Page 29 of Scent of Desire
“My guests aren’t humans. They’re perverted monsters hiding behind masks.” His grip tightened on me in a way that made me feel like he had taken me into a den with hungry lions. “They won’t stop until they’ve hurt you. They want your tears and cries, not your pleasure.”
A smile slanted his mouth into something twisted and Machiavellian. “They can watch you all they want. And they should. But it could also be the last damn thing they enjoy doing if they cross the line.”
That warning should have sent a shiver down my spine, but it didn’t. If anything, it sent a bolt of hot steam inside my belly. My gaze stumbled over the crowd, all those men who had done evil things or were the slaves to their perversions, with enough power to escape justice. They believed themselves untouchable, and for a moment, an impulse took seed in me: I wanted to stir up their gaze, their desire, so the Devil would exercise his wrath and darkness. I wanted them to pay for what they would have done to me that night at the club.
Only the bigger monster could beat the others. Radcliff was mocking them. Owning them by taking advantage of their weaknesses, and that… aroused me.
No.I snapped the thought out of my head, promising myself I wouldn’t nourish that lethal seed planted in me. I couldn’t think that. I would never want Radcliff to inflict chaos. I chose goodness and faith, and I was dancing with the blackness only to deliver Radcliff’s soul from the monster chaining it.
This seed was seeking to poison the other cells in my body, when my gaze crossed Hugo’s. He gasped at the sight of the couple that we formed, with his jaw open. It was hard to tell who he was most surprised by: Radcliff ruling over the shadows with someone, or me, arm in arm with the Devil. He then grinned in approbation and saluted me with a nod.
I smiled back coyly at Hugo, as if we shared a secret no one else knew. Radcliff didn’t even notice him, stepping to the stairs leading to his office. He held out his hand for me to follow him, but my gaze shifted to Melissa.
She was in the opposite corner to us, her elbow attached to a broom. She wore a wide orange jumpsuit with high heels, a messy ponytail, and cleaning gloves. Why was she doing this? Nothing of that looked like her. She sent me the most evil of looks, one that screamed of jealousy and hatred, and a bad feeling crept under my spine.
“Let’s go,” Radcliff said stiffly, a muscle contracting in his jaw, still waiting for me to seize his hand.
I let him take me into the dark for a couple of seconds until the door of his office cracked open. Dim candles lit up his desk, from which a man was standing backward, holding a loupe, inspecting whatever was on the table.
The man faced us at the sound of Radcliff’s footsteps approaching on the parquet, a smile hanging on his thin lips. He was probably the same age as my uncle, with gray hair and a badly shaved beard. “Mr. Radcliff, I did as you requested.”
“Lily, this is the man we call LaMouette. A diamond expert.” Radcliff introduced us with a gesture of his hand while getting rid of his mask as he strolled to his desk. “LaMouette, this ismyLily.”
I followed him and pulled my mask away, nodding politely. “It’s nice to meet you.”
LaMouette gave me a slight nod, probably not daring to keep his attention on me for too long next to Radcliff. He smelled of sea notes and seaweed. My breathing increased. It was the first time Radcliff was introducing me to his world—and to other people apart from Hugo. I didn’t want to screw up or let them believe I was just a child that couldn’t match the charisma that inhabited him.
I approached the desk, where diamonds were exposed on a burgundy satin sheet. Radcliff took something that looked like tweezers to grab a diamond and brought the loupe to his eyes, inspecting every inch of it with the same devotion he showed when we were having sex. The way his gaze had the power to strip you naked, making you feel like the most treasured being in the world. I swallowed the fact it turned me on.
“Do you know how to choose a diamond?” Radcliff asked me without shifting his hard and focused stare from it.
“No, I don’t.” My breath cut short. If that was Radcliff’s test, I was definitely not doing well.
“You need to take into account the 4 C’s. Carat. Cut. Color. Clarity.” He dropped the loupe, his stare focusing on mine in a way that made my stomach boil. “Do you believe in magic, Lily?”
“Yes,” I breathed.
Something about Radcliff infused dark magic and enchantment.
“There have been stories for centuries around diamonds. It’s commonly said that gemstones grow from pain in hell and have remarkable properties,” he continued, turning every facet of the stone between his fingers. “But diamonds hold a symbolism of wealth, power, and even the promise of a happily ever after. Marriage.”
At the word “marriage,” Radcliff had eclipsed everything else but him, and the smell of dahlias and anemones captured my nose. A crimson blush tinted my cheeks, the flames of the candles melting me. He tilted his lips into a thin line. The kind that replaced the dahlias with black roses and the anemones with chrysanthemum. The kind that had deliberately wanted to stir that reaction in me.
“Diamonds are diamonds because of their rarity. They represent the human desire to rise above their condition. They can reflect all sorts of colors, just like human emotions. They can even defy the dark by glowing despite the surrounding chaos—”
I listened, captivated. Not by diamonds, but by Radcliff’s passion in his discourse. It accelerated my heart. Coiled my belly. Bloomed my cells. For me, flowers had souls and were my friends. For him, gemstones had properties. We weren’t that different after all. We’d just chosen a different path.
“Are diamonds your favorite precious stone?” I cut him off in a burst of speech as if I couldn’t hold on to the words or they’d have burnt my tongue.
His eyes sparkled with amusement and secrets that wedged into the depths. “Discovered, yes.”
“Discovered?” My lips parted.
LaMouette smiled in a way the answer seemed evident to him, and Radcliff’s expression remained like unyielding marble.
“Pick one.” Radcliff changed the subject, referring to the diamonds. “Which one is speaking to you?”
I obeyed the weight of his stare falling upon me and focused, my gaze slithering on the diamonds. I was directly drawn to one small diamond shaped like a heart. It was hidden in the back, probably because of its imperfection—half-broken inside with small breaks, it was nonetheless beautiful, glittering like fairy dust. In every shade of pink, from light to dark, it reflected the light as much as it held the darkness, and I could imagine the tale that it once upon a time belonged to a princess before it got itself bewitched by a witch.
