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His gaze lifted to the girl again. The beautiful girl, whose pure and innocent scent carried on the air like that of a garden of white roses and gardenias.
Too innocent.
Regardless that she was poor and carried far less status, the baron thought himself unworthy of such a virtuous creature.
He stared down at his hands and grimaced, wishing he could cut them away from his arms. Hands that had brought him to climax under the most vile of circumstances.
Hands that were no longer clean enough to touch a girl like Lustina.
40
FARRYN
Still unable to sleep through the achiness in my belly and the sound of a baby crying in the wall, I snuck out of my bedroom and rounded the corner to Jericho’s room. I needed to know that he was okay. That whatever Vaszhago’s little plan was didn’t include some twisted demon torture, or worse, though I didn’t entirely have a bad sense about the demon. For reasons that didn’t make sense, given their history and what he was, I trusted Vaszhago.
Even so, I needed to know.
Peering into Jericho’s room showed his massive bed empty. I strode across the room to the bathroom to find it empty, as well. Had Vaszhago locked him in the dungeon?
And what about my father? I hadn’t had the chance to confirm with Jericho that he’d returned without him, as Vaszhago had said.
On the way back down the hallway, I gave a quick knock to the door of an adjacent bedroom, listened for an answer, and cracked it open, snooping inside to find it completely dark, save for the moonlight pouring in. Squinting, I scanned over the furniture, not finding anyone there.
I couldn’t remember much of the conversation I’d had with Jericho while in the tub, my head had been in a constant fog then, but I could’ve sworn he’d told me that my father was there, at the cathedral. Surely, Jericho wouldn’t have lied.
Unless he hadn’t wanted to stress me out at the time—which was most likely.
The truth was, I wasn’t all that hopeful about seeing my father again. Perhaps that was the skepticism in me rising to the surface, but I just had a sense that Jericho would return solo. So, while I made the effort to search for him, it was a bit halfhearted.
Quietly, I closed the door and moved down to the next bedroom, performing another quick sweep. As I passed a third door, the sounds of thumping and moans brought me to a screeching halt.
“Fuck me, Vaszhago. Harder!” What sounded like Kezhurah’s accent bled through the wooden panels, and I tiptoed back from it, not wanting to have him shadow me while I continued my search.
As I stepped quietly past, though, gnarled coils of pain twisted in my belly, and I rested my hand there on a grunt as the crampy sensation moved through me. I froze in place, breathing hard through my nose, focusing on the sudden quiet from inside the room.Shit.
After a harrowing moment of keeping perfectly still through what felt like the kind of pains I’d get after food poisoning, the bed went back to thumping. I kept on through the hallway, skipping over Vespyr’s room, down the staircase to the foyer. A light in Jericho’s office caught my attention, where it shined under the door, and I stopped there. Hand poised to knock, I hesitated for some reason.
I carried the man’s baby, but for some reason, my head still viewed him as my employer every time I approached his office.
“Farryn?” he asked in a voice that didn’t hold the demonic rasp to it like before.
The achiness turned to fluttering in my stomach, as I pushed open the door to find him sitting at his desk, a shadow of anger behind his eye.
Wearing a sheepish smile, I stepped inside, closing the door behind me. “Hey. You’re alive.”
“As are you.”
“Was I not supposed to be?”
“You weren’t supposed to be in my room.”
Huffing a breath, I crossed the office and took a seat in one of the chairs. “Separation is getting old.”
“Do you know how easily I could’ve snapped your neck?”
I smirked, not wanting to admit it was the fear that excited me most about him. It always had been with Jericho. Made me feel like an adrenaline junky sometimes, the way I toyed with his restraint. And while it might’ve been slightly terrifying to see his chains broken earlier, I couldn’t deny the small thrill that’d curled my spine. “You don’t scare me,” I lied.
A feral glint flickered in his eye, his cheek twitching as if he might smile. “Regardless, you shouldn’t come into my room at night. It’s dangerous.”
