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The provocative look in her eyes sent a prickle down the back of his neck.
Giving up on reason, he sank down before his wife.
When he dropped to one knee and hooked an arm beneath the crook of her legs, her slender arms wound naturally around his neck.
Varkas took a breath to steady himself as the sweet scent of her skin filled his lungs. He slid his other arm behind her back and rose to his full height. Beside her, the wolf that had been sitting like a sentinel pushed its haunches off the ground.
Varkas watched the beast warily.
Yet contrary to his unease, the dire wolf showed no real aggression. It simply lingered close, staring fixedly at Talia’s face as if checking on its master.
He took long strides, trying to pull away from the beast as it nudged its snout toward her.
Wrinkling its nose in brief discontent, the creature trotted close at his heels.
“Go through the back door, not the main entrance. I don’t care to run into your siblings.”
Talia whispered the words, her head resting against his shoulder.
Varkas flinched as her breath brushed his jaw, then immediately shifted his heading toward the rear of the hall.
“Are they still being disrespectful to you?”
“Lucas is fine. He grates on my nerves, but he keeps up basic manners. It’s your sister who’s truly insufferable.”
“What did Raina do?”
Catching the chill in his voice, she muttered vaguely,
“Nothing grand…. Just gossiping about me to the vassals or picking childish fights.”
“I will take her aside and give her a stern warning.”
“Don’t.”
Her brows arched sharply.
“What would that do to my pride? Running straight to my husband to tattle because a child threw a tantrum. I give back just as much as she dishes out, so leave it be.”
‘To my husband.’
Varkas turned the phrase over in his mind, his teeth clenching. He despised how easily a careless word from her could shake him.
He deliberately lengthened his stride. Holding her was dizzyingly sweet, yet so excruciating that he wanted nothing more than to flee from it.
Crossing the corridor, he stepped into the bedchamber that had once belonged to him.
“How are your legs?”
“They’re fine. Only stiff. More importantly….”
As he carried her toward a long velvet couch, she tightened her hold around his neck and leaned in close to his ear.
“The bed, not the couch. I want to lie down.”
Varkas pulled back and fixed her with a sharp glare. Finding his reaction amusing, her feline eyes narrowed slightly.
He knew that look well. It was the face she had worn at the Imperial Palace when she held men in the palm of her hand, dangling them for sport.
Setting his jaw, Varkas moved to the side of the bed. He laid her on the plush sheets and meant to pull away and leave, but her fingers gripped his shirt like iron.
“Where are you going?”
Wheat-gold hair spilled across the white linen as she peered up at him, her gaze wet and lingering.
“This is your bed. Lie down with me.”
His patience snapped.
Seizing her wrist, Varkas pinned it to the mattress, his voice dropping to a low growl.
“What are you trying to do?”
“…What did I do?”
The brazen calm vanished from her face, replaced by a faint flush and a flicker of unease. Even that unsettled look was agonizingly alluring, and the irritation inside him flared.
“What do you expect to gain by pulling me into bed?”
Under his piercing question, the color in her cheeks deepened.
Talia bit her lower lip and stammered,
“I… I only wanted you to rest. You’ve been marching from battle to battle for two years, and since you returned, you’ve done nothing but work through the night…. So….”
“So your solution is for us to sleep in the same bed?”
A flash of defiance lit her eyes at his sarcasm.
“Why? Is that forbidden?”
His gaze darkened as his eyes traced the length of her body.
Beneath the rumpled, gossamer gown, every curve of her figure was bare to him. She was so breathtakingly vivid that it seemed impossible this was the same woman who had lain pale and coughing blood on these sheets two years ago.
An unwanted heat knotted low in his gut. He bit the inside of his cheek. He had never welcomed his body’s hunger for her, and now it felt outright vile.
He pulled his hand away, his tone hardening.
“I don’t need rest.”
Gazing down with open suspicion, he pressed further,
“Since when do you care about my well-being?”
“You’re… you’re my husband. Why shouldn’t I care?”
Perhaps embarrassed by her own words, the tips of her ears flushed crimson. Yet Varkas found himself unable to mock her.
A hot lump rose in his throat, and he recognized the aching name of that feeling—longing. Spurred by that bitter realization, the words he had swallowed for so long finally broke out.
“Didn’t you say the sight of me choked you?”
Her face drained of color in an instant.
Looking up with shadowed eyes, Talia pushed herself upright, drawing her knees to her chest.
“Not… anymore. Actually, I….”
He stood frozen, waiting for the rest.
Restlessly tracing her knees, she murmured in a voice grown slightly hoarse,
“I… I was worried about you. You were away for so long this time. Six whole months without coming home….”
As her murmur drifted, she began nervously picking at her lip with a trimmed fingernail.
He reached out and covered her hand, staring into her face.
“Does being around me no longer torment you?”
Her eyes darted with uncertainty, but she gave a slow nod.
Whatever fragile restraint Varkas had maintained snapped, and he dropped his knee onto the bed.
Slipping a hand into her thick hair, he stroked the pale curve of her neck where her pulse fluttered wildly. Her breath hitched. She was tense, yet she did not pull away.
Watching her closely, Varkas cupped her small chin and brushed his thumb over the faint scar on her lower lip. At the touch, her soft lips parted slightly, almost like an invitation.
A familiar thirst burned in his throat. Taking her cheeks in both hands, he lowered his head. He watched her until the last moment, then pressed his lips to hers. Her soft tongue grazed against him.
A shiver tore through him as if his heart had been gripped, and he pulled that warmth deeper into his mouth. But just as he began to lay her back against the pillows, a loud crash shattered the room.
Startled by the noise, she pulled back. Varkas clenched his fists to keep from reaching for her again and glared toward the doorway. The door was rattling violently, hinges groaning under the force.
Varkas rose and crossed the chamber in a few swift strides.
The moment his hand wrenched the latch open, an enormous beast forced its way through the gap.
He stared in disbelief as the creature knocked past him and leaped straight onto the bed.
Claiming the wide mattress as its own, the beast buried its massive head into her arms.
“Khan!”
Holding the wolf close, Talia looked over at him, helpless and uncertain.
His hand still resting on the handle, Varkas watched the pair before slowly glancing back out into the corridor.
A crowd of guards had rushed over, drawn by the commotion the beast had stirred.
The heat drained from his head all at once, and Varkas roughly dragged a hand through his hair.
END