Page 15 of Sadist (The Triarchy Collection #1)

OCTAVIA

I t speaks volumes that being dead was the safest I had felt since…

well. Ever. Which, considering my abductor was sitting across from me, disassembling and cleaning an alarming array of weapons, was an odd place to be.

I’m an atheist, but I think I have officially prayed to every patron saint known to keep me in the proverbial ground.

I’d really rather not rise from the bridge ashes like the second coming of Jesus.

I had spent two days surreptitiously watching Theo since she came to, and I had finally found what made her uncomfortable.

Peace.

I understood it more than she realized. I recognized the way she needed to be in motion.

If not her body, her mind— and good lord, her mind was fascinating.

There was an impressive stack of blades next to her, waiting to receive the hyperfocused attention of a frustrated semi-invalid who was incapable of sitting still, and I had no doubt that once she had gotten through every weapon hidden in this building, she would just find something else to disassemble and obsessively clean.

The coffee machine hadn’t been done in twenty-four hours.

God forbid a speck of dust settled on its gleaming surface.

I even contemplated messing up the bathroom again just to give her something to do…or maybe this time I could reorganize the bookshelf that was sorted alphabetically in perfect lines.

Or…I could just read and not poke the concussed and irritable murder lesbian.

Trailing my finger down the spines of the meager selection of books on said bookshelf, I frowned, pulling one free to read the blurb with a hand resting on my hip. Unsatisfied, I returned it and resumed scowling at them.

“If you want something a little more interesting, there’s a Kindle in the top drawer of the bedside table in my room,” Theo murmured from behind me.

I craned my head to look at her. She was leaning back against the table, a wet rag over her knee as she worked on sharpening and polishing the small mountain of knives.

“You…read?”

That earned me a raised brow.

“Yes. As would be suggested by…the books?”

“I—” I turned back, suddenly a lot more interested in them.

They were a mix of thrillers and crime. Not anything that would usually pique my interest, but there was only so much staring at walls I could stand, and she wouldn’t let me near the computers.

“I just thought they were like…here. Maybe you inherited them?”

She snorted under her breath.

“Top drawer, Octavia. I’m not completely uncultured.”

“Some would beg to differ,” I muttered as I made my way across to her room.

I hadn’t been in here since she woke, but the bed had been neatly returned to the impeccable state she left everything in.

I had sat on the edge of that bed, dripping water into her mouth when she gained enough consciousness not to choke.

I had stripped her down and washed the dust and blood off her skin, blushing furiously as I ran a cloth over the exquisite lines of her body.

But I hadn’t gone near the side table. It had held my fascination for days, yet I had been reluctant to snoop through it.

It was probably the only place in this fucking building I hadn’t explored.

Pulling the top drawer open, I was surprised by the clutter within, so at odds with the meticulous perfection of everything.

It had a stack of newspaper clippings on one side.

Coins and crumpled notes, what looked like a Taser, and a few other assorted items. My face ignited with heat as I noted the purple vibrator on the other side of the drawer, quickly grabbing the Kindle and closing it again.

I glanced back at Theo, who wasn’t looking at me but had a slight smile quirking one side of her lips.

Flopping back down on the couch, I flicked the Kindle on, my eyes growing wider the further I scrolled.

It was all filth.

And I had already read most of them.

The image of Theo lying sprawled on her bed, that vibrator between her thighs, her back arched, and the muscles I had gotten to know intimately as she was recovering, flexing and moving under her soft skin, suddenly flashed through my mind.

I nearly dropped the Kindle, fumbling with it for a second.

I must have tapped one of the images, as a book started loading, and I decided to just go with it after glancing at the title.

I settled into the couch, my attention divided between Theo and the Kindle.

That slowly shifted, though, as I realized how utterly sapphic the book I had chosen was, devouring each interaction between the two main characters hungrily…

and by the time I was halfway into it, I was engrossed.

One scene in particular heated my skin as I read over it a second time, my traitorous mind replacing the characters with an image of Theo and myself, the filthy words on the page playing in her voice.

I squeezed my thighs together to alleviate the steadily building ache.

“Which one did you pick?”

I jumped, feeling like I had just been caught doing something I shouldn’t, as I realized Theo was studying me.

“Lady—” I cleared my throat. “Lady Venom Takes a Mistress.”

There was a flash of tooth as she smirked and nodded, returning her attention to the knife she was meticulously cleaning.

