“Rules exist for a reason.” Livana fiddled with the pearl necklace snugly coiled around her neck. Like a collar. Only a leash was missing. “All delinquents must be punished.”
“Reciting Ilasall’s laws like a good little girl. And you say I’m a child.” Kali rolled her sleeves back, exposing the vines and a blade inked onto her forearm. “At least I have a head on my shoulders.” She tapped her temple. “You should try growing one.”
The zipper in my pants pressed painfully against me. Her viciousness was addictive.
Livana’s large, round eyes narrowed as she hissed, “You abhorrent abomination?—”
“Are you talking about…me?” Kali tilted her head. “I thought you were describing yourself.”
“Enough. I may be willing to stoop to your level, but I will not listen to the person who cheated out of doing her duty to thecity insult law-abiding citizens anymore.” Peter’s sneer blasted across the apartment in a wave of palpable force.
So that was how Gedeon had received the ability to control the room with his voice. He’d inherited it from his father.
Kali wiggled into a cross-legged position on top of the kitchen island. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Gedeon hid his smile in my neck, and the glide of his lips warmed me.
Oblivious to Livana’s silent seething, Kali picked at her cuticles. “So where were we?”
A stony expression returned to grace Gedeon’s severe features. “My message. Did you get it or not?”
“It would have been hard to miss it, Son.” Shoving his partner off him, Peter strode across the apartment, around the sunken living room, all the way to what looked like a wall decorated with ebony blocks of various sizes.
“I have to give it to you, though, your handwriting is impeccable. That wretch of your mother at least passed that on to you. Although your taste in women needs improvement. Your mother snatched you from me by fleeing, and you stole your girl—Kali, I believe is her name?—together taking away the prospect of pregnancies she could have carried out to full term.” Without hesitation, he pushed on a specific panel in the top right corner. “Like mother, like son. Thieves.”
A soft pop rebounded in the vast expanse, and a crack appeared in the middle of the wall. The split widened as the wooden blocks forming a large part of the wall moved aside, revealing a hidden bar, all glass, as spotless as the rest of the space.
Livana’s tight dress and high heels limited the range of her movements as she waddled over to the kitchen. “Truly, is it so hard to simply bend over or lay on your back and spread your legs?” she asked, pouring herself a glass of water.
That was probably all Peter would allow her to consume. This wasn’t the first instance the owners controlled their pets’ nutrition.
“The question isn’t whether it’s hard or easy.” Dabbing a finger into the wounds dotting her limbs once more, Kali began to draw on the pristine counter. Ignoring Livana shooting daggers at her, she colored each gray vein in the marble in red. “It’s about whether it’s right for a revolting man to rut someone when they don’t have a say in the matter. Or why should someone risk their life giving birth when they never wanted children to begin with. Or why having a functional uterus means you suddenly become property of a green-banded man. Or why, if your genitalia is…dysfunctional, you are left to barely scrape by. Do you see it now, Livana? Or has your brain been reduced to the dregs of what it once was?”
Godsdamnit, she was delectable. Sweet, with notes of spiciness, bitterness, and lingering saltiness. A well-rounded combination that slithered over to me, crawled up my legs, and nestled in my pelvis.
My fists balled up to draw my attention elsewhere. Fruitlessly.
Gedeon stroking my hip did nothing to alleviate the growing pressure, the thirst plaguing me since Kali had begun to use her blood as paint.
If they didn’t wrap this up quickly, I was going to rip off my pants and finish in the glass Peter was picking off a shelf, the pattern carved out in the crystal perfect for obscuring the liquids inside.
And if he didn’t like the tangy flavor ofme, he could choke on it.
70
GEDEON
Sputtering, Livana choked on her water.
Smugness filled me to the brim at her discomfort. Nobody insulted my possessions and walked away dry.
As her coughing fit echoed in the apartment, Peter removed the stopper from the crystal decanter. “This is what you chose for yourself, Son?” Pouring the amber liquid into his glass, he sneered, “A foul-mouthed woman and aman?”
My molars creaked as I failed to keep myself composed. It wasn’t a secret that all three cities disapproved of any relations between two same-sex individuals. According to their doctrine, sex was a tool, a means, a method to ensure reproduction, and for that, you needed a dick and a vagina.
Rolling in bed for fun and games bordered on being considered an offense. I wouldn’t be surprised if they would outlaw it if given the opportunity.
But hearing the man you shared genetic material with ridicule your belongings, nowthatcrossed the line.
