Page 174 of Mud

Mud, the Iris Roe, the impossible challenges, Taland…

“You escaped the Tomb,” I said, choosing to distract myself with this burning curiosity, at least for a moment.

“I did,” he simply said.

“How?” Nobody just escaped from the Tomb. Nobody.

“I have my ways,” said Taland, and again, he spoke about it with such ease that it shocked me. He was just so…unreal,yet here he was. And I wanted to press him to give me an answer, but why in the world would he trust the same girl who’d put him there?

“What about the Blue House? What is that place? Who are those people?” I remembered it only hazily—the walled in community, all these people who’d been there, eating and listening to music, dancing…

But Taland said, “Why didn’t you tell them about it?” My eyes closed for a moment. “Why didn’t you tell the IDD about the Blue House, sweetness?”

I would never,were the words at the tip of my tongue, but of course, I didn’t say them. EvenIwouldn’t believe myself after everything.

But Taland took it a step further. “Why didn’t you tell my brothers how you found the Blue House?”

Stabs at my gut, at my heart—everywhere. Again, those words:I would never.

I would never betray you, Taland. I would never get you in trouble with your brothers. I would never tell the IDD how to find you, even though I was so sure you’d kill me the moment you saw me…

All those words weighed so heavy on my shoulders.

Those questions I could never answer for him—and wasn’t that sad?

“Did you…did you pay Michael to kill me, Taland?” I asked a moment later, my heart breaking because there was a teeny tiny possibility that he’d sayyes, and that, together with the fact that he’d stood by and watched and smiled while his brothers had tortured me…

“No,” Taland said.

A long, loud breath left my lips.

I believed him with all my heart—andthatwas awfully sad, too.

He wanted to say something to me, something else. I could feel it in the way the muscles of his torso tightened just slightly, like he was gathering up the courage, preparing—but then his lips opened and he said nothing. He just closed them again and smiled a heartbreaking half smile that looked so magnificent from down here.

Impossible to help it. I raised my hand and tracedthe line of his lips, too. It was the only way to convince myself that he really was real. He really was this perfect.

He didn’t let me for long, though. Before I knew it, he moved, flipped me, and put me on my back. He climbed on top of me and began to trace my entire body with his lips.

Fuck me, I was turned on within a second, even though I was still full of his cum. He never kissed me, never licked me, never touched me with his hands, just with his lips. Slowly. Gently, with his eyes half open.

Until he reached below my boobs, he didn’t speak at all, and I was too busy trying not to die right there on the mattress as I watched him. He looked so, so good, so fuckingdedicatedwith every new curve of my body he explored with his lips.

Then he said, “Any ideas what to expect from Blue and White?”

It took me a good moment to make sense of what he was talking about. “None,” I admitted because I knew it would be useless to even try to think right now. Not while he was pressing those lips to my pelvis, and then slowly brought his hand to my thigh, fingertips sliding on my skin, slowly making their way between my legs.

Fuck, fuck, fuck…

“I’d expect some sort of an agility test from Blue and something plain…evilfrom White,” Taland whispered, his mouth right over my clit, warm breath blowing against my soaked folds.

I moaned.

He brought his fingers to my entrance and picked up his cum that was surely coming out of me. He growled, then bit my thigh just a little, but enough to make me moan louder.

“The next time your memory gets foggy and you forget who you belong to, sweetness, think about this…” He slipped two fingers inside me, and my hips rose to meet his hand as my head fell back. “Think about you being so full of me that you’re dripping, baby. You’re fucking dripping.” Another bite on my other thigh and I cried out, but he took his fingers out of me.

He took his fingers out and he cursed under his breath as he continued to trail every curve of my legs down to my knees. I wanted to demand he go back up there between my legs and use that mouth and those fingers until I saw Iris again, but I didn’t dare for fear of what it would do to me if he did.

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