Something about today was different, though. A tiny voice in the back of his head screamed what was about to happen in this cell was on a whole different level from what he’d been through before.
She stepped close, so close he could feel her heat but not close enough to touch, then moved to her right, slowly making her way around him. His stomach tightened, and that blistering arousal came rushing back.
“This isn’t a game.” Her warm breath fanned his nape, sending a shiver across his bare skin. And in his wounds, where the nymph had spread the balm, heat gathered and grew, radiating outward, heading for his belly. “You cannot beat Zagreus. No one wins against the Prince of Darkness.”
Nick’s arms flexed, and the chains rattled above his head. He didn’t want to beat the fucker, he only wanted to destroy him. Not just for what he’d put Nick through during the last few months, but for what he put everyone in this wretched place through—Cynna, his gut told him, included.
“I can’t stop what he has planned for you.” She circled around and stopped directly in front of him again. “Give in, and you save yourself the torment. Give in, and this ends now.”
“Give in,” Nick repeated, staring into her dark eyes. But unlike before, they weren’t empty. They weren’t dead. There was something there. Something that looked a lot like…desperation.
Was she warning him of something horrendous to come? Why would she do that? She was Zagreus’s puppet. Or was she simply afraid of what would happen if he didn’t break?
“You want me to give in?” he asked.
She didn’t answer. Only stared at him.
“The way you gave in?”
The desperation in her eyes faded and was replaced with that lifeless, vacant look, the one he’d seen so many times when she’d ordered Zagreus’s satyrs to torture him. Without a word, she stepped back, but she didn’t break eye contact.
“You were warned,” she said in a low voice. “Females?”
Nick’s gaze swept from her to the nymphs, approaching from opposite sides. The blonde, the one who’d stood in the back of the room, reached him first, grasped the towel at his hips, and yanked it away. The other drew close and moaned as she stared at his dick. And though he couldn’t see their eyes, he could see their faces, flushed now with lust, with an obsession he knew was his next form of torture.
Shit…
They both sank to their knees in front of him. And holy fuck…heat—a heat he did not want—spread from his wounds and straight into his cock. Whatever that nymph had slathered all over his wounds hadn’t just healed him, it was making him instantly hard. He wrapped his hands around the chains above and tried to move away, but his legs were locked in place, his body on full display. And when he felt a hand land against his thigh and warm breath skitter across his bare hips, he couldn’t stop the groan that rumbled from his chest.
“Do with him as you please.” Cynna’s husky voice echoed in the room.
The nymphs both stilled and turned to look her way, but Cynna didn’t spare them a glance.
Torchlight reflected in her blank, dead eyes locked on his, and not a single emotion flickered anywhere in her expression. “Bring him to the edge as many times as you like, but do not let him come. If you do, your punishment will be severe. Now. Begin.”
CHAPTER THREE
Cynna couldn’t breathe.
She’d been forced to do some horrendous things in the year she’d been with Zagreus, but this—watching what those nymphs were doing to Nick—this was the worst.
Her stomach tossed. The nymph on her knees bobbed her head between his legs. The other tweaked his nipples. Each time he neared release, they would let go and switch positions, then restart his torment all over again. Thankfully, Cynna had positioned herself far enough back so she couldn’t see the specifics, but she could see Nick. His sandy blond hair was drenched, he was hanging limply by his arms, and his legs were no longer holding his body upright.
She couldn’t look into his eyes. Couldn’t focus on his insanely handsome face—dammit—now that his beard was gone. Five minutes into the session, she’d had to stare at a spot on the far wall behind his head and disassociate herself from what was happening. That was how she got through everything Zagreus made her do—mentally shut down from the moment, drifted in her mind, focused on the reason she’d sold herself to the sadistic god in the first place.
Only today—now—she hadn’t been able to do that. Every moan, every labored breath, every time Nick rattled those chains while the nymphs took him to the brink with their mouths, with their hands, it cut through her mental barrier, dragged her back to the moment, made her stomach toss with a queasiness she only barely held down.