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“Do you like to watch, Evie?”

My face was so hot now, I almost felt faint, and that unpleasant feeling between my legs returned. “Stop this at once.”

“I asked you a question, it would be terribly rude of you not to answer.”

“No.” I snapped, and glared up at him as he moved even closer. “I did not like what I saw. I was shocked that you would do something so disgusting in your father’s house before he’d even been laid to rest.”

“I like to watch.” He rested a hand against the wall beside me, his gaze straying over the wall for a moment. “Oh, yes. All these cracks, like little windows into the life that goes on behind closed doors. The life no one thinks is observed. As you said, this is my family home. I know it better than anyone.”

I swallowed hard, staring up at him, unable to take my eyes off him. “Well, then I am more than happy to leave it to you.”

His eyes darkened as they landed back on me, and he lifted his hand still holding the glass, trailing the back of his finger down my cheek. Even feeling like a caged animal, I didn’t find it within me to be rude enough to flinch. I was rooted to the spot, my body taut with fear and fury and something else I could not name.

“I’ve watched you for years, you know. Since you first entered this house.” He raised his glass to his lips, his hand still against the wall behind me. “My father’s pretty little bride.”

“I am that fascinating to you, am I?”

“Indeed you are.” He took a sip of cognac, and licked his lips, tilting his head to regard me with a raised eyebrow. “Your face looks exquisite in the moonlight. This skin, like ivory.” He made to stroke my cheek again, but this time I didflinch, ducking out of his grasp and stumbling back against the wall to move away from him.

But his hand shot out, wrapping around my arm and pulling me back to him, so we were chest to chest.

“I think my favourite thing, though, is watching you bathe.”

Panic rose in my throat, his body too close and his sharp breath too harsh. I struggled against his grasp, but it was no use. Even with one hand on me, he overpowered me easily.

“You watched me bathe?” I asked incredulously.

“Mmmm, I did.” He lowered his nose to my jaw, inhaling deeply as he traced along my skin. “Fucking god, you do smell good. I imagined you would.”

I slapped him, out of sheer instinct, but not even a hint of shock crossed his face. He simply grinned even wider, throwing his glass to the ground where it smashed into a thousand pieces, and seizing me with his other hand. He crushed me against him, one hand around my waist the other clasping my jaw and forcing me to look up at him.

“I would watch you bathe, running your hands over this soft skin, and I imagined they were my hands.”

“You are vile,” I spat at him.

“Your breasts are spectacular, beloved. I often wondered how they would look with my cock between them.” He pressed his mouth to my ear as I gasped. “What my seed would look like, dripping down your neck.”

“Azriel!” I tried with everything I had to push him away, to wrench myself from his grasp, but he spun us so I was pinned against the wall, holding me in place with his body. “What are you doing?”

“But do you know the worst of it?” His hand on my jaw kept my head tipped back against the wall, unable to move. “Watching my father take what was mine.”

My eyes widened in horror. “You watched me with your father? You watched him make love to me?”

“You call that love-making?” Azriel chuckled darkly. “Lying on top of you while your face went blank, as though you were imagining yourself to be anywhere but there, with him. Did you have to do that, beloved? To bear it?”

I flailed against him, wishing I could tear his face off or bite his hand, I didn’t care which. But his proximity was suffocating and I was desperate to escape it by any means necessary.

“Did you ever imagine it was me?” His eyes dropped to my lips. “When my father forced himself on you, did you ever think of me, Evie?”

I tried to shake my head, but his grip on my jaw was like iron. “Stop this!”

He lowered his face to mine. “Or what?”

“I’ll scream.”

“And?” The neutrality in his face was terrifying. “What do you think I’ll tell them, if they come running in here to save you from the brute, Azriel Caine?”

The floor threatened to fall out from under me, and panic threatened to cut off the air to my lungs. My whole body began to quake, feeling hot and cold at once.