Chapter 2 Galilee #2
His lips were curled to bare his sharp white teeth and his eyes were glittering. Gali impulsively pulled her arm away from
Bonbon. Oriak? was bluffing; like she said, her father would never give them permission to see the artifact, but Gali could
help. Pain sang under the skin of her face as the migraine coated her skull. This man reminded her of things outside the city,
things she never wanted her friends to find out about, secrets that needed to be kept secret. Gali had been raised in the
work, but there was so much more that was just her, humming in her blood like her swarm. Her family would never recommend
what she was about to do. The girls would be surprised, but they wouldn’t actually see anything, just like they couldn’t see
the light stored inside him. It would be safe. She could pull it off.
Gali stepped between Oriak? and the suddenly lethal stranger, placing her hand on his chest. She wanted to touch him, and the contact rocked her even through the crisp cotton of his shirt.
Gali hissed in a breath and raised her head to meet his gaze.
Oriak? and Bonbon were staring at her in shock, and the stranger was just a breath away from her now.
He smelled of live ash and bitter spices.
The gold in his eyes was flaring, but the malevolence in the air had drained away.
Gali took a deep breath. When she was a child, the Kincaids had taught her not to gamble with certain things and especially not to take chances in the woods.
Her cousin Celestial, on the other hand, taught her that sometimes you didn’t need dice to roll.
Sometimes other things were enough, like rocks or small bones.
Maybe if she was a better or more obedient Kincaid, she would starve her ache instead of feeding it, or walk away instead
of looking for trouble, but the stinging was in her bones, her head hurt, and her ears rang. Maybe the panting mouth of danger
had been her all along. Maybe it was him. Maybe it was this moment when she touched him for the first time and watched his
eyes blow wide. Gali couldn’t feel his heartbeat under her hand, and that was a sure sign of nothing good.
“I’ll barter with you,” she said.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Celestial snapped her neck up from the bank of a creek and searched the wind with wild
eyes. Kincaids did not make barters like other people, but in that moment, Gali didn’t care.
“If I give you a dance back at the gala, you’re gonna let us see the artifact.”
Oriak? made a sound of protest, but Gali barely heard it. He was looking at her now, really looking at her, and she found herself desperately wishing to be seen. She was so many things and not even sure of all of
them. She was wild and barefoot under old trees; she was painted and polished in a mansion; she was nothing decided and everything
desired. She wanted to be seized, and he had so many teeth. His mouth softened from its disapproving lines, and the weight
of his attention felt like a thousand touches on her skin.
Gali tried to smile, and he dropped his gaze to her feet in the crystal stilettos, then worked his way up her oiled legs, her wide hips and soft belly, her breasts under the soft singing glass and the column of her neck.
By the time his eyes stopped and stayed at her mouth, he might as well have stripped her bare, and Gali knew for a certainty that he wanted her.
Unfortunately, thanks to the blatant hunger in his face, everyone else around them knew it as well.
The man with the gray eyes frowned and took a half step forward. “Boss . . . ?”
The stranger’s eyes didn’t move from Gali’s. She held her breath, and it felt like the hallway had vanished into the shadows,
along with the people in it.
Say yes, she willed him with all her want. Say yes.
A corner of his mouth curled up. “Yes,” he said. “A dance for a viewing, but I’ll take the dance right now.”
Relief washed through Gali that he’d agreed, but she pouted at the condition. “Damn, I don’t get to see the artifact with
my friends?”
“I’ll show it to you later myself.”
“Hold the fuck up—” Oriak? started, but Bonbon elbowed her sharply in the ribs.
“Y’all go on ahead,” she said, grinning at Gali with pure evil delight. “We’ll catch up.”
The rest of the security team looked uncertain, and the one who had spoken up before tried again. “Boss. What do you want
us to do?”
“Show them the artifact. Show them out afterward.” He was still staring at Gali, and the tension between them threatened to
incinerate the air. “I’m going to take my dance.”
He slid his hand over Gali’s, and her breath gave out at the hot touch of his skin, air escaping her lungs in a soft gasp.
