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I swallowed hard, trying to stop the dirty images that popped into my head just at his mere suggestion of us getting carnal again.

“You complicated that.”

“Because of what I said in the Ruminat hut after our shower fun?”

“Obviously.”

“You were upset thinking you’re just a toy to me. I wanted to make it clear that you’re so much more than that.” He reached out and played with my hair in that way he loved to do, twirling some of the golden strands around his fingers. “But when weareimmersed in that carnal headspace, to be clear, you most definitely are my toy to play with. And I know you fucking love that. You get off on being treated like my dirty little slut, on me talking to you in a way nobody else would ever dare to, playing with you in a way you’ve always craved but been too scared to explore.”

Oh, shit.“How… how did you find me?”

“When you took that spell for me, I used the opportunity to access the one you were casting on me and I reverse engineered it to attach asensorto you.” He grinned. “It’s only fair, yes?”

I gave him a withering look. “You’re something else.”

“Oh, I know. You enjoy that about me, though, don’t you? About us when we come together? The challenge of it? The break from the bleak norm that you adhere to so aggravatingly well?”

I batted his hand away from my hair and cleared my suddenly dry throat with a couple of sips from my drink. “Did you figure out how to bypass the specific wards for our mission that we can’t discuss the exact nature of while out in public?”

“I did.”

“And Nyx? I was planning to check in with the two of you once I got back later tonight, but seeing as though you’re here now, I might as well ask.”

“It’s all set. We just need to review it together.”

“Okay, good.” I took another sip from my drink. “Good.”

“You look absolutely smoldering tonight,” he announced all of a sudden, doing that thing where he caught me off guard with his out-of-the-blue comments that didn’t always have a linear sort of progression.

His gaze roamed over me in my black leather mini-skirt, my knee-high studded boots, lingering on my sparkly silver bustier, then my smoky eye makeup, culminating with my hair in a half-up, half-down style.

“Well, I couldn’t come to a place like this in jeans and a well-worn jacket.” I looked at him in his dress pants, black button-down and his sleek leather trench coat. “That works here, though.”

“Look at you giving me an almost-compliment again. That bodes well.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Or read too much into it.”

“Should I not read into what happened in Professor Caelum’s classroom the other day either? Where you didn’t deny Vorzyr’s claim of wanting to take the weight of the spell off me so I’d be at full power to use my magic on you in a sexual setting?”

“That’s not—”

“Don’t deny it. He scented your need.”

“Kai, we’re in an erotic nightclub, you could have anyone here.” I gestured at another vampire, this one leaning against the bar, his ripped chest on display with just an open vest covering his torso, and his hungry gaze fixed on Kai. “There, for example.” I pointed at a Fae woman in a rainbow bikini dancing and gazing at him. “And there.”

He barely spared either of them a glance before he told me, “They don’t interest me. Nothing about this place does, except for you.” He slid his hand up my thigh then, the contact making me jar.

But, fuck my life, I didn’t move away.

I didn’t stop him.

I just allowed it.

That infuriating smirk tilted his lips again, as he dipped underneath my skirt, making me squirm.

He set my body ablaze in moments, the dark promise in his eyes only heightening everything.

A needy whine escaped me as he brushed his thumb over my panties.