Savage.
Deadly.
And it fed me.
The balcony was packed. Grim sat on a black velvet couch, arms spread wide on the top. Women danced, but no one touched him. Bodies blurred around him and he was frozen in time, a god passing time with mortals.
I didn’t know how it was possible that just eye contact had the room dissolving. Our souls vibrating.
He raised a hand. The room emptied.
Even after everyone had gone down the stairs behind me, I stood there. The beat of the club pulsated between us.
Grim wasn’t like anyone I’d met. He dripped sex and confidence like smoke. Every time I was in his presence, I got sucked in. I think he might be the only person I’d ever met who actuallyknewwho he was, and that was so goddamn intoxicating, because I have no idea who I am.
I’d only ever slept with him once, and it was enough to fucking hypnotize me for life. Trying to figure him outdrove meinsane.
I’d never seen him with a girl but Iknowhe’s fucking. Hehadto be. So I just had to wonder. Who was warming Grim’s bed?
He crooked a finger.
Without thought I walked over and climbed on top of him, thighs spread on either side of him. His hands found my thighs easily, with a familiar possession that made my gut flip.
I looked for the other Horsemen. “Are they here too?”
A slow shake of his head angled his jaw left, the deep purple light sharpening his jaw. His hands slid up my thighs, to my waist.
“Someone I know went missing,” I said, leaning into the touch.
“That so?”
His eyes flared. One of his hands slid from my waist, back to the arch of my spine, dragging me closer. His dark, earthy scent sent my thoughts scrambling.
“Did you do it?” I started grinding into him. Addicted to that deep, dragging darkness in his stare, pulling on my chest like a fishhook.
He pulled my head closer, lips at my neck. “I don’t like it when people touch my things.”
My heart slammed against my chest. Something hot and pulsating dripped down my stomach, pooling hot and throbbing between my legs.
Grim pulled back, but was still close, our noses almost touching, then, wordlessly, he shifted me so I was pressed flat against his denim-covered cock. Hard. Throbbing. A shuddery breath racked through his body. He wanted this. I couldfeelit.
He stared where my thighs spread.
I was wearing the same panties he’d ruined—nowcleaned. Was that why the muscle jerked in his jaw? Did he recognize them?
I hoped so.
All he’d have to do was move my underwear aside, and Iwantedhim to, but he just stared, jaw clenched. I was mesmerized by him, by this dark liquor between us that we couldn’t stop drinking.
Grim kept his soul behind a twenty-foot-thick concrete wall. He once told me his insides were radioactive, an inky glowing well of poison that corroded whatever and whomever they touched.
Many years ago, before Grim became my reaper, in a dimly lit spare high school room, he whispered a confession to me.
I’m poison, Gemma. Stay away.
“I’m poison too,” I said.
His eyes flashed up, inky like always, but for a moment they glowed.
