Page 55 of The Villain's Captive (The Villain's Duet 1)

He pulled off his shirt, and even if I wanted to I wouldn’t have been able to tear my gaze away from his naked chest. Hard, defined, his muscles roped across his abdomen. But it wasn’t the ripped features of his bare chest that had me intrigued. It was the tattoo just above the waistline of his pants that caught my attention. An image of an opium poppy flower, blood dripping from its petals. After hearing his story, I knew what it symbolized, and it was beautiful in its sadness.

I touched his skin over the flower, my gaze following the movement of my finger as I traced upward along the several intricate music notes that stretched from the poppy petals all the way up his side. “There’s so many of them.”

He grabbed my hand, and I glanced up at him, his irises dark. “Each note represents a target.”

My heart stopped. “You mean…this,” I looked down, “these are how many people you’ve killed?” I started to count but decided against it, diverting my eyes up to him, finding my answer right there in the way he stared at me. There was no compassion. No regret. No humanity. It was clear that not one of his victims was anything more than a job, a contract. They were nothing to him. What was I? I didn’t dare ask, afraid the answer might shatter the glass that kept the world out while we got drunk on one another in this moment.

Maybe I was sick. Insane. Why else would I care more about the desire that currently rippled in waves between us, than the fact that the man in front of me was a coldhearted killer? A man who had the blood of others on his hands?

He touched my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “Are you afraid of me now?”

This time there was no doubt in my mind what my answer was. I started with his belt, my fingers easing across the leather as I unbuckled it. “No,” I answered simply, unzipping his pants.

Tomorrow I could hate myself for what I was about to do. There would be more than enough time for me to regret this moment and wallow in a pit of humiliation because of my actions, and the choices I was making right now.

But tonight, I wanted to be free of all inhibitions. I wanted to taste sin on my lips, feel depravity coat my skin while wickedness exploded inside my core.

I wanted Elijah.

I wanted…The Musician.

---