Page 113 of Threaded
The last of them filtered out of her rooms, Feran chancing one last glance back at Mariah before grabbing the handle to her door, pulling it shut behind him with a softclick. The sound echoed through the room with the reverberatingboomof an avalanche.
And then it was just Mariah.
Alone, save for Andrian, who still leaned against the pillar across the room, arms crossed and expression unreadable.
* * *
They stared at each other in silence.
Mariah still knelt on the floor. She could feel the tips of her toes beginning to go numb, her limbs tingling from being folded for so long, but she didn’t move. She held herself completely still as she met Andrian’s gaze, refusing to be the one who broke the silence and stillness between them.
To her utter shock, he was the one to speak first, his voice far rougher than it was mere minutes earlier when he’d ordered the rest of her court from the room.
When she’dlethim order her court from the room.
“How are you?”
What? She could only blink at him, shock evident in her gaze.
He sighed, hanging his head slightly before peeking back up through thick lashes and the black curtain of hair that fell over his forehead. His expression was almost …soft, and filled with evident, genuine concern.
What in the Goddess’s name is happening?
He released his crossed arms from his chest and stalked towards her, his steps light and silent. When he was before her, standing right in front of that piece of paper on the ground, he further stunned her into a silence she wasn’t sure she would be able to come out of. He sank to his knees in front of her, her eyes tracking him the whole way down, a foreign feeling prickling beneath her skin.
Andrian picked up the letter with something almost akin to reverence and read it over to himself silently. Mariah’s eyes never left him, not even daring to dart her gaze away for a moment, fearful that whatever was happening here would vanish in a whiff of smoke. With the same painful gentleness, Andrian set the letter back down on the ground behind him, leaving the space between them so empty that it scratched at Mariah’s already frazzled nerves.
He then brought his gaze back up to hers, those stunning eyes still filled with that same strange, foreign expression as he cocked his head to the side.
When he spoke, it was with a voice that was so patient and gentle it hardly sounded like him at all.
“What do you need,nio?”
She felt her eyes widen, instantly going on high alert, searching his expression for any hint of what he might actually be after.
“What do you mean?” Her own voice was still flat and cold.
He sighed, his brows furrowing slightly. He reached out a hand, running the rough pads of his fingertips down the side of her face, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear before gripping her chin tightly, forcing her to hold his gaze.
“Tell me what you need.” Not a question this time. A command.
Her eyes went from wide to narrow as she ripped her chin from his grip. “What makes you think you have anything that I need?”
“I see it on you, princess. You’re barely holding yourself together. You need help. So, I’m going to ask you one more time: what do you need?”
The air between them went tense and silent as she met his stare, her mind slowly spinning. It wasn’t what she needed, not really, but there was only one thing she would let him give her.
“Fine. Do you know what I need?” She forced a coy smile to play across her lips, the familiar flirtatious mask she’d donned far too often back in Andburgh falling into place over her features. She rocked forward, onto her hands and knees, and crawled slowly across the small distance separating them. He didn’t move a muscle as she slid up his body and into his lap, her knees falling to either side of his hips, pressing her chest to his. Sliding a hand behind his neck, her fingers tangled in the black strands at the base of his neck as she leaned close to his ear.
“You once told me you would be a distraction for me. In fact, you told me that wasallyou’d ever be for me.” She slid out her tongue and slowly dragged it along the outer shell of his ear, a thrill racing through her when she felt him tense beneath her, felt him instantly begin to lengthen and harden where she was pressed against his hips.
“This is what I need, Andrian,” she said, purring his name. “Adistraction.”
Sparks ignited where she was pressed against him, the tension in the air slipping into something viscous.
And then … hechuckled.
He suddenly relaxed beneath her, a casual hand resting on her hip while the other went to the back of her neck, pulling her gently away from his ear.