Ryder stepped into the office doorway but remained silent as Calina bent to unzip a bag holding all of Lilith’s parts. Her arms. Her legs. Her torso. Calina didn’t touch them but seemed to be examining the sections with her eyes before returning her focus to the severed head.
Ryder and Damien shared a glance.
Then Ryder looked at me.
I nodded for the two of them to go, saying without speaking that I had the situation well in hand.
Damien’s gaze told me I had better not disturb his precious items.
He left before I could reply, expecting me to comply with the silent demand. Probably because he knew he had no true authority here. I would do whatever the fuck I wanted. That was why the new alliance crowned me king.
The computer beeped, pulling Calina’s attention away from the head, her expression giving nothing away as she returned to the office to click a few items on the keyboard.
I had no idea what she was doing, making me the wrong supervisor for this task. For all I knew, she could be sending a message to one of Lilith’s partners or stakeholders. “You can close the freezer now,” she said, settling into the chair. “Thank you for letting me see her.”
Rather than reply, I went to the panel in the wall and closed the door. Damien had taught me the codes as a show of good faith. It was a new alliance between many of us, but his familial ties to Izzy made him trustworthy in my eyes. Just as my ties to Izzy’s mate, Cam, made me worthy of the same respect from Damien.
Darius and Juliet entered the suite, but not the office. Calina was either too consumed by the information on the screen to notice them, or she hadn’t heard their entry. With a wave of my hand, I told him not to enter when they came close enough to see us. If I needed him, I’d let him know. Until then, he and Juliet could remain in the other room.
Calina was silent, her eyes glued to the screen.
I studied the code but couldn’t decipher it.
So I let her play and type and admired her instead. The long slope of her neck. The way her hair remained gathered on one side over her opposite shoulder. The cut of my dress shirt against her naked skin. She’d rolled the sleeves to her elbows and had her legs crossed in the chair, allowing the fabric to ride up her thighs.
Her foot tapped while her fingers moved, the nervous little tell making me wonder just what she was doing.
I placed my palms on her shoulders, bending over to press my lips to her ear.
“Part of me hopes you’re up to something nefarious,” I whispered. “Because it would give me cause to bend you over my knee and spank your ass raw.” I nibbled her earlobe, grinning as she shivered. “Then I would bend you over this desk and fuck you raw. And if I decided to forgive you at the end, I might give you pleasure. But since I’mdefective, maybe not.”
Her throat worked, her breath shuddering out of her. I pressed my nose to her throat, inhaling her sweet perfume and listening to the rapid cadence of her heart.
“Now that you’ve seen Lilith, you know what I’ve told you is true,” I continued. “That makes you my property, Calina. So if you’re warning someone with those clever keystrokes, I’m going to be very disappointed. And I don’t think you want to know what I do when I’m disappointed, sweetheart.”
“Murder children?” she suggested, her voice lacking emotion.
I chuckled against her throat. “Finish the job and tell me where the server farms are, and you won’t have to find out.”
I proceeded to kiss a path along her neck, my lips seemingly addicted to her skin, as she returned to typing. Her pulse continued to hum against my mouth like a butterfly’s wings, beating rapidly in quick succession.
She might be able to mask her tone with indifference, but her body gave her away.
She was scared, something that appealed to the predator inside me. I wanted her frightened, begging, andsubmitting.
She posed a challenge that I darkly enjoyed, her stoic persona one I wanted to dismantle just to watch her fall apart at my feet. I’d never been so enchanted by someone before.
Perhaps it was her implied resistance—the fact that she blamed her attraction on a natural biological response rather than acknowledging a potential attraction to me, the person.
Most females stripped upon command because they wanted to, not because they felt a biological need to follow a predator’s command.
Women genuinely enjoyed my presence, and I doted on them in kind.
But Calina spoke to me with a confidence that bordered on arrogance, which I found fascinating, considering her age and human status.
It made me want to teach her a sensual lesson, make her addicted to me, and either add her to my harem or turn her into a progeny to learn beneath my wing.
The way she focused now, working through her task even while a superior being lurked at her back, was just further proof of her potential in this world. She would make a fantastic vampire. Coolheaded even while under pressure. Practical. Intelligent. Strategic.
