She shoots me a look that’s colder than the storm outside. “She’s not contagious, and I don’t need anything from you or this army.”
“Other than our shelter, food, protection...”
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 yourservices, 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 fuckingflinches.
Like I was going to hit her or some shit.
And that just pisses me off evenmore, 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 clothesonher 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 gota lotmore enticing.
