Page 60 of The Devil and His Goddess

I pushed away from the door to fully press myself against him. He took a small breath as my fingers ran over his toned flesh.

“Five minutes,” I said softly. “I get five minutes to hide. If you can find me without using your demon powers, you can have me.”

I shoved away from him, turned, and ran.

Chapter 22

Harper

I RACED THROUGH THE HOUSE, turning off lights as I went. My heart pounded from the challenge I’d thrown down between us. Doing so was like teetering on the edge of a ledge. Falling forward into the dark unknown would be scary but exhilarating, while falling backward would keep things safe and as they had been.

Will he catch me?

Will he not?

Will we honestly give into our desires?

Or will we not?

The questions made a giddiness rush through my blood, warming me as I hid downstairs in one of the bottom kitchen cabinets. The cabinet typically held different bottles of alcohol and wine, but since it was dance season, the cabinet only had a couple of bottles in it, allowing space for me to join the red wine. Being small in physique came in handy sometimes, and this instance was one of those times. I cracked the cabinet door just a sliver so that I could peer out into the dark and silent kitchen.

Moments passed with the blood whooshing in my ears and my heart in my throat. Footsteps sounded above head. I held my breath, ignoring the rush of excited adrenaline that shot through me at the sound of him on the move. I listened carefully. The casual footfalls left my bedroom and went down the hall, straight for the stairs.

He took each step leisurely. He appeared in no rush, like he wanted to torment me with the knowledge that he was coming for me. His progress paused when he reached the bottom step before his footfalls resumed, coming down the hall toward the kitchen.

I held my breath and gently closed the small crack of the cabinet door. I covered my mouth with my hands and curled in on myself to make myself even smaller and quieter. Pins and needles practically danced around my insides in a giddy, nervous, and euphoric prance. I ignored the feeling and waited with bated breath as Perseus’s dress shoes gently slapped against the tile of the kitchen floor. His footsteps seemed to slowly round the corner of the island, and gradually, they began to walk toward the cabinet I hid in.

My heart had never pounded so hard. Trying to hold in my erratic breathing made a wave of dizziness hit me, but that, too, only added to the excitement of this moment.

His footsteps reached the cabinet I hid in. I braced myself for the cabinet door to be ripped open, but he kept going. He didn’t break his slow stride as he went past me, finishing his loop around the kitchen.

I dropped my hands from my mouth to clench them against my chest, which my heart practically beat to death. Daring another peek, I quietly opened the cabinet just a crack. I could hear his footsteps easier now, and the sound of his dress shoes against the hard floor carried him down the hall toward the home dance studio. Moments later, he came back down the hall, and his shadowy figure never looked this way as he moved back to the stairs and climbed them.

Biting my lip to fight my mischievous grin, I very carefully crawled out of the cramped space and stayed on my knees as I shut the door soundlessly. Getting to my feet, I tiptoed out of the kitchen and to the dance studio. Seeing as he’d checked this room already, I felt cheeky, changing spots to a room he thought he’d cleared.

I snuck inside and spun around to close the door as silently as I could. I let out a heavy breath, and no sooner had I done so than an arm wrapped around my middle and a hand covered my mouth. I was yanked back against a hard body.

“Found you,” Perseus whispered.

My heart leapt into my throat as desire flooded my core. He briefly released my mouth to spin me around in his hold.

“You cheated,” I chastised. “I said no demon powers.”

The fanged smile he wore widened. “You expected me to listen? I’m a demon, Goddess. We don’t follow rules. We break them.”

His lips cut off my rebuke as they found mine. The immediate jolt of euphoria that raced through each vein in my body made every reprimand I had die on my tongue. Everything inside of me zeroed in on the hard body pressing into mine and the soft lips claiming my own.

My back slammed into the door as Perseus hoisted me up into his arms, and I moaned as his tongue swiped in to tangle with mine. My clit pulsed as my upper thighs were forced apart to wrap around him, and his firm body pressed against that throbbing place. Already, that little friction through my sweatpants was making me gocrazy. Not to mention, kissing him whileknowingit was him was just as hot as I thought it would be. I rolled my hips into him, hungry for more of this.

“Fuck,” Perseus hissed against my lips. He squeezed my ass and pinned me against the door with a roll of his own hips, brushing the hard mass in his pants against my middle.

I reached up to tangle my hands in his gold curls, and it felt even better than anything I’d ever imagined. The strands were soft as they passed between my fingers, and when I tugged on the roots while deepening the kiss, he let out the sexiest groan I’d ever heard. It made me shiver in his arms and heat bloom hotter between my thighs.

“Perseus,” I whimpered against his mouth, though I didn’t know for what I pleaded. His name just slipped out before I dove back in, kissing him with overwhelming hunger.

Despite merely saying his name, he seemed to understand what had me begging. He set me on my feet, all so he could grip my sweatpants and yank them down. No sooner had they hit the floor than he was grabbing and kissing me again.

He shuffled us in the direction of the table at the side of the room, which was bare except for the small stereo. The table stood in front of two windows, which were currently blocked by closed blinds. We reached the table, and the blinds snapped open. Moonlight spilled into the room as the front yard came into perfect view.

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