Chapter 3 #2
Glancing away briefly, she shut her eyes.
Fine. He’d already seen what she looked like.
She might as well let him have what he wanted.
She let the rest of her glamor fall. She hated having to take her real form on dry land—it felt awkward and unnatural.
She wasn’t meant for it, after all. But it’d have to do.
She let her tail drape over the cover, reaching all the way across the enormous bed and over the edge and onto the floor. “There.”
His gaze trailed over her body, drinking in the sight. It was clear he was holding back from what he wanted to do—which was touch. Laughing, she lay down onto her stomach. “You’re a fucking idiot. Now you’re gentle?”
“This seems different.” He reached out and ran a hand over her scales with a quiet huh. “Does it hurt you to shift?”
“No, thankfully. Unless I’m restrained when I do it.
Handcuffs, ropes—something that makes me go from smaller to larger, that kind of thing.
” She shouldn’t be giving away all of her secrets, but she’d never had anyone be honestly curious.
Even her employers generally kept a safer-not-to-know mindset.
His fingers wandered to her fins, toying with the delicate, almost torn-lace material of them. “If I were to handcuff you, and you were to take Ivan’s form—you would be injured by that, for example.”
“Exactly. I could do it, but I’d be liable to break the bones of my wrist in the process.
Worth it to escape, but not without cost.” Folding her arms, she laid her cheek down on them.
She suddenly felt tired from the whole day’s ordeal.
And his hand gently roaming over her tail was strangely calming.
“You never answered my question from before, Nadi. When was the last time you made love wearing your own face?” He shifted closer to her, his hand still running along her tail.
Taking in a breath, she held it, and let it out in a rush. What was the point in hiding anymore? “Since before you killed my family. I was a young woman. Barely little more than a girl. It doesn’t really count.”
“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” He lay down next to her, stroking her hair back and away from her face, watching her curiously with a frown etched into his perfect features.
It felt so odd to have him touch her. Not sexually—not in a needy way. But like she was something special. Something to be… cherished.
“Were there other fae in your family like you? Like this?”
“No. But that wasn’t uncommon. I had a cousin who had the legs of a goat.
Only one in our clan like that.” She rolled onto her back, mostly just to get a little more distance between them.
She felt too warm. “We were all unique in our own way. Some fae would leave their clans in search of others like themselves.”
“Did you ever feel that pull?”
“Yeah.”
“And why didn’t you go?”
When she didn’t answer immediately, he let out a small, quiet laugh. “Ah. Your revenge. Me.”
“Yeah. You.”
“And now things between us have become complicated, haven’t they, Nadi?” He wasn’t going to let her escape him so easily, draping an arm over her. His face was only inches away now, those crimson eyes flicking between hers, drinking in her every expression.
This was what she was trying to avoid. The real peeling back of everything.
“I suppose.” She wanted to roll away from him. To hide it all. To deny every ounce of it—every scrap of the truth. To look him straight in the eye and tell him that he was wrong, she felt nothing, and everything that had just passed between them had been a ploy.
Or to tell herself that she was playing him. That this was all still just a game. A game to ensure that she was properly positioned to get her revenge when she had her chance.
But it would be a lie.
“Nadi…”
“What do you want me to say, Raziel?” She tried to keep back the tears. “What more do you want to cut from me? I lost my family to you. I learned to kill for you. I killed my uncle for you. I—”
His lips crashed against hers, silencing her. And she couldn’t have been more grateful. Because the demanding kiss pushed the encroaching pain from her thoughts. There was only him.
Only them.
When they parted, he rested his forehead against hers. “I know, Nadi. I know.” His voice was quiet, barely more than a rumble of thunder in the distance.
He didn’t apologize. And she didn’t want him to. Hell, if he tried to, she’d probably knee him in the groin. It was the last thing she wanted. She made her choices. And she was still making her choices, when it came down to it.
Whatever this was that was growing roots.
Wherever it took them.
It was her choice to let it continue…
Or rip it out and let it die.
“Tomorrow is going to be a long day.” Raziel pushed away from her, climbing from the bed to unbutton his shirt and shrug out of it. “Word will already have been sent ahead by the captain that I came aboard with a vampiric Monica.”
“Yeah. I know.” She shifted back into her legged form. Her tail was just too ungainly. She slid under the covers and the sheets. There was no reason to even fuss about who slept where at this point. “No way to stall your mother for a day?”
He huffed a laugh. “You’ve met her.” He tossed his shirt aside. Undressing the rest of the way down to his boxers, he kicked his clothes carelessly into a pile. “What do you think?”
She laughed once as well. Yeah. She knew the answer to the question. Lying back against the pillow, her head swam with how tired she was. “I think we should kill her first.”
The bed sagged as Raziel climbed in beside her. He pulled her in close to him, tucking her against his chest. She fought the urge to go rigid against him. It was instinctual.
“While I don’t disagree, and I hate the bitch as much as you do, I have other plans.” He kissed the back of her head. “But we’ll discuss it another time.”
Right.
Plans. He had plans. On how to kill his family. And now they were working together. No, worse than that. He assumed he was in charge, of course. That was a harsh and uncomfortable realization.
That, plus the horrible truth that some part of her was starting to care about this monster she was now about to sleep with.
It didn’t matter how much she wanted him.
It didn’t matter how much she cared about him.
She needed to find a way out.
She had to find a way to salvage this mess.
One way or another.