A shaky breath tore from me, my hands clenching at my sides as the reality of my situation caught up with me once again. Goddess, what had I done? The thought spiraled fast, sharp, and utterly relentless. My monumental fuck up chasing itself around my head until I had to turn in a slow circle just to rid myself of the nervous energy vibrating through me. My heels clicked against the stone floor, each step echoing too loudly in the quiet space, as though the room itself were a silent witness to my panic.
The office looked different now that he was gone. Less like a gothic fairytale and more like a carefully constructed trap. The towering shelves of books loomed over me, their spines watching in silent judgment. The massive carved desk no longer felt impressive but more like a statement of dominance. His authority radiated from every surface, and standing in the middle of it all made me feel painfully, achingly small.
I dragged a hand down my face, only to freeze when my fingers brushed my cheek.
The place he had touched me.
Heat flared there instantly, my breath hitching as the memory rose uninvited. The slow drag of his knuckles along my skin. The way his thumb had traced my lip as though he owned it, as though he had every right to memorize my mouth. My stomach flipped traitorously, a confusing mix of fear and something far more dangerous curling low in my belly.
No. No, no… just no, Eliza!
I paced again, the rhythm of my steps doing nothing to calm the racing in my chest. My attraction to him hadn’t felt like a spell, but then again, I didn’t have the first clue what one was supposed to feel like. All I knew was that whatever he’d done hadn’t needed effort, and that unsettled me far more than it should have. The real danger hadn’t been the room or the lock,but the certainty in his gaze. Like this was already over, and I was the only one who hadn’t caught up yet.
And then there was that name he kept calling me…
Inanna.
The name that now echoed in my mind, refusing to settle. The way he’d said it had been…intimate.Possessive even. Spoken like a truth he expected me to understand. I pressed my lips together, shaking my head as if that might dislodge the sensation still humming through me. Perhaps he really had gotten me confused with another person.
Because I wasn’t her…Whoever she was.
I was Eliza. Just Eliza. A woman who had walked willingly into the web, convinced she could reason with the spider, and now stood at its center wondering why she’d ever thought this was a good idea.
My mother’s voice surfaced unhelpfully in my mind, calm and knowing.“You always did leap, before you looked, Lily-pad.”I let out a humorless huff, rubbing my arms as a chill crept over my skin. She would have known what to do. Damn it, why hadn’t I just called her after I had unknowingly summoned a demon in my office bathroom? I mean, almighty goddess, how many people could say that on a Monday, before even a lick of alcohol?!
Nope, just you, Eliza.
And yet, despite all of this, some traitorous part of me still felt the echo of his presence. The weight of his intense gaze. The heat of his attention on me.
I stopped pacing abruptly, my heart speeding up.
Because I wasn’t alone anymore.
I froze. My mind instantly going to him. Every nerve in my body screamed as a shape peeled itself out of the shadow between two towering shelves, small and hunched and very, very familiar.
“Bo,”I breathed a sigh of relief, letting go of the panic that had gripped me so hard it had almost made my knees give out.
Although if I were completely honest with myself, I would also admit to the smallest hint of disappointment. The insane, totally irrational part of me that seemed to be sexually fueled by what the frightening lord did to me. Disappointment that it hadn’t been him who had materialized out of thin air.
Bo didn’t acknowledge me right away. Instead, his eyes were wide, darting around the room with sharp, frantic movements, his long fingers flexing at his sides like he were already preparing to bolt. He looked wrong in here, out of place against all that dark, polished power, like something fragile that had wandered into the wrong story.
“Let me guess, the door is locked, and we are royally fucked,” he stated.
Now his assessment of the situation was complete, and naturally, I winced before admitting,
“Yeah, that pretty much sums up this current shitshow.”
“I told yer, I fucking told yer not to come here, girly,” he hissed finally, his voice low and urgent.
“I know, I know,” I shot back, running a hand through my hair as my heart continued to pound. “I fucking know, okay, so you don’t have to…”
“What did yer think was going to happen?” he snapped, cutting me off.
“Obviously not this!” I shouted back, already feeling shit about this. Already regretting it more than anything else in my life, even the time I kissed Herbey Johnson behind the bleachers when I had a cold, and I ended up sneezing on him. After that, I was Eliza Snotamere for an entire semester.
“Yeah, well, we are a bit past the point of regret right now, girly. In fact, our fucking train left regretville and is on a collision course with the city of we are fuckety, fuck, fucked.”
“Wow, jeez, okay, okay, I get your point,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. Now, if only getting out of here was that easy.
