Chapter 48 — Teacher’s Pet

“You’re impossible,” Tali growled, blowing a noisy breath through his nose.

“Because I don’t give a damn about your feelings? Poor baby,” Dark mocked, closing her eyes briefly as she dipped her shoulders below the surface. She didn’t even try to hide her moan as the muscles loosened.

“Childish…obstinate…petty—” he started.

“Grumpy…whiny…bitter—” she finished, flashing enough of a smile for him to know she wasn’t talking about herself.

“I’m not finished talking about this and I don’t care about your damn temper tantrum.”

“Talk all you want. I’m not listening. Or caring…”

“What do you think about what I did?” Tali asked, untucking his dress shirt from his suit pants slowly. The change in tracks surprised Dark enough that she opened her eyes. “You’ve told me what Angel was feeling, but you conveniently left yourself out of it.” He tilted his head to the side enough that his hair brushed over his eyes again. “I know you don’t feel much but you have to have felt something about it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she sighed. “None of this matters. At all.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“That this conversation isn’t going to change the war. Or Angel’s breakdown. Or the fact that we’ll likely still fuck. It won’t change that I’m also with Hades and I don’t have a monogamous bone in my body. It won’t change that I can’t give you what you’re looking for because I don’t have it! I don’t have sweet emotions. The love. The sunshine and flowers. I only have vinegar and salt. The flesh and heat. That’s it, dammit. Everything else is best left for when she comes back.”

“Oh, I get it. And you think I’m sunshine and flowers? I’m the perfect example of sweet emotions? Don’t make me fucking laugh.”

“You prick—"

“JUST TELL ME HOW YOU FELT!” he hollered, the bass in his voice shaking the room. Dark screeched, snapping up to a sitting position in the water.

“What’s there to say about me?” Dark yelled, she leaned forward enough for Tantalus to glimpse her above the bubbles. This was obviously not meant to be a sexual conversation…she was more inclined to deck him across the room than to ride him…But she still felt his eyes heating her skin. “Look, you asshole. I don’t blame you. Yes, the selfish, awful, evil you…I don’t see the point of it. Personally, I don’t fixate on hurt feelings. I focus on the fact that you did what you had to in order to survive. Like I would. I can respect that even if I think your actions have caused me a tremendous headache!”

“That’s it? A—headache…” he sounded like he might laugh again, unlacing his shoes then removing his socks, “You’re absolutely ridiculous! You don’t find what happened to you to be a betrayal? Because I told you I loved you…who gives a damn if it was Angel or Dark Angel or whoever…I looked at you and told you I loved you. I made love to you…And then—"

“Of course, you betrayed me. That was never in question.” Dark sighed, rolling her neck and draping her wet arm over the edge of the tub, the splash of water on the floor oddly erotic in the solemn pause between words. Why did men keep talking to her about love? She understood the concept, probably even felt some version of it in her half-heart. But she didn’t really care about it. People apparently fell in and out of love all the time, so it hardly seemed worth her time to factor that in. The wobbling in her chest was easily ignored.

“The issue isn’t whether or not you betrayed us. You did. The issue is whether I could hold that against you. Angel factored in love and pain and crushed hopes and dreams into how she felt. I’m operating solely on logic. And logically…I’m sure I would have done the same thing had I been in your shoes. You didn’t have much of a choice. That doesn’t mean Angel won’t hate you forever. There’s no way for me to know that.”

Tantalus slowed his movements as he unbuckled his belt and removed his pants. Dark didn’t have any shame in admiring a male body. Especially not one she knew as intimately as Tantalus’. A life of voyeurism through Angel’s eyes and memories. Granted, the only real taste she had of him had been quick and half-drunk on blood and sleep deprivation. She certainly hadn’t gotten to explore him when he railed her from behind.

Sharing them both had been erotic, thrilling, fulfilling in more ways than one. But here, alone, there was something about the way he held her gaze now, never once looking unsure or flustered about being nearly bare before her, that had her nipples stiffening.

