“The cameras,” she gritted out, unable to keep herself from glancing toward the shower. Silas had put one hand on the wall, hunching his shoulders to dip his head and horns beneath the spray, while the other?—
All the moisture evaporated from her mouth when he curled his fingers around the base of his cock for a slow, firm stroke.
“I’ve got my signal jammer.” He spoke so calmly, so casually, like he wasn’t masturbating right in front of her. Like he wasn’twatchingher through narrowed eyes, water catching the light in his long lashes.
For some reason she couldn’t even begin to decipher, Petra stood there, rooted to the spot, and continued the argument. She could barely hear herself speak over the sound of her own pulse and the splash of water against the tile. “T-That is a terrible idea. If you… if you follow me around, then it’ll block me, too, which will raise?—”
At last, a little bit of breathlessness entered Silas’s steady voice when he cut her off. “Petra, I know what I’m doing.”
Hard to argue with that,she thought, a little dazed, as he began to stroke himself in earnest. Not once had his gaze strayed from her. It raked over her from head to toe, leaving a blazing path of heat in its wake.
Silas pinched the tip of his tongue between his teeth, his brows furrowing with a look almost like rage, and she had the insane urge to step into the shower, grab him by the horns, and suck the pink flesh of his tongue into her mouth.
“It’s not worth the risk,” she forced herself to say. “I’m going to do what I always do. Stay here or don’t, but youaren’tfollowing me.”
A deep, hair-raising growl echoed off the tile. Silas’s restless hand stilled, squeezing the ruddy tip of his cock with what looked like an alarming amount of force. “Little goddess, get over here.”
Why she continued to bait him, she couldn’t say. But she did it anyway. “I already took my shower, thanks.”
“So why are you looking at me like you wish you were already on your knees, sucking my cock?” He tilted his head in thatpredatory way of his. It was almost like he couldseethe way her core pulsed, the ache so sharp it was almost painful. “If you’re good, I’ll let you do it however you want. If you’re bad, you do it howIwant.”
Power.He loved the idea of making her bend. Silas got off on the fact that she was a priestess and what it meant for her to give him free rein to use her. Not only was it taboo for her, a high-ranking member of the Temple, to have sex with a notorious criminal she’dhired,but it held an echo of a grudge carried on through millennia.
After all, it was Glory who enticed the god Blight to her bed, and it was Glory who spurned him in the end.
Petra wouldn’t lie to herself and try to pretend shedidn’twant to take him up on his offer, but that didn’t mean she’d do it.
Because this was about power, and if Silas wanted to exert his over hers… Well, he’d have to fucking work for it.
Her heart raced at the thought. She knew that if she played this game,reallyplayed it, then there was no backing out. The previous night had been an impulsive choice. A taste of what grew bigger, darker between them with every passing moment and one she’d been unable — unwilling — to resist. But this… If she challenged him here, now, then it would be open season for however long she had left.
It wasthatfact that solidified her resolve.
Petra drew her shoulders back and boldly, coolly dragged her gaze over his body. She took in every dark constellation of moles, the faint scars barely visible against his pale skin, and the livid flesh of his wet cock when she answered, “Enjoy your shower, Silas.”
When she met his eyes again, her breath stuck in her throat. A hungry, disturbingly primal thing lurked in his molten gaze when he softly warned her, “If you make me chase you, there’s no going back.”
I know. But what does it matter when this will be over tomorrow anyway?
Petra didn’t say that. She didn’t say anything at all. Instead, she held his gaze as she took a step back, over the threshold of the bathroom.
All at once, Silas’s expression went taut, the skin around his eyes and mouth pulling sharply until he looked ready to snap.“Petra.”
Even in the brightly lit bathroom, she became aware of all the shadowed nooks and crannies as those tiny pockets of darkness began to roil, stretching boldly across the floor to reach for her.
She slammed the door shut just in time to feel it shake under the force of his roar.
Chapter Twenty
Petra regrettedher decision almost immediately.
Stress, mortal dread, and chronic lack of sleep had addled her mind to the point of breaking, apparently. That was the only explanation for why she wouldknowinglybait the sociopath who wanted into her panties and thenrun.
I’m not running,she tried to convince herself.Just walking fast.
There were still cameras everywhere. She couldn’t sprint through the halls like she wanted to, hollering that she didn’t mean it, that she took it back. All she could do was walkquickly.
The living quarters were deserted, and only pigeons greeted her as she hustled across the courtyard to the side entrance of the main building. The sound of a cable car trundling along, bell dinging with discordant cheerfulness, made her jump as she fumbled with the biometric lock on the door.
