Page 51 of Wicked Curses
Orin leaned so close his breath warmed her skin again. She’d woken him from sleep, or at least that’s how he portrayed it, but the hint of mint remained on his lips.
“Why should I care?” he asked.
“Because that’s what decent immortals do!”
He grinned at her, but it wasn’t a smile of happiness. It was the look of a hunter stalking its prey, and she was the deer trapped in his crosshairs.
“Come now, witch. We both know I’mfarfrom decent, and you like me that way.” When Sahira’s fingers twitched, he clasped them again. “No spells.”
“Iabhorhow deceptive and manipulative you are.”
“I’m not deceptive. I’ve made it quite clear what I want and what Iwillhave.” His thigh nudged between her legs again as his shaft grew thicker and longer against her. “We both know it’s only a matter of time before you part those pretty thighs andbegme to take you.”
Sahira ignored his words; she wouldn’t dignify them with an answer. Mainly because, after tonight, she feared he might be right. Instead, she focused on something else. “You’re not deceptive?”
“Not at all.”
“Then how many ciphers do you really have?”
Orin’s eyes glittered with amusement as they both shifted their attention to the ciphers running across his chest and down his arms. The black marks all dark fae possessed looked like a cross between flames with their sharp edges and water as they flowed over their bodies.
Some dark fae had more ciphers than others. The more markings a dark fae possessed, the more powerful they were. Being able to sense the vitality in things was part of being a witch, and she’d always felt an extremely strong current emanating from Orin.
Many suspected some dark fae, if notallof them, hid some of their ciphers to conceal their true strength. Cole possessed the most Sahira had ever seen, but she doubted she’d seen them all.
The fact that Cole triggered the arach spell during the trials that made him the dark fae king backed up her theory. The arach designed their spell to turn the strongest dark fae into the Shadow Reaver, and Cole had claimed his place in history as such.
Because of that, she suspected ColeandOrin hadmanymore ciphers. She’d seen that flicker of black on the back of his hand in the pub, and he had more than she’d ever seen on anyone except Cole. But then, she’d never seen any dark fae as bared to her as Orin was now.
His ciphers ran across his upper chest and shoulders. They encircled his arms before ending at his wrists. He displayed an impressive amount of his power, but it was far from all of it, and they both knew it.
“You think I have more ciphers than this?” he inquired.
“I know you do.”
He smiled at her. “But you’ll never know how many.”
“More of your twisted deceptions. I’m tired of this. Get out of my room.”
He lowered his thumb to run it across her bottom lip. “But we were just starting to have fun.”
Warmth spread through her belly, making her legs almost useless, but Sahira refused to melt. “Nothingis fun with you.”
He lowered his mouth until his lips brushed hers while he spoke. “We both know there’s somethingveryfun we could be doing together now.”
“That’s never going to happen.”
He chuckled as he unexpectedly released her wrists and stepped away. “You have to feed sometime, vampire. And we both know what blood can do to a vampire’s libido.”
She’d told herself she wouldn’t look, but her eyes involuntarily went to his vein. He pulled her lip up again and smirked at her fangs before sauntering toward her door.
I willnotlook at his ass.
She looked at his ass; it was as chiseled as the rest of him. His back muscles, flexing with each of his steps, caused her mouth to water. Tendrils of his ciphers ran along the tops of his shoulders and grazed his back.
He was magnificent, and he knew it.
Orin stopped in the doorway and, grasping the knob, looked at her over his shoulder. “And no matter what you think, I wasn’t in your room earlier, witch. You must have been dreaming.”