It felt like a world was closing in on her, the jaws of a trap encircling gently, enough to coax her into letting it hold
her in place. Her wanting laughed and shouted inside her as he tugged at her hand, leading them away from the others and the
carved door with expensive secrets behind it.
Gali didn’t look back.
Her heart was galloping in her chest. They turned the corner, and the ache inside her roared louder than ever, a beast of want nipping at her heels as she stared at the sharp line of his jaw.
What had she done? He was radiant, and she wanted to touch her tongue to the skin of his neck, this displaced stranger.
He slid his fingers between hers, and Gali choked back a sound at the intimacy of that gliding touch.
Good God, she was already unraveling into an incoherent mess, and they’d barely talked—how was she going to keep it together
enough for one dance? This was as poorly thought out as it was thrilling. Gali wanted to unbutton his shirt and run her hands
over his chest, press her lips to the hollow at the base of his throat. He was almost a full foot taller than her, and his
legs were long, his thighs thick as his shoulders were broad. She didn’t want to share him with the guests at the gala.
“Stop,” she said softly.
He obeyed immediately, looking down at her with a faint frown.
“Do you desire another deal?” he asked, and something about the wording nudged at the back of her mind, but she ignored it.
They were in a small palace, not a dirt road. The worlds could stay good and separate, damn them.
“Nah,” she answered. “Just wanna touch your skin.”
She lifted a palm to his jaw and stroked her thumb against his cheek. He hissed, and his eyes bled black from corner to corner,
and Gali held her breath. What was that? Old pictures floated through her head, those gangling creatures with backward joints loping through dark, swampy groves. Gali
pushed them away, focusing on the hunger in his face and how it had sharpened to a burning edge.
“What if I want a kiss?” she asked, staring into his blacked-out eyes. “Should I be afraid, Helel?”
“That’s not my name.” He slid an arm around her waist, pulling her against him. “But yes,” he murmured, his lips curving into
a smile. “Be afraid.”
Gali’s pulse jumped as the stranger with the false name lowered his head and kissed her.
He was slow and deliberate, teasing her mouth open and sliding his tongue inside.
Lightning shot through her veins, white-hot and searing, and she kissed him back, making soft, hungry sounds as his tongue stroked hers, as his hand cupped the back of her neck, holding her in place.
When he pulled away, all Gali could do was stare up at him as her nerves sang with electricity and wetness pooled in her silk panties.
He wasn’t human, not with those black eyes under his lashes. It should have alarmed her more than it did. Gali didn’t know
what he was—possessed, maybe—and that was enough reason to run down the endless hallways until she was too far from his touch
to want it. Instead, she wanted him to pull up her dress, slide his hand between her thighs, and feel what he was doing to her, before doing more. So much more.
“You owe me a dance,” he said, watching her with his inhuman eyes, almost as if he was daring her to ask all the questions
anyone else would ask. Gali almost laughed, drunk on illicit pleasure. She wasn’t anyone else. She was a Kincaid, and if she
wanted to play with a monster, then she’d goddamn play with one.
“I could give you something better,” she offered.
He tilted his head to one side. “Another deal?”
“No.” She might be reckless, but she knew one deal was enough. “A gift.”
“Ah. Then I would owe you.” He bent and inhaled deeply from her neck. “A wise offer.”
Gali tried not to dissolve even more into his arms. “That’s—that’s not how gifts work.”
“It’s how they work with me.” He bit the junction of her neck and shoulder. She cried out, and he licked at it to soothe the
mark. “Give me whatever you want. I’ll take it all.”
Gali grinned a Kincaid grin and pulled away from him, backing up till there was a wall against her shoulder blades.
Her breath was weighted, collecting in her chest as she pushed her hips off the wall and widened her legs, never taking her eyes off his.
When she slowly pulled her beaded dress up to her waist, the stranger went predator-still at the sight of her silk panties, the pale pink fabric blushed dark with desire.
“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice a low growl.
Gali couldn’t believe she was doing this right there in a hallway that almost certainly had security cameras, when her friends
could turn the corner at any point on their way back to the gala. “Better make it quick,” she said, a little shakily.
He flicked his fingers, and Gali’s eyes widened as a cloud of darkness rose up from the floor, swirling around them. Shadows
brushed against her legs. The stranger walked up to her and dropped to one knee.
