Page 96 of The Demon Crown

“How was...” He paused when her gaze flicked up at his in surprise, but then he finished the question. “How was your day?”

“It’s just starting. I slept in longer than I thought I would.”

Gods, this was awkward. They didn’t even know how to talk to each other! What was she doing?

Grinding her teeth, Varya tried not to stare down at her fingers twisting in her lap. She tried to look at anything but him. She was so afraid he’d realized she was hoping he would do something when he clearly had no intention of doing anything at all.

“Varya?” he asked, his voice low and quiet. Like he was trying to lure a wild animal closer. “What is all this about?”

She swallowed. “We don’t know each other.”

“I’d say we know each other quite well.”

Ah, there was the flash of anger she needed to get through this. “I don’t know anything about you,” she countered. “I don’t know where you came from, what your favorite food is, who you learned to fight from. Nothing. All I know is your favorite position and that you don’t know what’s going on in your kingdom at all. Neither of those are lasting qualities.”

“Lasting?”

“Yes, lasting.” She repeated the word, spitting it at him like that was the answer to all her problems. Hissing out a long breath, she finally looked at him. Angry now. So angry she could throw something at his face. “I don’t want to stay here if we don’t know each other. This is just using our bodies as a distraction, and that means, at some point, you’ll tire of me.”

Greed lifted a single brow. “You don’t want to stay here?”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” She’d be an idiot to not want to stay here, but she didn’t want to if he wasn’t... Oh, her thoughts. They were all so muddled. So she settled on, “I want to know who you are, Greed. I want you to know me. If we know each other then maybe this will all be a little... easier.”

That finger started moving again, stroking up and down the bowl of the glass in his hand. Tempting. Mesmerizing. “You think this is hard so far? I can tell you something that is hard, Varya, and it’s not our relationship.”

“You don’t want to know anything about me?” she asked, her brows furrowing in concentration and her heart already stuttering in her chest. “Do you really not care enough to have questions?”

He looked even more confused before that expression disappeared into heat. “I have questions. If you fear that I will no longer desire you, Varya, I promise that will take a very long time. There is much of you I have yet to taste.”

But that...

That wasn’t the point.

Her heart clenched so hard it hurt. Everything hurt at the words he used because he just... he didn’t understand. And she was suddenly so afraid that he couldn’t.

She wanted him to understand. She wanted him to want her and he’d led her to believe that he did. But now she wondered if he just wanted anyone, and she was the only person no one would notice if she disappeared for good.

“I’m not here to answer your boredom,” she muttered before standing. “I don’t think I’m very hungry.”

“Then we will skip to dessert,” he replied. That heat flashed in his eyes again, and he reached for her.

But she knew if he touched her, then she would break into a thousand pieces and he’d put her back together exactly how he wanted. She would not break this time. He didn’t deserve to touch her when she knew it was only for a few moments.

Because... Fuck. She loved him. And she wanted him to love her back, but that wouldn’t happen if he only saw her as a sexual object to please him.

So she flinched back from him. She watched as that anger clouded his expression and he reached for her again. This time she didn’t think, she just acted.

Varya grabbed her glass of wine and tossed it in his face. The red liquid dripped down his beard, ruining his lovely shirt, and she refused to feel guilty for it. He’d acted, so she’d done the same.

“Treasure,” he said, calm. Too calm. Slowly wiping the wine away from his eyes so he could glare at her. “What is all this about?”

“I’m not a toy,” she said, her voice wavering. She was so fragile right now, and she hated every moment of it. “I’m a person, Greed. You cannot lock me up in this castle thinking that you will be the only person to play with me and then degrade me into being less than a human being.”

“I’m not doing that.”

“You don’t care about me!” she shouted, and the words echoed through her mind. “You only want me for my body. Every time I try to ask to know more about you, all you want to do is fuck me. You think that is a way to get out of a conversation or to not talk about hard things. You can’t just... Do that!”

And there it was. In a garbled mess of words, there was her problem.

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