Page 11 of Nita’s Bounty

“So, you spend the whole night with your client and still need to get yourself off? That means it was either terribly disappointing or…”

I finish pulling the shirt I left at the end of my bed over my head, and my eyes flick to where Cybele is leaning in the doorway. “It was or. Definitely or.”

“Tell me everything.” Her large blue eyes sparkle, and her lips spread into a wide grin as she hops over to sit down next to me.

A breathy laugh escapes as I pull on a pair of lightweight pants and then fall back across my bed. Where do I start?

“He was…” I turn my head to look over at where she’s grinning at me. “I think he might have ruined me for all men.”

Cybele’s grin abruptly fades. “Oh, Nita.”

Tears well in my eyes, and I give the ceiling a watery laugh. Shit. I’m never going to see him again, but at least I’ll have the memories of our time together.

“Maybe he’ll come back?” Cybele offers.

I smile sadly at her but shake my head. There’s no sense getting my hopes up.

“No. This was it.” I take a deep breath. I’m not sure who I’m trying to convince when I add, “It’s alright.”

Cybele lets out a startled yip, and I lift my head just in time to watch Shuvo finish solidifying from mist right in front of me.

“What? How—? What?” My heart kicks hard in my chest as I push myself upright.

He smirks at me, unfazed that I just watched him appear out of thin air. Then I feel my cheeks grow hot, because… Did he see what I did only moments ago?

My eyes flick to the pool and then back at him, and his smirk gets smirkier. Yeah. He did. And I have a feeling he had a hand in that orgasm I gave myself too.

Shuvo steps into my little nook and grabs hold of my fingers. Without saying a word, he tugs me to my feet and begins pulling me across the room.

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CHAPTER 8

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SHUVO

“Shoo-vo! I—” She looks panicked as I pull her across the room. “What are you—I can’t just leave.”

You can, I tell her with my eyes and a sharp nod.

“No. She’ll come after me.” Nita digs her heels into the floor, trying to slow me down, but I keep pulling her along. “I’ll be hunted, and she won’t hesitate to kill you trying to get me back.”

I scoff at the thought of anyone killing me. They can certainly try. My kind aren’t impervious to death, but we’re kurving hard to kill.

I shake my head. I try to tell her with my body language that she has nothing to worry about. Instead, she grips my hand with both of hers and forces me to stop.

“Shuvo, I’m serious. I can’t,” she insists, glancing back at where her pink friend is staring after us with her mouth hanging open. “I chose to stay here once, when I had a chance to leave, but now—I want to go, but I can’t. She has me trapped.”

All I hear is the way she says I want to. She thinks the Madame who runs the station can stop me, or her, but she doesn’t know. She doesn’t understand that I’m immune to her rules. Placing a finger over my lips, I give her a teasing smile before I turn to mist.

Her eyes widen, and she looks all around for where I might have gone.

I wrap myself around her with my incorporeal body until gooseflesh pebbles her arms, then I nudge her until she’s forced to take halting steps across the room to the large door.

“It’s locked,” she says without trying to open it. This tells me she knows it to be true from experience. But no matter.

My form strokes around her body once more, and then I easily slip through the cracks to the other side. The hallway is empty, so I solidify quickly and open the door from the outside. She stands frozen, staring at me, and I wave my hand with a flourish, inviting her to step over the threshold to join me. When she hesitates, I reach through and pull her across. I’m pushing the door closed when her friend appears.

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