Page 40 of Satanic Shadow

“If you want to survive in my world, grow a sense of humor.”

“No.”

His war cry.

I peek up, finding him already watching me. Dane chews his lip, his eyes following my movements as I try to fix my hair and straighten my clothes. “Thank you, mortal. I’ve been trying to obtain that scroll for weeks.”

“Sera,” I correct, trying not to blush from the intensity of his gaze. “And you didn’t give me much of a choice now, did you?”

“No.” He smirks as I shake my head, and I’m definitely going to get flashes of that while pleasuring myself later. “Accept gratitude when offered it and drop it.”

“Fine. You’re welcome. If you ever ask me to do something like that again, I’ll make task five hell for you. Can I go now?”

He stares at me, calculating which task that is, and then nods once.

But as I shoulder past him, skin blistering from the touch, Dane clears his throat and speaks when I reach for the door handle. “You didn’t respond to me earlier. Are you even taking these tasks seriously?”

I spin on my heels, my skirt swishing in the air from the momentum. “You better be kidding me right now.”

Dane takes a step. “Task three’s deadline is in forty hours.”

I cross my arms and lean against the door. “Shame. I wanted a few more days to practice with my pillow.” He doesn’t get it, so I huff. “You can come to my room tomorrow. The rules are for it to be done five times, and for all five to be more than a minute long. Think you can handle that?”

“Can you?” he counters.

We stare at each other, and I’m so sure he’s taken another step, I’m almost compelled to do the same, but I keep my back firmly pressed to the door. “Have you ever kissed someone before?”

His jaw tenses. “Yes. I have.”

“Because you sleep around in the academy?”

Annoyingly, he smirks again, taking one more step. “I definitely don’tsleeparound, mortal.”

“Sera.”

“No.”

I tilt my head to give him some smart retort, but I fail as his shoe lifts across the ground and he moves even closer.

“Fine,” I say. “Prove it.”

My heart rate accelerates to a dangerous pace as he rests both of his hands on the door at each side of my head. “Prove what?”

“That you can handle it,” I reply, tipping my chin up so I can hold eye contact.

He laughs. “I mean every offense when I say this, but I’d rather rip out my own heart and feed it to the wolves.”

“You’re such a dick.”

I knock his arm away, but he captures me by the shirt to stop me from walking through the door.

“Wait.”

One word. One demand. Firmly said through his teeth.

I slap his hand away. “You’re the demon version of whiplash. What do you want?”

He waves a finger, and balls of shadows fly to the windows, shrouding us in darkness. “I just remembered I’m busy tomorrow, and I can’t risk failing.”