Page 49 of Spit

“If anything happened between us, you’d roll over on your belly like a puppy, panting and begging until your mind leaked out of your ears,” I told him. There was no smugness. No threat. It was the truth.

Sev studied me with an expression that I couldn’t decipher. I thought it was pity, but I wasn’t sure. “You truly believe you could haveme, the Steward of Lust, on my back. Begging.” He said as if he couldn’t believe I had said the words.

“The last man I kissed killed himself because he couldn’t have me,” I told him, meeting his eyes with challenge.

“I am not aman.”

My eyes flicked to the seam of his pants. “If you say so.”

The corner of Sev’s mouth turned up in a growl. I met his anger with a smirk of my own. He stepped closer, and I had to crane my neck to hold his gaze.

“I am Lust.” Sev growled.

I faked a yawn. “And I’m bored.”

His eyes narrowed.

“You held a party, filled it with people having sex so that you could bask in your Sin, but instead of going down there and getting your dick wet, you’re up here talking to me.” I tried not to sound smug. “Did you lure me here, Sev?”

“I did not plant the dream in your mind.” He said through gritted teeth. I could tell that I had struck a nerve. “When an incubus invades someone’s dreams, they are always there. Somewhere. They might not be visible, but you can hear them. Or smell them. You cannot hide when you are in someone else’s dream. Not completely.”

I digested his words. “Okay.”

“Tell me more about the last man you kissed.” Sev’s eyes flashed.

I waved my hand dismissively. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I think you do.” He challenged. “I can feel it inside of you. Not just Lust but an entire consortium of Sin just waiting to be unleashed. You may be allied with Gluttony, but what is Gluttony if not abundance and excess. You deny yourself what you need.”

“And what do I need?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “A good fuck?”

Sev threw his head back and laughed loudly; the sound startled me. “Death and darkness, do you truly believe I’m enduring this tedious conversation just so I can get into your pants?”

I quirked a brow and said nothing.

“Pinkie Pie—”

“Lexi.” I corrected.

“Lexi,” He nodded. “You intrigue me, to be sure. But not everything is about sex.”

I glanced down at the orgy below.

Sev shrugged, unabashed. “Why are you here? Why are you in the Red City?”

“I am here to do a job,” I told him. “What about you?”

He ignored my question. “Do you know the story of Legion?”

“Let's not talk about him.”

Sev smiled, but it was bittersweet. “There are seven of us. We are one. We are seven. Each of us represents a Sin. When the golden gates of Hell broke open many years ago and the war settled, the demons were given cities. One in each continent.”

I knew all this, but I stayed silent and let him speak.

“Legion was offered a deal. We are allowed to roam free in exchange for a hundred years of service to the city.” Sev’s gaze snagged on something in the middle distance. “We are free.”

I didn’t want to argue that being trapped behind the hundred-foot-high walls of the city didn’t exactly feel like freedom—but I could only imagine what kind of prisons they had in hell.

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