Chapter 18 #2
“Not if it’s your facts.” I needed to shut the hells up. I was digging that hole for myself again.
“I’ve seen the way you look at me,” he drawled, smugness dripping from every word.
“With wrath and disgust?” I smirked, glaring at him.
Dark amusement gleamed in his eyes, predatory and knowing. “You look at me like you want me to break you.”
Heat flushed through me even as my mind screamed in protest, then shame and desire warred in my chest, leaving me breathless and burning.
The audacity and arrogance of his words should have disgusted me. But Gods help me, hadn’t I thought about that when I first saw him at the tavern—him breaking me.
Some dark part of me still wanted to know what that would feel like. It still stirred deep inside, desperate to know the taste of surrender.
“You’re wrong,” I stuttered, hoping he wouldn’t see through my lie.
I stepped back to give myself some space. But he followed.
The book floated out of his hands and slipped itself back onto the shelf, obediently taking its leave as if it wanted no part of what was happening between us.
There wasn’t much room for us to do our war dance, so all I got was another step before I was up against the wall and the devil had me caged in.
He dropped his finger to my nose; the mere contact rooted my feet to the spot. Then he traced my skin down to my jaw and lingered by the hollow of my neck. There he looped a lock of my hair around his finger and placed his hand by the side of my head. Once again, he was far too close for my liking.
As those eyes held me in place the room seemed to shrink, narrowing until
there was nothing left but this moment between him and me—the predator and prey.
Wolfe looked at me as if he was going to kiss me or kill me. He was certainly close enough to try.
“What are you doing?” I rasped, dread rising in my throat in a ball of fear that threatened to seal the air from my lungs.
Wolfe exhaled slowly, charging the air between us with forbidden desire. “Observing you, Ziyka.”
“Why?”
“It’s entertaining to watch you pretend you don’t want me.” His voice dropped to a sinful whisper. “That you don’t want a dark soul like me to break your innocent, untouched body with my unhallowed hands.”
“I’m not pretending.” More lies. And my breathy voice made it clear I was desperately trying to save what remained of my dignity.
The haughtiness in his eyes told me he knew. “How about we agree not to lie to each other, Ziyka. Lies are so fickle and foolish.”
“Of course they are.”
“Glad you agree. Now you can stop pretending you haven’t thought about all the filthy things you wanted me to do to you.
” Every smile he’d given me had felt like a dare, but this one was pure sin, wicked and coaxing, the kind that would make a Veiled-maiden drop her robes and beg to be ruined. And his teeth…
The canines had lengthened slightly. I was sure they had. They didn’t look like that a moment ago.
I swallowed hard and breathed past the constriction in my throat.
Forget his teeth and his crass words. I had to get myself together or this man would be the death of me.
“This can’t be what you summoned me to talk about.” I hardened my gaze and tried to focus. It would have been far easier if he weren’t so damn close.
“The subject of us needs to be addressed.”
“Why?”
“Because…” He inched closer, his breath ghosting over my lips. “I can’t go there with you, Ziyka.”
“Can’t go… where?”
His smile widened. “I can’t fuck you.”
My stomach dropped and wild, unwanted heat licked up my spine. Each word branded into my mind. Filthy, final, and terrifyingly honest. Wolfe wasn’t taunting me this time. He meant every damn word.
“As your captor, I’m sure I don’t need to explain the unfavorable ethics of crossing such a line.”
I steeled my spine despite the war raging in my soul. “No, of course not.”
His gaze dragged down my body like a vow he hadn't yet made. “If we crossed that line, we’d also have that other problem.”
I narrowed my eyes, knowing full well I shouldn’t indulge him with any more questions but curiosity got the better of me. “What problem?”
A satisfied grin slid across his lips, a sign I’d fallen into another trap. “This problem, little mage: if I fuck you, there will be no coming back. And there will be no end to what I take. You’d never be free of me. And you’d never want to be.”
Blessed. Mother.
My mind stalled, utterly frozen by his words.
I gazed deep into his eyes, caught within the violent pull of fear and something far more dangerous that fractured my mind. Dark desire. The kind that could make you lose your mind and not care.
A hurried little voice whispered to my soul that he hadn't entirely tricked me the night he took me captive. This hunger consuming us both was real.
Only hours ago, he told me I was his. And the bulge of his cock, thick and hard against my belly, confirmed this dangerous epiphany.
I tried to process the terrible truth, but his mouth hovered there, so close the space between us seemed charged with lightning. So close a single ragged breath could have sealed our lips.
“Don’t tempt me, little mage.” Within the prison of his stare savage hunger flared in his eyes as he drank in. “I would not be gentle with you. And I’d ruin you for anyone else.”
His words pulsed between my legs, and with quiet horror, I realized that I was wet.
Shame scraped across my ribs like glass and my heart hammered out of cadence in a helpless rhythm.
The way he watched me promised that he would indeed wreck me, and damn it, the bastard looked like he knew I’d thank him for every second of it.
Wolfe Nightblade would fuck the fight right out of me. And in that moment, I thought I might let him.
Gods, something was definitely, definitely wrong with me.
The curse was finally catching up. All those years of resetting must have taken its toll on my mind. Or maybe it was just me.
Perhaps I was always doomed to be under Wolfe Nightblade’s spell.
With agonizing slowness, he finally inched away, leaving his chaos writhing through my mind and the cold emptiness of distance where his body had been.
I sagged against the wall, my chest heaving with relief even though my body still yearned for him.
Wolfe stepped back and cocked his head toward the table. “Come, let’s talk. We have much to discuss.” Although his voice had regained control, the crude look in his eyes promised if I ever gave him the smallest opening, he’d use it and devour me whole.
This devil didn’t flirt the way most men did. He promised something far more consuming. I had to be careful of him. Being careful was more imperative to my plans than ever because I still wanted him.
I dragged in a slow breath to clear my head and moved over to the desk with trembling legs, readying myself for round two.
Breathe and focus, Elariya. If you ever hope to be free from this Hades you mustn’t lose yourself.
You cannot be his Persephone.