A cold chill ran down her spine.
Trying desperately to hide her panic, she lowered her eyes. Even she herself had no idea why she had said something like that.
Her heart pounded violently, as though it might explode at any moment. The thought that he might hear its thunderous beating made goosebumps rise all over her body.
Thrown into a panic, Talia floundered helplessly before starting to blurt out whatever came to mind.
“Just imagining it is horrifying, isn't it? So stop shoving that awful medicine at me. I hate it that much, that's all...”
But the words she uttered to cover herself only seemed to reveal her true feelings instead, and heat spread all the way to her ears. She wet her drying lips with her tongue.
She sensed Varkas, who had been standing motionless, approaching the bedside.
Yet she could not bring herself to raise her head.
Surely he was wearing an incredulous expression. A woman who had been rampaging like a possessed demon only hours ago was suddenly saying absurd things. He was probably disgusted. Perhaps he was even looking at her with cold ridicule.
As though being chased by something, she rambled on.
“Do you know how terrible that medicine is? It makes even my insides hurt after I take it. But you keep forcing me, so I just meant that I wanted you to stop...”
“Talia.”
At the voice sounding right above her forehead, Talia stopped speaking.
Slowly raising her head, she found herself staring into eyes like a winter lake before dawn.
Looking at her as though she were an unsolvable puzzle, the man spoke quietly.
“I'll feed it to you, so come here.”
Talia blinked blankly.
She couldn't fully comprehend what she had just heard.
Her confused gaze dropped to the medicine bottle in his hand before drifting to his smooth-looking lips.
Suddenly, a strange thirst arose within her.
She bit at her dry lips and turned her eyes away.
“I only...”
I was just saying it. Why are you taking it so seriously?
She was about to mumble that out when he uncapped the bottle.
Talia jerked her head up.
His clear, unreadable eyes watched her as though confirming her intentions. For a moment, it felt as though he could see straight through her mind, and her heart dropped.
Keeping those mineral-like eyes fixed on her, he brought the bottle to his lips.
If she told him to stop now, she could at least preserve the last shred of her pride.
Hadn't she struggled desperately all this time not to lose even that?
Without it, she truly would become nothing.
'But...'
She looked up at him with trembling eyes.
The memory of the day his lips had touched hers surfaced in her mind.
If sacrificing a little of her pride would let her confirm that night once more...
Talia shut her eyes tightly.
Then a large hand with prominent joints wrapped around the back of her neck.
The scent of water, mint, and that smell of wind that always made her uneasy brushed against her nose. Then lips carrying the fragrance of wild flowers covered her own.
Once, those lips had uttered nothing but sharp words that made her chest ache. When she was young, she had even imagined that touching them would feel like being cut by a blade.
Those cruel lips were now shaking all her senses.
Unconsciously, Talia gripped his shirt tightly.
Tilting her head back, he pressed his lips down more firmly. Talia's body stiffened, but unable to resist the pressure against her cheek, she parted her lips. Concentrated herbal liquid flowed over the tip of her tongue.
She frowned at the bitter taste that seemed to burn her mouth, but only for a moment.
A soft tongue slipped between her lips.
Startled by the deep intrusion that seemed about to pierce her throat, she pushed against his chest, and the slick flesh retreated slightly. But before she could even feel relieved, the sensitive flesh inside her cheek was crushed once again.
Unaccustomed to such stimulation, Talia shrank her neck.
The damp flesh changed direction, rubbed against the roof of her mouth, then wrapped itself around her tongue. Saliva pooled in her mouth.
The bitter liquid and both of their saliva mixed together and flowed down the corner of her lips. Before she even had time to feel embarrassed, his thick tongue delved deep again.
Her throat tightened on its own, drawing him in. The instinctive act of swallowing something had transformed into something unbearably obscene.
A strange moan escaped her lips, one she had never imagined she could make, and she shuddered. The wet sounds echoed all the way to her ears. Unable to endure his increasingly intense movements, she pounded his iron-like shoulder with her fist, and only then did his lips finally part.
Talia stared with trembling eyes at the transparent thread of saliva stretching between them before hesitantly lifting her gaze.