Chapter 23 A Moment Of Weakness
Isabella’s POV
Clara stood rigid beside the bed, her eyes never leaving Landon for even a second. He hadn’t even moved for minutes now, not even one bit. His breathing was still too shallow, the gashes across his chest still bleeding profusely and raw.
KNOCK!
A sharp knock on the door startles everyone in the room, and our eyes instantly turn towards the door to see one of the guards standing in the doorway.
“Miss Clara…” he began, his voice low and urgent. “A suspicious movement has been spotted at the eastern border. Owen thinks it might be connected to the attack, so he asked me to come get you.”
Clara’s jaw clenched tight the moment he said those words, her gaze flickering between Landon and the door.
For a moment I thought she would refuse, but then she straightened, her expression turning into something dangerous as she opened her mouth to speak.
“Fine,” she snapped. “But I won’t be long because I need to stay by my brother’s side.” She turned to face me, “You. Help the healer tend to him. If anything happens to my brother while I’m gone, I’ll hold you responsible, do you understand?”
I opened my mouth to argue, but she was already walking out of the room. The door clicked shut behind her, leaving me alone with the healer and Landon’s unconscious body.
“Hey, rogue…” the healer’s voice shatters through my thoughts as she glanced at me, her voice calm but firm. “I need your help with this next part because the deepest wound on his side needs cleaning and a strong potion. It’s going to hurt him even in this state, so you'd better hold him steady because he might fight it.”
“O…okay.”
I hesitated, then stepped closer to the bed. My hands trembled as I reached out to Landon’s motionless body. I placed my palms carefully on his shoulders, feeling the hard muscle still there beneath the injuries, and up close, the injury looked even worse.
The healer’s hands began to work quickly now, wiping away dried blood before mixing a thick, pungent paste. The instant she pressed the potion onto the deep wound along his ribs, Landon’s body jerked hard.
His eyes immediately fluttered open—not fully though, followed by a low growl that escaped his lips. I froze instantly, my hands still pressing down on his shoulders to keep him still.
“He’s waking—”
“Hold him down, rogue!” She barked without glancing at me. “This will burn.”
Landon’s eyes met mine before I could realize anything, and for a heartbeat, something shifted in his expression. The cold mask I knew so well was now replaced by a raw softness I’d never seen in his eyes.
Ever!
“Isabella…” His voice was hoarse, barely a whisper as my name rolled out of his lips. Before I could pull back, his hand gripped my wrist—not the bruising, wicked grip I was used to. He pulled me closer against him, his chest rising and falling slowly as I leaned over him.
“You’re here…” he murmured, the words barely audible to me, “My little rogue… always fighting me.”
What the actual fuck is happening right now?
This wasn’t the Landon who pinned me against walls and told me I was nothing. He was an entirely different person now, his usual coldness and ruthlessness were gone, replaced by something else that made heat bloom low in my belly despite everything.
The healer continued working, but I barely registered her movements anymore. Not when Landon’s free hand slid up my arm, his fingers tracing my skin with surprising tenderness. Then he pulled me much closer, bringing my face down toward his until our lips brushed.
“I—“
His mouth swallowed the word before I could finish it, his tongue brushing my lower lip, forcing open any ounce of resistance I tried to make. One of his hands fisted weakly in my hair, holding me there as if he was afraid I might disappear.
The other slid down to my waist, gripping it tightly with just enough strength to remind me that I belonged to him, even now.
“Yo…you’re mine,” he whispered into my mouth between kisses, the world broken by a wince as the healer pressed harder on his wound. “Every part of you…this child. All mine.”
For a few dangerous seconds, I kissed him back, torn between pulling away and deepening the kiss as pity and fear twisted inside me, but so did the unwanted desire.
Was this who Landon really was behind that cold mask?
Or was it just the injury making him soft? We both know that’s what he can never be to me.
He doesn’t give me any chance to think too much as he deepens the kiss, slower this time, his tongue stroking mine in a way that sends heat pooling between my thighs.
Fuck!
I hated how my body was responding to him, how my nipples stupidly began to tighten against the thin fabric of my dress. I try hard to really pull back, but a soft moan shamelessly escapes me before I can stop it.
Landon’s hand tightened on my hip, then slid lower, cupping my ass and pulling me on top of him. He winced again as the healer’s hands pressed deep into the wound, but he didn’t let go.
“So soft…” he breathed against my lips, his voice thick with lust even while weak. “That tight little pussy always so wet for me… even when you hate me.”
Heat floods my shamelessly the moment he voices those words. Was this the weakness of his body speaking, or had something inside him actually shifted?
What the fuck is happening!
“Ahem…” the healer’s voice interrupts the intimate moment between Landon and me as she clears her throat quietly. “The potion has been applied, so he needs rest now.”
Landon’s eyes were still fluttering open, the fever pulling him under again as his grip on me loosened. But not before he pressed one last, lingering kiss to my mouth, softer than any kiss he’d ever given me.
“Isabella…” he murmured, the name sounding almost too good to be true as it rolled out of his tongue. Then, his eyes snap shut instantly, and his body goes slack once more, slipping back into unconsciousness.
I stayed frozen on top of his chest, my hand still pressed on the hard planes of his chest feeling the faint, steady beat of his heart beneath my palm.
As if realizing myself, I had immediately pulled back, straightening my dress with shaking hands. The healer didn’t say a word, her hands bandaging the last wound as if nothing had occurred.
But everything had changed in those few heated moments.
I stared at Landon’s still face, the bruises and gashes still rough and fresh against his skin. The man who owned me, who had broken me again and again, had just kissed me like a man anchoring to his only lifeline.
And the worst part?
I didn’t know whether to hate him more even more now…or hate how much I still craved him.