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“Then be free of me sooner and accept the fucking offer.”

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about fucking,” she spat.

We glared at each other, and then she lifted her head, chin jutting out, eyes flashing confidently. “Two letters.”

“Fine,” I said and turned from her, stalking into the dining room where I took a seat at the head of the table.

“Undress,” I ordered.

“The letters,” she said.

“A,” I said. “The other after you are naked.”

“I hate you,” she said.

“The feeling is mutual, mortal.”

“Fu—”

I stood, the chair scraping against the floor as I did, silencing her. My hand came down flat on the table, the sound echoing in the dining room.

“What did I say?”

She glared, her eyes gleaming, and with her silence, I sat. She reached behind her and managed to loosen the ties of her dress. I would have liked to help, would have liked to feel her skin against my fingertips as her dress pooled to the floor, but I knew she did not want that. Still, it was a pleasure to watch her. She was glorious. I shifted uncomfortably, my arousal growing long and hard.

“Why are you angry?” she asked.

“You make me angry. You make me insane,” I said.

“You asked for this.”

“Youasked for this!” I said. “Words in this world are binding, vicious creature, or have you learned nothing living in its shadow?”

Her fists clenched.

“Give me the second letter, bastard.”

“S,” I said. “Are you pleased?”

“I will never be pleased by you.”

“We both know differently, creature.”

“That wasnota choice.”

“But it was a desire, was it not? No matter how much you wish it wasn’t.”

She was silent as she crossed to the table where the food had been piled among glittering candles, choosing to ladle soup from a silver tureen.

As she worked, she glanced at me.

“What happened to your nails?”

I fisted my hand so she could not see them, though it was too late.

“I cut them,” I said. Because they had hurt her, because I could not pleasure her with claws.

The choice seemed silly now in the face of her hate.