“I should have asked.”
He grunts.
“I should have asked about a lot of other things, too.”
Enzo nods. “I should have assumed a mortal would not understand the complexities of my ask.”
He pulls me against him and does nothing more than hold me. He's firm and comforting, strong and secure, and this is as soft as Enzo can manage. His chin rests on my head and we stay like this, somehow finding a balance as our opposing forces meet and coexist.
“Do you truly despise it?” Enzo asks.
“I hate that I didn’t understand its implications. It robbed me of something.” I swallow and press my head into his chest. “It took something from us, Enzo, and I detest that we lost something.”
The demon exhales and—as improbable as it is—we’ve found our balance. We’ve crashed into each other and he heard my voice instead of letting it being drowned out as his ocean breaks me apart and I shatter on the rocks. For the first time, Enzo listened.
He hasn’t just taken.
He hasn’t tried to buy me.
He’s given me something that mattered.
“This place is nice,” I whisper. “It’s almost perfect.”
Enzo scoffs and his fingers run through my hair, tucking it behind my ear. He lifts my chin and his eyes are the color of midnight and contain the light of a thousand constellations.
“I made this place for you. Only you, Adriana. It is whatever you need and want it to be. If there is any imperfection, then the fault is with you, not me. What more could you possibly want?”
I press onto tiptoes and crash my lips onto his, stealing a kiss that’s potent and filled with longing. He’s stolen thousands from me, but this is the first I’ve taken from him—and it brings us back together, uniting us despite our differences and we descend into a different madness. Together.
29
PAINT IT CRIMSON
ENZO
She sleeps.
My girl nestles against me and sighs as she sleeps.
Her fingers kneed my chest and she purrs like a fucking kitten.
She’s mine in every way that matters, and all it took was a single conversation. I didn’t need to give her riches beyond her wildest imagination or more jewelry than she could wear in a hundred lifetimes. I didn’t even need to rearrange the world or the stars that light the heavens to win her affection. I simply had to let her speak.
There’s no way back from what we’ve agreed. She’s going to discover the depth of my depravity and the horror of my being. Adriana will need a gradual introduction to all that I am and I’ll make damn sure that I control the pace she does that. Not her.
I won’t be doing anything at the pace she thinks she can handle because she can’t. The night Elgios and I dispatched the Goetia showed she isn’t ready for the horrors of Hell and her little human heart won’t endure it. Not yet.
She needs fortifying.
She needs building up.
She needs a damn good fucking.
And she sleeps. In my fucking arms. In my goddamn bed.
I can’t wait. I’m a selfish asshole and I’ve endured all I can tonight. Adriana’s wearing my collar and I’ve been desperate to fuck her in it since she put it on. I need to claim her and my dick needs release. It’s fucking agony and she’s put me through enough of that already.
“I need you to wake,” I say, digging my fingers into her ass.
