Need singed every nerve ending. She arched her back and pushed her hand lower, desperate for that first touch. Just as her fingers drifted into her curls, a heavy clank echoed through the room.
She jerked upright and quickly yanked the covers up to her chest, hiding her nakedness. The old wood door pushed inward, and the male she’d just been fantasizing about stepped into her room followed by a nymph Talisa hadn’t seen yesterday.
Heat rushed to Talisa’s cheeks. She swallowed hard. The nymph crossed the floor and set the bundle in her arms on the foot of Talisa’s bed.
Talisa barely cared about the female. Her attention was fixed solidly on Zagreus. On the way the dark, long-sleeved Henley molded to his broad chest and arms. To the trim cut of his hips, to the powerful muscles in his thighs, and the bulge in the front of his pants that made all kinds of wicked thoughts echo in her mind.
The nymph stepped to the side of Talisa’s bed. Grasping the covers tighter at her chest, Talisa tensed, unsure what was happening. Then the nymph reached out and swept the hair away from Talisa’s face.
Talisa jerked back from the female’s touch, but before she could ask what the hell the nymph thought she was doing, Zagreus cleared his throat.
Talisa’s attention skipped back to him, and the second her gaze landed on his, memories of her dream rushed back through her mind. Only this time she heard his voice, saying, “Touch yourself, mono mia…”
Heat gathered in her hip once more and ricocheted all through her body, as if the immortal has some kind of magickal control of her libido.
Which he didn’t, dammit…
“This is Nysa,” Zagreus said, resting his hands on his lean hips and nodding toward the nymph pressing her fingers all around Talisa’s temple and into her hairline. “The healer who took care of you last night after you hit your head.”
After she hit her head…
Talisa’s mind spun as she fought the arousal that wanted to overtake her. He was the enemy, dammit. Not some sex god sent to fulfill all her twisted fantasies.
Her memories were spotty, but they quickly locked on being tossed in this room with that other nymph—Ana. She remembered grabbing a candlestick to use as a weapon. Remembered swinging out. Remembered the nymph using some kind of magick that had dropped Talisa to her knees and completely knocked her out.
“The wound is healed,” Nysa said at her side, smoothing Talisa’s hair back into place. “No lasting damage.”
Zagreus muttered, “Good,” then his dark gaze met Talisa’s once more. “Nysa will help you change into something more appropriate. Since we understand each other better now, I’ve decided to let you have free rein of the castle this afternoon. You may go wherever you like, but you’re to remain inside. If you try to leave the castle walls, my sentries will toss you in the dungeon. And trust me, mono mia, the dungeon is not a place you want to visit. This room is a palace compared to that.”
Since they understood each other better?
Talisa had no idea what he meant. Last night when she’d awoken to find him watching her, he’d made it clear she couldn’t be trusted. Now he was letting her roam the castle, unaccompanied?
Nothing had changed between them. Nothing except her having some weird sex dream that he knew nothing about.
She was just about to ask what the hell was really going on when her gaze lifted back to his.
Words faltered on her tongue when she caught sight of the look in his eyes. Not the combative, domineering look she’d seen yesterday, but heat.
The same sizzling heat she’d felt last night and again just moments ago when she’d remembered her dream. A familiar, explosive heat that told her he knew exactly what she was thinking. And what she’d done here in the dark of her room.
Electricity arced between them. An electricity that threatened to scorch every nerve ending.
As Nysa moved into the bathroom and came back with a hairbrush, Talisa’s mouth went dry. She didn’t know what to say. Wasn’t sure what was happening to her or why she was suddenly reacting to Zagreus this way.
Suddenly? You were ready to jump his bones in that club before you even know who he was.
She pushed that thought aside as Zagreus continued to watch her with those smoldering eyes. Told herself it didn’t matter. He’d used some kind of magick on her then. He was using the same magick on her now. He had to be.
Nysa began brushing her hair. Desperate for some snarky comment that would prove she was a seasoned warrior, not some pathetic nymphomaniac, Talisa glanced down at the blanket covering her legs, only all her clever instincts seemed to be have completely dried up.
What in Hades had happened to her brain?
A knock sounded at the door. She lifted her head and watched as Zagreus moved that way and jerked it open.
Two males stood on the other side. Two males she didn’t recognize and who looked to be wearing some kind of leather armor.
They spoke in low voices, and she strained to hear their words, but she could only make out bits and pieces of their conversation.
“…satyrs…”
“…western border.”
“…armed and ready…”
Talisa tensed, suddenly interested.
“Nysa,” Zagreus said, “come here.”
The nymph set the brush on the bed beside Talisa and moved toward the door.
The group spoke in hushed words, then the nymph nodded and moved back into the room. Zagreus left with the males without so much as a glance Talisa’s way, the door snapping shut in his wake with a deafening clank.
The nymph returned to Talisa’s side, picked up the brush, and started combing her hair again.
Talisa bit her tongue so she wouldn’t lash out and tell the female she could handle her own grooming. If she did, she knew she wouldn’t get the answers she wanted. And right now, those answers were more important than any pride.
She pushed the scorching dream and the irritating male at the center of that dream out of her head and focused on what she should have been focusing on all night—mainly, how she was going to break free of this stupid tower.
A satyr attack might just be the perfect distraction.
Play it cool. Don’t go right for the jugular or the nymph will balk.
“I don’t remember meeting you yesterday.”
“You didn’t.” The nymph brushed the hair back from Talisa’s temple. “I wasn’t in the grand hall when you arrived.”
“You’re a healer?”
“Among other things. Everyone in Ehrendia has multiple duties.”
That didn’t tell her a whole lot. “I’ve heard of Ehrendia. I didn’t think it was real.”
“Why not?”
“Because no one’s ever found it. And because legend says Ehrendia is the home of the maenads.”
“And?”
“And they’re the followers of the god Dionysus.”
“And?” the nymph said again, this time in an amused tone.
“And nowhere in the legends did it ever say the maenads turned away from Dionysus to follow the Prince of Darkness.”
Nysa smirked and kept brushing. “You don’t think too highly of our prince.”
Zagreus? “He’s Hades’s son.”
“Hm.”
The nymph moved to brush a new section, and as silence lapped between them, Talisa realized she wasn’t getting anywhere.