Right about now, all the panic bells must have been going off in her head. “I wouldn’t dare intrude.”
“It wasn’t a request, Captain.” Damiel snared her with his psychic magic and dragged her inside.
The door shut behind her with a decisive snap.
Fear flashed in Allegra’s eyes. The fear of being caught in the Master Interrogator’s web. “Colonel, I—”
“You’re here to answer to her, not to me,” he replied, releasing her body from his spell.
She stumbled, nearly falling over. Straightening, she met my eyes with trepidation.
“Now, you will tell me the truth,” I demanded.
“I’ve always told you the truth, Cadence.”
“You have been spying on me all these years.”
Allegra opened her mouth like she was going to protest, but she snapped it shut again. She took a deep breath. “Yes,” she admitted.
“General Silverstar assigned you to be my friend,” I pressed on.
“Yes.”
My heart clenched up with each new admission. “He told you to report back on what I was doing, what I was thinking, how I was feeling. He told you to make sure I did not stray from the path he’d set out for me. If there were any signs that I was deviating from his plan, you were supposed to nudge me back in the right direction.”
“Yes.”
Each word fell from her lips like a single drop of water into a silent pool.
Damiel did nothing. He said nothing. He just allowed me to interrogate Allegra. And he watched. Very closely.
“Get out,” I hissed at her.
She lifted her hands. “Our friendship might have started out as an assignment, but it isn’t that way anymore. I came to care about you, Cadence. To consider you a true friend.”
“Friends don’t lie. They don’t go behind your back,” I snapped. “Get out. Out of my room. Out of my castle. Out of my life.”
“But Cadence—”
“Go.” I pulled out my phone and typed quickly. “I’ve transferred you to the Brazil office, which is in desperate need of powerful elementals. There, at the edge of the Monster Rainforest, where the monstrous plants are growing to cover the lands faster than anywhere else on Earth, you will fight the feral forest.”
“We are friends,” Allegra protested. “And you need me.”
“I don’t need you.”
She reached for me.
Damiel stepped between us. “If you prefer, we can continue this discussion in an interrogation chamber.”
Allegra spun around and left my room very fast.
I closed the door behind her, then slouched against the wall. “I have to speak to my father.”
“You can’t,” Damiel told me. “Not yet. You cannot afford to split your focus right now. You need to concentrate on this mission. You can worry about your father later.”
“But I need to know what he’s planning for me.”
“I know you do.” He took my hand. His thumb stroked the underside of my wrist.
He was trying to comfort me. It was so strange to be at the receiving end of such kindness, such gentleness from someone I’d feared long before I’d known him.
“My whole world is crashing down, Damiel. Everything that I have ever known. My whole life is a lie. I don’t even know who to trust anymore.”
Damiel wrapped his arms around me and hugged me to his chest. “Your whole life isn’t a lie. And you can trust me. Remember that.”
A tear slid down my face, falling on his shoulder. I looked up at him. Impulse struck me again. I rose to my tiptoes and kissed him softly on his lips.
His body grew still. His arms dropped. He was no longer holding me.
I stepped back, looking upon him. Whereas my eyes were cautious, his were intense—and a little surprised. My kiss had surprised the Master Interrogator. Go figure.
Feeling rather foolish, I began to turn away from him. But he caught my wrist and pulled me back around. And this time, it was he who kissed me. His kiss was just as soft, just as quick, as the one I’d given him.
It wasn’t enough. I wanted more. My hands tightened on his back, pulling his body against mine.
He tensed and moved away from me.
“What’s wrong?” I looked at him through lowered lashes.
“You are feeling lost, vulnerable. Right now and back at the waterfall, you only kissed me because you wanted to feel close to someone.”
“At the waterfall,” I repeated. It was all starting to come together. “That’s why you didn’t kiss me back.”
“Yes.”
“And just now?”
“Just now, I gave in to temptation.” He looked ashamed, an expression I never thought I’d see on an angel’s face. “It will not happen again.”
His response made my heart melt—and my temper bubble under my skin.
“It will not happen again?” I threw his words back at him. “You think I’m weak. Well, stop deconstructing me, Interrogator. Yes, I’m lost and out of control. But who are you to tell me that I can’t be close to the only person left in my life, the only person I can still trust? Well, I say to hell with propriety and to hell with everyone else and what they want. This is about what we want.”
With that said, I kissed him again. Then I pulled back just far enough to level a challenging stare on him.
Your move.
His hands caressed the contours of my back all the way down…his fingers finally settling lightly on my hips, like a butterfly setting down on a flower petal.
“This is about what we want,” he repeated, casting a long, leisurely look down the length of my body. His gaze lifted. “You.” His eyes captured mine. “And I.” His grip tightened on my hips.
“Yes.” I arched toward him.
His hold loosened, if only but a little. Even so, it felt like all heat had evaporated from my body, leaving me cold and alone.
“And you’re quite sure about this?” he asked seriously, his words falling against my lips.
“Yes.”
Clutching me tightly, he dipped back my head and kissed me—slow and easy at first, but his kiss quickly grew faster, deeper. Almost savage. His tongue slipped past my lips. My head grew dizzy, my body feverish. A soft moan escaped my mouth.
Damiel was a good kisser. He knew exactly which buttons to push—and when to push them. I tried to match his moves, hoping desperately that he didn’t think I was a complete idiot. While I could fight a pack of monsters or build a Magitech generator, I had never trained this. In matters of love and pleasure, I was as green as a Legion initiate.
My father had always chased away any man who tried to court me in any shape or form. He’d sent them all away before I could develop a meaningful relationship with any of them. He was always watching me through others he’d planted in my circle, I now realized.
Damiel set his hands on my cheeks and met my eyes. “No one will scare me away.”
“You read my thoughts.”
“They were shouting out so loudly. I overheard. Are you upset?”
“No.” I managed a half smile. “Just embarrassed.”
“If anything, I should be embarrassed that you are thinking about something other than me while kissing me.” He stroked a strand of my hair between his fingers. He only touched the very ends, but even so, his caress sent delightful shivers through my entire body. “It means I am not doing my job.”