“You dressed in all black today.” I tugged on the collar of her shirt, loving her feeble gasp. “And you were aware of Zion’s tampering with the bag I had packed for this trip.”
“I didn’t know…exactlywhat he was doing.” She glanced at Zion hovering at her back and rocking on the balls of his feet. “Ilearned about it at the same time as you. And this,” she pointed at my t-shirt, “was a surprise even to me.”
“Secrets never go unpunished, little death.” I stepped into her personal space. “You once told me you wanted to kill me for mine. Are you now saying you should be pardoned for yours?”
“It’s not the same.”
“Yes, it is. Truth might be a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s time for you to be educated on the consequences of your actions. So get into the house,” I ordered as I fished out the flat brass key from the back pocket of my jeans. “Or would you prefer me ripping off your pants to see how wet you are right here, out in the street?”
Her cheeks reddened. Murmuring what one would not be wrong in assuming were insults, she stormed toward the door the shade of coffee with milk and two teaspoons of sugar, precisely how she and Zion enjoyed the overbearingly sweet drink.
“Is this the night?” Zion ruffled his hair, the golden-brown strands too short to reach his ears. “You fucking me?” Restless as usual, he drummed his fingers on the rubber handle of his favorite knife strapped to his upper arm, the habit he had developed to cope with his pounding pulse.
“Do you think you deserve it after what you did?” My tone was as sharp as the icicles dangling off the roofs on those extremely rare winter nights when the low temperatures froze the hairs inside your nostrils.
The quick intake of his breath was a sound so intoxicating it curled around my vertebrae, squashing it into dust.
I leaned in, close enough for my stubble to graze his jaw. “What do you think insolence is rewarded with?” I whispered. “Pleasure or punishment?”
Clutching my hips, the fabric of my jeans too thick for me to properly enjoy the firmness of his grip, he widened his stance. “Both?”
“Is this the game you want to play?” I seized his waist, pulling him impossibly closer. Having him in my arms was enough to dream of hauling him to the ruins of a white picket fence, bending him over, and having him hold on to the remaining vertical boards while I rammed into him from behind. “Where you try to deny you need a proper lesson?”
His grasp tightened. “What if I do?”
Seizing the high waistband of his pants, I spun him around, toward the house. “Inside. Now.”
He rolled his shoulders back as he strolled away, and I understood the itch Kali had once described: the sudden need to sink your teeth into those muscles.
He was the dessert I wanted. Withwhippedcream in the shape of Kali on top.
The oak door shut behind Zion, concealing both the man and the large paper bag he carried. Not a single light bulb flared to life, darkness concealing whatever was going on inside instead of casting the message into the world through the windows.
Savoring the prospect of having my two subjects beg for mercy, I sauntered up the narrow pathway. Rogue pebbles prodded the soles of my boots as whoever had the responsibility of taking care of the property had forgotten to sweep the flat stones.
The brass handle glinted in the moonlight, beckoning me to come closer, and I leaped the four stairs leading up to the veranda hugging the house from three sides.
When the wood creaked under my heavy steps, announcing my approach, nothing but silence welcomed me. Cool metal zapped my skin as I twisted the handle and pushed.
But the door did not budge. Not by an inch.
They had locked me out of the house.
42
KALI
Once we were inside the house, Zion shut the door, closing me in with a madman—him.
His fingers crept up the wall in search of a switch. “Why are the lights off?”
“No,” I exclaimed, rushing to pry him off the entrance. “I don’t want Gedeon to see what we’re doing.”
His tongue darted out, wetting his lips and causing my core to tense. “And what exactly are we doing?”
“Hiding,” I whispered, as if the door would betray me by carrying my confession outside.
Based on the ride here and Gedeon’s promise to make us pay, I figured I wasn’t going to be able to get out of bed tomorrow. The last time I’d disobeyed Gedeon, he’d tanned my ass so hard I’d dripped down my thighs and couldn’t sit without a pillow underneath me in the morning.