“You aren’t anything I would have expected,” he whispered, all the bass leaking from his voice.

“All I’m saying is that I can at least understand it. You didn’t even know Angel when you originally signed the contract. And you definitely didn’t know what she was going to do in the end…”

His back went straight, “How could you know that?”

“I thought you heard Pearl…Angel came here in the first place to find out about you. It wasn’t because she wanted her memories back. She didn’t even know who Dodona was at the time. That part came later. But what drove her here were her memories of you loving her…mixed with the knowledge that you had been in her torture loop. And Circe saying you had hired her. She couldn’t make sense of it. She was trying to understand you better. Or…how she felt about you at least.”

Dark sighed, soaping a sponge to wash. “You were a lover in her memories. A man who pushed and threatened a toddler for her. Helped her through grade school. Saved her on the bathroom floor when she was young and broken. And yet, you were also the brooding stranger who took her from that party. And drugged her with your power. You were in her torture loop. She wanted to know how you could be both of those men…and, more importantly, why you would be both. So, she went to your volumes and looked for herself.”

“She knew—she saw—" he gulped air, as if he couldn’t remember how to breathe, promptly turning away and heading back into the bedroom in just his boxer briefs without so much as a goodbye.

Shit. Dark cursed to herself, slinking further into the water. For a god with a well-known aversion to giving a shit, he sure had a lot of emotions today. And he obviously needed to get his head together. She couldn’t fault him for that. Soaping her body, Dark washed away all the sweat and grime of their research, but when more time passed, he still hadn’t come back. She wasn’t sure what to do next…give him space or force him to get over it…

Standing suddenly, she ignored the tidal wave of water that sluiced off of her onto the floor when she stepped from the basin. Careful to keep her composure, she rounded the corner to look for him.

Dark found him in the armchair, clutching a decanter of liquor and rubbing his temples. He looked up sleepily from his stupor and regarded her with a fiery pass of her exposed skin. Bubbles clung to her most obvious areas, but it exposed enough of her to feel naked. If she had any shame, she still wouldn’t have hidden from him. Not when he looked at her as if she might be his end. At least she would make it a good way to go.

His glassy eyes glimmered under the short waves of hair he’d pulled forward in frustration, she imagined. And Dark ignored the urge to run her fingers through them.

Hand on her hip, Dark cleared her throat, “Are you going to brood all damn night?”

The temperature of the room tipped up ten degrees and, despite the chill of open air on her wet skin, Dark felt like she might melt under his golden gaze. Alone time with Tantalus differed vastly from time spent among others. Here, between just the two of them, he burned hotter—expressed more emotion in his looks—exposed more of himself. All she had to do was salvage his state from whatever spiral he started when he left the bathroom. Everything else was just a bonus, she told herself. A welcome bonus.

“I’m not a good man,” his voice rang hollow, desolate. Dark got the impression he’d dragged that confession out of himself.

“What’s your point?” she smirked, earning a glare. If he wanted to wallow, he could damn well do it anywhere but here.

A step forward had Tali’s nostrils flaring softly, his fingers clenching around the decanter hard enough she heard the glass crinkling. She bit back the other snarky thoughts she had and said, “The bath is big enough for two and spelled to stay hot indefinitely…”

“Your point?” he mimicked, some of the light coming back into his eyes.

“Well, I recall saying something about playing cards right…but I could be wrong…”

Dark shrugged as if it were just words. As if she weren’t suggesting he join her in a hot, wet bath. As if she weren’t hoping he would revel in a distraction.

He leaned away from her, resting his head against the backing of the chair, though his eyes never left her. He swallowed hard, and she watched his throat bob and settle, his lean, muscled chest constricting.

“I shouldn’t,” his voice hadn’t softened at all since he last spoke. That rough grate shot straight down her spine, lower even, and she forced herself not to react.

