Page 43

“Yes,” he said. Instantly.

He sat there, his heart thundering. Moments passed. Water stilled. Then the soft shuffle of a towel against skin reached him. A few seconds later, the door opened just wide enough for steam to curl into the hall. She stepped out barefoot, fully wrapped in a thick burgundy robe that clung to the steam.

Kaos rose to his feet, pulse thrumming beneath the surface. She didn’t look at him right away. “That,” she said softly, tying the robe at her waist, “was the most sacred bath of my life. I will never be the same.”

Kaos remained still. She brushed past him gently, the edge of her sleeve catching his hand for half a second. His fingers twitched, tempted to hold on. She didn’t stop, but she glanced back with a knowing smile, like maybe she’d felt it too.

He followed her into the main room, watching her cross to the counter where the cookies still waited on parchment. She picked out several and set them on a small plate. Then she pulled a clean glass from the drying rack, poured milk, and carried everything carefully back across the room to the studio couch.

She set the plate and glass down on the coffee table before sinking into the cushions with a sigh of contentment. Then she pointed at the far end. “You. Sit,” she ordered, mouth full of cookie.

Kaos didn’t move at first. He realized she enjoyed bossing him around as much as he liked being pushed around by her chaos. There was something pure and less cursed about it.

He settled on the opposite end as instructed. The couch was barely long enough for her to stretch her legs, which she did—long and warm, her toes coming to rest lightly against his thigh.

She chewed in silence for a few seconds, then leaned back.“It’s secret-sharing time,” she announced, licking a crumb from her lip. “We tell each other one thing about ourselves no one else knows. I’ll go first.”

He waited while his mind focused on the feel of her toes—pressing against his thigh with an eager, unconscious rhythm.

“Sooo,” she began, dragging the word with juicy warning. “I have really crazy dreams. Not like nightmares. But real andvivid. Like I’m actually living two different lives in two different places at the same time.” She paused and laughed softly. “Only… not at the same time. Because I’m not really living this one while I’m asleep!” She grinned, amused by her own contradiction.

“Sometimes I dream things that come true,” she went on. “I dreamed about you and Kildare coming to my house—and you did.”

Her voice softened now, just slightly. Still casual. Still her.

“Sometimes I wake up and forget which version is the dream and which is my life.”

She looked at him then. “Okay. Your turn. One real secret.”

Kaos didn’t move or blink. “I was a god in another life… then I craved to kneel before another.”

Two seconds, then a snort. “Please don’t bring yourqueeninto this and ruin my night.”

He turned and locked gazes with her till the air sizzled between them. “I didn’t,” he said, low and final.

She didn’t flinch as she stared back, toes curling slightly against his leg.

“Tell me,” he said, the connection between them tighter. “Which of your dreams was the most vivid? Which did you wish was your real life?”

She swallowed after a second, her eyes fluttering downward the moment shame and guilt arrived. “You’ll laugh maybe,” she barely tested, toes digging.

“I won’t,” he assured, anticipation stirring his cock.

She took a deep breath, angling her gaze to the coffee table. “There wasone,” she began. “A… man… came to me. Not someone I know, but… I seemed to remember him the second I saw him.”

Kaos tilted his head slightly, his pulse thundering. Sherememberedhim.

“So… this is the part that’s kind of crazy,” she warned, her smile hinting at the edge of her perfect little mouth. “I’m just going to say it quick, and you can’t laugh.”

“Say it,” he urged as her toes pressed nervously.

A big breath and she set her plate on the table then plopped her hands in her lap. “I can’t look,” she said, raising them over her face. “So, first,” she said behind her tight fingers. “He hadbigblack wings, black as night. And he had black horns too, and his eyes were nightmares with fire, and yet they were kind and…beautiful,” she finished softly. “Uuugh, I told you it was crazy,” she said, dropping both hands into her lap, toes drilling.

He could hardly focus while wanting to capture her foot and put it on his cock. “Sounds like you encountered a demon,” he said, feeling his two selves clashing now.

She considered that with a grimace. “No,” she said quietly, head barely shaking at the air between them. “He was definitely an angel.” She added the barest smile. “And he was mine.”

A single sharp breath escaped him as something hot surged in his chest. Possessive, raw, dangerous. His rage didn’t know whether to growl or kneel. His lust... it wanted to mark her deeper. Bind her harder. Ask her what it would take to be that again—hers. And Kohl was ready to rip his own head off for having her before he did.