Page 22 of Temptation
“I know, but—”
“Tell me more about them.” I took another sip, getting used to sweetness. “What do you mean, chosen by the Order?”
“Exactly what I said.” He burped. “They are chosen by the High Priest, who until tonight used to be Judah. The Order always wanted to keep their lines pure, especially the Blackwoods.”
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t know?” I shook my head. “Judah and Joanna, his wife, are twins. Their parents were siblings, which is why Dylan is marrying Skylar. This is how they operate.”
“I just—”
My question was cut off by a loud moan that came from my left.
I looked toward the source of noise and saw a couple kissing each other as if they were starved of human touch. The couple next to them started removing their clothes, and before you could blink, a woman was on her knees, taking down the pants from a man I didn’t know.
I turned to my other side and realized what was happening.
They weren’t celebrating by only drinking—they were celebrating with sex.
Kane took a step away from me and I recognized the look in his eyes—desire, need, a million emotions rushing through him.
He looked at one of the Red Maidens passing by, and without preamble, he pulled her to him, holding her back to his front.
Kane pulled the cape from her head, revealing dark brown hair braided all the way to her scalp. He untied the strings holding her cape together just above her breasts and let it fall. The black leggings hugged her hips, covering the lower part of her stomach and the tattoo peaking from beneath. The tip of it looked just like the Aquarian Star on the forehead of the mask she wore and her frenzied eyes connected with mine.
“Wanna play, sweet thing?” Kane asked her, and I realized it wasn’t fear running through those green orbs. It was need, desire, the crazy, frantic feeling of wanting to be devoured. She had a white crop top on, and with a single movement, Kane pulled it up, revealing her pink dusted nipples. Her chest rose and fell with every breath she took, quickening the longer I kept staring at her.
Kane took one of the nipples between his fingers, twisting and turning, and she threw her head back, resting it on his shoulder. My dick protested in my pants, hardening with every passing moment, willing me to free him, to play with her—to play with them.
A man I considered my enemy not so long ago, a man that could be my ally, looked at me over her shoulders, his eyes telling me it wasn’t only her he wanted tonight. Something stirred in my chest, something I kept hidden all these years. Something I let loose only with Skylar.
But that something wanted to play with Kane as well.
I took a step toward them, my breaths quickening and my mind letting loose for the first time in forever. The beast I’d kept locked up for most of my life roared, shaking my body.
The girl lifted her head and wrapped her arm around Kane’s neck who kept looking at me, as if he too wanted this just like I did. But somewhere in the hazy mess of my mind, fighting against whatever it was I drank, I knew Kane and this girl weren’t the ones I wanted tonight. The color of the girl’s eyes was wrong, and the way Kane looked at me was not what made my blood boil.
It wasn’t what made my dick hard, trying to wrestle its way out of my pants.
Skylar. I needed Skylar. I had to go to her. I had to save her, take her, show her she was mine.
I shook my head and looked up toward the altar. As if a sledgehammer slammed into me, my heart cracked right through the middle, bleeding all over the floor.
Time stood still when our eyes met, but it wasn’t the vision of her sitting on that altar that made the blood in my veins go cold. It wasn’t even the blood marring her pale skin, or the terrified look in her eyes.
It was the blond head kneeling in front of her and her mouth formed into an “O.” Dylan’s head moved up and down as he licked through her folds, holding her legs on his shoulders.
Anger, pain, love, and hatred, they rocked off her toward me, and the other way around.
She chose him? She’s letting him do this? She’s letting him touch her?
The glass shattered in my hand, but the pain from the cuts was nowhere near enough to surpass the pain in my soul, in my heart. Kane and the girl were forgotten. Even the place I was at was forgotten as I stared into the eyes of the girl I loved, getting pleasure from somebody she was supposed to hate.
I wanted to march up there. I wanted to rip him away from her. I wanted to show her that she still belonged to me, that she would always belong to me, but the small shake of her head made me stop.
That small shake of her head, that denial, it broke me.
Hands of despair crawled up from the pit of my stomach, over my lungs, through my throat, gripping my soul with their filthy claws.