“You should. You’re wound up tighter than Hades most days and that’s saying something.” Another step. And another until she was within arm's reach. She brushed her fingers along his wrist and pulled him up. “There’s all the time in the world to hate yourself, just come take a bath and try not to annoy me.”

He barely nodded, but the slow, empty blink would have to suffice. And the survey he did of her body, the way he allowed himself to be pulled toward the bathroom. Black boxer briefs or not, she would have had to be blind to miss the powerful effect she had on him—a near equal match in intensity to her own.

Though, it wasn’t surprising. She knew there was an attraction between them and more…much more on some level. But she wasn’t Angel. She didn’t feel anything as deeply though she could appreciate their intense history. And even though all his dark, stormy looks told her he was well aware of it, he never pulled away. Like Hades, he didn’t seem to mind that she wasn’t whole.

Maybe the only one who cared was her, and she wasn’t sure if that was a comfort or a concern.

When they once again reached the tub, Dark was positive there were no more suds to distort her body, and yet, she dipped her fingers under the band of his briefs, stripping them down. He gulped from the decanter’s neck, eyes molten. Dark hadn’t gotten to admire this part of him enough. Smooth and firm. She flicked her eyes up to his and read the tension. The raw desire mixed with unease…and maybe regret? Forcing herself to turn away and give him space proved more difficult than not touching him. She did it anyway because she could be decent when it mattered.

Taking her place in the tub, she waited for him to push away his despair and join her.

It took Tantalus a long while to speak again after he finally lowered into the water. His legs brushed against her own, though they both had room enough to move freely in the large basin. Dark wasn’t necessarily waiting for him to speak as she closed her eyes against the heat and let her body relax. Honestly, she was hoping he would drop the whole ‘why don’t you hate me’ thing. Couldn’t he take a fucking hint? She didn’t want to say how she felt. She didn’t want to pick apart her own brain. She didn’t want love.

Two emotional conversations in two nights were not on her personal to-do list, and he couldn’t hope to find anything satisfactory in her answers. She heard him swallow and then came the familiar clink of the decanter tapping the tub. She imagined it dangling precariously from his fingers. Almost as if it did not matter what he held. Then she imagined his eyes on her.

As if conjuring it, she felt the ghost touch of his eyes on her collarbone, the top swell of her breasts visible above the soapy water, her lips and the sweat breaking out on her cupid’s bow. She drew her lips in and wet them, inexplicably nervous.

“Shall I teach you how to manipulate temptation fully?” his voice broke in strange places, and she enjoyed having that power. She sat up gently and watched him sip the liquor painfully slow, tracing his own bottom lip with his tongue to savor the taste. Distractions. She could do distractions.

She reached for it, accepting the hot flush of liquor down her throat before handing it back.

“I’m not completely clueless,” she said at last, defensively, “I made someone erase their own memories before. I’ve tempted attraction before…” Tantalus’ eyes lit up wickedly for a moment before he inclined his head in mock scrutiny.

“And yet you could not put an ounce of sway into bringing me back when you thought it trapped me in the vision…passive temptation and active are not the same. One is willing…the other is not.”

Dark scowled at the truth of his words and leaned back against the tub, scooting down further into the water, cutting off his view. She ignored the brush of her feet against his thighs and shifted away. “How do you know which I used?”

“Well, for one, tempting someone to be attracted to you was passive. Obviously, they were likely halfway there on their own. Have you seen yourself?” he laughed briskly and Dark relaxed a bit, happy to see his earlier thoughts fall away. “And I can’t be sure about the memory wipe but…it’s extremely difficult to do on an unwilling person. And since you don’t know what the hell you’re doing…”

“FINE!” she blurted, hating how petulant she sounded, “Explain it to me, ass.”

“You can think of active temptation like a dog collar. The person you’re using it on has no choice but to do as you say, but they know the entire time that it’s you who’s making them do it.” His thumb slid against her ankle—how he knew exactly where it was under the bubbles, she wasn’t sure. He sent a shiver up her leg and spine until it crested out in her head. She sunk further into the water.

