Graysen was right. Master Sirro couldn’t force me to join his harem. He could ask me and I could turn him down, as my rank gave me the right to do, and he couldn’t do anything about it. Shock made my words mere breath. “Either way, he wins. I agree to his terms before the Alverac. Or he wins me at The Witches Ball.”
“You know he desires you, right?”
My gaze slid sideways as I pulled an awkward face, heat burning my cheeks. I didn’t get it. Master Sirro was attractive and charming. Butme?I toyed with the end of a messy lock of hair, scrunching my nose thinking about it. I wasn’t anything like any of the Familiars I’d seen him with, nor the seductive and alluring women always accompanying him either.
There’s something wild and untamed about you that’s driving me to distraction.
He had been obvious in his desire for me. And I’d been obvious in my disinterest. I’d given him everything but a verbal no.
I sucked in a breath of woodsy scent the instant Graysen pinched my chin with his thumb and forefinger. He tilted my head his way so that I had to meet his gaze, eyes gone velvety-black with want as he purred, “Why wouldn’t he want you, little bird?” The moment stretched out between us, desire intensifying and growing hotter with every heartbeat. “I could scent it on him, his lust for you, on more than one occasion. Every time you’ve been present. Every time he spoke of you. And this way, with us offering you up at the Witches Ball, he’d be able to bid on you. Win you. Own you.”
A brief flare of silver scored through Graysen’s obsidian irises.
Territorial. Possessive. Protective. One of the three, or all of them.
My breath caught, sharp and sudden. Not only because of what he revealed, what the outcome would be—owned by Master Sirro. But because I’d nudged his tamer out, even if somewhat inadvertently.
How far could I push him?
There was only one way to find out.
“He told me he desired me.” I let my voice slip low and sultry. Graysen’s hand dropped back to the railing and his gaze narrowed sharply, the edge of the pupils bleeding gray and flecked with charcoal. “At Evvie’s engagement party, he askedme to dance and hinted at the true nature of the Alverac. That’s what he offered in exchange for freeing me from you.Me.He wants me in his bed.”
Graysen’s jaw clenched hard. Every inch of his body coiled tight like a predator readying to strike.
I nudged him further. “Maybe it’s preferable. Perhaps I mightwant towithMaster Sirro.”
He held my gaze, unblinking, his voice rough like jagged rocks. “You’re clever, little bird, you know it’s not anything you’d actually want. You’re one of the few who knows what it would be like to join his harem. No woman comes out of a night with him okay.”
“Better that than dead.”
I knew with certainty what my next move needed to be. I had to battle for every advantage that would bring me closer to freedom and use every weapon that was at my disposal.
I was Graysen Crowther’s weakness—I knew that.
It wouldn’t be a hardship taunting him either. Chemistry blazed between us, but it was simply wyrm tamer traits. Chemicals and nothing more. All I needed to do was keep myself sharply focused on twisting and bending him.
Graysen had shown himself to be strangely protective. He’d purposely trapped me up here in his tower so his family couldn’t get to me. He refused to break me. All of this he’d hidden from his brothers. Whether or not he knew it, his wyrm tamer instincts were warring against his familial loyalty.
Though I was curious, more than anything I desired to prod him, poke him, tease him. “Could you sell me to Master Sirro? Knowing what he wanted to do with me,tome?” I splayed my fingers across his warm chest, over the curve of his heart, feeling the pulse kick up in time with mine. I caught my bottom lip between my teeth, and his gaze sharpened on my mouth, eyes darkening with desire.
“Wouldn’t you feel it here?” I pressed my fingertips harder into the muscle because he felt my emotions through this strange bond of ours. “Wouldn’t youfeel everythingI felt if he claimed me and I was frightened and in pain…terrified?”
The molten desire faltered as something he’d perhaps not considered before stole his thoughts. The connection that hummed between us.
I held his gaze as I slowly brushed my hand up his chest. Delightful energy sparked through my entire body, his too. I playfully circled the hollow at the base of his throat with a single fingertip until his body softened and lust returned, and he barely stifled a moan by biting his lip.
Stretching up, I pressed my soft curves against him and parted my mouth in invitation. He lowered his head, drawn in and unable to resist me. My lips ghosted his—our shared breath featherlight. Hunger and want strummed through the air, and his hands glided down my sides as smooth as silk. “Or perhaps I’d find Ilikedit with Master Sirro… Maybe, I’d like itverymuch… Would you burn with my desire if I let him inside my body? Would you feel my cries of pleasure with every single thrust?”
He froze.
His nostrils flared, and his fingers bit into my flesh so hard I almost winced.
As swirls of gray swallowed the black, Graysen’s irises flooded with quicksilver striations and flecks of charcoal, until my eyes stared back at me and gleamed animal-bright. Lethal. Territorial. Possessive.
I rolled back onto the flats of my feet.
Giving the curve of his pecs a quick, friendly pat, with a wide, innocent smile I said brightly, “Your turn. What do you want to know about Silas Boon?”
