Page 109 of Nemesis

When the door clicks shut against my back, a gush of air leaves my chest.

Octavia is fast asleep by the time I enter our dark room, hair splayed out on the pillow like a splash of wine.

I’ve been intimate with many women throughout my life—call me a common whore if you want—but I’m beginning to think I’ve never been truly touched by any of them at all. I’ve been traded and consumed, used and gambled with. I thought it was the same thing, but it’s not. A real touch is both free and costly at once, like the way Octavia reached for my hand in the middle of the night, even when her thoughts were so dark, she couldn’t rise in the morning. It’s a desperate craving I can’t stop thinking about.

Climbing onto the blankets, I settle above her covered legs and roll the soft tank top up to her ribs. Her pale skin practically glows in the darkness, calling to me. I get to touch her whenever I need to. My lips brush her navel, summoning her soft moan.

Gluttony.

“How’d it go?” she whispers, voice scratchy with sleep.

I kiss lower, trailing down her stomach to the curve of her hips.

“It went okay,” I say, punctuating the response with a nip on her hip.

She lets out a needy sigh, distracting me. Her legs hook around my ass in one of the S locks we practiced in combat yesterday, effectively rolling me onto my back. I grunt, landing on the mattress.

She flipped me.

Pride and something significantly less honorable pump through me at the sight of her strong thighs nestled on either side of my hips.

“What does okay mean?” Her nervous face hovers directly above mine. “Do we have to go on the run? Do we stay here?”

She pesters me with the questions, but all I hear is one word, over and over.

We.

We.

We.

The sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. I capture her chin, searching for her lips, but she pulls out of reach.

“Vasiliy.”

I sigh, unable to stop my lips from curving into a smile. She says my name unlike anyone else, and I swear I could listen to it over and over, painted with the intricacies of her beautiful voice.

“Hmm?” I respond, distracted.

She tilts her head, frowning down at me. “You know how you and I can understand each other without having to say a single word?”

It’s true—inexplicable as it is. Sometimes I can read every single thought in her head simply by the position of her brows and the look in her eyes. Other times, I don’t even have to glance her way to feel her response. Her voice is so dominant in my mind, it drowns out all the horrible sounds I’ve been collecting through the years.

I reach up to pull her face back down to me, but she resists, pulling back with a serious expression. “This is one of those times, Vas. I know something happened in that meeting.”

“I don’t want to talk about the meeting right now.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m the one in charge, then,” she says, confidence pouring over her voice. I’ve created a monster, I think, smiling back up at my pretty little brat.

“And how do you figure that?”

Her thighs tighten around my hips. The action has my dick hardening.

“I have the pussy. You want the pussy.”

A chuckle bursts from my chest at the simplicity of her logic, but then she shifts her hips lower, settling warm heat right where I need her most. Then she rolls over me. I go dick-drunk on the spot, desperate to give her whatever she wants in order to be inside her again.

“Dangerous game you’re playing there, baby. I’m not sure you’re as unaffected as you act.” I slip my hand between her legs, rubbing my thumb right where she needs it. I’m pretty sure the furious moan that pulls from her throat will star in every fantasy I have from now on.