Page 98 of Taken By Touch and Torment

Snow smirked. “I love hearing your inner monologue spoken aloud.”

I crunched too loudly on my palm full of almonds, and Uriah slowly dragged his eyes to me.

“Hello again, Trouble,” he said with a wink. Then, his eyes widened. “That was a wink of friendship,” he said quickly. “Don’t tell Rune.”

I laughed. “I didn’t interpret it any other way. Hello again, Uriah.”

We’d always had the best banter out of all the inner circle members Rune had forced to follow me when he couldn’t. Unlike Mason, I’d always read that Uriah was kind of rooting for me. Though Mason had clearly changed her tune after everything that had happened.

“Bold of you two to be reading such naughty literature in broad daylight, in front of a legion of bloodthirsty monsters.” He flashed his fangs, his eyes back on Snow.

Snow placed a hand on her hip. “Leave shame and secrecy out of it. It’s just sex. We all have it.” Snow raised a hand to her mouth. “Oh, sorry, Uriah. Some of us have it.”

He clutched his chest and stumbled backward. “Ouch, Blondie.” His rakish grin was soon to return. “Ready for another session?”

I raised a brow at Snow.

“He means hand-to-hand combat. Self-defense,” she said as she shook her head. She focused back on Uriah. “I’m hanging with Scar, as you can clearly see.” Then, she lowered the sass, shifting on her feet. “Later tonight?”

Uriah’s smile remained unchanged. “Can’t wait. Need at least one form of release, right? Call it my version of sexy novels.”

Snow chuckled dryly. “As if you all don’t already get plenty of barbaric release these days…”

I interjected. “Can I join?” Then, I realized maybe they’d want to be alone. The mutual desire between them was so ripe that one nudge from me might induce public sex. Not that I’d ever interfere. “Or, actually, could I just snag a session of my own sometime?”

Snow and Uriah both slowly turned toward me. I stood to join them.

“I think it would be easier to focus on learning with you than with Rune,” I explained. “And I need to understand the basics.”

“Right, well, that’s some sound logic, Trouble,” Uriah said. “But you know I’m going to need Rune’s stamp of approval on such endeavors.”

Snow huffed. “Scarlett is her own person. You vampires and your?—”

“Blondie,” Uriah said. “We’ve been over it.”

Snow, surprisingly, relented. Something unspoken traveled between the two of them, and it seemed—intimate, in a way that had nothing to do with sex.

She nodded, staring into Uriah’s eyes with considerably less fire than before. We all three startled when a fourth person approached from behind nearby shrubs, following along the stone path until she reached our enclave. Our guards eyed her, but they weren’t concerned.

The woman was short and curvy, with long black hair that was messy and littered with pieces of dead leaves and small twigs. She ran her fingers through her hair as if that would solve the problem, scrunching her button nose and shrugging when she realized it was futile.

“Imogene,” Snow said with small wave.

I could sense shifter magick radiating from her. She looked between the three of us, but her eyes decisively landed on me.

My first instinct was to tense, to wonder what I’d done to earn this woman’s derision. But Imogene was quick to break out into a cheerful smile, nearly skipping the rest of the way to join our little huddle.

“Hi, Scarlett,” she said, perky and warm. “Pleasure to meet you.”

Sexual energy radiated from her aura in waves. I had the succubus intuition that she must’ve been rolling around in the grass with someone back in the woods that separated the castle from the rest of Nyx.

She glanced back at the chair I’d been sitting in, pointing to the book I’d left behind. “A classic.” She giggled. “Mistress says she knew the human woman who wrote it.”

Mistress. The word triggered unconscious visions of my time in the palace, forced to entertain Kole, to let Brennan feed from me—to let them all touch me, humiliate me.

I shuddered. Everyone’s eyes moved to me. I flushed with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, quickly changing the subject and rooting myself back in my present reality. “It’s nice to meet you too, Imogene.” I opened my mouth to talk to her more about the book, but I was interrupted by another form approaching from the direction of the castle.

Uriah glanced over his shoulder and nervously chuckled.

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