Page 10

“You lied and . . .” I trailed off, taking a beat to get it together again. “You didn’t believe me.” Despite my attempt to keep it in, my voice cracked with emotion at the end.

“Oh.” His eyebrow raised. “Nothing came of it. I should have handled the situation differently.”

“That’s not the point?—”

“I do not understand.”

Of course he didn’t understand, he wasn’t human.

“Are you ready to explain your bargain with Calliope? It will help me convince the others to spare your life.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Are you expecting my thanks?”

Both of his eyebrows raised this time.

“You do not understand, traitors are not tolerated, but I will speak on your behalf.” He drove the metaphorical stake deeper into my chest.

I didn’t have the energy to defend myself. He still thought I had tried stealing the urn with their precious Imogen’s ashes in it. He wasn’t asking me if I did, he had no doubt I had.

I would stick to my written boyfriends from here on out. Only the characters I wrote never failed me. I’d also take pleasure in creating one named Asher and killing him in the most painful way possible.

“Catalina. You are mine. I will protect you.”

“I will never be yours,” I spat.

His sharp incisors elongated. In a movement so quick it made my head spin, his hands cupped beneath my thighs and he pulled me to the end of the mattress. The pillow slipped out of my grasp, falling off the side of the bed. My thighs spread and a pinch twinged the leg with the cast.

“Calm yourself, Pet,” he murmured, with the corner of his lips curled up seductively. His eyelids lowered, framing his eyes with those long dark blonde lashes.

Pet.

His palm dragged down my side in a gentle rub. His waistband pressed between my legs, widening my thighs.

Was he getting frisky with me?

He grazed his nose against my cheek and down to my neck, inhaling deeply as he hovered over my pounding pulse.

Instinct bade me to clench my legs together. I wanted pressure at the swelling throb. His fangs flashed in my memory, the feel of them sinking into my throat.

I shivered.

I’d let my body get me in this situation in the first place. I turned away from his mouth and hugged my chest as if I could contain my lust within my body.

I would not give in to my desires.

I slammed my good knee into his dick.

Christ! A throb radiated down my knee and to my ankle. Did his stiff cock break my other leg?

He erupted in a string of curses in Swedish.

He rolled to the side, flopping onto the bed. Good to know that the move was just as effective on vampires.

“Don’t touch me.” I wouldn’t be fooled. Fancifulness would lead me nowhere.

Guttural grunts escaped from his mouth and his shoulders twitched.