“You almost had me,” he said.
The admittance pleased me, and I couldn’t help but smile smugly.
He lowered me just enough that my feet touched stone again, though his hands lingered for a breath too long. A deception that he was letting me retreat. Before I could step away, he grabbed me again and carried me against his chest. My palms slapped against his hot flesh.
I stared up at him, breath shallow, heart pounding.
Not from fear.
From something far more dangerous.
His steps were slow but purposeful, each one echoing like a silent threat across the stone floor. I’d expected a smug remark, another verbal jab meant to put me back in my place—but nothing came.
And that was…strange.
I tilted my head slightly to study his face. The harsh, beautiful lines of it were set tighter than usual. His jaw clenched. His mouth was pulled in a firm line, unreadable. But what unsettled me most was his tail—no lashing, no tapping, no flicking. Still as death.
What just happened?
I almost asked, but the words lodged in my throat. Maybe it was guilt gnawing at me for trying to flip him, or maybe it wasbecause the silence felt so fragile that speaking might shatter something I didn’t understand.
So I settled for the smallest of frowns as I continued to watch him.
He didn’t glance my way, but the tension in his brow deepened, and for a flicker of a second, I swore I saw…something.
Worry?
No way.
He disappeared twice earlier—once right after I’d wandered off and again after he’d killed that monster pretending to be my father. That wasn’t a coincidence. Something had rattled him.
And if the Devil was rattled…that wasn’t good for any of us.
I scowled, trying not to squirm in his arms. “You could’ve let me walk.”
“I could’ve,” he agreed, not sounding the least bit apologetic.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he held me like I weighed nothing, like he wasn’t restraining an enemy—but something…other. I didn’t like the way that thought made my heart stutter.
A sharp throb swirled low in my stomach unexpectedly, and I tensed all over again.
“You were picking a fight. It’s not going to change your punish—”
He froze, eyes locking on mine. His pupils constricted like a predator catching a scent. Something flickered across his expression—something raw and unreadable. His lips parted slightly, as if he were about to speak, but then clamped shut.His brows pinched together, gaze dragging to my mouth and lingering far too long.
My breath hitched before I could stop it.
A strange tension fell between us as his lips parted. I swore an inferno, much like the one beneath the crack of his skin, blazed in his reddened stare…
Then I faded, reappearing behind him. I kicked him in the back and sent him sailing a few feet. He disappeared midair. My leg didn’t get the chance to drop before he was there, grabbing me at the bend of my knees. He pulled me into his chest and cradled me there. Again.
Even through my clothes, I could feel how warm his chest was and tensed. “What’s your problem?”
“I thought, for a second—” His mouth snapped shut, then curled as he wrinkled his nose. “What I thought was impossible."
“And why do you keep carrying me this way?”
