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Careful not to wake Gracelyn or Mel, I scooted down the bed between their bodies, weaving my bottom around Selena, who’d stretched out across the foot.
Stepping over Margo and Abby, who were sleeping on a self-made pallet, I crept into the hall and shut the door. Voices were coming from the main room, quiet and low. I poked my head out to see what was going on.
Leonard was snoring quietly on one of the sofas. Maverick and Charon were sitting on another.
Ciaran and Kyrous were in front of the map, conversing with one another. When Ciaran’s head started to turn my direction, I scampered into the bathroom, cracking the door the smallest bit.
Not bothering to turn on the light, I went to the double basin and turned on the tap, resting my hands one either side of the left sink’s porcelain rim. Closing my eyes, I fought to clear my head—not an easy task when nothing but conflict was brewing within it.
I cupped my hands and placed them beneath the spicket, opening my eyes when I heard the door being pushed on.
Ciaran stepped in and shut it behind him, placing his back against the wood. I let the water in my hands escape down the drain and straightened. “What are you doing?”
“Coming to see why you ran.”
“Ciaran—” I paused. “If I had run, which I didn’t, that would be a sign not to follow me.”
“Isn’t that what you wanted me to do? Come after you?”
“Repeat that question back to yourself and then ask why I would want that.”
“I don’t think you know what it is you want, puppet.”
The audacity. “And you do?”
“I know far more than you’d like me to, little Serpine.”
I spun on my heel and took two steps away from him. “How do you know my last name?”
“The same way I know what that necklace around your neck stands for.”
My hand flew to the pendant as he began to advance towards me. I remained where I was, tilting my head back when he stopped, our bodies mere centimeters apart.
I didn’t know if I should wrap my arms around him or get ready to throw hands. My body certainly knew which option to choose.
“What do you want?”
“The same thing you do.”
I swallowed, shifting back slightly. “If you really knew as much as you just claimed to, you would have a different answer.”
He laughed lowly, the dark undertone causing the ache he’d created between my legs to grow. He cupped my chin, prohibiting me from looking away from him.
“And for you to say that means you haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said.”
“Ciaran,” I warned. “We can’t do whatever it is you’re trying to do.”
“If you speak lies without conviction, puppet, how can you expect anyone to believe them?”
“What does that even mean?”
“That if I were to decide I wanted inside you right now and not later, you’d do whatever I told you to because you want the same thing.”
Later? “Your confidence is really something, but you’re wrong.”
“Bullshit, you’ve been eye fucking me so hard I’m surprised I can even walk straight.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. So much for my being discreet. Unfortunately for him, he had no idea what he was setting himself up for. I didn’t know how he knew the things he claimed to, but that didn’t change anything about who I was or our situation.
He probably only wanted me because I denied that I wanted him. If not for the ease with which we connected, it wouldn’t even be me he wanted. There was a chance it still wasn’t. I couldn’t be mad about that. I wanted to sit on his dick, and he wanted to feel my cunt wrapped around it.
We were two people with a blatantly mutual attraction—a visceral one. Plus, I’d dealt with men like this before.
They loved the thrill that came with staking a claim on a woman who played hard to get.
It became a game of sorts for me. I let em think they caught me, conquered the unconquerable, so to speak. I allowed them to fuck me hard and fast just so I could turn around and fuck them twice as hard before leaving them even faster.
I’d only ever been with one man who met the quota for everything I needed, and I’d lost him faster than he’d made me come.
Under normal circumstances, I’d have let Ciaran give it his try to beat him.
I was dangerously close to doing it now. I’d slept with guys much faster than this before, and they didn’t have anywhere near the allure he did. They also didn’t spout off my last name without me giving any hint as to what it could be. I wondered what his angle was in letting me know he knew it.
Power? Blackmail? Fear?
“Are you trying to scare me, Ciaran?”
