Page 121 of Death is My Ride or Die

Death glanced down at me again with those sultry, wicked eyes, while his arms held him up mid pull-up. The swell of his biceps could have cracked my head open like a walnut and I’d honestly have died happy. There, I said it.

He arched a pierced eyebrow. “Enlighten me, Saint Faith. What’s ahymen?”

“I won’t answer stupid questions.” I mentally patted myself on the back for standing my ground.

“Look at you, so assertive,” Death taunted. His gaze burned into mine before he hauled his body upward again on the

I whirled around to face the mirrored wall, but not before I got an eyeful of his package again.Dear God, stay focused, woman. “I know you care about Ace’s vision. You wanted to tell me, didn’t you? But instead, you pushed me away. Just like you’re doing right now. Because you’re afraid—”

“Because I know you,” Death interjected, any amusement vanishing from his voice. “I know you’ll stand in the way, and I’ll be damned again before I let that happen. I won’t let you lay down your life for me. I won’t.”

A mixture of emotions overcame me at what he’d admitted.

I gripped my elbows, hugging myself. “Have you at least told Lucifer? I’m sure if you told him, he’d have more people come to the mausoleum to protect you.”

Death released another low, bestial noise that echoed off the basement walls, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. “He doesn’t care, Faith. Doesn’t matter, anyway; Ace explained to you the consequences of exploiting such visions.”

“I couldn’t care less about the consequences. Not if it saves your life.”

Death dropped down behind me, his naked torso brushing the thin cotton of my T-shirt. I froze, fighting the urge to either run or lean into him as the low timbre of his voice wrapped around me like a toxic sheath. “If you speak one word of the vision to anybody, you will deeply regret it.”

“I’m tired of your empty threats.”

He spun me around, and I gasped as his darkness leapt from his body and shackled my wrists to the mirror. “They arefarfrom empty,” Death growled against the shell of my ear. “You’ve betrayed me in an unforgiveable way. My trust in you ended the moment you said you were with my father.”

“I didn’t betray you,” I said, finding strength within to defend myself. “I didn’t voluntarily go see Malphas. One moment, you and I were kissing, and the next, I got swept away and I wasthere, in some other place, and so was he. I may have summoned him somehow, but none of it was intentional. What happened to you . . . All the anger and hatred you have for your father, don’t put that on me, because it’s not fair. This wasn’t my fault.” Rolling my shaking fingers into fists, I lifted my chin. “If you expect me to stand back and let you die because you’re willing to cut me off so easily, then you don’t know me at all. I’m in this fight. If you disagree, then you’re going to have to stop me.”

His gaze clung hotly to the side of my face. I shivered when the tips of his talons grazed the left side of my hip and slipped underneath my shirt to scrape against my bare skin. He exhaled a ragged breath. “Was that a challenge, Faith?”

“Since you don’t want to talk, yes. Yes, it was. and you’re going to accept it.” I arched a cocky brow at him and slid out from his shadows’ grasp. “If you knock me down and keep me down,” I said, strutting to the center of the room, “you get that striptease. But ifIknock you down and keepyoudown”—I pivoted toward him, reveling in his sinful, undivided attention—“then I go to fight with you tomorrow. Yes or no?”

Shadows pulsed off him in wisps and tendrils as he considered my offer. “I don’t make deals with virgins anymore. You never paid up on the striptease, and you never planned on it, so whatvaluedoes this deal have for me?”

“How about I throw in something sugary?” I backed away toward the stairs to the main floor of the old warehouse. “I’ll make you the best batch of cupcakes you’ve ever had.”

Death’s wicked eyes hooded, and he prodded a fang with the tip of his tongue. A part of him was intrigued. But as he slowly pursued me up the stairs, he seemed to hesitate, and his fists tightened against the railings on either side of him. His expression darkened and closed again.

“No,” he said.

“How come?” At the top of the staircase, I looked down at him and inclined my head to the side. “Scared?”

His jaw ticked. He ate up the rest of the stairs in a few leaps and trailed after me into the warehouse. It felt like I was luring a beast from its den, and a dark part of me loved the thrill of it.

“Walk away, cupcake,” Death growled. “Go back to the penthouse. Keep your pretty head attached to your neck another night.”

“Aw, you said pretty.” I clucked my tongue, feeling a boost of confidence in our teasing game. “Is wittle Death afwaid to fight me?”

A noise rattled at the back of Death’s throat, reminding me of a snake. “Donottaunt me,” he said, a cord of muscle protruding in his neck. “Not when I’m in this form. Not when I’m this unstable. I could suck out your soul in seconds, and you’d be helpless against me.”

I pretended to yawn. “Sounds like you any day of the week, kitten.”

Death flinched at “kitten.” Freeing a low snarl, he rolled back his right shoulder. I watched his jaw twitch as he considered his next words. “I’ll fight you,” he decided, circling around me like always. “On one condition.”

“What?”

Death continued his predatorial walk, those wicked eyes taking their time as they raked over me. One gliding step and he traveled in a blur, the shadowy warehouse shifting with him as he consumed my space. He leaned his face down to my level, stopping close enough that our noses brushed. I held my breath at the frightening, yet alluring, sight of his form up close.

“I want the thong you’re wearing,” Death said. “Take it off. Hand it to me.”

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