Page 97 of Nightshade

“Where Anya found you.”

“Yes.”

“Describe what you saw.”

“It was …. Well, I’m not sure. It was clawed and had dark, mottled skin. Rotted,” I said with a grimace, recalling the way it had crawled out from the bushes. “It carried an awful stench. Like sulfur. Wasn’t human, I can tell you that.”

Eyes narrowed on me, he tipped his head. “Of course it wasn’t human, Miss Ravenshaw. How many humans do you know who have rotted skin and smell like sulfur?” He pushed up from his chair, and as he rounded the desk toward me, my heart kicked up. Resting back against the desktop in front of me, he crossed his arms. “Exactly how much do you know about this place?”

I pondered the question, mentally calculating the consequences of telling him how I arrived. What would he do if he knew that I was not one of the dead? “If you’re referring to Nightshade itself, more than many I’ve encountered here.” Every nerve in my body seemed to hum with his close proximity, like a current moving through me. Distracting and odd, it curled my stomach and caressed my thighs.

“I get a sense of that,” he kept on, as if oblivious to the sensations coursing through me. “Then, you know why many are here.”

I licked my lips that had suddenly gone dry. “I do.”

The subtle dip of his gaze had my thighs twitching with the urge to cross my legs, while an inexplicable warmth settled over me. Jesus, was I coming down with something?

“Are you aware, then, that the scent you carry is quite unusual. A pure and earthly aroma. Living. Which is a mystery, given where we are.” Even his voice had suddenly become deeper.

So deep.

Irritated by the distraction, I cleared my throat and shifted in the chair. “What does that mean? Exactly?”

“It means, while some may be immune to it, I can assure you, others may find it completely intoxicating.”

Desperate to focus on his words, I lowered my gaze to avoid staring at the curious bulge in his slacks that sat perfectly at eye-level to me. My mouth watered. Why the hell was my mouth watering all of a sudden? I swallowed back the saliva on my tongue. Focus. “You’re saying that this … thing … is hunting me?”

“I don’t think it can help itself.” Again, that voice. Something was wrong. Very wrong. My body felt like it was going haywire, signals misfiring inside of me. “So, Miss Ravenshaw, how about if you try a little honesty and tell me how you really got here?”

Surely, he had to have noticed something was going on. “I don’t … I don’t feel … I feel strange.”

“Strange, how?”

The question made me chuckle. As if I had any intentions of telling him that I felt a compelling urge to investigate that bulge in his pants right now. “It’s, um … my stomach, I think.”

“Your stomach,” he said in a flat voice and leaned forward. Resting his hands on the arms of the chair, he caged me in. “Your stomach, or your thighs?” His gaze dipped toward them and back to me. “They do seem to be clenching quite a bit.”

I clenched harder, muscles burning. Trembling. Aching to be gripped by rough hands. “I don’t know what it is. I just feel … not myself.”

“Then, perhaps this other self will answer my question. How did you arrive in Nightshade?”

At soft fluttering at the apex of my thighs, I let out a whimper, clearing my throat to cover up the ridiculous sound. My eyes caught on the small bit of his chest peeking out between the few loosened buttons of his shirt. And his scent. God, that scent. Like everything I ever wanted wrapped up in a single inhale.

“Are you doing this to me?”

“Doing what?”

So frustrating, the sensation coursing through me, like trying not to get worked up while watching a Henry Cavill movie.

He leaned closer, his lips to my ear, warm breath feathering my skin in the most delicious way. “Tell me how you arrived?”

I couldn’t take it anymore. Every time the man spoke in that voice, I squirmed in my chair. Fuck it. “A cambion. A cambion helped me cross over.”

“A cambion.”

The sensation in my thighs eased, the current of whatever had stricken me lessening. When he finally pushed away, it seemed to dissipate all together.

Nails digging into the leather seat at either side of me, I exhaled a shaky breath. “I drank a tea, and …” Fell off a rooftop into another world. “Woke up here.”