“My breakfast will be delivered any minute,” she explained, “and just because Itechnicallyhave the day off doesn’t mean I don’t have things to do.” Petra paused, adjusted her robe with another grimace, and muttered, “I also need a shower.”
“You shower my scent off and I’m just going to put more on you.”
He said it so calmly, almostcheerfully,that it took her a moment to hear the threat there. Her hand rested on the doorknob of her bedroom when she craned her neck to glare at him over her shoulder. “And what would that entail, demon?”
She had no idea why she asked. She knew what he meant. The man had been alarmingly gleeful as he rubbed his releaseinto her skin the previous night. She had absolutely no doubt that he’d try it again, whether she washed it off or not.
Silas’s smile melted into a sensual curl of his lips over sharp fangs — the same fangs that had left little streaks of fire along her jaw and down her throat. It wasthatsmile that reminded her exactly why she’d lost her mind the previous night.
BecausethatSilas,thatlook… It wasn’t just the end of her life hurtling towards her that made desire a constant pressure in her stomach. It was the way he looked at her like his sole focus was to watch her come.
As if he knew that his look alone said it all, Silas purred, “Go get your breakfast, baby, and hurry back to me.”
“Why do you keep giving me orders?”
“Because you like it.”
Petra didn’t dignify that with a response. Internally, however, she grumbled,I hope they only brought enough for me.
And then, of course, she felt a pang of guilt at the thought of him being hungry, which sent her spiraling into yet another whirlwind of silent complaints about how he’d wedged himself into her life.
She didn’t have grand plans for her final days, but Petra also never thought that she’d spend them sparring with a demon apparently just as determined to get into her underwear as he was to use her magic.
Doing her best to act normal for the cameras in her sitting room, Petra quietly closed the door behind her and padded toward the entrance of her suite. Like every Saturday, a simple cart waited outside the door, laden with a spread of breakfast foods, fruit, and coffee.
The cathedral was closed to the public on Saturdays, allowing for a day of rest for the staff. An initiate was responsible for bringing Petra her breakfast, but the rest of the day all theacolytes were free to do as they pleased. She suspected the cathedral would be even more abandoned than usual. With how hard everyone had been working and the pall that hung over them, she wouldn’t have been surprised if every last acolyte got as far as possible from the premises on their day off.
Petra’s stomach turned as she pulled the cart into the suite and shut the door.Antonin will arrive tomorrow.
Suddenly, whatever appetite she’d woken up with vanished. Normally her anxiety over wasting food or missing a meal was far greater than any worry she might have entertained, but when the Protector’s face flashed to the forefront of her mind, her stomach went as heavy and solid as a boulder.
She swallowed the bitter taste of bile as she stared down at the tray. Would it be the second-to-last breakfast she ever had? Or would she onlywishit was?
Petra felt removed from the thought. It was as if she stood a great distance away from her own mortality — near enough to see it, certainly, but little more than that. She was simply an observer of her own fate.
No, I’m not an observer,she admonished herself as she pushed the cart toward the bedroom.I might not have a choice in the end, but I haven’t let the universe push me around.
It was a good reminder that there was still work to be done.
The finish line drew near, but she wasn’t quite there yet. One more push. One more great, terrifying hurdle, and it would be over — one way or another.
Steeling her spine, Petra opened the bedroom door just enough to slip the cart and herself inside. “Silas, we need to talk about?—”
Firm hands closed around her waist, drawing her back into a naked chest. Body heat radiated along her spine as Silas pressed himself against her. “That shower? I agree. I changed my mind and decided it would be a great idea to give you a scrub.”
Petra curled her fingers into his forearms, but she couldn’t tell if the bite of her nails was to urge him to let her go or to keep him close.
Her heart raced as he rubbed the top of his chin against the crown of her head, nuzzling her in an odd, animalistic way. A deep thrumming noise, more vibration than sound, rumbled against her back.
A sharp ache took up residence between her thighs. Not because the purr meant anything to her, really, but because her body seemed to have associated the memory of that sound with the crushing orgasm she’d worked out as she slid her body over his cock.
Silas’s deep breath was noisy and large enough that his entire torso seemed to flex against her back. “Mm,” he hummed, palms skating up her stomach to cup the undersides of her breasts. “That’s myfavoritesmell.”
Petra tried very hard not to wheeze. “Coffee?”
Hetsked.“No. My little goddess’s wet cunt.” Silas tilted his head to run the tip of his tongue over the shell of her ear and down her cheek. Petra shuddered, toes curling against the cool wood floor, when he added, “Should I have that for breakfast, baby?”
Her body very much wanted her to say yes, but the existence of the cart before her, the fact that Silas was in her room atall,demanded she focus. As much as she would have liked to spend her final days having wild, borderline hateful sex with a demon who liked to torment her, she couldn’t.
