Page 102 of Vengeance and Vipers

I turn on the water and wait for it to heat up, putting her under the spray when it’s warm. She grabs the soap, but I take it from her gently.

‘All part of the service,’ I chuckle, but I’m wondering if she knew this would happen, that we’d have this bridge between us. She has to have, right? She’s been with three of the others. Can they feel her, too? Can she feel them? What is her game? What if she tells Maddox what we just did?

I wasn’t part of the deal with Maddox, so if she does tell him, she doesn’t lose anything.Icould, though. Maddox values trust. Respect. Loyalty. I’m his second, and I’ve noticed Daemon trying to worm his way in. I’m not giving him the ammunition to take my place.

My scent needs to be absolutely gone from her. No evidence. Her word against mine because I’ll be the one who’s believed, not the thieving, human conwoman.

But she lets me wash her, allows me to move her this way and that to make one-hundred and ten percent sure there’s not a hint of me left on her when I’m done.

When I get below the waist, I hesitate before washing her intimately with my soapy fingers, but I have to be the one to do it in case she tries to leave traces of me for Maddox to scent on purpose.

She stifles a whimper when I’m too rough, but I feel her arousal spike too. I hate the way it makes me want to fuck her again here and now. I thought having her would stop me from wanting her, get her out of my system. But it’s done the opposite. What is this? Why do I want this human?

My phone rings, and I curse, shutting off the water.

‘Maddox?’ I say over the receiver, and her eyes widen.

She grabs a towel and begins to dry herself vigorously as I answer, but I don’t have enough reception to hear more than a broken crackle of Maddox’s voice. I watch her movements almost lazily but am gratified that she doesn’t seem to want Maddox to know what we just did any more than I do.

‘I’m coming,’ I say loudly, cursing again over the static before hanging up.

I dry myself off and grab my clothes off the floor. I need to leave before her so no one sees where we’ve been together. Luckily, the bathroom is down this hallway, too.

‘It’s okay,’ I say as I take in her almost frenzied movements. ‘We still have a while before the fae are due. Finish up in here, and I’ll meet you by the bar in a few minutes.’

She nods, and I leave without looking back, grabbing my jacket and tearing open the door.

I walk through the bar, scanning it for the others, and I see Daemon loitering by one of the anterooms.

I start making my way through the crowd toward him, but I’m beckoned by Jayce to the room we were first shown into when we got here.

When I get inside, the door closes, and he and Krase bar my way.

‘Where is she?’ Krase growls.

‘Safe,’ I say.

‘What did you do?’ Jayce hisses low.

‘Nothing!’

‘The hell you didn’t,’ Axel says from the couch next to me. He stands up and pushes me in the chest. ‘We all felt it. What the fuck did you do?’

‘Nothing!’ I say again as I stagger back. ‘She needed the bathroom.’

My eyes narrow as I properly take in their words. Theycanfeel her, too, and the way they’re acting … whatever started in the Mountain with Axel and Jayce has continued despite the deal Jules made with Maddox. And Krase is fucking her as well.

‘Shit. I was right.Allof you? With her? Maddox is going to throw a fucking fit when he finds out.’

I shake my head and ask myself again how she was able to do this. ‘Fuck.’

‘How’s Maddox going to find out?’ Jayce says with a snarl. ‘He won’t so long as you keep your mouth shut.’

Krase grins, pushing me into the door behind me.

I let him.

‘You won’t escape his wrath either. You didn’t tell him about the woods. You’re just as culpable, Iron, and don’t you forget it. Maddox and Daemon don’t find out. Not until the time is right.’