Page 17

Odessa

I was in desperate need of a shower, but with only three available I had to wait my turn. Just like back home, I thought with a pang. Every muscle in my body ached and my head swam from the harrowing experience in the tomb. I needed the feel of dirt and bones scrubbed from my skin.

There was a moment when I didn’t think I would make it out of there, and for the second day in a row, I walked away with my life— grateful to still be here.

Most unexpectedly, though, was the way Dex handled the challenge.

I didn’t know why it ate at me so. Maybe it was the humanizing aspect.

I’d grown so accustomed to hating him, that seeing a vulnerable, mortal side to him did funny things to my insides.

Shameful things. Things I shouldn’t even be thinking about or feeling.

Try as I might to stuff that down, it kept popping back up again.

They’d whisked him away to be seen by a healer, and that’s the last I heard. We went straight to dinner and then back to our rooms. But he hadn’t shown.

In truth, I’d never met anyone like him before, and my feelings surrounding him confused me.

Maybe I’d been more sheltered than I realized growing up, because while there was a dangerous energy about him, I kept finding myself intrigued, and almost drawn to it.

Though, I wondered if saving him would end up biting me in the ass.

I’d forgotten that we were all out for ourselves here.

There could only be one winner after all.

I don’t know what possessed me to go back for him. Maybe I was too soft like Theo claimed, but I didn’t think I could live with myself if I just left him there to be crushed.

They’d expelled The Spider for causing Dex harm, and a part of me felt relieved that the competition was already getting slimmer. The less people I had to go up against, the better.

Guilt gnawed at my conscious as I thought of Theo.

I realized that I hadn’t even been missing him.

While thoughts of my family were frequent, Theo hadn’t really crossed my mind.

I wonder what that said about me. Surely, it was just because of the stress of being down here.

If I wasn’t training, I was either eating, drinking water, or stuck in a state of anxiety over what was to come. That had to be it.

After some time had passed of me stressing out in my room, I decided it was safe to chance a shower, entering the first one I crossed.

The door was unlocked, and as I stepped inside, I breathed a sigh of relief.

That is until I realized that it was in fact occupied already, with a very naked, very wet, Dex.

He seemed back to normal. The healers must have done a thorough job, because he moved as if nothing had happened. His body was a specimen to behold. The muscles this man possessed were hypnotic and sinful.

I couldn’t seem to look away, though I knew I should.

I shouldn’t be seeing this, but I couldn’t make my feet move.

My mouth hung open as I watched his powerful, large hands wrap around his impressive length. It was bigger than I thought possible, but I only had limited experience with Theo, who always pushed me away saying we should wait for marriage.

Now that I was here, I didn’t know if that day would ever come.

Oh gods, I could die a virgin. Now, that would be tragic. Damn Theo and his stupid principals.

Dex placed one of his hands against the tiled wall as the water from the shower cascaded down his muscular back. His forearm flexed with the effort of jerking his long cock over and over again, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to have it inside me. Filling me. Making me come.

Wetness gathered in between my legs. He still hadn’t noticed me, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be seen or not.

Animalistic groans echoed off the tiled walls as he thrusted into his own hand.

“Odessa.”

The word was quiet, but loud enough to flip my stomach at hearing my own name on his lips in such a way. It sounded like a prayer or a plea, with so much passion attached to every syllable.

It was erotic and wrong to be intruding like this during such a private moment— but he had said my name. And it did things to me. I should have been ashamed, or maybe angry that he was thinking of me like that. But I wasn’t. I was flattered and turned on by it.

He wanted me.

I was afraid to admit that maybe, just maybe, a part of me wanted him too.

“Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to join me?”

His head hadn’t turned around, but he knew I was there all the same. For how long, I couldn’t say, but hearing his question popped whatever trance I’d been under, and I found myself scrambling for the door. Desperate to get out of there.

Heart hammering and breaths coming in short panicked waves, I ran back to my room and shut the door behind me. Try as I might, I couldn’t scrub the image of how he looked and how he had sounded from my mind.

Dex had somehow wormed his way into my brain, taking up space that shouldn’t belong to him.

My face felt like it was on fire from the embarrassment. How could I look him in the eye after this?

I yanked the mask off my face and paced my room. The shower would have to wait. There’s no way I was going back out there now.

The only option I had was to stay in here for the rest of the night and sneak out in the morning to clean up.

