Page 29 of Forbidden Empire

My pulse pounded so loud I could barely think. Sweat prickled at my hairline, even with the AC blasting.

I kept circling my cage, brushing my fingertips over the cold wall, pretending it was the ice cube he once dragged down my spine.

He’d chased it with his tongue, slow, deliberate. I hated him. I hated how my body still reacted to the idea of him: nipples tightening, heart racing, that familiar heat rolling low in my belly.

I hated the way his eyes looked when he shoved me into this room. So dark they were almost black, pupils huge, wild with anger and something else I refused to name.

I slapped my palm against the wall. It stung, but the pain was nothing compared to the ache pulsing deep inside me.

I clenched my jaw so tight, I half expected to chip a molar.

Those dangerous little daydreams?

I forced them down, way down, into the coldest, deepest corner of my mind and slammed the steel vault shut.

There’d be time to indulge them later, when I wasn’t worrying about Aidon sniffing around in my head, piecing it all together from a stray glance or a slip of focus.

Survival. That was it. Escape, or nothing.

Fuck Aidon. Fuck his predatory, hypnotic stare.

That animalistic growl should have terrified me, but instead sent a shiver straight through my bones.

Fuck his need to own me, to bend me to his will. Fuck the way my body remembered the heat of his hands, his mouth, every reckless, addictive second.

I almost started cursing myself aloud for letting him get to me, for hanging around long enough for all this to happen. I’d seen the warning signs. I wasn’t new at this. But maybe there was something in me that craved the risk, that got off on seeing how close I could get to the fire before it burned me to ash.

Well, the flames had reached me now. Searing. Unforgiving.

Time to find my way to ice.

I stopped in front of the door, hand clamped around the knob, my whole body wound so tight I might snap. The plan was coming together, bit by bit, even though images of Aidon’s body pinning me down kept slamming into my thoughts, refusing to be ignored.

Before he’d shoved me in here, he’d ripped my purse away. No phone. No weapons. Not even a nail file. Clean sweep.

But they’d missed the USB port stashed in my stiletto heel. My tiny beacon of hope. Somehow, Aidon and his goons hadn’t found it.

So all I had?

My brain, my body, and combat training. Not comforting, considering the size of the guys I’d pissed off.

Ares had glared daggers at me when he’d limped down the hall earlier, promising payback.

I took one deep slow breath. Turned the knob. Threw the door open. The jolt of relief was so sharp, I almost laughed out loud.

No Aidon. No Ares. The coast was clear for now.

Instead, someone else was waiting.

A different guard hunched over his phone until he noticed me. His head snapped up. Surprise flickered in his eyes as I stepped forward, my “don’t mess with me” face on full display.

Holy hell.

The guy was enormous. His biceps strained against his uniform sleeves, like they’d split the fabric if he so much as flexed.

When he stood, the chair beneath him groaned, as if grateful to be free. I swallowed because he started coming my way, and each of his thighs looked about the size of my entire torso.

His hands? They were big enough to snap my neck in two seconds flat.