The blindfold slipped from her eyes, and he grabbed her face, his gaze boring into her, right into her fuckingsoul.
In his eyes, Charlotte saw her whole life spinning out from this moment, exploding like a newborn galaxy, then collapsing again, bringing her right back here.
Right back to him.
He stilled between her thighs and gasped as if he’d sensed it too—some vast, inexplicable thing passing between them. Binding them.
“Mine,” he whispered.
That was all it took.
Her body clenched around him, and she screamed his name, the hot rush of pleasure shuddering through her, tremor after tremor, wave after wave, and suddenly Dorian was thrusting inside her again, groaning against her flesh as he came hard, both of them falling and spinning and exploding into an endless sea of stars, their souls flickering in the distance, illuminating the darkness.
Chapter Forty-Five
It was true what they said about absence making the heart grow fonder.
It also made for hotter sex.
Being with Dorian felt so perfect, so right, Charley could hardly remember a time without him—a time when hedidn’town her, body and soul.
She was playing a dangerous game, but whenever her brain fired off a warning, she dismissed it, distracting herself with another tantalizing kiss, another deep thrust of his smooth, satisfying cock.
With every hour they shared, teasing and kissing and fucking their way through every room in his gorgeous Tribeca penthouse, Charley was falling deeper into the fantasy that this reallywasher life—that it didn’t have to end.
And for a little while, she succeeded in forgetting about all the shadows, the secrets, the lies, the inevitable goodbyes.
But then, as they lay face-to-face in his bed beneath the skylights, naked and warm from the shower after another hour-long sex-a-thon, Dorian cupped her cheek and sighed into the darkness, and the heaviness descended upon her like rain.
Before he spoke another word, Charley kneweverythingwas about to change.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered, frantically searching his face in the moonlight.
“I followed up on the artwork, like you asked.”
Her eyes widened, her heart jackhammering.
“I contacted my buyer,” he said, “and from there, I followed a trail of contacts. There were several buyers in between, but you were right—the paths converged onto a single source for both the Hermes and the LaPorte painting. A man named Vincent Estas.”
“Vincent Estas,” Charley repeated. She knew a lot of art dealers, criminal and legitimate, but this one didn’t sound familiar. “Did you contact him as well?”
“No.” Dorian closed his eyes, his muscles tensing. “Charlotte, Vincent Estas is a demon.”
“Ademon?”
“And not just any demon, I’m afraid.”
“What do you mean?”
“Most demons operate in bonded crews similar to human crime families. There are several large organizations headquartered in the region, typically working out of Brooklyn and Queens, with a few scattered across Long Island.”
“Seriously? A demon mafia?” She shook her head, trying to process it all. “How powerfularethese guys?”
“Quite, and growing more so by the day. The most powerful organization is run by a demon called Nikolai Chernikov—he controls nearly fifty percent of all demon-held territory on the east coast.”
“And this Estas guy? He’s part of Chernikov’s organization?”
“No. Estas is bonded to thesecondmost powerful crew—Chernikov’s main demonic rival, Alexei Rogozin.”