I’d laid down, needing a moment to rest and closed my eyes. My breathing steadied, and all the worries that have been plaguing me drifted away from me. After what seemed like minutes, the door to my room opened, though I could have sworn I’d locked it.

I knew who it was without having to look. His presence was palpable. He carried a distinct energy with him wherever he went. That dark and dangerous air was practically electric.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked Dex.

“You know what I’m doing here, Odessa,” he growled my name like he had earlier in the shower. With possession and passion.

Lust for him overwhelmed me.

I knew I shouldn’t want him, but those icy blue eyes locked onto me, taking in my body like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. My nerve endings lit up with sparks like I’d never felt before as he perused my curves. The desire evident on his face.

He wasn’t wearing his mask, and his hair was still damp from the shower. He smelled of soap with a masculine undertone. Sandalwood perhaps.

“I can’t stay away from you, Odessa. I won’t pretend that I don’t feel something for you.

And I think you feel it too. No, I know you do.

You saved me when you didn’t have to. You grabbed me by my arm earlier and pulled me to follow you out of danger.

Don’t tell me that you don’t feel this pull between us.

From the moment I saw you, I felt drawn to you in a way that’s distracted me from why we’re really here.

” He sat at the edge of my bed and took my hand in his.

My hand with a very noticeable, very meaningful ring.

His thumb grazed the ring and my breath caught in my chest. “I know you feel it, even though you’ve promised yourself to someone else, your body betrays you. ”

His free hand rested on top of my ribs, right between my breasts.

I was certain he could feel how hard my heart was beating.

The staccato pace of each beat at wanting more.

Every single nerve felt hypersensitive. I was acutely tuned into him, waiting to see what he would do next. I licked my lips in anticipation.

“It’s only fair, you know, that you let me see you like how you saw me.” His words stole my breath. “What do you say, Deveraux? Why don’t you let me see what a gorgeous body you’re hiding behind these clothes of yours.”

I don’t know what made me do it. Curiosity? Desire? But before I could think twice, my head nodded my consent.

His nostrils flared as his hand drifted to the side with my permission, mapping the prominent curve of my breast as he pulled my shirt down, exposing my naked flesh to him.

Dex inhaled and ran his thumb over my pert nipple. “Fucking gorgeous just like I knew it would be.”

I could feel his touch radiating all the way down to my toes. I should be pushing him away and telling him to stop, but my mouth couldn’t form the words.

“Tell me to stop. Tell me you don’t want this,” he pleaded, not stopping for a moment. He seemed to be possessed with the need to touch me, his eyes aflame with want.

My mouth seemed to not work still, but I bit my lip, eyes wide, pleading for him to keep going, urging him on.

His hand dipped lower, caressing my stomach, my sides, lifting my hips to help guide my pants off.

I let him.

Gods forgive me, I let him touch me like I was his, while still belonging to another. In all my time with Theo, not once did he make me feel desired. I felt like an obligation. The means to an end. But Dex? I felt like a choice. There was a pull between us like no other that I had fought to deny.

Once my pants were a pile of fabric on the floor, Dex stared down at me while I opened for him. The wet desire evident between my legs. He crawled over to me.

“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful,” he said taking me all in. “Gods, you’re going to be my undoing.”

My shirt was hardly covering me, and I was naked from the waist down. I’d never been so vulnerable and so free with anyone. I’d always been pushed away and made to feel shameful for wanting intimacy. But now? I felt desired. I felt wanted. And Dex wanted me. Fiercely.

His large hands grazed the skin on my inner thighs as he came down on his elbows, his mouth so incredibly close to me. I could feel his breath skating over my clit. There was no denying that Dex had a wickedly magnetic presence that had captivated me.

If I allowed this, then the good girl that I’d been when I arrived was as dead as the bones that lined these catacombs. She’d be replaced with a newer, more daring one that tip toed on the edge of danger, stroking the flames just to see what would happen. Was that something that I really wanted?

One look at Dex, and I had my answer.

Yes.

“I’ve wanted to taste you. Wondered what it would be like.”

“I haven’t showered yet,” I realized, suddenly feeling embarrassed. Remembering that I’d been running around all day training.

“I don’t fucking care. I want to taste you. All of you.”

Just as his mouth came down on my bundle of nerves, I jolted awake.

The room around me was still. The only sound I could hear was my own breath, panting.

My hand clutched at my chest, and I sat up. It was just a dream, but it felt so real.

More real than any moment I’d experienced in my life this far, and I feared how much I liked that.