Page 4

Chapter

Three

SIN

F uck. She was terrified. Merri’s eyes were shining with unshed tears as she stared at me with relief so palpable my chest hurt.

She shoved my shoulder, jostling me a little as she sat up. “What the fuck was that?”

As I propped myself on my elbows, I let my smirk out to play. “One hell of an orgasm.”

“One hell of an orgasm,” she repeated softly to herself, shaking her head in disbelief. Then she shoved me again. “You stopped fucking breathing, you asshole.”

“Thank you?” I caught her hand and tugged her against me. “Is this gonna be a thing now? I should put some clothes on if we’re trying to wrestle without having sex again. You getting all aggressive and shit is not intimidating when your tits are right fucking there.”

She harrumphed, and it was so damn adorable I wanted to kiss her. Something warned me that was not the right play if I wanted my dick to remain attached to my body.

“I don’t know why you’re so wound up. I told you I’d be fine.”

Her jaw dropped. “You don’t know why? You don’t know why?” she repeated, her voice rising in pitch. “I thought you were dead, numb nuts. Do you have any idea what that did to me? You promised you’d be okay,” she added, her lower lip quivering as fresh tears misted her eyes.

“Hey, I’m right here. I’m fine.” I pulled her across my lap and rocked my hips up into her. “See? Better than ever, actually.”

Her gaze dropped from mine as she scooted backward so she was sitting on my lap rather than lining us up for round two. Damn.

“How can I trust anything you say? I watched you lie there, no pulse, no breath. You didn’t even warn me that would happen.”

I held up a finger. “To be fair, I didn’t know it could happen. I’d never had my battery charged like that before.”

Her brows scrunched together. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You blew my circuit, baby.” I could tell she still wasn’t following. “What happened with your human is not what happened to me. With him, you lost control and drained him dry. Fair enough, it happens. With me, the energy your climax sent through me was so strong you basically overcharged my circuit, so my body shut down to protect itself. Like a fuse, or umm . . . what’s it called? Surge thingy.”

“Surge protector.”

“Yeah, that. Malice makes me use them.”

A wrinkle formed between her eyebrows. “Malice passed out on me too, but he wasn’t... charged.”

“Malice is still weakened from the spell.”

“What spell?”

Whoops. “Uh, never mind. Long story.”

She crossed her arms. “I’ve got time.”

“Will you settle for the CliffsNotes?”

Her eyes narrowed with suspicion, but she nodded.

“Some bitch thought it would be cute to kidnap and drain us. It wasn’t.”

“How the hell do you kidnap the horsemen?” Merri held up a hand and shook her head. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I’m a lot more worried about the other part.”

I raised my brows, waiting for her to elaborate.

“So you’ve all been drained? You’re all weaker than you should be, but Lilith thought it was still a good idea to leave me with you?”

Ugh. There was still so much I couldn’t tell her, but I had to give her something. “Yes.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Because we’re still the best option. We may have been weakened, but even weak, the four fucking horsemen are like showing up to a gunfight with a bazooka.”

Not even a hint of a lip twitch.

“Merri, we're immortal. We cannot die. We always regenerate or whatever. Like the Terminator. You know, ‘I’ll be back.’ Wait, no, he didn’t regen. Um...” I shrugged, clearly not doing a very good job explaining despite my awesome impersonation.

Merri opened her mouth to say something when it came to me.

“Like the Doctor!” I said with a snap of my fingers.

“What doctor?”

“Doctor Who.”

“That’s what I asked you.”

“No,” I said with a laugh. “Doctor Who. Like the TV show.”

“I didn’t realize you were such a nerd.”

“Hey now. Nerds are hot. Also, he’s iconic.”

She finally smiled, a real, genuine one that made her eyes sparkle. “I didn’t say anything about nerds not being hot. For the record.” One finger trailed across my chest before she spoke again. “If you were drained?—”

“You didn’t?—”

“I mean from the spell that got Malice. Why don’t you seem like it if the others are still affected?”

Taking her hand, I brought the back of it to my lips and pressed a gentle kiss there. Fuck, what was wrong with me? This was sweet and swoony stuff, not seduction.

“I’ve had the opportunity to feed. It’s been a slow build, but you topped me off. Chaos has been taking care of his needs as well.”

“That fight club?” she guessed.

I nodded. “Mal and Grim have had fewer... chances.”

Merri worried at her bottom lip. It was distracting enough I used my thumb to pull it free.

“I don’t even want to hazard a guess what those two have to do to refuel,” she murmured, her bright eyes finding mine.

“It’s not pretty, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

She shuddered. “I don’t think I want to know.”

The involuntary action made me incredibly aware of her position on top of me. During our conversation, her hips had migrated north, placing her right where I wanted her. All I’d need to do was give her a few well-placed rocks of my hips, and we could stop this conversation and get back to action. That’s what I was built for. Not this deep emotional reflection stuff.

