Page 168 of Terror at the Gates

“Well, we’ve been here for almost an hour. You could have given me at least two orgasms by now.”

Zahariev’s brows lowered. “I think that was an insult.”

I shrugged. “I don’t really have enough data to give a more accurate number, so you can just take it as a challenge.”

“I’ll accept your challenge, but I think I deserve to know the most you’ve ever had.”

“In one session?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I need to know what I should aim for.”

I tried not to smile. “Five.”

“Just five?”

“Just? You say that like you can have more than one!”

“Yeah, but I’ve given more than five in one go,” he said.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “So you’ve been holding back?”

“It’s not holding back. We’ve had sex once. I have to learn what you respond to.”

“What’s ‘more than five’?” I asked.

“Nine,” he said.

“You gave someone nine orgasms? Who?” I paused. “It wasn’t Hassenaah, was it?”

His laugh sounded more like a scoff. “I don’t know why you think I fucked Hassenaah.”

“She acts like you have,” I said.

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. She just acts like she cango over your head.”

“You act the same way, and that was before I fucked you.”

“Whatever,” I said, frustrated. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d mind her obsession with Zahariev if she’d just acknowledge that I worked hard, but she wouldn’t even give me that.You got what you wanted the way you get everything: with your name.

Sure, a name that had also made me a target for abuse and gotten my dad killed, but I guessed we all valued different things.

“I don’t want to talk about Hassenaah.” I looked out the window, glaring at the streetlights with an intensity that was making my head hurt. Maybe if I concentrated enough, I could make them go out with my mind.

“You brought her up,” Zahariev pointed out.

“Yeah, well, that’s the second regret I have about tonight.”

“What’s the first?”

“Thinking this would be fun,” I said.

I wasn’t even sure that was the right way to describe how I’d imagined this going, but I certainly expected to be in Lisk’s house by now.

“Things like this are boring until they’re not,” he said.

The urge to say something sarcastic vanished when the lights dimmed and flickered. I sat up straighter in my seat and reached for the flashlight at my feet just as the street went dark.