, and while most people would back down in the face of my anger, he’s not one of them. “This is exactly why you need to get out of this room.”
I shake my head, spikes trying to shove through the sleeves of my shirt. Even now, I can feel the smallest ones punching through the curve above my eyebrows.
“Look at you,” he says with a note of disgust. “Let me see how bad it is.”
Scoffing, I turn away, stopping in front of the fireplace. “Who sent you in here? Lu? Tell her she doesn’t need to worry about me.”
“No one sent me, but we’re all sick of your shit,” Ryatt replies. “Now let me see.”
“Fuck off.”
“You think I want to babysit you? I’ve got better shit to do. So roll up your Divine-damned sleeves and let me see. I’m not leaving until you do.”
Fuming, I spin around and shove up both sleeves, just to get him to go away. As soon as my arms are revealed, Ryatt’s lips press into a thin line. “Fuck.”
I shove my sleeves back down. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine,” he retorts. “You need to go expel some power before it eats you alive.”
“What about the scouts?”
“Don’t try to change the subject. I’m handling Midas’s scouts, don’t worry. Now you go handle your shit.”
“I’m not leaving her alone.”
Ryatt strides over to the chair I was sitting in and plops his ass down while I stare at him incredulously. He even goes so far as to brace an ankle on his knee and grab one of my books from the floor to start reading.
“What the fuck are you doing?”