She needed to focus on the plan: help Murmur free her father’s soul and get as much information out of him as possible in the meantime. That meant not pissing him off so much he made good on his threat to throw her back into the dungeon. That meant swallowing her pride. Not insulting him or telling him how she really felt.
But damn, he made it hard, sitting there all smug, proud of himself for having bested her, with his gorgeous hair and regal features and eerily beautiful eyes.Damn him.
“So?” His voice filtered into her thoughts some time later. “Are we going to continue the lesson, or you would prefer to stew in misery instead?”
And just like that, the short fuse of her temper blew.
“You know what?” she snapped, forgetting all the reasons she should keep her mouth shut. She closed the book in her lap and set it aside. “I’ve had enough. You can take your precious information and shove it up your ass. I don’t need anything from you. I don’twantanything from you. I know you think I’m so desperate for information, I’ll take anything you throw at me. But honestly, I’d rather not know than put up with your—”
His hand shot out of nowhere and wrapped around her neck, limiting her air supply enough that she broke off midsentence with a choked sound of surprise.
“Enough,” he growled. His relaxed posture was gone, and his souls churned restlessly in response to his agitation. He leaned forward, using his size to loom over her. His tail snapped restlessly. His horns towered above her.
“You come intomylair and start making demands. You distract me at every given opportunity with your questions and your sharp little mind. Wherever I turn, there you are. Even when you’re quiet, your presence is screaming at me, and it drives me mad.” His voice deepened. “You beg me to teach you, and when I do, you make further demands of me. And then you have the audacity to shout in my face about all the injustices I’ve committed against you.”
Instinct screamed at her to get rid of the grip on her throat, even if her pride wanted her to act like it didn’t affect her. Her hands shot up to claw at his fingers, trying to pry them loose. She wasn’t actually asphyxiating, but the limit on her oxygen was making her panic. Especially with the look of unhinged fury in his eyes. She’d pushed him too far, and now there was no telling what he’d do.
“Let me tell you here and now and for the last time:I don’t care if you don’t like me.I don’t give a fuck if you don’t like how I treat you. I don’t give a fuck if your friends on Earth are worried about you. I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck.”
He was so close, their noses almost touched.
“Is that clear?”
She didn’t respond. His hold was loose enough for her to choke out a few words or nod her head if she wanted. But she didn’t. She glared at him instead, with all the fury consuming her body from the inside out. She let it burn her alive.
“I said,” he repeated, his voice a deep growl, “is that clear?”
She opened her mouth, on the verge of telling him to go fuck himself. But he met her defiance with an intensity she’d never encountered before.
Suyin exuded forcefulness. In every other interaction in her life, she bulldozed people who stood in her way. She was diminutive in size, but she made up for it with a ferocity of will and an almost unhinged fearlessness.
There was never a challenge she didn’t meet. There was never a gauntlet she didn’t throw. And she never backed down from a fight.
She had never met anyone who could match her will. Man, woman, or otherwise.
Not until now.
Unbidden, a throb of heat pulsed between her legs. Electric shivers traveled down the back of her neck and arms.No, you are not doing this, Su. You are not going there. You can control yourself. Do not give him what he wants. Do not—
She … nodded.
The movement was subtle, but she knew he felt it against the hand beneath her chin. Victory flashed through his bloodshot eyes. Triumph transformed his features from stern to cocky self-assurance.
It pissed her off. It turned her on. She didn’t know what the hell was happening.
“Say it,” he said. “I want to hear it.”
No, that was too far, there was no way she—
“I … understand.”
His lips curved. “Good girl. I’m glad that’s cleared up.” And then he released her throat.
She gulped in air, her eyes filling with tears at the sting on her windpipe. Other than that, neither of them moved.
Another pulse of heat raced through her veins. Attraction sizzled in the inches between them.
And then because she was an idiot with no sense of self-preservation or impulse control, her hands shot out and gripped his coat.
