Page 177 of Crimson Promises
“I’ll give it to you, your body is an enticing temptation I intend on feasting on later. But we both know your magic is what I need. Although, you did well keeping the flames of your abilities smothered thus far. Your attraction to me was different entirely.”
Aurora’s cheeks flushed while the rest of her paled.
“I saw through your movements and motivations right away. Though, I won’t say no to a romp in my bedroom with you.” His lips quirked up. “Imagine the small dose of pleasure I just gave you would be just an inkling of what awaits us between silk sheets.”
“Over my dead body,” Aurora retorted.
“Your orgasm proved otherwise, but all of this is negligent. We will have lifetimes to acquaint ourselves intimately with one another, bride. There have been a great many alliances built on passion that have grown to be quite formidable.”
“Bride? That’s a sick joke if I ever heard one.”
“Feistiness will be an attractive quality in ruling our realm.”
“There won’t be an ‘our’ anything.”
“You are held here until I release you. If I ever release you. There are conditions to be met,remember. You may want to start showing some respect, or as I told you during our first dinner, those rooms can be easily traded for a dungeon. If you are so committed to giving yourself to another to save your beloved, I can easily arrange for side-by-side dungeons where no pleasure, light, or joy will ever find you.”
“You can’t do that,” she cried.
“Ah, my little star, but I can and will. After you hear what I have to say, you won’t be interested in anything to do with that fallen angel.”
I had enough of this. “Aurora,” I yelled.
Aurora whipped her head towards me before glancing back towards Lucifer.
“You may go to him for two minutes. Afterward, you will hear what I have to say. Every man deserves his last confession,” Lucifer said.
She stepped off the dais towards me. Her lip wobbling, she threw herself into my waiting arms.
The guards went to push her away, but Lucifer waved his hand to leave us be. A long time ago, I would have seen it as a benevolent gesture. However, I knew better by now. It was more likely he enjoyed the sight of my suffering. The final part of the joy I’d experience before he let the arrow fly that would destroy any hope Aurora would have of wanting a future with me.
She tried to touch my face but I stepped back. I knew I was no better, worse even keeping secrets that directly affected her. But…it was still too fresh. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to come here.”
“Aurora, I’d follow you anywhere, into the deepest, darkest holes of the universe. Is everything he said true?”
Her lip trembled, the tremor betraying the turmoil beneath her composed exterior as she nodded. “I knew I was trapped,” she began, her voice a fragile whisper. Her eyes, pools of resolve and fear, met mine as she continued. “And I didn’t know when or if you would come for me. So, I... I crafted a plan—stupid and reckless, I admit—but it felt like my only chance.”
I watched the battle play out on her face, courage warring with desperation. “I thought if I could become the object of his desire, I might gain access to information... to a way out,” she said, her gaze drifting away, lost in the memory of her decisions. “Perhaps if we were, umm... involved,” her cheeks flushed a delicate pink, “he might let his guard down. Share secrets I could use to escape this place.”
She paused, collecting her thoughts, a delicate sigh escaping her lips. “He spoke of conditions, ancient and binding, and the price they demand. He hinted at a proof of worthiness to leave Hell for those not of this realm. I thought... maybe in his private quarters, there'd be a portal, an exception, something to start with.” She looked up, her eyes searching mine, seeking understanding. “I’ve mostly been confined to my rooms, with no freedom to explore the castle. My options were so limited.”
A heavy silence fell over us as I absorbed her words, the gravity of her situation. “I made the best decision I could at the time,” she continued, a note of defiance creeping into her voice. “Trying to lower his guard was the best option I saw.”
She bit her lip, a gesture of self-reproach. “I’ve been hiding my magic, keeping it suppressed. But I always knew... he would never kill me. I am a piece on his chessboard.” Her hands clenched into fists, the knuckles whitening. “If he believed I was a willing player, perhaps he’d loosen my restraints. That single possibility of earning his trust opened up so many more avenues to freedom.”
I reached out, my hand hesitantly finding hers. “I don’t like it. But I get it. It was a gamble you thought would pay off. Actions made out of desperation. I can relate,” I murmured, my voice laced with a blend of awe and anguish. “But please, never do that again. I’m not worth you debasing yourself.” I stepped closer to the bars. Despite it all, I was desperate to touch her with my own hands, to know she was okay.
She shook her head, a wry smile touching her lips. “It was a foolish plan, one Lucifer clearly saw through.”
“Why?” I ran one of my manacled hands through my hair; it sent off a chorus of clattering throughout the room.
“Because if I showed him how much you meant to me, he’d only use you as a pawn, and I needed him to believe that I desired him enough that the interactions between him and I were genuine. He needed to think I had no alternate motivations. What you saw is as far as it ever went.”
I let out a sigh.
She placed both hands on my neck, the pads of her thumb resting on the underside of my chin. “Bennett, you have to know everything I did was to try and get back to you.”
I hung my head, leaning into her touch. “Rationally, you were trying to survive. Doing whatever it took. Out of anyone, I should empathize with that better than anyone, but fuck if it didn’t turn me inside out.”
