“Are we being wicked now, hmm?” His voice was a low rumble as he opened his eyes, fire smouldering in them. His Adam’s appledipped and rose with every word, a movement I found far too distracting.
“You started it,” I pointed out.
One eyebrow lifted, and he pressed the tip of the dagger into my nipple. I felt the faint give of fabric as the blade slipped through the thin cotton of my top, working its way towards the barrier of my bra. His gaze was locked on mine, steady and unblinking, that brow still arched as though the only thing that mattered in the entire library was my answer to a question he hadn’t spoken yet.
My chest thudded. My skin burned at the thought that he might pierce me—truly pierce me—without even realising.
When the blade rolled once, sawing through the last thread of my bra, it paused exactly where my nipple peaked, as though he’d calculated it. The sharp kiss of steel pressed against the most sensitive skin on my body. I froze, breath caged in my lungs. Any careless shift—mine or his—could drive the point in.
“That’s dangerous,” I murmured, but his gaze had already dipped to my mouth.
“Tell me to stop.”
Never. If anyone was going to end this, it would be him.
Instead of breathing a word about stopping, I slid my hand from the shelf and brought it down between my thighs, unbuttoning my jeans and slipping my fingers inside.
His brows furrowed, a flicker of disapproval crossing his features. He didn’t even glance down but somehow, he knew what was going on down there.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
A slow smile curved my lips. “Try to stop me.”
“I have a fucking knife at your nipple,” he gritted out.
Fucking.
It was the first time I’d heard Thrax curse, and the way the word broke from his teeth made my eyes roll out of focus just as my fingers brushed my clit.
A ragged breath escaped me.Gods, I could die.
“Say that again,” I pleaded, meeting those eyes that had darkened to an insane level as I flicked my finger over the bud.
“Don’t be a bad girl. It’s not rewarding,” Thrax rasped. He pulled the dagger away, flipped it in his hand, and pressed the hilt against my jaw while I worked myself beneath my jeans. “Hmm?”
Girls were bad when their shame was nowhere to be found, and mine? It exited my body the moment he placed his hand on my stomach. “No,” I declined, clutching the shelf tighter, my teeth sinking into my lower lip.
“Fuck,” he breathed.
And that…that seemed to undo him.
But it also reminded him who he was. His eyes shuttered for a heartbeat, and when he opened them again, the lust was locked neatly away, hidden behind whatever walls he’d perfected long before I ever met him.
His hands left me. He stepped back, chest expanding as if he needed the air I’d stolen from him.
I released a breath as my head dropped to the books, feeling fulfilled that I beat him at the game he started, but unsatisfied and still buzzing because he could have waited a minute for me to finish. I withdrew my hand and buttoned my jeans, wiping my wetness on it in the process.
When I finally turned, he was staring at the shelf, his gaze fixed on the spines as if just noticing them for the first time.
To ease the tension, I provided, “I thought I might find a lead if I read about the cause of The Crater again,” I said, my tone sharper than intended as I crossed my arms over my chest, seamlesslyblending back into the mood I was in when he first appeared. “Since you’ve decided to keep everything to yourself.”
Amusement glimmered in his eyes as he returned them to me. “You’re not planning to find the truth in a bunch of lies, are you?”
“You wouldn’t know.” I glanced at the shelves. “There’s always one truth in a book of lies.”
“You think?” His brow rose again. Before I could answer, he stepped to the far end of the shelf, plucked a book from it without hesitation, and returned. With the same hand that was holding the dagger, he unfolded my arms and set the book into my hands. Not the thick all-in-one I’d come to the shelf for, but a smaller, worn volume. “I doubt you will find answers, but this version has a bit of truth in it.”
I scoffed. “How would you know what the truth is?”
