A door opened, and I could feel Samael step into our room, could feel the power churning around him as a smile played around my mouth.
I turned and stepped through the balcony and into our room. My heart gave one hard thud as my gaze found liquid silver.
There he was. The man who’d come for me, knowing he’d be powerless in this realm. The man who’d fought for his people, who’d been with me every step of the way, even when I couldn’t remember his name.
He was dressed in a suit that matched his eyes, and I drank him in, my fingers itching to caress the ridges of his abs, to wander lower, lower, until—
“Well, this is interesting.” Samael ran his gaze over my body, and I grinned at him. Those were the first words he ever said to me.
“Take off your clothes,” he ordered.
I merely raised one eyebrow, and he smiled.
“Please,” he purred, “disobey me. I haven’t gotten my hands dirty for weeks.”
I blinked at him and burst out laughing. Back when Samael first said those words, he’d been threatening to kill me.
As I watched, he pulled one of my throwing knives from his pocket, placing it on the dresser next to him. He’d kept it as a talisman after I’d thrown it at him–managing to stick him in the calf–and he still refused to give it back.
I closed the balcony door behind me and made a show of glancing over his shoulder.
He took a single step closer. “It won’t work, you know.”
I angled my head. “What won’t work?”
“Waiting for your chance to escape. There are no chances here.”
I bared my teeth at him. He bared his back. His teeth werestillscarier.
He launched himself at me and I was too busy laughing to fight him off. Within a couple of seconds, I was blinking up at him, my back pressed against silk sheets.
“You have two choices,” he said, and I raised my eyebrow at him.
“Your first choice? Both you and the traitor die. This Steve dies harder, begging for death for daring to cross me.”
I smiled at him. “Go on.”
“Your first choice? Submit to me and be rewarded.”
“Hmm,” I pretended to think about it while he methodically stripped me of my clothes.
I stretched my hands over my head and watched as his gaze dropped to my breasts, the hunger in his eyes making me both languid and eager.
His warm body covered mine, and I gasped as his clothes disappeared from his body.
“And the second choice?” I raised one eyebrow imperiously, and he looked suddenly younger, like the weight of the world was finally off his shoulders.
“You work for me.”
“In what capacity?”
His gaze dropped to the demon on the floor. “This isn’t the first death in the past few weeks, although it’s a different method. Something is hunting demons, and your reputation precedes you. You’ll be my personal bounty hunter.”
“You work for me,” Samael purred, gently pushing my hair back off my face. My whole body went tight. Mine. Mine for always.
“In what capacity?” My hand stroked down his chest.
“You’ll bemypersonal bounty hunter.”
