Page 40 of Brutal Devil

“Ancient,” she says finally.

And for a second, I’m so lost in my head that I don’t know what she said.

“Pardon?”

Her breath is a hot little puff on my clavicle when she speaks. “I said you’re ancient.”

A reluctant smile kicks up the corners of my lips. “Feels that way sometimes.”

“Because of your age, or because of what you do?” She tilts her head back, studying me, her honey-brown eyes searching mine.

Seeing me.

I want to kiss her.

To roll her onto her back and pin her to the bed with my dick.

The urge is so sudden and forceful that it takes me by surprise. I may want her, but I’m not a complete asshole. She’s just lost her father. We’re pretty much strangers who are married.

I let go of her, because she’s fire, and I need to get burned to feel alive, and everything about this moment feels dangerous.

“Both, maybe,” I say, rubbing a hand over my chest like I can scrub away the feeling of her.

I can’t.

It’s like she’s branded me.

Luna isn’t finished examining me. She props herself up on an elbow, her midnight hair a wild tangle around her shoulders. She looks sleepy and sexy. It doesn’t help that she’s wearing a flimsy nightgown that’s doing nothing to hide her hard nipples.

“Haven’t you ever wanted a normal life?” she asks.

“What’s normal?”

“Not having to worry about being killed or arrested. Having a job that’s not illegal.”

“Anyone could be killed or arrested at any time.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “You know what I mean.”

Damn, the balls on this one.

“My job’s not illegal. I’m a business owner.”

“You’re a mobster.”

I rub my jaw next, feeling the prickle of my beard because I haven’t shaved in a few days. “I’m an entrepreneur.”

“If that’s what you want to call it.”

We stare at each other, and fuck. I realize I’m smiling at her.

Priest Andriani doesn’t smile.

I wipe the stupid expression off my face before she notices it and thinks I’ve gone soft. I haven’t. Every part of me is hard.

Very fucking hard.

“It’s what we both have to call it,” I tell her, serious now. “Don’t ask what I do, and I won’t tell you. My business is mine. You can’t tell the cops what you don’t know.”