Her breath wouldn’t hitch at all if he would just admit he knew her once upon a time. She wasn’t even sure if he was lying about remembering his past or not. But it made no sense to lie about it.
So that left her with one question. Why had Talen forgotten everything of who he was?
But his friend couldn’t help her there.
She smiled at Declan. “Thank you. Thank you for staying for the moment and talking to me.”
He inclined his head to her, then pushed off from the chair and left the room.
Ness stood, staring at the door for a long time.
There was only one person that could answer her questions about Talen’s past.
Talen.
And he wasn’t talking.
{ Chapter 8 }
“Take another drink, you’re panting.”
Ness gasped in a quick breath, licking her lips. “You’re making me work hard.” With pillow feathers still floating from high in the air down about her head, Talen watched Ness sit on the edge of a hard caned chair and pick up the teacup from the side table. The tea long since cooled, she took several sips, as proper as if she were poised in a Mayfair drawing room—not sitting above his gaming hell with tufts of white feathers landing starkly against her dark hair.
The pillow that she’d just destroyed against the blade Talen had approached her with had been a brilliant move. The pillow had protected her hand while snagging the dagger and giving her a chance to yank it out of his hand. Plus, an explosion of feathers had filled the air. More precious seconds for her to run from an attacker.
An odd mixture of pride and surprise filled him. She’d done well. Not enough to set her onto the streets of the rookeries, but she would be able to survive for far longer than she would have when they first started this. That was key.
She glanced to her left, plucking several feathers off her shoulder. Good thing there wasn’t a mirror in his office or Talen would be watching her pluck feathers from her head for some time, for as many as had attached into her loose chignon.
She did that, he’d realized during the past days. She was always conscious of how she was presenting herself, how she looked. Innate movements she couldn’t control. Whether or not she was sitting properly. How straight her spine was. How smooth her hair lay. Someone had trained her well long ago for a life of privilege. Someone else had demanded perfection of her since then.
His stare should have moved off of her seconds ago, but he couldn’t quite do it.
It didn’t help that she was entirely too fetching. She’d been a prize for some peer—probably the same man that had broken her. Though how any man could have bruised a face like hers was beyond him.
To destroy such beauty. Sacrilege.
And to see such beauty sitting in the mess of his office, her cheeks flush from training with him, her peculiar amber eyes aglow with adrenaline, feathers landing in her hair—all of it made the crux of him twinge alive when he needed to keep his cock down and on the narrow.
He didn’t want her. Couldn’t want her.
Juliet had sent Ness to him to protect. Not to bed.
He wasn’t about to sabotage this mission, for heaven knows what Juliet would demand of him next time if he failed to keep Ness safe. And taking Ness into his bed would not be safe. For either of them.
Setting her cup down on the side table, she scooted deeper on the chair and leaned back, letting her shoulders touch the rear of the chair. The motion looked uncomfortable, even though he could see she was attempting to relax for a moment and catch her breath.
She looked up at him. “Why do you not let me from my room except when you come and get me? I am itching to escape those four walls, and while your office is a nice change of pace, it would be interesting to see what other rooms are in this building.”
Stalling with conversation, as she liked to do. He liked to keep her on her toes, keep the blood pumping in her veins. She liked to take breaks and rest.
But there was no rest if someone was attacking you. He knew that well. A fact he hadn’t been able to quite convince her of.
“The books have not kept you entertained?”
“I appreciate them, I do. But one can only stare at words on paper for so long. These training bouts with you are the only thing that has kept my mind from turning to complete porridge during these last days. It would just be nice to expand the tiny world my life has become.”
“No.” He shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “Your room. My office. That is the extent of your realm. The rest of this place—it is not for a woman such as yourself.”