Page 73 of Empire of Dark

He’d just explained in a nutshell the base nature of the evil in malefics. Yet here he was, a malefic just the same rejecting that thought process.

His thumb mindlessly moved across his chest, across the skull, knowing without looking exactly where the ink lined his skin. “The eyes are there to remind me that everyone has a soul. Every one of us has a right to this world. So I better be certain when I take a life.”

My fingers trailed down along his bare chest, dipping and sinking along the hard cords of muscles lining his abdomen, my tongue watering even as I tried to concentrate on the conversation. “I can’t imagine that makes you popular among your fellow malefics.”

“They don’t know how I think. Or what I think about. They know what I want them to think of me.”

“Cagey.” Of course he was. Damen had layers upon layers that I hadn’t even begun to investigate. And he used all of them to make sure he would never be known. Least of all by me.

He shrugged and tucked an arm under his head to better look at me.

My gaze travelled upward along his body to find his eyes. “Are you doing that to me right now? Making me think what you want me to think? Making me think that I’m not wrong about you? That you are nothing like your kind?”

“Don’t mistake what my base nature is, Ada.” His eyes narrowed at me, the amber glow in the brown of his eyes almost pulsating. “I am malefic. I am cruel. I am vicious. I have an insatiable need to control everything around me, including you. Especially you. You don’t even want to imagine the many ways I’ve envisioned controlling you. Controlling your body. I am not good.”

My core clenched up. Holy hell, he had no clue how his words had just made me ache. How wet I was getting.

So fucking wrong.

I swallowed hard, resisting the urge to demand what scenes his imagination had cooked up when it was all I could think about at the moment.

On task. On the conversation thread.

What was he talking about? Oh, yes. Evil.

I leaned down, my face hovering over his as I licked my lips and settled myself against his quickly hardening cock. “And you’re also not evil. Not like the mindless drones of your kind that thrive on the killing and maiming and pain. Even if you’re trying to control what I think of you right now.”

He chuckled. “Actually, I’m not working on manipulating you at the moment. It’s been a long time since I’ve uttered a word without considering what the ramifications of what I was saying would be.”

“Oh?” My interest piqued, a teasing grin playing about my lips. “Have I somehow freed you from yourself with the simplest of questions about the ink on your chest? That would be wise of me.”

He groaned. “For that matter, forget I ever said anything about my ink.”

His hands moved up to clasp about my head and I could feel sparks of bliss searing from his fingertips into my skin to dance with the tips of my nerves underneath. This weird energy that flowed from him, into me, and then back into him—an unending circle—never failed to steal my breath away.

Still, I knew what he was doing. “Your tricks don’t work on me.”

They did.

He smirked. “The skull is solely for intimidation. Announcing impending death to anyone that sees it. That is the only reason I got it.”

I chuckled. “Why are you fighting with your shirt off?”

“What?”

“Your shirt has to be off for someone to see that impending death coming at them.” My fingers ran back up the hard lines of his chest. “I realize you think you’re a specimen—and you are—but you seriously cannot need to show off your body so much that you have to fight naked?”

A laugh erupted from his chest, vibrating under my hands. “Minx.” He grabbed me around the waist, flipping me onto my back on the table.

Hovering over me, he pinned my arms above my head, and my slit was instantly soaked, my guttural need for him uncontrollable.

His cock hard and ready to go, he dipped it into my folds, pressing along my clit and making me arch up into him for more friction.

He smiled at the instant need my body had for his, begging with every one of my muscle twitches. “I think I’m going to make you stare at the skull as I wreck you so hard you’ll be forever intimidated—and wet—at the sight of it.”

My chest shook in laughter as my body curled toward him, my legs wrapping around his waist. “Try me.”

Chapter Nineteen

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