“Come here,” he said, and lifted one of her legs over his shoulder, her crystal stiletto dangling against his back. Gali gasped
and clutched at his hair to keep her balance. It was soft and woolen and deliciously thick. She should’ve been at least a
little worried about the whole summoning-darkness thing, but when he pressed his mouth to the gusset of her panties in a firm
kiss, Gali was no longer capable of thinking.
“Oh, God.” She looked down at him, her body trembling with anticipation as he kissed the inside of her thigh, right where
her skin was a spill of hyperpigmentation, and slid his hand up to cup her ass. The stinging in her bones clacked its teeth,
asking for more. “Oh, God, please.”
“You’re so perfect,” he murmured, glancing up at her with voids crawling over his face. “What’s your name?”
“Galilee Kincaid,” she gasped. “Everyone calls me Gali.”
He slid one finger under her panties and pulled them to the side, his warm breath brushing against her slick flesh. Gali whimpered
and tugged at his hair, her rings glinting among his curls.
“Galilee.” He rolled her full name inside his mouth like it was sugared. “I like you like this, Galilee, all desperate and
pleading.”
She threw her head back and tried to breathe, fighting the urge to hold his head in place and rub her clit against him.
“What about your name?” she threw out instead, scrambling for something to hold on to.
He dragged his tongue up her center in response, then swirled it around her clit, and Gali screamed, her back arching off the wall. “Aw, fuck!”
His grip on her ass tightened, and then his mouth was on her, ravenous and deliberate. Gali spun away, the crash of pleasure
feeding her want, summoned shadows swirling around her. Her hands fisted in the stranger’s hair, and she rode his face hungrily,
nearly sobbing as her orgasm drew closer and closer. His tongue slid around her clit, and she could’ve sworn it was forked,
caressing her from both sides in a rasping pattern that was about to send her over the edge.
“Don’t stop,” she begged, grinding against his face even faster. “I’m so close, oh, fuck . . .”
He hummed, a deep and resonant tone that vibrated all the way through her, then shoved two fingers inside her, and Gali broke
completely apart, her scream tearing out from her throat, her body convulsing as he kept going, his tongue flickering at her
clit and his fingers curling inside her. It was a storm, splintering light, and she wasn’t entirely sure she hadn’t left her
body briefly. The mansion itself seemed to buck and shiver around them, walls and floors contorting. By the time she came
back to herself, Gali looked down to see the stranger sitting back on his heel and watching her face, his lips slick with
her come. The corner of his mouth curved into a smile as he pulled out his fingers, and Gali gasped, making his smile widen
even more. He lowered her leg and stood up, helping her tug her dress back into place. The cloud of darkness was still a wall
around them, locking them in. Gali dragged in a breath as he slipped a hand under her dress and rearranged her panties, his
fingers brushing against her folds. God, she wanted him even more now and her migraine was gone.
“Thank you for that gift, Galilee,” he said, the heat of his voice razing her skin lightly.
His mouth was slick and smiling, and though his eyes were still blacked out, she thought he almost looked a little shaken.
“Forgive me, but I have to return to work. If you head straight down and take your second left, there will be staff who can direct you back to the party. We’ll take our dance another time. ”
Gali swallowed back a confused sound. What?
It took her a few seconds to process his words. He was leaving. He was giving her directions. The bastard hadn’t even unbuttoned his shirt through the whole thing. Just pinned her against a wall and made her come on
his face, and now he was about to walk away as if it had been nothing but some quick fun in his employer’s hallway. The darkness
he’d called still hung around them like a shroud.
“You didn’t even tell me your real name.” Her words came out with a bite scraping through them.
The stranger wiped his chin, staring right at Gali as he tasted her off his fingers. It was unbearably sexy to watch—he looked
like he was still starving for her. His eyes floated closed, and when they opened again, the blackness had faded from them
and the cloud in the hallway dissipated into nothing. Gali held her breath as he stepped in and bent his head, kissing her
lightly on the cheek. With his mouth by her ear, his voice sounded like a stream of live ash, soft and still burning.
“My name is Lucifer,” he said. “Next time, you’ll scream it for me.”