Page 26 of There's No Place Like Oz

His expression remained steady and unmoved.

“What ‘couldn’t you help but notice?’” I scoffed. Why I was so annoyed right now, I wasn’t about to try and dissect. I didn’t have feelings anyway. Not real feelings. So really, there would have been no point in reading into any such thoughts.

I attempted to storm passed him, not remotely interested in confessing what I just did with—no, didtoDorothy, but he was having none of it. Talos placed a wide palm on my chest, and he used that accursed strength of his to shove me back against a tree. He held me there firmly, trapping me against the trunk with his rock hard chest, and his over built biceps.

I glared at him, while amusement filled his eyes. This total reversal of our usual dynamic only irritated me more.I attempted to push him off me, but Talos only pressed me harder into the bark.

“What should I be holding exactly?” I hated how sharp he was right now. I hadn’t told him why I was going down to the watering hole, but I was sure he noticed the way I’d waited and watched for Dorothy to take her leave of the camp.

So nonchalant. I was glad I was the only one who could hear him. It was difficult to discern whether that was an accusation of my ill intent or if he’d simply come to understand me all too well in our casual conversations.

“Ah, I should have thought of that.” A weak lie he’d see right through. If the words weren’t unconvincing enough, his ability to sense what was going through my mind would be. I’d disclosed entirely too much about my plans to him, I was starting to find. Trusting a mute as my confidante would have been fine if he couldn’t both overpower me and shove that information back in my face.

His voice was stern and accusing in my head.

I swallowed, but I didn’t give away anything in my expression. “It was bad timing, so I changed my mind.”

“Tch.” More mockery. I turned my head to the side, stealing his view directly into my mind. Though the physical contact meant I couldn’t block his communication even if I wanted to. “Yes, that’s why I’m so frustrated. There are your two questions. Can I go now?” It hadn’t ever occurred to me that Talos was the dominant one between the two of us, and I was not fond of this development. I’d taken our unspoken camaraderie as an alliance. I’d never expected him to use that strength against me. Perhaps I’d been too quick to let my guard down around him. After all, just like me, he couldn’t be killed, but unlike me, while I was built from evil, he was built from physical pain and endurance.

He kept me caged in with his body as he slid the hand on my chest downward. I refused to flinch as he made it down to my very hard cock.

He drummed his fingers on the underside of my balls, while the heel of his hand pressed into my length, and I resented the way it made my whole body tense. “You’re wrong. It’s more like so long as she’s the living owner of those shoes, she’s got me by the balls more securely than you do right now.” I finally spat the words. He loosened his hold. He gave me space. I relaxed against the tree, while grateful it was there to hold me up. “So I couldn’t do it. I had her shoes in my hands, and I couldn’t do it.”

I said it as though Dorothy had me under a spell, but if I was being honest with myself, I’d not been enchanted by anything other than the way she unraveled for me. But I was absolutely not going to be honest with either of us if I could avoid it.

He stepped back a full step, and he seemed to be studying my tone and expression, rolling them around in his mind as if he didn’t know if it was a plausible statement. But by my luck and his weak heart, his empathy won out.

“I don’t know.” And thatwashonest. The first honest words I’d said to him tonight.

He continued to study me, then his tone shifted to something resolute and reassuring.

I nodded subtly. He accepted that as enough. Then he turned on his heel and took a seat back at our makeshift guard station.

And I used that moment of privacy to step back into the woods and take my own release under the silent moonlight.

I wasn’t going to fall for another woman in silver shoes. I fucked my own hand, trying not to imagine it was her tight cunt. I should have asked Talos to do it for me, just so I wouldn’t be picturing her face in orgasm.

Too intimate.

I froze on that notion.Why would the thought of Talos jerking me off beintimateto me?

Fuck!I thought in a silent and aggravated scream.

I’d never had any issue enjoying sex. I was happy to indulge in pleasure just so I could feelsomething. This was normal for me. Before Grunhilda had broken my mind, I’d indulged in every pleasure under the sun.

So why did it feel so different when that person was her. Washim. When there were…

Feelings?I slammed my fist into a tree as I came on my hand. The tension that left my body both muddled and cleared my head in the same hard jerks. No, there were nofeelingshere at all. Not from me. This was just a passing game to ease my boredom.

A game. That’s right.

Monsters don’t fucking feel.

Chapter 19

With enough friction, the moss and twigs ignited effortlessly. The resulting heat was quick to catch the smallest sticks, which radiated nicely to the larger tinder, before it burned into the broken up branches of my teepee camp fire. The warmth was pleasant and comfortable, and I relaxed into the gentle glow. I’d built so many fires for myself since I’d escaped the Western Castle. Once something I’d enjoyed with my entire Pride of lion shifters, now it was just something to keep me alive for one more day.

---