Page 28 of The Duplicity of Thieves

I cast him a sidelong glance. “I didn’t say that.” I want to talk to her so badly that I’m using all my strength to hold myself back. If she runs off again, I will die. I risk another glance at her. She is a raging fucking storm of fire and darkness.

Hermes rolls his eyes. “Oh, please. You’re practically drooling.”

Another boy approaches the girl and she gives him a dirty look. He turns around without saying a word, avoiding her like the plague. I want to catch it. I want her plague to consume me.

“A word of advice. She bites,” Vivian says. The three of them giggle maniacally.

I stand, straighten my jacket, and approach her. No point in holding it off anymore. I don’t think I could if I wanted to. My steps are calm and sure, but inside I’m buzzing. The girl watches me with a look I can’t discern. Even when I lean on the bar next to her, she doesn’t say anything. She drains the rest of the bottle and sets it on the counter, crossing her arms in its absence.

“I guess you were right,” she sighs.

I try to keep my voice even. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll take your deal, but make no mistake, little devil, we will meet again,” she tries to mimic my voice.

“I thought I knew you from somewhere.” As if I haven’t thought about her for the last four years. “For your information, that’s not what I sound like.”

“How would you know?”

“Fair point,” I muse. “Let me introduce myself properly. I’m Aedonaeus, but you can call me Aedon. And you, little devil?”

“Josephine, but you can call me Josie.” Her voice is smooth and silky. It’s the kind of voice that draws you in close enough to strike you on the jugular. “So you know David?”

“Friend of a friend. Your sister said you bite.”

She looks up at me through thick lashes with bottomless gray eyes. “Depends on who you ask.”

“What about the poor boy whose face you smashed against the bar?”

“And yet you still came over here.”

“I can’t help myself. The prospect of danger keeps me feeling alive.”

Josie glances around me. “What were you talking to my sister about?”

“You want to know if I told her we’ve met before?”

“Well?”

“No. I didn’t think it was her business, but if you want, I can go tell her the story in detail. I wouldn’t mind reliving it.” I grin at the prospect, my tongue running along my bottom lip.

She smirks. I want to own that smirk. It’s so fucking intoxicating. “It must be torture for someone like you.”

“What is?”

“Rejection.”

“Didn’t seem like rejection when I was three fingers deep.”

Josie shifts, tightening her thighs. She enjoyed it, even if she wants to pretend she didn’t.

“I thought we were never going to see each other again.”

“I told you we would.”

When I said it I wasn’t sure. I’ve been back to Ody’s a few times since that night, but I never saw her, nor the brunette, again. With how cagey she had been, I had begun to think she had a husband or something, and that she had managed to escape him for a night. I check her hand, but there isn’t a ring.

Her face changes; she’s hesitant. “That’s what stalkers say.”

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