“Are you in trouble?” My fingers twitched. I’d barely have to move them, and I could rest them upon his leg, offer comfort, show him that my heart stuttered when I thought of him taking the blame. This was all my mess.
“Not yet.” He patted my leg instead, fingers gently squeezing before he returned his hands to his lap. “The prince doesn’t mind the odd mistake. In fact, he loves playing games. He’s surrounded by us guards all day long, never challenged. That’s why he likes taunting you.”
I groaned.
“So, tell me.” He nodded toward the ceiling.
“I was dragged up there. One second, I was dreaming, riding the moors. My happy place.” A fleeting moment of embarrassment tripped my tongue, and I quickly moved on. “And then I woke up in your guest coffin.” I pointed upward.
“I told you not to let him touch you.” His voice was strained and low, a mix of sympathy and frustration.
“What? The prince didn’t do this. It was the castle.” I shuffled back upon the bed, dragging my injured leg up and nestling it atop the downy covers. How come he got fine wool, and I just had threadbare burlap or Lilyanna’s murderous silk sheets? “Look.”
He reached for the taper, looping his finger through the diamond handle and brought it to my leg. The ash mark had gone, but a circlet of bruises remained, vomit-colored skin churned into thin marks outlining bony fingers. My ankle beneath was a similar color and the size of his fist. Blood ran in a smeared trail from my chafed knee to mid-shin.
He lowered his face, gently cradling my foot, stroking my skin. The pulse in my ankle intensified, spreading as tingles up my thighs. My breath caught as his lips brushed over the marks, and my entire body crackled with sudden energy.
He raised his head, gaze locking with mine. “What’re you wearing?”
Heat prickled my chest, and I tugged the tunic down my thighs, the dark fabric barely covering the lacy panties underneath. “We aren’t issued sleepwear,” I muttered. The guard’s shirt I found was for a much more petite woman than me.
He grinned and despite myself, I grinned back. He gently lowered my leg back to the covers and my smile faded. His touch lay embossed upon my skin, a small patch of soothing calm amongst the broken.
“I don’t know if I can keep doing this, Clement.” I choked out the words. “The Sheriff...I didn’t do it, but I was involved.”
He remained still, listening patiently, but I couldn’t go on. My heart swelled. He was too good for my burden. He shouldn’t be condemned by my secrets as well. I never tried to find out what happened to my bounty after I’d tagged them. I made a point of never asking, of fleeing the city as soon as it was over, and not only because I couldn’t face the Collectors. I couldn’t face what I’d done.
“You should leave, Tamara,” he breathed.
“Don’t call me that.” I pushed myself up, but he grabbed my hand and tugged me back beside him.
“Tammy? Tamlin? If you don’t tell me, I’m sticking with Tamara because it suits you.”
“Stick with Tam, then you won’t need to hurt yourself by thinking about it too hard.”
He chuckled. In the candlelight, his rugged face looked soft, dark eyes kind. A curl of pressure formed in my stomach. What I would give to tell him everything.
“You need to leave the castle. I’ve told you before, but?—”
“I’m not going without Lilyanna.”
His fingers laced with mine, his skin rough and calloused, but he fit perfectly around me. “Leave her and go. It wants you first, and I can’t stop it.” He squeezed my hand.
First? A shiver raced through me. “I need Lilyanna out.” I forced my voice to be level. “I can take care of myself.”
If he knew the truth, that I was after the prince, after everything he’d given his life to protect...he wouldn’t be here with me trying to save me from the castle. I’d be thrown in the dungeon and left to rot.
He raised our joined hands and pointed at the ceiling. “Can you?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m going back to bed.” Hefting myself up, I gingerly tested my ankle. It would hold. Clement watched me hobble to the door, his face a blank mask. I paused with my hand resting on the carved diamond doorknob. “Could you do me a favor?”
He rose and strode to the door, his naked torso silhouetted by the candlelight. He scooped me into his arms and without a word passed into the freezing corridor outside.
“Actually, Clement.” My suddenly fogged brain was acutely aware of his hand gripping my thighs, and his permeating scent of pine that flushed into my nostrils with every shallow breath. Oh dear, was I seriously smelling his neck? “This wasn’t the favor.”
“I know.” The creaking floorboards under his feet melted seamlessly into the hard stone of the main castle. The walls lightened to a charcoal gray as fissures of moonlight stole into the corridor. “But you never would’ve asked, and I'm not about to watch you limp around in circles for the next few hours as you get lost finding your way back.”
I threaded my arm around his neck, hovering my fingertips over the stubble that coated his jaw. Would he like it if I touched him? Would he close his eyes and nestle into my palm? Or would he use my weakening as another excuse to force me to leave?
