Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
Tem had no idea how to answer that. She was exhausted-she’d been up all night, and her body, as well as her mind, was utterly spent.
“I don’t know, Leo,” she said quietly. “I…” But she couldn’t go on.
Leo tightened his hold. “Did that brute break your heart or something?” he murmured against her hair. He sounded sad somehow, although Tem couldn’t imagine why.
“Nearly,” she murmured back.
Leo pulled away, taking both her hands once more in his. “Spend the day with me,” he said again. “Come to the castle. No one will bother us.”
Tem shook her head. “I can’t.”
Leo pulled her closer. “You can’t? Or you won’t?”
Tem knew what he was really asking. Her spot in the final three was all but guaranteed. If she spent the day with Leo, it wouldn’t be because of the competition. It would be because she wanted to. Tem felt the familiar stubbornness inside her-the refusal to give in.
Then Leo said, “It’s your choice, Tem.”
Her choice. Something Caspen and her mother refused to give her.
Tem looked up at Leo, who was looking down at her. She studied the narrow angles of his face, the sharp gray eyes that were constantly calculating his next move, even now.
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.
Leo’s body conformed to hers as naturally as moss on a tree. His agile fingers slipped into her hair, tangling in her curls. He was warm and strong and hard, and Tem found she only wanted more.
“Is that a yes?” he whispered when they pulled apart.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “As long as you don’t draw a bath.”
Leo’s mouth twitched, but his expression remained serious, as if he knew this was a difficult decision for her. But there was victory beneath his restraint, and his grip on her tightened as he pulled her along the path and into a carriage waiting at the edge of the graveyard.
Neither of them spoke on the ride.
Tem leaned against Leo, letting her body rest for the first time in far too long. When they arrived at the castle, the prince guided her down a hallway lined with elegant sconces. They passed an enormous painting at the base of a staircase, and Tem stopped to stare at it.
There was Leo, looking deeply serious, sitting on a velvet armchair. Maximus was behind him, his hand on Leo’s shoulder, matching gold cuffs glinting on their wrists.
“Father and son,” Leo said quietly.
The familiar pinch in Tem’s stomach returned.
Leo’s arm tightened around her, pulling her along. She let him move her, following him up the stairs and down a long, carpeted hallway to a door at the very end.
He pushed it open.
Leo’s room was enormous, as expected. There was a four-poster bed on one end and a fireplace on the other, the walls in between lined with overstuffed bookshelves.
“Would you like something to eat?” he asked. “I usually take breakfast around now.”
It was then that Tem realized she was starving. “Yes.”
“And to drink?”
“Anything but champagne.”
Leo smiled as he pulled a tasseled rope on the wall. A moment later, there was a knock on the door, and a servant appeared. His eyes swiveled to Tem’s before latching back on to Leo. They exchanged a few words before Leo shut the door.
“I’m afraid everyone will know you are here,” he said with an amused smile. “That was one of our more talkative servants.”
Tem shrugged. It didn’t matter who knew she was here. All that mattered was that she was away from her life in the village.
Despite her desire to be here, now that she was actually in Leo’s room, Tem found herself in a state of mild panic. What if he expected her to sleep with him? Surely, the prince assumed her presence meant she was ready and willing to jump into his bed. But Tem had no desire to have sex right now. The ritual had drained all her energy, and the last thing she wanted was another cock between her legs.
Leo seemed to sense this, because he said, “I don’t expect anything from you, Tem.”
She shot him a look. “But you want something.”
He held her gaze. “All I want is your company.”
When she didn’t reply, he touched her waist gently.
“I understand that you are seeking refuge. I have no desire to take advantage of you when you came here for shelter.”
Tem stared at the floor. She wasn’t even sure she deserved his shelter at this point.
Leo finished quietly, “I’m a man of my word, Tem. Whether you believe me to be or not.”
Tem didn’t know what she believed. Then she shivered. Leo’s room was freezing.
He saw this and immediately said, “I shall make a fire.”
Tem took the opportunity to look around his room, peering curiously at the bookshelf. It was crammed full of books in varying languages, so many that the shelves were bending beneath their weight.
Tem turned to his bed, which was meticulously made. She very much doubted Leo was the one who made it. His bed frame was intricately carved wood, and on the closest bedside table were stacks of books topped by white candles. The candles had burned so low that the wax was dripping down over the spines of the books, pooling in hard circles on the wood.
“Do you like to read?” Leo’s voice came from behind her.
Tem turned to see him leaning against the fireplace, watching her. “Not really,” she said. “I mean, I would if I had time. Or books. But no, not really.”
He nodded at the chairs in front of the fireplace. “Shall we sit?”
Leo waited until Tem sat before sitting himself. There was a moment of silence while they stared at the fire.
“Do you have a favorite?” Tem asked eventually.
Leo arched an eyebrow. “A favorite book?”
Tem nodded.
“I’m not sure,” he paused. “It changes day to day.”
“So what’s your favorite today?”
Another pause. Then: “The Raven and the Swan.”
Tem knew that one. Everyone did; it was an old fable about a raven that wanted to become a swan. But no matter what the raven did-including swimming in the swan’s pond and eating the swan’s food-it remained a raven. It couldn’t change its true nature.
“Why?”
Leo shifted in his chair, crossing one long leg over the other. “The raven wants more from its life.”