Page 57 of Serpent In White

I blink myself out of my reflections at the look he’s giving me. He has some stress in his brow, and I can’t really tell why. His thoughts are mixing up in his listening to mine, apart from something that sticks out about him not wanting to be likehim…Someone from his past…

Who’s him?

He doesn’t answer me, not with his mouth or his mind. Instead, he turns and wanders over to the bed, having a seat on the edge. I glance around the room for a moment, remembering what I saw happen in here only last week.

The night that changed my view of everything.

“They steer the course of our lives,” Darian rumbles, and my eyes fling in his direction once more. He’s seated with his hands folded on his lap. “Each and every one.” Narrowing my gaze at him, I wonder what he’s referring to, but he explains right away. “Our decisions, Abdiel. Our choices, and the footsteps we plant on the path the universe devises.”

It’s strange, a few days ago I might not have had a clue what these words mean. But now…

Now, with Empyrean lingering in my blood, the Ecdysis birthing a new Abdiel, I nod along. Iseewhat he’s saying, as if a new door in my mind has been opened.

It makes him smile, tiny and faint, yet deliciously beautiful and tender all the same.

“So,” he sighs, leaning back a bit on the bed, propping on his elbows while he stares at me, “What would you like to talk about?”

Confusion ripples as I blink. “Talk?”

His tongue swipes his lower lip. “Or is there some other reason you’re here, my servant?”

“I um… I thought you wanted to see me,” I mutter with very little confidence. I wish I could find my backbone, but I can’t seem to be anything but timid around him.

My entire life has passed watching this man from afar; admiring him as if he truly were myKing. And now here I am, in a private room with him… Door closed and locked.

We’ve been flirting, and at dinner I heard his thoughts, about wanting to kiss me, to taste me. I had to adjust my erection multiple times.

And now he just wants to talk?

Darian chuckles, shaking his head. “So eager, young servant. I wanted to see you so we could talk…” My stomach drops in disappointment, until he continues, “About that kiss you say you’ve never received.”

“Oh,” the word gusts from between my lips.

Head Priest’s brow lifts, and his mind growls at me,Come here, Abdiel.

My pulse is rapping like crazy inside me as I go to him, like I have no choice whatsoever. And maybe I don’t. Maybe this course was set for me, since the beginning of time; the plan already arranged.

Go to the man you want undeniably, unequivocally, irrevocably. It’s where you need to be, Abdiel. Right here, right now.

When I reach the edge of the bed, I tilt my chin to look down at him, palms sweaty and dick as stiff as marble.

Closer, he commands, his pupils even darker now, compared to the brightness of his irises.

Taking a leap of faith that it’s what he wants, I kneel on the bed and crawl over him, my arms caging his hips. The look on his face is mirroring his hungry thoughts, which are of course reflecting my own. Yet he backs up.

He crawls away from me.

Rejected, I can’t help the wounded tone of my thoughts, fragile ego taking a hit that hurts. But Darian doesn’t look pissed or creeped out, or upset. He doesn’t look unsure at all. His eyes are beaming with a playful need that keeps me crawling after him. Chasing him, because it’s what he wants.

I lunge for him, but he backs up again, scooting away from me on the bed while a youthful chuckle escapes him. I’m unable to stop myself from grinning wickedly as I grab his calf to keep him in place. His pupils dilate visibly as I climb on top of him, straddling his hips.

“Abdiel,” he hums my name breathlessly, hitting me right in the junk. It’s the sexiest sound ever invented when he says my name.

I part my lips, ready to call himHead Priest, but I remember his request and whisper, “Darian,” going for his wrists, pinning them at his sides. Interestingly enough, just like Drake did to me the other day.

“What are you going to do with me now that you’ve caught me, young servant?” He licks his lips, the wall of muscle that is his chest fluttering through his breaths.

I’m trembling with excitement. “You lured me here with the promise of my first kiss.” I lean over him, inching in while he squirms beneath me, such a big, thick beast of a man, yet I have him trapped at my mercy.God, what a turn-on.