Page 149 of Terror at the Gates

I hated protocol, especially when it was going to waste our time. Still, I reminded myself, this wasn’t the way I was going to get back at Lisk anyway. No one was going to publicly accuse him of killing an Elohai, not the enforcers or the commission.

“When will you be back?” I asked.

“In a few hours,” he said. “But you will have plenty to occupy yourself between Coco and Gabriel.”

“Is that your way of telling me I can’t leave the compound?” I asked.

“I think it’s best to wait a couple days,” he said. “At least until we see how Lisk will react to discovering you’re alive.”

“He doesn’t know yet?”

“It depends on how much progress the enforcers have made at the house,” said Zahariev.

I knew what he didn’t say—they’d know when they found the bodies.

A part of me wondered if there was a world in which Lisk didn’t have to know I lived, but then why did that somehow feel like letting him win?

“The electricity came back on overnight,” Zahariev said, rising to his feet. “So there’s that.”

“Has anyone said what caused it?” I asked, holding his gaze.

“It’s being investigated,” he said.

“Of course,” I said, rolling my eyes.

He chuckled quietly and touched my chin.

“Behave,” he said.

My eyes instantly narrowed. “You don’t have what it takes to make me.”

He maintained that infuriating half smile as he moved his hand to my throat, squeezing lightly. My body straightened, uncoiling eagerly beneath his hold.

“You sure about that, little love?” he asked.

“You have yet to prove otherwise,” I said. I deserved a fucking medal for challenging this man under these conditions.

He was still smiling, but there was something harder about it. It was a good sign, a weakness in his armor.

“You are such a brat,” he said, his eyes locked on my lips.

“I think you like it,” I said. I braced my hands against the bed, using the leverage to inch closer. “I think it makes you hard.”

“I like it,” he said. “You know what makes me harder? When you obey.”

He bent forward and kissed my forehead, increasing the pressure on my throat ever so slightly before pulling away.

“I’ll see you later, little love,” he said. There was a note of amusement in his voice as he strolled to the door. Unfortunately, my reply came after he closed the door.

“You’re pretty smug for a man with a boner,” I said aloud, though I was being just as arrogant considering how he’d left me.

I didn’t know what stunned me more, that he’d actually acknowledged out loud I aroused him or the way he’d communicated his desire to dominate me. Maybe what surprised me most of all was how badly I wanted it.

***

Coco’s arrival motivated me to stay awake, but I could have slept for another twenty-four hours. When I actually dragged myself out of bed, I regretted it instantly. My body felt heavy, and my eyes stung. I just wanted to keep them closed as I staggered into the bright bathroom to shower.

When I was finished, I used the robe Fawna had left and moved into the bedroom to go through the bags Coco brought. I started with the duffel, which was full of clothes, all folded neatly and organized by type. I wondered if she’d delayed her arrival at the compound just to finish up my laundry.

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