Page 35 of The Devil Takes

Which posed the question…

“Why are you in my bed?”

Percy startled awake. His thick brown lashes fluttered as his eyes shot open and he stared at me, seemingly more shocked than I was to discover that he was in bed with me, despite being the one that had traveled here in the first place.

“Sorry.” Percy’s apology was half-hearted at most. I forced back a smile, conflicting emotions buzzing inside me as I realized, belatedly, that once again, he must’ve been searching for me. This time while he wasn’t consciously doing so. Part of me wanted to gloat.

The other part of me, the bigger part, the sensible one stamped down on those feelings, crushing them to ruin.

“You’re back,” I commented, waiting for his reply. He had the strangest way of talking. Informal. Crude. Honest. It was refreshing when all day I spent with textbooks and obligations, commanding respect from my inferiors as there was no way to rule without it.

“I guess I am.” Percy continued to stare at me, and I wasn’t sure what to make of his expression.

It had been a long time since I had needed to decipher someone else’s moods like this. Maybe never. No matter. I shook the feeling away, forcing down the flicker of life that ignited inside me as his hazel eyes grew wide and soft.

They were littered with spots of orange, like sparks, though the overall mossy green reminded me of springs I had long since forgotten, whether that was by choice or because of time, I could no longer remember either. However, the longer I watched him, the darker his eyes became, his pupils flooding his irises as I watched his lips part once more.

Tapping into instincts from my past, I searched for the sound of his heartbeat.

It was faint.

Thud, thud, thud.

Rabbit-like and rapid.

My response to the sound surprised me more than Percy showing up in my bed did. My cock thickened, throbbing as my gums began to ache with the need to bite. My skin grew hot, my chest fluttering. There was this urge inside me I couldn’t seem to fully sate—to grab him. To force him to his belly. To taste his submission on my tongue. To mount him till he howled my name, and his sweet hole clutched velvety-hot around my cock.

He’d been so tight that night in the cemetery. Slick. Squeezing around me till my head spun and the urge to fuck became impossible to deny.

I flinched, shoving away the feelings, hiding behind apathy as my heart began to race with fear. What in Thanatos’s name was going on?

“What brings you here?” I asked, forcing myself to speak, to act normal. This should not be difficult. He was nothing. A mistake I’d made over a month ago. That was it. Albeit a very delicious mistake, but—no. No. I needed to stop thinking that way. “You must’ve wanted something if you’re back so soon.”

I couldn’t have him a second time.

I shouldn’t have him a second time.

Already I could feel my resolve weakening.

Gods help me.

“I want to forget,” Percy’s voice wobbled. Concern ebbed inside me, yet another emotion I’d left behind. What did he want to forget? Me? If that was the case, he should really stop coming here. It was hard to move on when I could practically taste him in the air.

Staring at me would do him no favors.

“You want to forget that night in the graveyard?” I clarified.

Then he surprised me, shaking his head no. His hair looked light, downy soft though it was slicked with perspiration. I wanted to comb it away from his forehead, stroke away the tension between his brows, though that feeling wasn’t one I was ready to confront.

How was it possible he did not regret the graveyard?

I did.

I had thought of it every day since it happened. It had been a mistake, surely he thought so too? Our last encounter had given me that impression, anyway. But…maybe I’d misread him.

It was possible.

Those impossibly sad eyes blinked up at me, and I desperately tried not to search for his faint scent in the air or the throb of his nervous pulse. Though the instinct had been dead for years, I had unfortunately already woken it. All it took was a thought for the steady thump, thump of his racing heart to fill my head with cotton.

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