“Where are you up to?”

I glanced up again, noting the gleam in her eye.

“I—Uh. She just….”

“Use your words,” Theo chuckled.

“She just…pulled out a silicone snake…”

Theo hummed, setting her knife down slowly and leaning forward to rest her elbows on her splayed knees.

“That part is good. Read it to me?”

I balked. “What?”

She tilted her head, that damned eyebrow rising a touch higher.

“Read it to me.”

Fuck.

I opened my mouth and closed it again, giving her a pleading look.

“Theo…please.”

“I love it when you beg.” She smirked. “Come here.” She patted her good leg when I didn’t move. “It wasn’t a request, Sweets.”

I slowly got up and crossed to her, eyeing her warily as she grasped my hips, tugging me down to sit in her lap, my back against her chest and my legs hanging either side of hers.

I tried to shift to make sure I wasn’t putting pressure on her injured thigh, but her arm came around my waist, and her chin rested on my shoulder as she peered down at the Kindle I still had a death grip on.

She was so close, her warmth seeping into my back.

“Start reading.”

Fuck me. I lowered my gaze to the filthy moment on the page I was up to…took a shaky breath and started reading.

She was silent as she listened, my words faltering as her hand slid slowly around my side and under the waistband of my pants.

I grabbed her wrist, and she stilled.

“Are you telling me you don’t want this?” she murmured. “Because your body is telling me the opposite…and you have taken such good care of me. Now let me take care of you.”

My heart was hammering so hard I thought it might stop at any moment, my skin near feverish as her breath disturbed the hair at the nape of my neck. I said nothing, but relaxed my grip on her wrist, slowly.

“That’s my good girl,” she whispered, her hand drifting lower to skim the line of my panties.

“Theodora,” I gasped, and she snorted, the tip of her nose trailing up the side of my neck. “Keep reading, Sweets. Final warning.”

I tried—god how I tried—getting out a few more lines until the tip of her finger slid over my clit and she hummed softly.

“So fucking wet already, my Sweet.”

I closed my eyes, then yelped loudly as her fingers encircled my still-very-tender newly pierced nipple and squeezed.

“Did I say stop?”

“No,” I bit out, bringing the Kindle back up and frantically trying to find my place. I started reading again, my voice catching and straining as her finger began slow strokes over my clit, sliding through the wetness that I would never tell her was from watching her. Not from the smut in my hands.

I read the same paragraph twice as her finger dipped inside me, sending shockwaves through my body and making me clench around her.

She gave my nipple another pinch as my words began trailing off a second time, her breath hot against my neck now.

“Keep reading,” she murmured. “Because you are not allowed to come until Poesy does, and if you do…” she said as she flicked my nipple gently. “You already know I follow through on my consequences.”

Fuck.

I was already dangerously close, a slight increase in pressure dragging a whimper from me.

I glued my eyes to the words and started reading again in a breathy voice.

I tried to close my legs a fraction, but her knees were between them, and she pinched my thigh viciously with fingers wet from my own arousal before opening our legs wider and continuing… albeit slightly harder this time.

“Not yet,” she growled next to my ear as my words faltered and I gasped. “You are so close, Sweets. But not yet.”

I flicked across, relieved to see I was on the last page of the chapter as I forced myself to focus. My head fell back on her shoulder, but I raised the Kindle enough to keep reading, the end of one particular sentence trailing off in a moan.

I raced toward the finish, fighting to stay ahead of my own orgasm as I squirmed, the pressure of its approach overwhelming.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” she warned, the scrape of her teeth against my neck keeping me grounded just long enough to get me to the last sentence.

The final words of the chapter were lost in a rush of breathy pants as she sunk two fingers into me, the heel of her palm grinding against my clit as her teeth sank into the juncture of my shoulder and neck hard enough that I knew she had drawn blood.

I erupted in a wave of pleasure, a sound ripping from me that I had never made before as the pain made the pleasure reach a peak that left me unable to breathe.

The Kindle was pulled from my grasp and thrown across the room, her hand finding my hair and fisting it in a grip that made my scalp burn and a second orgasm roll into the first. She yanked my head back, and her lips crashed into mine.

She kissed me savagely, devouring me as if she had been famished for this connection, swallowing my cries as the pleasure rolled through me in an endless wave.

And I couldn’t tell which part had felt the best—the orgasm that had just shattered my mind, or the woman I should hate finally kissing me.