He brought his eyes back down to find a rather sullen Elysia. He looked at her like her attempts at distraction were cute but ridiculous. “You took pukeweed rather than have a proper conversation with me and went and gambled your own damn body at House Gardenia not even three hours later. It’s going to take a bit more than a kiss to break me tonight, Parker.”
Elysia gasped, scrambling back and falling off the couch onto the floor in her haste.
The prince looked enormously pleased with himself.
“Not so dense after all, am I?” He leaned back against the couch, arms reaching out wide along the top.
She wanted to tear out her own hair. “How?” she demanded.
He dropped to his knees on the thin buckskin rug beside her. “You have your tricks, and I have mine. I must say, though, even I am surprised at just how much of a little liar you’ve become.”
She bristled and he laughed, crawling over the top of her. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it.”
Elysia fell back onto her elbows, scooting away and getting nowhere. Topp held himself just above her, shaking his head and eyeing her like he wished they could go back to doing what she had tried to start on the couch. Confusion climbed within her, but if he was going to look at her like that, then she wasn’t above trying again. Her hands went to his waist, gripping his belt and tugging until he came closer.Pupils wide, his lips twisted up in a mirthless laugh, and then he was kissing her with enough heat to melt a glacier. His tongue swept out and tasted every corner of her mouth.
He stopped. Elysia panted, eyeing him suspiciously. He had already made it clear that distraction was not going to be an effective tactic, but her brain was foggy and useless from drugs and having her bell rung, leaving her with no clear ideas of how to escape. His fingers trailed up her bare thigh and she bit back a groan. Forget distraction, her heart and libido were traitors of the worst kind. She wanted to yank him back to her and pretend the whole night had never happened. That the last many months were a bad dream.
His hand tugged on her stupid wig, and he closed his eyes, breathing out over her. The scent of him flooded her, making her dizzy. This was insanity. She needed to leave, weave a tale to cover her ass, do something, anything.
He came closer, lips brushing against her skin. Her own hands clenched, digging into his back where she had slipped them beneath his shirt. And then he spoke in barely a whisper into her ear. “Should I recount your most recent deceptions? Pukeweed to escape my excellent company. Not telling me aboutmen threatening your life. Gambling at the House with that disgusting bastard.” He thought carefully and then smiled as he hovered over her. “And oh, that’s right, I almost forgot about that little thing you’ve been doing while you sleep. Maybe that’s where we should start.”
Elysia went from outraged to silent terror and back in one breath.
There was no way to prove she could hear a secret. It wasn’t an obvious sort of magic, or one that people reminisced about when they were sure no one was listening. But she had no idea what happened when she went to sleep at night and found herself falling somewhere else. Did the air shimmer and wave? Did a ghost of her float out over her body? It didn’t really matter if these things happened, or nothing happened at all.
What mattered was if a Crown Prince decided she was guilty.
She was ready to argue until she was blue in the face how preposterous it was that a girl could be drawn to secrets. She had practiced the words so many times they were ready on the tip of her treasonous tongue.Secrets? That was the most ridiculous undead gift one could ever surmise. It was offensive to even suggest that her endeavors to assist the Crown in trades and deals were not pure skill and talent.The argument in her head went on until she’d so thoroughly confused the imaginary accuser that they were in an agreeable daze.
She had not prepared an argument for what happened while she slept. She didn’t evenunderstandwhat was happening while she slept.
The terror she felt now had been guiding her steps since she was a child, and the rage that ran beside her fear grew less and less contained with each passing year of hiding and narrowly escaping being found out. She could hear her father taunting her that it would be her own fault if she hung, and that he would make sure they did not say her name.
Because a Parker would never stoop so low as to be born tainted by the undead.
The undead have cursed you, he said,and they will not save you from yourself.
Her father’s words held her in pause until the fear and anger began to slide down her nose in thick drops. She blinked rapidly, trying to force the tears back into her eyes where they belonged.
Embarrassment burned within her. There was nothing worse than crying when really you were angry and scared rather than sad. It seemed a malfunction of sorts.
But the undead gods must have remembered her for there was a harsh one, two, one, two thud on the door.
Both Elysia and Topp started at the sound.
His words were terse. As if he knew the moment was slipping through his fingers. “Just ignore it. No one’s coming here.”
She stared up at his familiar face, still looming over her as if it were perfectly normal to accuse someone of treason from this position with his knee shoved between her thighs. She wiped at her tears. “Just go check. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
He looked at her warily. She thought it might have been because of the tears, but she knew it was more likely that he was thinking of her propensity for disappearing. Topp slowly pressed up and away from her, and Elysia took a long involuntary breath once he finally took his eyes off her and turned to walk to the door. She watched him go—his back tense and steps quick.I wonder how long he’s known.Her fingers ran over the soft buckskin beneath her.But he hasn’t turned me in.
Contrary to her actions this evening, she wasn’t a complete fool. The fact that he hadn’t turned her in yet didn’t mean anything, really. Other than he hadn't decided what he was going to do.
She rolled over off her back and got up, hurrying to follow him.
He opened the door and looked around. “See, no one there.” Annoyance laced his tone.
Elysia stuck her head under his arm and looked as well, her eyes snagging on what he had missed.
