It’s not like I didn’t like the idea of sleeping next to this psychopomp—Or whatever he said he was. That was the problem. I liked it too much. Everything about him drew me closer. Like a spider pulling its prey into a web.
Even his scent was intoxicating, and strangely familiar. Sweet and fruity, like ripe summer strawberries…
That’s when it clicked. He smelt of sodium nitrate, a chemical found in shampoos, as well as embalming fluid. I hadn’t had much experience with it–most of the corpses I’d dug up were too old for the scent to linger–but it was a fragrance that haunted my brain. Underneath the sweet scent were traces of pine. Like a freshly-built casket.
My heart ached at the aroma. It made me homesick.
I didn’twantto want this man. But I did. That scared me almost as much as wanting the Lord of Bones. I stumbled away toward the hearth, but there was a jerk of the chain fasted to my collar. I hadn’t noticed the chain had looped around my foot. With the tug, it caught around my ankle and I went tumbling to the floor.
“There you go,” the dark voice behind me drawled. “You look good on your knees.”
I whipped around to see Belial sitting on the edge of the bed, the chain clenched in his fist. He gave it another tug. “I want you to sleep here, beside me.”
“AndIwant you to fuck off,” I snarled, trying to ignore the heat sweeping through my core at the thought of lying beside him.
He laughed, the sound dark and electric like thunder. “Liar. You want me to stay. Your scent betrays you.” He leaned back on his bed, one hand braced behind him while the other held my chain, giving it a gentle tug. “Come closer and I’ll indulge your curiosity, little human.”
The masked demon visage blurred as angry tears pricked my eyes. He was fucking with me.
I hated how much I loved it.
“Are you my punishment for what I did to Catherine’s body?”
“If anything I’m your only chance at salvation, Rayven.” Belial tilted his head, his eyes gleaming in the firelight. He was close enough now that I could see them staring out from the mask’s eyeholes. They were a beautiful storm gray. “I could be of aid to you.”
Hope soared in my chest. “You mean you’ll help me?”
Instead of answering, he rose to his feet and approached me. I didn’t dare move. I craned my head to look up at him as he loomed over me. He looked so terrifyingly handsome, doused in the amber light of the fire.
It wasn’t until I was kneeling in front of him that I realized how tall he was.
He held his fist in front of him, the chain slack in his white-knuckled grip. Then he started to circle me, wrapping the chain around my throat.
“You know…” He drawled on the second loop. “You were making the cutest little noises in your sleep. Begging your lord to take you. You must be awfully pent-up. In need of relief.”
He stopped when he came back round, standing right in front of me. My attention went straight to his bulge. How could it not? With how close he stood, it basically took up my entire field of vision. He arched down and pressed a slender index finger to my chin, his eyes capturing mine. “Let me sate your ache, then I’ll let you off your leash.”
He turned his hand, running his knuckles down my jawline. The reverence in his touch had my heart beating faster than it ever had before. I wanted to say yes. Hell, before he’d dangled my freedom in front of me like a carrot on a stick, I wanted to say yes.
Now that he was offering to let me off this chain, how could I say no?
I worried my lower lip, my heart falling a little as he turned and sat back on the bed. His thumb rubbed over the chain links. “So, what’s it going to be? Are we going to play? Or will we go to sleep and wait for the Lord to call for you?”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “You don’t. But what other choice do you have? Holga won’t defy the Lord, not for a second time. Nor will the other servants.”
I frowned. “But you will? Why? What do you get out of it?”
“Easy.” There was that smile in his voice again. “I get you.”
My jaw fell open as I stared at him in disbelief. Who was this guy that he’d risk angering his god? And for what? Living pussy?
But he was right, as much as I hated to admit it. Holga wouldn’t help me. Belial was my best shot at getting out of here. “Alright. Fine. You have a deal.”
“Smart girl,” he praised, his voice rough and hungry. He pulled on the chain—this time with a gentle flick of his wrist. “Now be a good girl and crawl to me.”
Chapter12
