Page 42 of Sin and Salvation

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said gruffly, hitting the button for the penthouse. “You’ve seen enough of that sort of shit.”

I managed to shrug. It wasn’t so much the violence itself that bothered me as much as the fact that I’d frozen up, unable to even scream for Brody. “Some demons have it coming.”

Crow flashed me a sharp look. “You don’t have to put on a brave face for us. Least of all me.”

“I’m not, though.” I cleared my throat. “At least you did it for a reason. I’ve seen Maxime kill people for much less.”

“Exactly why you’ve seen it enough.” He flexed his hand, the one covered with blood like a glove.

When the doors opened, my feet automatically took me towards Zane’s bedroom, but Crow grunted. “This way.”

He opened one of the doors I’d never seen behind, and I stepped into a world of black.

Black wood, black silk, black carpet. Dark drapes covered the windows, obscuring the view of the city. The varied textures of silk, velvet, and wool made it seem comforting and close though, instead of flat.

Crow cupped my face, drawing my attention away from the darkness of his room. “Do you mind?” He touched my hip, stroking along the edge of my panties. “Or do you want to be left alone after that?”

My heart thumped unevenly against my ribs. “I don’t mind. When it’s you three, I never mind,” I said quietly.

Since his ‘punishment’ in the office, I’d been waiting for the day that Crow would want to touch me again. I’d honestly started wondering if he wasn’t actually interested at all.

But the fire in his eyes made it clear that wasn’t the case. Especially when he growled, letting out a low rumble as he slid my panties down over my hips.

“Let’s get this off you,” he murmured, kneeling in front of me. I stepped out of the lacy strings and he tossed it aside, running his hands upwards over my legs.

Before I could speak, he’d picked me up bridal-style and was carrying me through a door.

His bathroom was much like his bedroom, but everything was sleek black marble, shot through with gold veins. Without looking, he turned the shower on, and steam immediately began filling the bathroom.

“It seems only fair for both of us to be naked,” I said, feeling more than a little breathless. In fact, it felt like there were hands in my abdomen, squeezing all the air out of my lungs. How could this bathroom be so massive and yet feel so small with only two of us in it?

Crow gave me a crooked grin that would’ve made my panties drop if they’d still been on me.

“Patience, sugar,” he said, stripping off his jacket. Beneath that was a dark tee that was immediately pulled off, revealing tan washboard abs and spiraling dark ink. As he turned to kick off his boots, I saw the tattoos that had formed a legend around him: pitch black angels wings, trailing from the apex of his spine all the way down past his dark jeans.

He shed them, revealing the wing tips that trailed down past a perfect ass and wrapped around his thighs.

Wow. I’d never wanted to actually reach out and squeeze a guy’s ass before, but… it was perfect.

“Get in there,” he ordered, without looking at me.

I did. Steaming water slammed into the top of my skull, sluicing down over the caked-on blood. I exhaled a sigh of relief.

Which immediately became a choked gurgle as Crow turned, stepping into the shower with me.

It was one thing to know intellectually that Alpha demons knotted their mates. It was another to see it; the bulge at the base of his long, thick cock, which would swell and lock him into his mate.

It took a lot of effort to tear my eyes away, and I found Crow giving me that crooked smile that made me melt.

“Never seen an Alpha demon before, have you?” he purred, bracing one arm over me and trapping me against the far wall of the shower. There was nowhere to go even if I wanted to. Which I really didn’t.

“No.” I dared to look down again. He was already hardening, his cock brushing one of my thighs. “Maxime wasn’t…”

“I know.” Crow ran his hands over me, wiping blood away. I was quiet as he picked up a bottle of body wash and began soaping me down, his hands running over me like he was caressing me instead of washing.

The soap smelled like him, spicy and dark. I was a little unnerved as he knelt again, his palms gliding over my hips and thighs.

Crow glanced up, the water beading over his face and wet hair. “What is it, Venus?”

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