“Stop acting like it then.” He bared his teeth. “And stop being so fucking infuriating.”
“As long as I’m infuriating, you won’t kill me.”
“Are you so sure about that?” He leaned forward a little, his gaze landing on my throat.
“No, I’m not sure.” I shuffled away and placed my hand on Whisper’s head. The panther chuffed happily just as Lucien’s eyes snapped to where I touchedhispanther.
Uh-oh.
His glare crawled up to mine and stayed there. “You might have fooled that dumb beast, but you won’t fool me.”
I pressed both hands over Whisper’s adorable flicking ears. “Don’t call him dumb.”
“Just stating the truth seeing as he fell for your tricks.” Inhaling hard, he snapped, “Tell me. How did you earn his loyalty enough for him to drag me here?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Liar—”
“Are you always this argumentative?” I snapped.
“When dealing with people who want to harm me? Yes.”
“Oh, my God.” I punched the blankets. “Have you not been listening? I don’t know you. I don’t know anythingaboutyou. That’s the truth and no matter how much you suspect me, it won’t change!”
Silence fell, letting our argument fall and fade away.
Nodding once, he grabbed the hem of his black shirt and brought it to his mouth. A glimpse of his bare stomach had my insides clenching. Watching him bite the edge of the fabric and tearing a strip off it made me shiver with unexplainable things.
I couldn’t look away as he tied the makeshift bandage around his still bleeding wrist.
Everything he did made me feel tight and tangled inside.
He was the sort of beautiful that made common sense take a running leap out of the window—an ancient, untamed heritage of blended beauty and lethal edges. The sweep of his cheekbones, ink-dark eyes, and blue-black hair, made wickedly indecent thoughts come to mind. Especially with him on my bed.
My gaze dropped to his lips, hating the perfection.
His mouth was utterly indecent for a man who took pleasure in death—it looked as if he should take pleasure in other things.Carnalthings.
“You’re looking at me again,” he said icily.
My cheeks flared as I focused on his hands as he finished tying the makeshift bandage. His skin was flawless. The way he moved reminded me so much of his panther, that I once again struggled with fantasy overlapping reality, wondering what sort of fairytale I’d fallen into.
With a curse under his breath, he planted his palms behind him, kicked out his legs, and crossed his ankles—lazy as the feline behind him. Every line of him said calm but his eyes sparked with sultry warning just waiting for an excuse to hurt me. “Alright then.” He tipped his head, hair sliding across his collar. “I’ll play.”
I swallowed hard, blinking away whatever spell he’d cast on me. “Play what?”
“You haven’t heard of Brimstone Industries?”
“Nope.” I frowned, searching my mind and all those years I’d worked in Snowflake Corp before I couldn’t. “At least, I don’t think I have.”
“You haven’t heard of the Ashfall dynasty?”
“If I’d come across an article with you in it, I would’ve remembered.” I rolled my eyes. “Believeme.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Oh, God.
