Unfortunately,Petra still had a part to play. She couldn’t sit in her room all day with Silas even if she wanted to — something she was very much undecided on — because there were more cameras than the one in her suite to perform for.
If she never emerged from her bedroom, it would arouse far more suspicion than if her routine was slightly irregular, because Petra never hid away. There was simply too much to do. Besides, discovering the truth about Max’s murder wouldn’t happen in her bedroom.
So Petra did her best to ignore the demon who watched her every movement, his powerful body stretched out across her rumpled bed sheets. He looked perfectly at home as he sipped from her half-finished coffee and absently petted her pillow.
Not for the first time, she felt as though she were drifting through some bizarre dream. That was the only logical explanation for why she was the one caught in a web of intrigue and murder, and it onlybarelyexplained how a demon known across the continent as both ruthless and mad watched her with glittering eyes as she emerged from the bathroom.
She expected him to say something. Perhaps a remark about her thin, everyday robe of office, or the way she’d put her hairup, or how she’d gotten dressed in the bathroom rather than endure his scrutiny as she pulled her linen skirt over her thighs.
But he remained silent, his lips a wicked curve over the lip of her coffee cup.
Unsettled and more than a little flustered, she shoved her feet into her low, serviceable pumps and reflexively checked to make sure her necklace was in place. She was startled to feel the new one there, smoother and heavier than her old, simple pendant. The gold hummed with a dark, wild power beneath her fingers.
Why does he need me?
The thought came unbidden as she smoothed her fingers over the symbol of the sun.He has so much power, so much skill. What could he possibly need my bond for?
It was unusual for a demon to have such fine control over magic. That was the purview of witches — theoneadvantage they had over the rest of the beings in the world. Humans were weak in all ways except for the lucky few who were born with open m-paths, the channels that mirrored the nervous system and allowed the use of magic.
But with that came the unfortunate side-effect of burn out, when the m-paths began to deteriorate and magic leaked out into the nervous system, essentially frying a witch from the inside out. Any witch was susceptible, but for the most powerful, like herself, it was an inevitability.
Petra had only just begun to consider her options on that front when her life fell apart. Now she had no need to.
She would never bond with Silas, but she still wondered why a man as powerful as him would need an energy boost the likes of which her bond would provide. If he could pack as much power as he had into the necklace, if he’d done even a small sliver of the things she’d heard whispers of…
The possibilities made her shudder.
Silas set the plain ceramic mug down on the tray and stood up from the bed with an enormous stretch. Her old necklace gleamed against his creamy skin. It should have looked innocent enough, but somehow it seemed blasphemous.And thrilling,some dark part of her whispered.Because it feels like I’ve left my mark on him, too.
“S’pose it’s time for me to get ready,” he announced, padding toward the bathroom.
Passing her, he raked his claws through the fall of her ponytail, making her scalp tingle with the memory of how he’d pulled her hair and demanded she come. Going by the dark gleam in his eyes, she rather suspected he was recalling the same thing.
Petra took a hasty step back and smoothed her suddenly clammy palms down the front of her crisp blouse. “What are you getting ready for? You might as well stay in your pajamas all day, since you’ll be stuck in here.”
Silas crossed the threshold into the bathroom. “Sounds like you forgot what I told you yesterday.”
Frowning, she trailed after him to peer into the bathroom, where he was reaching into the shower to turn on the water. She had only a moment to admire how comically small it looked compared to him before the meaning of his words sunk in.
Her hiss cut through the sound of water spraying against old, pastel green tiles when she objected, “You arenotfollowing me around the cathedral all day, Silas!”
Not only was it too risky, but she was looking forward to getting away from him. Being around Silas for more than a few moments at a time was like locking herself in a cage with a tiger. Every moment that ticked by made her feel a little less secure, a little more certain that she’d get her head bitten off.
“I am,” he replied, casual as you please, as he hooked his thumbs under the waistband of his sleep pants. She didn’t even get a chance to avert her eyes before he dropped them.
Standing in all his nude,definitely not flaccidglory, Silas continued, “I told you I’m not letting you out of my sight. What part of that wasn’t clear?”
It took her brain an embarrassingly long time to move past the ripple of his muscles beneath smooth, alabaster skin as he pushed the shower curtain aside and stepped beneath the spray. The showerhead was laughably short compared to him, so it mostly drenched his chest, magnificently solid abdomen, and the heavy, erect cock hanging between his legs.
Silas had a powerful body, but it wasn’t the finely sculpted, glamorous form of a man who spent his days in a gym. It was rangy, strong, but layered with enough flesh for him to feel real,solid.The crisp line of chestnut hair that drew her eye down his stomach to his cock was a tantalizing addition to an already perfect form — as were the shadowed hollows on either side of his ass.
Petra had to mentally recite a hymn and shift her eyes to the ceiling before she could remember what in the world they’d been talking about.
“You’ll be caught.”
“No, I won’t, because no one’s around except you today. We both know that, baby.”
Baby.She couldn’t rightly tell if she liked that better or worse thanlittle goddess.Both were certainly mocking, meant to make her feel every inch the hypocrite she was, so why did she like them atall?