Tali’s voice had gone softer, or perhaps her head was underwater. Dark wasn’t sure which. She was focused solely on his thumb on her ankle, swirling and rubbing the skin over the joint. Another shiver went up through her body. Was he still talking about temptation? She could hardly hear more than a distant buzz of his voice, a pleasant vibration she felt traveling up the bathtub walls. A fierce need to touch him roared in her chest and without thinking further on it, she pushed water out of the way so she could slide over his waist. He straightened as her chest rose from the water.

Tali released her ankle and suddenly the need vanished. Desire remained like a lit ember under her skin—but the overwhelming need that defied all logic? That disappeared. What remained was still enough to turn her insides to ash, but she held fast. His eyes, though controlled, tightened.

The bastard had tempted her and shown her exactly what he was talking about. Hot embarrassment raced up her neck. This was a power play, she understood at once. He’d tempted her, veritably thrown the challenge down. Would she answer it? Power. Dominance. Conflict. Those were things they both understood well—familiar shoes to fill without having to discuss reality.

Tantalus’ voice shirted across her skin, “Active temptation is a force you can impose on another. They lose all sense of control. All sense of reason. You can shape and mold their thoughts, their actions, and feelings…To your every whim. Touch is not required, but the effect amplifies tenfold when you do use it.”

She felt the truth of that between her thighs as she shifted. The movement over his lap hadn’t been planned and yet, she still executed as if the thought had been her strongest desire. He at least had the decency to let her stay on her knees. If she sat down…Dark might not actually finish the training. Might not do anything but ride hard until she lost reason in the feeling.

Admittedly, she’d never gotten someone to do something they didn’t want to do. She’d never controlled anyone before. And that was clearly what he had just done to her. She hadn’t decided to mount him, he’d decided it for her. If it weren’t for her not-so-subtle attraction to dominance, she might have been pissed. But she was what she was…And the fact that he wanted her right here, over top of his straining fullness, made her heart rate skyrocket.

Dark shivered, not confident enough to move without making herself even more sensitive to him. If he was looking for surrender, she’d at least put up a fight, no matter how outmatched it was. “Show me how.”

“First, let me see you attempt it. And I’ll correct your mistakes.” His face still remained impassive, locked in a battle of wills to stay in control. And maybe denying themselves the pleasure they both so clearly craved was a way to harness that sexual energy. Dark couldn’t deny how energized she felt.

Touch. Looking down at his slick chest, Dark thought of a million innocent touches that would work. Shoulder. Pectoral. Sternum. But she slid her hand lower, pressing gently against his lower abdomen. Barely a touch and yet, his body locked up. Yes, she thought, this game wouldn’t be over quickly. Dark wanted him to see how much power she really had.

She tried to imagine what he had done—tried to recreate the feeling of being swept into a current. He sucked in a sharp breath, shattering the decanter in his grip. Sensitive god, she cooed to herself.

“Push it over me. Not into me,” he corrected through gritted teeth. She only got a glimpse of his black eyes before he pulled them closed, fighting for control. Dark tried to do as he said, imagining her power washing over him like a wave. It pressed and kneaded at his muscles, worked a swelled against his chest, clenched at his throat. She wove the silent command into the power.

His hands ran up her hips, trembling with the effort. Then cupped her cheeks firmly, just as she had commanded. When his eyes opened, glassy and low, she released the tether, waiting. He leaned up, brushing his mouth against hers. “No.”

Dark stiffened, “No?”

“Nope, it didn’t work. I wanted to grab your ass, anyway. You didn’t make me do it,” his smile grew lazy, dizzying as she leaned in and swept him into a deep kiss. Then she felt his hand release from her hip.

“Fuck,” she cursed, “You did it again?!”

Tali leaned back against the tub, brushing between her legs as he did, “You need a lot of work.”