“Especially not yours.” Hatred filled her voice, her eyes glittering with malice.
It only turned him on more.
“Despite what you think,” he said softly, “I’ve never harmed a butterfly. But demons?” His gaze swept down to her mouth, then back to her eyes, where he nearly drowned. “I’ve bled and burned them. Vampires? Staked and incinerated them. Shifters? Starved them, poisoned them with molten silver, broken the wild beast that raged inside until there was nothing left of it but memory and shame.”
Her eyes widened, but the witch offered no reply.
“I’ve carved my name into the flesh of my enemies,” he continued. “Watched them bleed, rubbed salt into the wounds, and waited for them to heal—all so I could do it again. I’ve tortured without mercy, murdered without regret, sent more monsters to hell than there are bottles in this cellar and trust me when I tell you thatnothingpleases me more than the sound of a fallen immortal begging for death.”
Gabriel shared all of this, his dark résumé, his private shame, his quiet threats, as if he’d ever carry them out against her. As if his soul was so far beyond repair it would allow him to mar so much as aninchof her smooth, perfect skin.
No, he didn’t want to mar her. Only to frighten her off. To force her to say the words that would stop this inevitable train wreck, because he sure as fuck couldn’t do it.
Yet there she remained. Silent. Pulsating beneath his grip. Clove and cinnamon on her breath, eyeliner smudged beneath those bewitching blue eyes, glossy mouth parted in a bated breath held only for him.
He buried his face in the curls draped over her shoulder, nosed the soft skin behind her ear. Her raw-earth scent was intoxicating. Dizzying.
In his firm hold, Jacinda’s body heated, her heartbeat a frantic thing that seemed to know instinctively what the rest of her did not.
The witch was inserioustrouble.
In a low growl, he issued his command.
One he needed her to obey… for both their sakes.
“Tell me to stop, Jacinda Colburn.”
He released her throat, his hand already sliding down her ribcage, down to her hip, then lower still, down past the hem of her dress where satin and lace gave way to those sheer black stockings. He gripped her thigh, held tight. Squeezed when all he really wanted to do was bite.
“I’ve a black soul and an even blacker heart,” he whispered, his warning as dark and deadly as the broken-glass wine. “The things I could do to you…” He nearly shuddered at his own depraved thoughts. “Tell me to stop.”
Still, the witch said nothing.
“Say it,” he ordered again, hitching her leg up around his hip and reaching beneath her dress. His fingers crept past the top edge of her stocking, trailing along the garters and brushing the bare skin at the back of her thigh, all the way up to the silky mound of her arse, barely contained by a lace thong. Goosebumps pebbled in the wake of his touch. His cock ached.
A gasp escaped Jacinda’s lips, but the word he so desperately needed to hear did not.
Dipping between her thighs, he traced the thong’s path with one finger, barely brushing the scrap of lace over her clit. Heat radiated from her core, and when he pressed against that inviting warmth, she shivered.
“Say it,” he ground out, his control slipping, his mind spinning with lust and fury in equal measure.
And oh, hewasfurious. Furious that she’d tempted him. Furious that she’d haunted his fantasies. Furious that of all the witches he’d encountered and despised and feared in this long immortal dance, this one—this prisoner, this enemy, this conspirator had thoroughly entranced him.
Jacinda closed her eyes. Bit her plump lower lip. Drew a deep, shuddering breath.
And then, finally, firmly, she spoke.
“No, dickhead.”
Gabriel stilled. His fangs receded.
Frustration and disappointment battled in his chest. Relief followed. Acceptance came in dead last, but there it was.
Disaster fucking averted.
“Good girl.” He exhaled into her hair and unhanded that silky-smooth thigh, but her leg tightened around his hip, drawing him closer.
A fresh blaze ignited in her eyes, and she fisted his shirt with both hands.
