Chapter 34 - Scarlett #2
He stared back at me, unblinking, his eyes shifting into something I didn’t recognize, but of course I didn’t recognize it, I had only ever heard emotions, I had never seen them before, not like this.
It was almost as if he were daring me to look away.
As if he were trying to put cold rage into his eyes to make me fear him, but how could I ever fear him? He was Azrael and he was beautiful.
Everything about him was sharp and soft. Like a feather covered in thorns. He was young too and tall, so tall that I had to angle my head up slightly to look into his eyes.
I didn’t know how young he was, but there were no wrinkles around his eyes, there was no age in his voice or hands when I had seen them. He couldn’t have been anywhere near as old as the Leaders in the church. I was sure he wasn’t even as old as Thomas was.
“Eyes worthy of a Queen,” he said, breaking the spell.
My eyes fell to his lips, but it was too late, they had already closed. His lips were beautiful. His face was clean, darker than mine, I think I heard someone call it tan once. The sun liked him.
He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen.
“That’s my good little sinner,” he hummed, and I found my lips threatening to part again, my heart skipping a beat as I watched his lips move. I found that my lips only did that during the moments when I couldn’t remember how to breathe. As if I suddenly needed more oxygen.
Oh, I could certainly watch them forever.
“Would you like your present now?”
I liked the way they curved around each word. He made love to each and every single one as they left his lips. Each of them precise and picked for a reason. He spoke so eloquently, so harmoniously. A calculated dark song.
“Scarlett.”
My lips did part at that. I couldn’t stop them, not when I saw my name leave his lips. The way his tongue slid and flicked, the soft yet caressed sound of each syllable, causing that thing between my legs, the thing that ached so terribly, to flutter. It was breathtaking.
“Eyes.”
My eyes lifted to his and I straightened, not realizing that I had been leaning towards him.
I felt heat rise to my cheeks as I straightened, only to pause when I noticed a change in his eyes.
His pupils had grown. Really big, it looked like.
His eyes looked like a lunar eclipse now, just exactly like the one I had seen in one of my other books.
When darkness fell over the world, blocking out the moon, God was punishing the nonbelievers for all of the sins they had committed by taking away the thing that controlled the tides. A warning.
My head tilted ever so slightly, my eyes furrowing. Was he sick?
“Yours have widened too,” he told me and then stepped to one side of the table. “It happens for many reasons,” he explained, pulling the gift to the edge of the table. “Fear, recognition, and most often, lust.”
Lust. I remembered that sin. It was part of what I had committed when he had last come here, because I had lusted for blood and death. At the moment, I lusted for him.
I wanted to touch myself again, something I hadn’t wanted to do since that night.
I really did. I wanted to feel that emotion again, that wave of absolute bliss, and I wanted him to see it.
I wanted him to be so proud of how well I followed his directions.
Which was strange because I hadn’t cared about making anyone proud since the day I picked my name, disappointing my mom with my choice.
He gestured towards the gift. “Your gift for being so good for me.”
My stomach warmed at his words, my eyes falling to the box. It was beautiful. Red with black stripes and a big black bow on top.
I glanced back to him, looking over him quickly, taking in as much as I could.
He was wearing all black. A black shiny vest over a black long-sleeved shirt with a black tie tucked in, and black pants with his leather boots.
He looked very handsome. So handsome that it made those electric butterflies flutter even more.
My hands flexed at my side, itching to touch something just as my eyes found a small silver chain clipped on his vest, falling slightly and disappearing into his vest pocket.
“My watch,” he explained, pulling it out of that very pocket.
My eyes widened at the shimmer of the silver he brought out. It was circular and had beautiful designs etched into the metal surface. It fit in the center of his palm perfectly.
I stepped closer to him just as he hit a button at the top, the familiar click sounding. It opened, revealing a beautiful clock face, filled with moving gears and three little hands that were as black as night.
I instantly stepped up next to him, watching the secondhand tick tick tick. It was beautiful. It had to be the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, the thing that beat in time with my heart.
Tick tock.
Tick tock.
Tick—
He closed it, pulling me from my reverie.
