Rhysand was lounging on my bed as if he owned it when I opened the door to my room.
I took one look at the hands crossed behind his head, his long legs draped over the mattress, and rolled my eyes, clenching my jaw.
The anger was back. I hated the damn anger. "What do you want?" I sighed, trying to hide the edge in my voice, but as soon as the words had escaped my mouth, they had sounded more hostile than I'd intended.
"Flirting and giggling with Tarquin did you no good, I take it?"
I smiled, a sick and torturous smile, as I threw the box onto the bed next to him. "Maybe, maybe not."
Rhys gripped the box, flipping it open like a child opening a gift on Christmas. His smile faltered as he sat up. "This isn't the Book."
"No, but it's a lovely gift."
"You want me to buy you jewelry, Danika, then say the word. Though, given your wardrobe, I thought you were aware that it was all bought for you."
I hadn't been. "You should just ask Tarquin for the damned Book. He's a good male. He'll probably comply."
Rhys snapped the lid of the box shut, the sound echoing through the room as though we were in a cavern. "So he plies you with jewels and pours honey in your ear, and now you feel bad?"
"Of course not. I've done worse." I defended as though the idea were absurd, "But why do things the hard way if there were a possibility he may just give it to us?" I questioned.
"Well, Cresseida is under the impression that her cousin is quite ambitious, so I'd be careful to read between words." he practically hissed as if the fact were some sort of prize.
I clenched my jaw, scoffing before I said almost bitterly, "Oh? And did she tell you that before, during, or after you took her to bed?"
Rhys stood from the bed in one graceful, slow movement. "Is that why you wouldn't look at me? Because you think I fucked her for information?"
"Information or pleasure. Doesn't really matter. But if the shoe fits..." I trailed off. I was simply trying to make him angry now.
Angry like me. It was cruel of me to wish that on someone, and yet I couldn't stop. It was like a compulsion. I wanted Rhys to feel what I did. Understand my thoughts in the past day.
He stalked around the bed. I stood my ground. Even as he was barely a hairsbreadth away, "Do you think I particularly like having to flirt with a lonely female to get information about her court, her High Lord? Do you think I feel good about myself doing that? Do you think I enjoy doing it just so you can have space to ply Tarquin with your smiles and pretty eyes, so we can get the book and go home?"
I blew out an exasperated breath, a frustrated smile spreading across my features as I tried not to think about how I could feel the warmth of his breath on my face. "You seemed to enjoy yourself plenty last night."
His snarl was soft—vicious, "I didn't take her to bed. She wanted to, but I didn't so much as kiss her. I took her out for a drink in the city, let her talk about her life, her pressures, and brought her back to her room, and went no farther than the door. I waited for you at breakfast, but you slept in. Or avoided me, apparently. And I tried to catch your eye this afternoon, but you were so good at shutting me out completely."
I met his eyes then, finding my opening, "Is that what got under your skin? That I shut you out, or that it was so easy for Tarquin to get in?"
"You smiled at him." He practically growled. His voice no more than a rumble of anger.
"Jealous, Rhysand?" I accused my words like a string of venom.
He blew out a breath, laughing sickly as he looked away for a moment. An absolutely lethal smile playing across his features as his violet eyes found mine again, "Maybe I am. Maybe I wish it was me you were smiling at." he whispered. His words deadly. "But I'm not the only jealous one here."
'His words shocked me enough that I didn't process the reality of what he'd said for a second.
When I had, I shook my head. Of course, because Rhysand couldn't be jealous alone, he had to accuse me of being the jealous one. I'd never felt jealousy in my life. "I don't know what you're talking about." I hissed in anger.
His eyes never strayed from mine. Not for a moment as he said, slowly, "You think I couldn't feel it?" he questioned, enunciating every syllable and sound of his words like a precise art. "That I didn't see the way you were looking at Cresseida and I last night?"
I snorted, not giving a moment's breath to the idea. That wasn't jealousy. Couldn't be, in fact. "You're delusional." I told him. "I feel nothing."
Rhys's smile disappeared, replaced with something far scarier."You don't?" he whispered, his words dripping in something I refused to acknowledge. His breathing uneven. "And if I said that I wanted to pin you against this wall right now and kiss you till you forgot your own name, would you feel anything then?"
My traitorous heart stopped in my chest. Heat sliding across every corner and vein of my body as my breath hitched. "Nothing." I answered, the word more of a breath than anything else.
He took a step forward. I took a step back. His feet moved in rhythm with mine as he slowly made good on his words, backing me up into the corner of the room as the wall behind me loomed closer and closer.
I wasn't sure I was breathing. Wasn't sure I was thinking straight as all my mind could muster was the singular want that everything in me cried for. A want I refused to give in to.
Rhys spoke again, his own words breathy as he exhaled in short pants."Even if I said I wanted to kiss. every. single. inch. of your body until the entirety of Summer Court could hear you screaming my name? Not even then?"
I couldn't think, not as my back hit the cold wall and Rhys's hands came to a stop on either side of me. Not as his breath mingled with mine in the air. Not as I tried to dispel searing lava pooling in my very bones.
"Not even then." I whispered. I couldn't even convince myself the statement was true.
His head dipped. So close. So close, I watched as his lips hovered over mine. So close, I felt his every breath. So close, I felt the heat coming off his body in thick waves.
Both our breathing now came in short pants. I watched, waiting idly by as he hovered over mine. Waiting for what, I didn't know. His lips stayed there for only a moment until he leaned closer, his lips brushing my ear soflty as he uttered one word. His voice like a drug. "Liar."
My stupid heart felt as though it were pouding against my ribs. A sudden burst of confidence. Of understanding, raced through my body.
"And if I am?" I challenged, his head pulled back, coming to hover over mine, one more. "If I am jealous? If seeing you with Cresseida makes me want to rip her to shreds? What then?" My words were slow as I repeated those two words. "What. then?" A struggle to get them out as all I could think about was that his lips were so very close to mine.
"Then I'd make good on my promises." he whispered.
I'd given up fighting. Everything about this was a war of desire and logic. And desire had won.
"So do it." I dared.
I barely had time to finish my words. I was cut off as his lips smashed onto mine.
─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
A/N: Lawd have Merthy 🥵🥵🥵
Yes I left you on a cliff hanger. No, I do not regret it.