Not even my hot bod?
“You can have that one for free,” she said, walking back the way she’d come. “Considering our history.”
I hummed. “Only four more to go then.”
She stopped. “Four more?”
“Knowledge or a… boon… for every time you acted the blacksmith, as you like to call it.” I smiled sweetly. “You know, considering our history.”
Once out of her sight, I rested a hand against the wall, my mind heavy with the knowledge she’d imparted. Because she was right. I’d never once seen Carmine do anything other than what best served the realm’s interest. Be that cold murder, lies, cruelty, or theft.
The area under my ribs pulsed, and I nodded to my intuition. “I know.”
Gratia just gave me the ticket to return to Tiers.
I just had to figure out how to redeem it.
6
“You trained with the crimsons today,” Carmine said, straight to the point as ever.
My heart thumped as I quickly finished binding my breasts before swiping a dress from the wardrobe at random. “I did.”
He leaned against the doorframe, blocking the entrance well and good. Forget the doorway, he filled the room just by being here. Carmine wasn’t born a king, but he exuded the quality.
The sarcastic question I’d been about to ask him faded as I held up the dress. The strapless bodice was a chest plate of velvet—a single, seamless bodice that connected into the tulip-style skirt. I… liked it.
Had hell frozen over? I liked a dress in this realm. I’d never liked demon fashion before because demon fashion was nipple string and loincloths. “Whomadethis?”
Carmine didn’t answer, and I hadn’t expected him to. The day he troubled himself to learn who styled a dress was the day I’d kiss that hard mouth of his.
I slipped the dress over my head and tugged the bodice over my breasts, then smoothed the waistline into place around my midriff. The skirt came to mid-thigh, puffing out over my hips intrue tulip fashion. The dress highlighted my muscular arms and legs, while hiding the curves I’d gained in the last three years.
My strength was displayed. My secrets were hidden. I smoothed my hands over the bodice again and then trailed my fingers over the flare of the skirt. I used to love clothes. My mother had lamented my aversion to natural fabrics, too, which maguskind usually gravitated toward, my twin included.
“You find pleasure in the dress,” Carmine said in a curious tone. “You’ve never behaved like this.”
His voice jolted me to the present. My only excuse for dropping my guard was that this fashion moment had been five years in the making.
“I do like it.” Surprise colored my voice.
Carmine’s gaze slipped over my body, and I read his distaste. If it were up to him, I’d only wear underwear.
He said slowly, “I have never seen a dress like it. But I have never met a demon like you. So it is fitting.”
I laughed. “Don’t hurt yourself trying to find a compliment, Carmine.” If this dress drove him farther away, all the better. I was a woman of function and practicality these days, so the dress was automatically a winner. No pockets, but that could be fixed. Unlike some people, Iwouldtrack down the designer.
His gaze snapped to mine. “Why did you train with the crimsons? You never trained with them before.”
“And youwantedme to train with them back then, so what’s the issue?” I replied, leaving my wet hair to dry as it liked.
“So this is how you intend to convince me,” he purred. “An attempt to fool me into believing you care. It won’t work, Syera. I know too well how you despise me.”
My reason for training with the demons in the fortress had nothing to do with Tiers and everything to do with gaining the respect or fear of those around me.
“Yet some things must be allowed,” I murmured, pulling leather heels on.
I straightened to nearly the same eye level as Carmine. A surge of lust hit me out of nowhere as the change in angle allowed me full access to his features. I breathed through the infatuation.