“Are you really sure you’re okay?” she asked.

“Yes, kitten. I’m sure. You can reach between us and test that theory if you want.”

She rolled her eyes. “We are not having sex again. I am still recovering from thinking I sucked your essence out of your body with my vagina.”

The sarcastic delivery of those words might’ve worked on Chaos, who didn’t understand nuance or micro-expressions like me, but I definitely picked up on it.

“If you don’t trust me to tell you the truth, use your power.”

“Huh?”

“Your power. You’re a succubus.”

“So? That doesn’t make me a supernatural lie detector. I can’t read minds.”

“Not minds. Read my emotions.”

A soft gasp escaped her. “What are you talking... Malice.”

Ouch. Okay then. “My name is Sin.”

“No. I did that with Malice. I thought he wasn’t interested in helping me feed, and then he dropped his mental wall or whatever, and I was able to intentionally seek out his emotions. I could feel that he wanted me. And...” She blinked, seeming to remember that she was talking out loud. “I was able to ease some of the burden.”

I nodded. “Lust is our bread and butter, but we can work with any human emotion. It won’t fuel us, but we can still register and manipulate them.”

“Manipulate?”

“You know, fan the flames of anger, or really fan the flames of anything. We’re basically like a dial. We can ramp any emotion up or down.”

“So I could make you afraid of me?”

“Not me, no. I have a natural immunity since we’re the same. Also, you can’t make someone feel something that isn’t already there. You can only amp up something that is.”

“And what is there with you?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

“How am I supposed to do that? Malice had to let me in.”

“I mean, if you want to cheat and do it the easy way, then fine. Close your eyes and I’ll let you in. I’ll lower my natural guard, and you can play around inside my head a little.”

She did as I told her, letting her eyes fall closed. I could feel her as she clumsily moved in my mind, attempting to lock onto something.

When she rolled her hips against me, I groaned in response as desire jackknifed inside me. “You’re playing with fire.”

Her eyes flashed. “Fire? Or lust?”

Oh, the little minx was testing her skills. Using what she knew.

She smirked. “Looks like I can ramp you up after all.”

“Baby, you’re rubbing your pretty pussy on my cock. Of course you’re ramping me up. But it’s not what I was talking about, and you know it.”

She gave me a teasing pout and settled back on my lap. “Okay, fine. But lust was all I picked up on from you. I’m not sure how that’s helpful.”

“Well, you didn’t sense any lingering exhaustion or anything, right?”

“No, but that’s not really an emotion, is it?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re thinking too literally. You’re stuck on specifics when you should be considering the bigger picture.”

“All right, fine. Enlighten me. What’s the bigger picture?”

“You can use this to your advantage. Become a one-woman lie detector.”

“We just clarified that we can’t read minds, only emotions.”

“Right, which should be all you need to suss out a lie. My emotions should match my words. You should be able to sense deception if the two are conflicting.”

Her shoulders slumped as she considered my statement. “So if I ask you a question, I should be able to tell if you’re lying or truthful?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She narrowed her eyes. “No more OriginalSin southern drawl from you.”

I smirked. “Sorry, darlin’.” It was my first lie of the moment.

Her eyes widened. “You’re not sorry at all.”

“Looks like she’s a natural,” I said with a smile, pleased that she’d picked up on exactly what I’d been trying to explain.

“Is sex all you want from me?”

My chest tightened. “Yes.”

Her eyes narrowed, and her head canted to the side as she waded through the conflicted feelings her question dredged up. “Lie.”

Fuck. I hadn’t lied on purpose that time. “Merri,” I warned.

“Sinclair.”

“Don’t push your luck. I can put these walls right back up.”

“Do you want to?”

“I don’t know.”

That little head tilt again. Fuck, she was cute.

“That was the truth. You aren’t sure.”

She leaned forward, her hair brushing my chest and the sweet scent of her overwhelming my senses as she brought her lips a breath from mine.

“What do you want from me if it’s not just sex?”

She wasn’t playing fair. Using her body to distract me.

Silly rabbit. I invented this game.

I grabbed her hips, digging my fingertips into the soft flesh there before taking charge and rolling us over. My walls came up as I kissed her, forcing her to stop asking me questions I couldn’t answer honestly.

“Now who’s cheating?”

“You started it.”

“Sin,” she whispered as I trailed my lips down the column of her throat.

“I just happen to be better at it,” I added before giving her a soft nip.

She giggled and writhed under me, but Merri had made it clear sex was off the table, so instead of using my powers of seduction, I slid out from between her legs and got to my feet.

Merri blinked at me in confusion, so I held out a hand, waiting for her to take my offer.

“Come on, kitten. After a ravaging like that, we need a shower. Then you need a good night’s sleep.”