“Lock the door,” I said, my body heating with anticipation.
As Ares locked the door, I stared at Cromvale’s impressive sound system, flicking through the flat screen until I found a playlist one of my favorite DJs at the Odyssey made. It was titled “Angry Girls.” And as the first notes of one of my favorite songs played over the Senator’s most excellent speakers, I turned it up all the way.
Ares stalked back into the living room, watching me carefully, expression quizzical. He was both amused by me, and probably a little confused about why, after trying to be so quiet, I was now insistent on making a shit-ton of noise. The way he moved was unfair, the fluid roll of his muscles, the dangerous grace in his hands. As the drumbeat pounded through me, the cold apartment was suddenly too warm. My skin flushed, remembering how Ares had touched me when we first entered this wretched place.
If we slunk out now, he would leave feeling exactly the way I did now: afraid and discouraged. Neither of us had room to feel like that. Neither of us could fold, or back down. Sneaking out, like we’d never been here, wasn’t the move. Well, it was thesmartmove, but no one had ever accused me of making wise choices.
No, not only did we need a diversion from what we’d been here for, but we needed to feel better. We needed to feel powerful again. The Authority had run our people into the ground for nearly two thousand years. It was time for us to take at least some of our power back.
And if we couldn’t get it back in this second, we could do the next best thing—create an unhinged amount of chaos. I grinned as I rolled my shoulders back. Then I smashed the fuck out of the horrendous photograph of where his parents died. “Fuck Chase Cromvale,” I howled as I moved through the room, hitting every breakable object I could.
Ares watched me closely, jaw clenched tight. The way he looked at me sent shivers along my spine, tingling straight through to my core. My body ached for him, too hollow, needing desperately to be filled, fucked, and Saints-forbid, worshipped. The way he’d sucked his fingers clean of me earlier let me know that fucking Ares Necroline would be more than good—it would be a religious experience.
If the humans wanted a dark god to worship, I could give them an entire selection. My gods were braver than Chiore. Better than a god who sought only to destroy. Death was one thing, destruction another. I had not lived this long only to see the people I was meant to protect suffer further at the hands of the Authority.
When I moved to the office, Ares followed, his movements matching mine with a heated fury that mounted as the seconds ticked by. Time seemed to slow as we laid waste to Cromvale’s perfect, minimalist world. Neither of us bothered to leash our strength or speed. We moved in concentric circles, using the bats to smash through the entire apartment,each broken object sending a rush of euphoria through my body.
It didn’t take long before we stood in the shattered remains of Chase Cromvale’s insufferable apartment, standing chest to chest, breathing hard.
“How much time left?” I shouted over the music.
Ares’ chest rose and fell as he moved closer to me, his lips parting with only slightly labored breath. We’d worked hard to move so quickly, but it wasn’t the physical exertion of destroying Cromvale’s apartment that had us both panting. Wet heat pooled between my legs. This was foreplay, plain and simple.
I wanted Ares Necroline inside me. I wanted to fuck the sadness and fear out of him. Because it was still there, lurking in me, just as it was behind the desire in his eyes.
“We have twenty-five minutes,” he shouted back.
I pressed my hand to his chest. “Set fire to it, Ares. You’re good at that.” He flinched away from me, almost hurt by my words. But I grabbed his arms, yanking him back towards me. I needed him angry, annoyed by me—anything but afraid. I was willing to say anything, do anything to banish the fear from both our hearts. “I hated you for so long.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously, his head tilting in that predatory way he had, his upper lip curling slightly. There was the expression that I’d secretly loved every month for years. That irritation with me that made me want to fuck the disdain right off his face. He pushed me against the wall. I shoved my hands into his pants’ pocket. Just lock picks in this one, so I moved to the other, where I found a lighter and the head of his cock, poking into his pocket.
I let my fingers graze his erection, feeling him tense against me, his eyes falling shut as I pressed my body harder against his, creating more friction between us as I pulled the lighter from his pocket and stuck it between his lips. He bared his teeth to me as he accepted it. His hips thrust against mine as I wrapped my legs around his waist.
I tossed my bat towards the windows. The force of my throw smashed them instantly, the bat rolling onto the terrace, but my eyes didn’t leave Ares’ face. “How long have I been pissing you off?”
He removed the lighter from his mouth with his free hand, his pretty mouth going from a sneer to a smirk. “At least a hundred years. Probably more.”
“Show me,” I growled, bucking my hips against the hard length of his erection. “Show me just how much I annoy you.”
For a wild moment, I thought he might turn me down, or hesitate. But he tossed his bat aside as well, smashing the mirror over the vanity in the bathroom. And then he lit the lighter, tossing it into Cromvale’s full wastebasket in the bathroom. It went in like he was a pro ball-player, the trash going immediately up in flames.
“You’re infuriating,” he said as he pulled me away from the wall and turned me around. “Hands against the wall.”
I gasped with pleasure as I obeyed, watching the flames in the wastepaper basket explode from some chemical Cromvale had discarded, and climb up the wall to where dry towels hung. This place was going to go up in flames, and I didn’t give a flying fuck.
All I wanted was to feel Ares inside me. Behind me, he fussed with his pants, and I couldn’t help but wiggle my ass against him, making it more difficult. He pulled me hard against his chest, one hand sliding fast underneath my jacket and the light sports bra I wore underneath to pinch my nipple, hard.
“You can’t wait for this place to go up in smoke, can you?” he said with a laugh, then trailed his lips down my neck.
He pinched my nipple again, and I gasped at the mix of pleasure and pain. The song had changed, moving to something darker, with a pulsing beat that seemed to move in time to the throbbing between my legs.
“Irresponsible.” He pushed my pants down. “Disrespectful.” My back arched as I felt the head of his cock push at myentrance. “With a smart mouth,” he hissed before turning my head to capture my mouth with his.
The kiss was frenzied as he slid into me, stretching me open with ease. He had me pinned against him as I braced myself against the wall, thrusting into me at a relentless pace that took my breath away.
“You feel so good,” I moaned into his mouth.
This moment was everything I’d wanted for years. Someone who knew the ways I needed to be protected and possessed. That I needed my lover to respect my power in all places but this one. That in this, I needed release from making decisions, from knowing what to do. And that I wanted a mix of pleasure and pain that kept my attention, that didn’t allow space for my anxious mind to take over.
