Page 135 of Mud

“Eyes on me,” Taland said, and I had no chance of disobeying now for other reasons—because I was at my most vulnerable. Naked and completely at his mercy, while those eyes, like black jewels, shone and took in every single detail of my naked body.

My hands were shaking so badly and my idiot brain was trying to remember how much hair I had on me since the last time I shaved and I was trying to keep myself from being so damn turned on, but it was impossible.

I reached for the clothes on the bed, still warm like they’d just come out of a drier.

“Slowly,” Taland said, and his voice was thick, heavy, low. His eyes red. His cock hard.

Damn it, don’t look!

I looked.

He wore a pair of black pants, not leather, and he did not care at all that I could see the bulge in them perfectly fine. I could see it and I was having trouble not salivating, and my hands shook even more as I went through the leathers to find my panties first, and my bra.

It was torture.

Taland’s lips had fallen open, and his eyes had closed halfway, and his hand had come over his cock, and he just kept it there as he watched me. His brows were narrowed, and for a second I saw a flash of him in my mind, when hecame, when he looked like he was both in pain and lost in bliss.

Fuck, my clean panties were wet again.

I put on the bra and then my shirt, and I reached for my pants, but…

“Leave them. Get in bed,” Taland said, and he finally moved.

He grabbed the cover and pulled it down, then his magic slipped from his fingers and into the sheets, warming them up for me.

I couldn’t say no if I tried. I had no voice to speak with, no thoughts to think. So, wearing only my panties, bra and shirt, I lay down on the warm bed, barely breathing.

Taland stood there with the cover still in his hand and looked at me. One last, lingering look down every inch of me.

Then he put the cover over my body.

“Sleep well, sweetness.”

He turned around and pulled the window open.

I sat up, heart in my throat. “Wait—I thought you were gonna stay?” What the hell was he doing, jumping on the windowsill again?

And what the hell wasIdoing being panicked about it instead of happy?!

“I can’t—” He cut himself off and gave me a look, this one ice-cold, like he was suddenly a different person altogether. “I’ll be back.”

He jumped off the window and landed on that balcony I’d seen earlier with a thud, then Blackfire magic spread onto the glass and pulled the window closed within the minute.

I was all alone in the room again, feeling like I’d justbeen chewed up and spit out by a giant monster who was coming back to devour me soon—and I just might step into his mouth willingly.

Chapter 28

Rosabel La Rouge

Present day

Must have been a dream.

Taland was right there, his face so close to mine, his hand on my cheek, then his fingers on my lips. He was watching me, as fascinated as ever by what he saw on my face, something I never really understood. He took his time analyzing me inch by little inch, and he never once got bored.

Thatpart I understood perfectly—I could never get bored of looking at him, either.

Our story was…painful. A guilty, chaotic mess, and we were doomed from the beginning. We were never going to have a happy ending, Taland and I. Those who weaved our story had already decided it.

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