He was silent for a long moment, his fingers resuming their gentle tracing on her skin. When he spoke, his voice was soft, almost vulnerable.
“Perhaps,” he said, “we could be free to choose together.”
The words hung in the air between them, heavy.
She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. She still couldn’t reconcile the monster who had destroyed her life with the man who now held her with such careful tenderness.
Instead, she closed her eyes and listened to his already-fading heartbeat, steady and strong beneath her ear. Tomorrow would bring new challenges, new complications. Tomorrow they would have to face the web they’d woven, the enemies they’d made, the family they planned to destroy.
Yet there, in the back of her mind, clawing away at her consciousness like the dripping of water from a faucet she just couldn’t tune out, was the offer from Mael. The open door to another partnership that stood a much higher likelihood of success. Because the odds were high that she was on the losing side.
And she had to weigh that on the scales. She had come here with a job to do, long before she let herself get tangled up in sheets and emotions with her enemy.
But tonight—just for tonight—she would allow herself this moment of peace in the arms of the man she should hate.
The man she increasingly feared she might have feelings for instead.
ELEVEN
Sunlight filtered through the curtains, casting golden patterns across the rumpled sheets. Nadi stared at the ceiling, her mind racing despite her body’s exhaustion. Last night had changed something between her and Raziel—shifted the boundaries that had once seemed so immutable.
And in the light of the dawn, it twisted something in her stomach that was closer to disgust than anything else.
Disgust atherself.This had to stop. Ithadto.
And she had a way out. Mael. She just had to be brave enough to take it. How many people had she seen in her life die by drug addiction? It didn’t matter how good Raziel made herfeel,it was going to destroy her in the end. And she had to cut that part of her life out before it was too late.
The bed beside her was empty. Through the vague memory of sleep, she remembered Raziel leaving at dawn, murmuring something about meeting with Ivan to discuss their next moves against Braen. But his absence gave her the space she desperately needed to think.
She’d come to the Nostroms for one reason—revenge. To destroy the family that had destroyed hers, starting with theSerpent himself. But now, lying in his bed with his scent still clinging to her skin, she had to face an uncomfortable truth.
She was getting too close. Developing real feelings for a monster.
Sitting up, she ran her hands through her hair and took a steadying breath. “Enough is enough,” she whispered to the empty room. “You’re losing yourself.” He was killing her slowly. Piece by piece.
Mael’s offer echoed in her mind. It was a way out of Raziel’s control that would still allow her to complete her mission. It had seemed too good to be true when he’d first proposed it, but now it looked increasingly like her only viable option.
The more entangled she became with Raziel, the more she risked compromising everything she’d worked for. Everything she had ever killed for.
Rising from the bed, she headed for the shower, letting the hot water wash away the evidence of the night before. As the steam filled the bathroom, she tried to clear her mind, to reclaim some of the clarity she’d had when she first arrived.
Focus on the mission. Not on him.
By the time she stepped out of the shower, she’d made up her mind.
She would take Mael’s offer. It was the only sane choice.
She would find a way to extricate herself from Raziel’s orbit while maintaining her cover and her purpose. It was the only way. No matter how much it made something in her hurt, she had no choice. It was a weed, winding itself around her heart, and she had to rip it out before it grew too deep.
She was wrapping herself in a robe when the phone in the bedroom rang. Frowning—few people called the private line—she moved to answer it.
“Hello?”
“Monica, darling!” Lana’s voice, saccharine sweet and buzzing with energy, came through the line. “I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.”
Nadi straightened, instantly on alert. If Lana was calling her directly, that meant she knew Raziel was out of the house. That meant the Sweetheart Mistress wasupto something. “Not at all. What can I do for you?”
“I’ve been thinking about the wedding,” Lana continued, “and there are some details we really must discuss. Would you be a dear and come by my estate this morning? Say, in an hour or two?”
