Page 97 of Lady Knight and the Thief

Cypress laughed and kept her hand tucked in his elbow as he led them between the stacks.

“Oh, no snide comments or orders not to call you that?” Torren murmured, glancing down at her.

The line of her bare shoulders in the top she wore made his mouth water, and his blood thrum.

When he grabbed her ankle in the garden earlier on impulse, it had been a mistake. Now all he could feel beneath his fingers was her skin. All he could think about was the breathy noises she made in the throes of pleasure.

“The more I tell you not to, the more you want to. So, what’s the point?”

Torren stopped short and pulled her into a nearby alcove. “Lass, that is not what this is.”

“Isn’t it?”

“I do not call you Duchess because it irritates you. It’s what youare.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t like getting under my skin,” Cypress said and lifted her chin to keep her eyes locked on his.

Torren took a half step closer without thinking.

“Am I under your skin,Duchess?” he murmured, leaning closer.

Torren watched the flush creep across Cypress’s cheekbones and down her neck like a man starved.

“I think we both know the answer to that,” Cypress countered as her back softly met the wall.

Torren’s hands ached with the need to touch her. To feel her skin beneath his fingertips.

Instead of grabbing her and ravishing her right here, he instead put his hands on the wall on either side of her shoulders. “Lass, I think-”

“Shh,” Cypress pressed her finger to his lips, eyes darting over his face and pausing on his lips pressed against her finger. “Don’t think. Just—”

And then, Cypress rose up and pressed the lightest kiss against his lips. Torren groaned into it and pushed her firmly into the wall with his hips. Then, he slipped a thigh between hers.

Torren’s blood rushed when he pulled Cypress’s waist tight against him. Just the feel of her body flush against his made Torren’s cock stiffen, and his fingers tremble with need.

All too soon, the kiss broke, and then Cypress was gone. She slipped out of the alcove and out of the nearby door before Torren had the chance to even comprehend what had just happened.

Torren was left standing alone in the alcove while he gasped for air for a few moments. Cypress was the one to kisshim, so why had she run off?

Torren rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh and left the library. Maybe he’d deepened the kiss too soon. Maybe he was laying it on too thick.

But what did he truly want out of this?

What wouldCypresswant out of this?

In any case, they had no business getting into something right before going on a mission. If things went horribly between them, who’s to say Cypress wouldn’t hang him out to dry in retaliation?

Instead of following the hallways and stairs that would lead him to his rooms, and consequently, Cypress’s, Torren took the stairs toward the towers. In the atrium of Kings, a statue of his grandfather stood with statues of the Kings of old. Together, they watched over the circle and A’aravos.

If Torren went down to his rooms, or rather, to Cypress’s door, he didn’t know what he would do. Whether he would be able to control himself, to stay away from her rooms, and be on his own.

Torren needed clarity.

So, on and on, he marched up the stairs to the Atrium of Kings while he listened to the trees whispering and the birds singing a song only they knew.

32

But we’re not dead