Without thinking, I slam my lips back on his, his groans lighting a flame.
I’ve never kissed this passionately, this fiercely before. It’s like a fire consumes my soul.
My hands entangle around his thick neck, curling through his silky hair, desperate to get closer. And he answers my greed with fervent licks, rolling his tongue around mine, equally as needy to get closer while his hands snake around my waist and trap me.
But then I remember who he is and what house he belongs to, and I instantly regret what we just did.
I swiftly jump up from the bench, the shock finally settling in.
“Oh God,” I mutter, swiftly grabbing my stuff. “This was a mistake.”
“No, it wasn’t. It was anything but a mistake.” He gets up from the bench too. “I fully intended to kiss those pretty lips, darling, and I’m not going to say I’m sorry.”
Wait, what?
I thought I’d convinced him by kissing him on the cheeks.
Has he wanted to kiss me all this time?
I gulp as my eyes slowly trail down his body, settling on the hard-on in his pants clearly visible through the fabric.
“Fuck,” I mutter, biting my lip before looking away. “God, I should’ve known.”
“What?” He snorts. “That you’d kiss me back?”
My jaw slowly drops, and my cheeks begin to glow. “No, I was overcome by …”
“Lust?” He grips my arm as if he could sense I was about to turn and run. “I know exactly what you felt because the same need courses through my veins.”
I shake my head. “But I saw you at Fi’s Cups and Cakes with someone.”
He steps closer, leaning in to get on eye level with me while licking his top lip. “Ask me what you want to ask. You can say it out loud.”
“I thought you were gay?”
God, I can’t believe I’m asking this question.
He smirks. “Call it whatever you like, but I don’t care what appendage someone has as long as they’re just as greedy as I am.”
Oh wow.
He leans back and taps his chin. “But if you need a name for it, I guess you could call it pansexual?” He clears his throat. “Regardless. That wasn’t the question you wanted to ask, was it?”
I’m still so flabbergasted by what just happened that I don’t even know what to say. “What?”
For every step he takes toward me, I take one back until my ass hits the sharp roses.
He grips my arm and stops me from falling into them.
“Ask me what you really wanted to know,” he muses.
I swallow away the lump in my throat. “That guy in the shop was your boyfriend, right?”
He shakes his head. “Not a boyfriend. A boy toy. A plaything.”
“But you—”
“Entertain myself with him.” He interjects. “What can I say, darling? I’m a sexual creature. I need pleasure, and I need a lot of it.”
“Oh … and you think I’m your next victim,” I muse, rolling my eyes before I push myself off him.
“No, wait,” he says, gripping my arm so I won’t leave. “You’re not. I’ve not made myself very clear, have I? Oh dear.” He sighs out loud and runs his fingers through his velvety black hair. “I’ve been keeping myself busy … with others … so I could get you off my mind.” The gulp that follows makes me stop resisting. “I’ve wanted nothing more than to kiss you, and I couldn’t help myself any longer.”
Suddenly, I hear clapping from the corner, and my entire body erupts into goose bumps the second I hear his voice.
“What an epic show.”
I gaze at the only exit through which Ares appears, his bright eyes shimmering in the moonlight.
“Too bad the only audience you had …” He smirks. “Was me.”
Ares
I stop the slow clapping even though I quite liked how they both reacted the second they heard me.
It took every ounce of self-control not to intervene when he kissed her. Seeing his lips on hers made me want to shoot him on sight. But then I remembered I wanted her in a vulnerable position. Needy.
And looking at the way she yearned for his kisses, she’s almost ready to submit.
The problem is … it’s not to me but to him.
My nostrils flare.
If it wasn’t for the fact that he’s my right hand, I probably would have killed him on the spot for even daring to touch her. But I need him alive and on my side. Which is why his falling for her, out of all people, complicates everything.
“Blaine,” I mutter, “you disappoint me.”
He immediately lets go of her and steps away.
“Sneaking away and playing with my little toy?”
“Your toy?” Crystal scoffs.
My eyes fixate on hers, but she refuses to look away, like a deer staring straight into the headlights despite knowing its end is near.
“Have you forgotten the deal you made?” I fish my phone from my pocket. “I’ll be more than happy to call your mother since Caleb sent me her number. See what she prefers.”
Crystal’s pupils dilate, and she shakes her head.
Satisfied, I tuck my phone back and focus on Blaine. “You went behind my back to seduce her.”
He sinks to his knees in front of me. “I will not deny it. But I will not apologize for it either.”
My eyes narrow. “How long?”
“Just tonight,” Crystal interjects, and we both look at her. “He only kissed me once.”
“Once?” I parrot, insulted she’d think it wouldn’t matter to me.
The thought alone turns me blind with rage, and I pull out my gun and aim it at his head.
“No!” Crystal tries to jump in.
“Crystal, don’t,” Blaine warns her, keeping his gaze fixated on mine.
“But he’ll kill you,” she says.
“He saved me from death long ago, and ever since, my life has belonged to him,” Blaine says. “If he wishes to take it, then so be it.”
His Adam’s apple moves up and down when I push the metal into his forehead.
“If he only kissed you once, why would you care whether he lives or dies?” I ask her.
She parts her lips, but there’s no answer, so I say it again. “Tell me, do you care so much about this man who kissed you once that you would save his life at all costs?”
I’m curious what she will pick.
“Yes,” she replies.
My eyes twitch. “You want to save his life?” I take off the safety and watch her panic. “Then kiss me the way you just kissed him.”
“What?” she gasps.
I push the barrel into his head. “You heard me. Kiss me like it’s the end of the fucking world because it will be the end of his if you don’t.”
She swallows and makes a fist, then slowly steps closer, eyeing Blaine once before she grips my face and softly plants her lips onto mine. The kiss is extraordinary, fluffy light yet filled with so many hidden desires, it’s almost as if it was meant for me.
But I know it isn’t.
Yet when she pulls away again with those rosy stained lips of hers, it almost makes me want to drop this gun and grasp her face to smash them right back on.
No wonder he’s fallen for her so easily, so desperate to throw away his soul for a dangerous girl.
I lower my gun and tuck it away. “You’re lucky,” I growl at him.
“Thank you,” Blaine mutters. “I will not disappoint you again.”
I grip her chin and make her look at me. “Next time you let him touch you … my hands will be there too, curling around your throat while you beg for mercy from my cock. Do you understand?”
She nods softly.
When I push her away from me, she mouths, “Asshole.”
A smug grin forms on my face, my hand wrapping around my gun. “Care to say that again?”
But instead of a glimmer of fear settling in her eyes, all I get is another damn insufferable smile.
My nostrils flare.
She fucking knows exactly what she’s doing.
“I will see you at Tartarus House,” I tell Blaine as I turn around and waltz off. “We’ve got a party to prepare for.” I glance at her once more, savoring the sight of her in those tight little yoga pants. “And I will see you there tomorrow night.”
