Page 59 of Spark of Madness

“It’s not right, Warden Rainn.”

The way she recognizes my authority stitches a thread of desire through my gut.

“She’s a child,” Mercy goes on. “She made her decision out of fear. Her first night of service was rough…it was rough on all of us servants. Ivy Jane lost her life. Can you imagine one of the servants losing their life on your first night of service? It would make any first-timer fearful.”

“You’re not meant to be fearful. You’re meant to have pride in your work.”

“Pride takes time.” She nudges closer. “It takes time to understand the benefit of our work to the community.”

I slip my ungloved hands into my pockets and huff out a breath. “Now you’re singing an entirely different song, Mercy Madness. I thought you had no pride in your role; in fact, you outright rejected it in sin. Your words are contradictory to your thoughts and actions.”

She nods and grants me a tight smile before looking down. “I know.” She looks up at me from beneath her eyelashes and the flash in her bewitching eyes tugs on that thread of desire, pulling it tighter. “But you and I are singing the same contradictory song, aren’t we? You and I have sinned together, Warden Rainn.”

I breathe out slowly, letting my chest sink as her eyes hold mine. “What do you want from me?”

Her head rises and our gaze locks squarely. “I only want your help to save a lost child from a life of misery and eternal damnation.”

I chuckle, but it’s humorless. “Oh? Is that all?”

“What do you want fromme?” She dares to reach out her hand and press it to the center of my bare chest.

My reaction should be disgust at her obvious attempt at seduction, at her sinful promiscuity. Yet my reaction is one of sin—a clenching low in my stomach, a spreading warmth from my center, the twitch of my blasphemous cock.

I force myself to take a step back. “I want to save your soul, Mercy.”

She takes a step forward. “And I think there’s a way for me to save Delle’s soul, too.”

“Her soul will be saved through the trials—”

“No. It’s not right, and you know it. If there were another way to repent, wouldn’t you want that for her?”

“I want to follow the Edict…God’s word.”

Mercy shakes her head. “No, you don’t.”

She steps closer and I pull my hands from my pockets, reaching up to grip her shoulders and push her away…only I don’t push. I grab and hold on as the front of her body kisses my chest and torso.

“I know you don’t want to follow the Edict. If you’d wanted to, you would’ve purged that night in the forest. You wouldn’t have fucked the fabric of my dress the other night in my room. You wouldn’t allow me to be alone with you in your room.” Her hands press to my chest, spreading warmth across my skin. “You’reindecent,Warden Rainn.”

Indecent.

The word drips from her lips.

It makes me hard.

It makes me desire indecency with her.

Squeezing her shoulders, I push her back, walking her quickly until her back slams to the wall behind us. I release her shoulders and slap my palms to the wall on either side of her, caging her in. I lick my lips as my eyes drop to watch the rise and fall of her chest.

My lips creep up into a cheeky smirk. “And you desire my indecency, don’t you, sinner?”

Her expression is odd—a mixture of determination and temptation. The look of sinful wanting in her eyes is clear, but it’s as though she fights against it.

Why fight it when it’s so clear what she’s trying to do here?

“You want to drag me into sin with you,” I tell her, because it’s obvious.

But I don’t expect her response. “Yes, I do.”

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