Page 106 of Vipers and Vendettas

‘But you liked it, didn’t you?’ Daemon whispers as he gets up, caging me into my chair. ‘I felt it. You were close to coming in your seat. Maybe next time, we can do it for real. I'll put a mask over that pretty face and bring you up on the stage with a collar around your neck so everyone can see you’re mine for real. Tie you up, play with you, take requests from the audience.’ He puts up a hand at my horrified expression. ‘All with your prior consent, of course. Nothing you haven’t already agreed to, princess.’

I open and close my mouth, not sure of what to say.

‘I know how interested you were when you saw part of the show before. Maybe we’ll start slow, catch a full one before you try it yourself, so you know what to expect? The energy that comes out of the audience is something else, baby. I think you’ll love it.’

‘We’ll see,’ I concede, and his eyes light up.

‘It’s not a ‘no’.’

He helps me up and takes me to the door. Maddox is waiting, a look of warning on his face.

‘Don’t do that to her in public again,’ he warns Daemon, his eyes flashing. ‘It’s dangerous. Her arousal spike was noticed by everyone.’

I put my head in my hands with a groan of mortification as Daemon saunters off down the hall, chuckling.

‘What was that meeting about?’ I ask Maddox, trying to change the subject as fast as possible. ‘I tried to follow along, but …’ I shrug.

‘Do you really want to know?’

‘Only if you’re comfortable with telling me,’ I say. ‘I won’t be upset if you aren’t.’

He pulls me back into the room and closes the door.

‘What do you think I do, Julia?’

‘I actually have no idea,’ I say. ‘The research I did on you, you know,before, said you were old money, that your family had been in imports and exports for generations, but that’s all I could really find out.’

He nods. ‘That’s more or less what I dopublicly. But the truth is that the family money was mostly gone by the time my father inherited the title and the estate. He sold off everything over the years after I was born. The horses, the silver, the paintings. If it had any value, he peddled it. After he died, there was nothing left but debt. He’d sold off everything but the house and the maze, and the only reason he hadn’t got rid of those as well was because the maze is attached to the house itself somehow, and it’s a bit of an albatross.’

‘An albatross?’ I ask.

‘A millstone. No one wanted it because of how dangerous it’s rumored to be,’ he clarifies. ‘Anyway, I inherited a house and a sentient maze in the Alps and little else. So, I borrowed some money from a friend and started my first business.’

‘Which was …’

‘I carried on my family’s rich heritage of imports and exports, of course, darling,’ he grins. ‘It was just that the goods were typically below-board and quite …fae.’

‘You were a fae magick runner?’ I gasp. ‘Are you still?’

‘Among other things.’ Maddox shrugs, and I take a small step back, practically in awe.

Smuggling fae artifacts is one of the most dangerous jobs ever, almost more than actuallystealingfae artifacts. The fae don’t take kindly to non-fae cutting them out and making a profit by selling their stuff behind their backs on a large scale. But I’m impressed in spite of myself. I figured Maddox was a businessman in the most boring sense of the word, not a smuggler!

‘What do you think?’ he asks. ‘Have I surprised you?’

I nod. ‘I think you’re a very bad boy, Julian Maddox.’

He smiles darkly, his hands skating down my dress to my ass, which he palms. ‘Needs must, darling. Unfortunately, a naughty little human stole all our money from us, and we had to return to crime.’

I blanch. ‘I made you?—’

He puts a finger to my lips. ‘No more self-reproach for past misdeeds, my beauty. In truth, I think we were all getting a bit bored on the right side of the law anyway.’

He pulls me closer. ‘I can feel how needy Daemon’s little trick has left you, which was no doubt his design. I’d love to turn you around and bend you over this table right now,’ he murmurs. ‘Unfortunately, with the number of shifters in here tonight, I don’t think that would be advisable, as he should have realized if he’d thought it through.’

‘What do you mean?’ I half-moan, wanting him to do what he’s proposing.

‘Shifters without packs can be unpredictable, and with the amount of sexual energy you create when you’re with us, it could cause them to go a bit feral. I’m afraid that no matter how much I’d love you squealing my name as you come, it’s not worth endangering you and the rest of the club.’