“That makes two of us.” Shadow danced across the side of his jaw, obscuring one eye, and his softly spoken words confused her.
Was this a game for him? A way to entertain himself? “At some point I keep expecting you to turn into the monster I know you can be.”
He grinned. “At some point I may. I’m not a nice bloke; most of my tales are quite true.”
“So what do I do now? You say there is a month between each test, what now? Can I visit home?”
He laughed, tossed back the last of the liquid in his tumbler, and then flung it over his shoulder. It shattered in the flame, causing the orange fire to temporarily dance with veins of blue. “No. I’ll treat you kind and with the deference you deserve as my guest, but make no mistake, you’re my prisoner till the games end.”
She shivered at the ominous undertone behind the words. “Will every game be as horrible as today’s?”
If at the very least he could answer that, help ease her fears that she wouldn’t have to relive the nightmare of death over and over, she’d remain strong.
“I do not know. It all depends on my mood.” He widened his legs just then and the pose was so blatantly sexual and carnal that she sucked in a sharp breath, scooting back on her butt to place whatever distance between them she could.
His eyes narrowed into sharp slits. “Do not fear me, siren. If you say no, then the answer is no. I do not force myself where I am not wanted.”
Fingers shaking, she tucked them into the folds of her dressing gown. “And yet you would have my father kill himself to get at me. Don’t think I haven’t realized it was never about him, that you wanted me, and that was before you even knew what I really was.”
At least he had the decency to not deny it. Shrugging, he said, “I would do much to find the one, make no mistake about my intentions. Now go to bed and leave me to my solitude.”
She’d been here first and clearly he knew it. Again he was trying to get under her skin, trying to make her angry and trick her into letting down her guard. But the best defense, her mother always said, was an even greater offense. Smiling, she made her way slowly to her feet and turned to go. “As you wish, imp.”
His jaw set. “Wait,” he said with a hint of impatience.
Lips twitching, she turned back around, schooling her features into a calm mask. “Yes?”
“I believe I told you to do something a moment ago. I taste your desire; it rolls on my tongue like liquid fire. You want me. So come take me.”
The man was testing her; she’d failed before when she dropped her eyes. She wouldn’t fail again. He’d heard her warning—if he wished to play with her fire, then so be it.
Maybe with him she could let herself experience touch. She was able to with Dalia. Maybe there was something about this place that neutralized the witch’s curse. Or maybe she was reckless enough not to care. Maybe she wanted touch. Needed it. Wanted to feel the electric glide of fingers dance upon her skin. From the moment she’d learned to control her impulses she’d never once wondered or wavered in her belief that she should never allow another to touch her, to light her up, but something about Rumpel made her throw all caution to the wind.
Releasing all her magic, all her heat and passions until they radiated out from her like an invisible net of longing and desire, she took the two steps back to him. Rumpel was right, she did want a taste. A nip of his flesh, her tongue running along his. She wanted to dance in the flame of his dark hunger—the man was unlike any she’d ever known. He was wicked, attractive, smart… In short, he was her fantasy made flesh.
She was a virgin and did not know the seductive arts of a practiced woman, but she was also a siren and that was a power innate. Dropping to her knees, she latched her nails into the tops of his hands, which were still on his knees.
He hissed, eyes widening and then narrowing as she gouged him deep.
He sucked in a sharp breath and she wanted to laugh as the curse of the witch’s power tugged at his own. It filled her with heat and longing and fire so fierce that she did not think anymore. His power was immense. Magnetic, it sparked inside her, like she was a battery draining him dry. Sucking it all into herself.
She gasped as the potency of it pulsed through her cells, cried out as wave after wave filled her, making her ache and want more and more. All of him.