Page 176 of Wicked Believer

We need to take this slow. For all our sakes.

“Mmph.” He gives a low, grumbling purr, the noise rushing heat straight to my core as his eyes once again fall to my lips, like it physically pains him for us to separate, but then he moves off me, helping me sit up.

I twist so that my feet are now firmly planted on the safe side of the ledge, but then he’s standing next to me, his large, wide shadow looming over me as his hand snakes to the back of my neck, cradling me there, and unlike Lucifer, he doesn’t pull me to him. It’s like he’s guiding me. Like the choice to be with himisand always will be mine.

“I’ve waited an eternity for someone to see me the way you do—as a person, not just some terrifying concept.” He stares down at me, his graveled voice thick and heavy with need. “I can wait one night longer. Go.” He nods over his shoulder. “Go to him.”

“And what about you?” I brush my hand over his cheek.

He shivers.

Death actually shivers in response to my touch, his eyes darkening.

“I am as endless and vast as this universe, Charlotte. More patient than even your immortal eternity.” Death grins at me. “I’m not going anywhere, little siren.”

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Charlotte

“Back so soon?” Lucifer looks more than a little amused at the sight of me as he waves off Ramesh, who appears to have been bringing him a drink.

For safety, Azmodeus put a two-drink limit on all party guests, except the Originals.

Being immortal has perks, it seems.

Lucifer’s eyes narrow as he notices the blush on my cheeks, my swollen lips.

Nothing about navigating this is going to be easy.

So, I just come out and say it. “I think it’s only fair I give you an equal chance to court me. For us to start fresh. Now that we’ve agreed I’m allowed to ... explore.”

Lucifer quirks a brow in interest. “A competition between Azrael and me? Is that what you had in mind?”

I shrug, my face flaming. “Sort of. I guess?”

When he puts it like that, it sounds a lot more wicked than I ever expected it to be.

But the idea of the devil and Death competing for my attention, well it ...

Makes that bit of power I now keep at the ready inside myself purr eagerly.

Lucifer reads the uncertainty in my expression easily. “Immortality can be fun, if you let it be, Charlotte.”

Kinky and messy and fucked up, but what else would it be?

Lucifer snatches me toward him, so that I’m tucked against him, chest to stomach. He’s a whole lot taller than me. “The only problem with that little arrangement is I fear the playing field may not exactly be level.” Lucifer leans down so he can whisper into my ear, causing me to shiver from head to toe, like he did before, like he always has,especiallybefore he gave his Father’s redemption to me.

“Oh, and why’s that?” I smile up at him playfully. “Because you were the one who made me immortal? Who first fucked the shame out of me?”

That devious grin of his widens, flashing fang. “No, no.” He chuckles, the heat of his breath brushing against me. An intoxicating mixture of whisky and leather and smoke. “Who do you think taught Death all his best moves?”

Without warning, Lucifer casts his whisky glass onto a nearby table as he brutally kisses me, and all my breath, all my nerves, are sucked out of me like a force as I’m suddenly yanked forward and down into the ether.

Down into the fiery realm where he’s king.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Charlotte