“I should have known what would happen,” he said in a pained voice. “Everyone assumes the worst of demons, and frankly, I don’t blame them. But I can never let someone get that close to me again. The Legion are myfamily. And I would do anything to protect them.”
The emotion in his voice shook my heart. Suddenly, everything was shockingly clear. Why Az was the way he was. Why he’d killed that spy. Why he’d kept me at arms length even as we danced around our strange connection. He’d been burned. Horribly so. Trusting Eisheth had cost him almost everything.
“I don’t think the worst of you,” I finally whispered as the soft edges of the robe slipped down my shoulders.
Az lifted his eyes to meet mine. “Yes, you do.”
“I don’t,” I argued. “You annoy me sometimes, but that doesn’t mean I think you’re evil.”
He slid his fingers to the ends of my hair and paused when they were mere inches from my exposed skin. “What about the situation with the vampire spy? You seemed to think the worst then.”
“I told you,” I insisted, shifting closer to him. “That had nothing to do with you being a demon. The whole thing just freaked me out, that’s all. I’m not used to your world. I’ve known about supernaturals all my life, but I’ve never been among them like this. It’s…different.”
“The alcohol is lowering your inhibitions. It’s making your emotions roll off of you in waves. I can read them perfectly,” he murmured as the scent of bonfire wafted toward me. “There is fear, intense worry, and beautiful earnestness, Mia. But there is also something else.”
“What?” I whispered.
Desire.”
23
My heart thudded in my chest. For a moment, I swore I couldn’t breathe. Az’s ice-flecked eyes roared with eternal flames, and the temperature inside his penthouse suddenly went up a few degrees. He’d read my emotions which meant he knew exactly how I felt. He knew the secrets of my soul.
Deep down, I knew I should be embarrassed, but I wasn’t. Not after all that liquid courage.
“Maybe you’re just being hopeful,” I finally managed.
Shadows swirled across his skin. “It’s the same emotion from the party.”
“Yes, well.” I swallowed hard as memories replayed in my mind. His thumb brushing my thigh. His fingerinside of me. “Iamonly human. That is a perfectly normal reaction to being touched like that.”
His lips quirked as his dark gaze dropped to my bare shoulders. A hint of cleavage peaked out from the fluffy robe. In my hurry to get out of my clothes, I hadn’t bothered to put a dry bra or panties on. Whoops.
“You didn’t tell me to stop,” he practically purred in a lethal lion type of way. Like I was his prey.
“We were putting on a show. We had an audience.”
“We don’t have an audience now.”
My heart flipped, and his hand dropped to my shoulder. He massaged the skin just below my neck where knots had formed from all my pent-up anxiety and fear. Sparks rushed across my skin.
“You’re very tense,” he murmured as he took my empty glass from my fingers and placed it on the coffee table next to his.
“Yes,” I said around a trembling breath. “Trying to trap a serial killer will do that to a girl.”
“I know a way to make you relax.” His knuckles dug deeper into my shoulders, and I bit back an explosive moan. God, his touch felt good.Morethan good. It was euphoric. And that was just from a massage.
“I’m sure you do.”
Smiling, he pushed me back against the couch and tugged at the tie around the robe. I swallowed hard as I watched him work his deft fingers. Soon, it came undone. My heart did another flip. “Az…”
He slowly opened the robe, pushing the soft material onto either side of my naked body. I trembled as he gazed down at me with his ice-flecked eyes. They swirled with flames, sparking up the dark apartment. As he sank to his knees before me, everything within me clenched tight.
I could barely find the words to ask him what exactly he thought he was doing. “Did you forget what you just said? We don’t have an audience.”
“Mia,” he said in a deep growl. “Let me take care of you.”
When I thought about someone taking care of me, I imagined a bowl of chicken soup and some fluffy pajamas. Maybe a cooling wet towel on my forehead to lower my temperature. You know, the kind of things you got when you were sick. I sure as hell had never imagined something like this.