I blinked once and immediately stepped back, realizing what I had done. My chin dipped, my hands found each other at my hip, my face burned hot. I had crossed too many lines. Would his punishment be like Thomas’?
“Your wonder is allowed, little sinner,” he purred. “Your present.”
I swallowed, my hesitation burning through me, warning me not to do it. But that wasn’t my voice, it was theirs. I could look up, he had said as much.
Still, it took me a second longer to break through the spell, lifting my eyes back to the present.
I glanced at his chest—seeing the chain back in place—as I stepped up to the table again, taking in the box. It was so beautiful, so perfect.
I finally reached out and took the top off, peeking inside to find a bag filled with colorful paper on one side, and on the other, many bottles of varying sizes, that hairbrush, and a new scrub brush. My eyes widened, my heart leaping in my chest, my stomach buzzing.
I signed ‘thank you’ several times while reaching in with my other hand, picking up one of the larger bottles and finally opening it to smell what was inside.
The citrus and sea soap from last week! I loved the scent, it was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
“It’s shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and the smallest one is for your face,” he explained as I pulled each one out. “That one,” he gestured towards the diamond shaped bottle, “is perfume.”
Perfume?
I leaned back, examining the bottle carefully. It was beautiful, but what was perfume?
“Take the lid off,” he told me, “spray it on your wrist and either side of your neck. You rub your wrists together when you’re done.”
I pulled the lid off and held out my other wrist, spraying the perfume gently before spraying each side of my neck, the scent hitting me instantly.
I inhaled deeply, my eyes falling shut. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever smelled.
I set it down, rubbed my wrists together, and held my wrist out to him, finding his eyes, feeling the muscles around my lips lift up. A smile. Not a big one, but enough for his eyes to track.
His beautiful, haunted blue eyes remained on my mouth for a long time. Even when he leaned down and smelled my wrist, his eyes remained locked in place.
“Divine,” he hummed, causing my pussy, as he called it, to pulse.
My eyes fell to his lips, a new feeling filling my stomach, one that caused my heart to flutter and my head to spin. Nervousness, I think. But why was I nervous? It was Azrael.
I pressed my thighs together, trying to ease the discomfort between them as I lowered my wrist and turned back to the box, finding my final present.
I could feel his eyes on me, watching my every move as I reached in and pulled it out.
I pushed the box to the side and set the bag down, gently pulling out the thin red paper.
When I was sure I had gotten the last of it out, I leaned over, trying to peek inside only to freeze when I caught sight of it.
I glanced to Azrael and back, my heart pounding, my entire body filling with feathers as I reached in, my fingers brushing by the softest fur I had ever touched in my entire life.
I wrapped my hand around it and pulled it out carefully, the bag falling to the side as I held it up in front of me.
It was a rabbit. The whitest rabbit I had ever seen. It was wearing a little floppy muddy brown hat with a feather sticking out of the purple ribbon around the base, it had a black and red bowtie on, and its ears were as long as it was.
There was a shape on each paw too. Shapes I recognized from playing card games over the years. There was a red heart on its right arm paw, a black spade on the left, a red diamond on the left foot paw, and a black club on the right.
It even had big glass eyes, the exact color of Azrael’s.
It was absolutely perfect in every way.
My eyes found his as naturally as if I had been looking at him my entire life. “Mine?” I wanted to ask him.
He was watching me carefully, nodded once in response, and that was it.
I felt the muscles around my lips tighten again, the corners turning up slightly. I tightened my grip around the rabbit and hugged it close, tilting my head into its soft fur, Azrael’s scent filling my nose.
I inhaled deeply, my entire body warming from my toes to my head. Out of everything I had ever gotten, this was my absolute favorite.
“There’s more,” he told me quietly, his voice changing into a tone I hadn’t heard before.
My eyes found his lips. More? What else could there possibly be? I had everything I could ever dream of now.
He gestured towards the rabbit. “Each paw belongs to the recent additions to the family. They will be your friends. Eventually.”
There was a burning behind my eyes as they flicked to his. I could be friends with them?