"Am I?" He glances down at me, pleased. "Is it because you're madly in love with me now, and you want me to kiss you?"
"Nope. Takes a bit more than one round of sex to make a girl fall in love."
"How many rounds, exactly?"
I just roll my eyes. "Can we focus on the problem at hand?" I gesture up to my window. "Do you think we need weapons of some kind? Wards? Like…vampires hate crosses. Do you think our friend up there has a vulnerability to something?" When he's silent, I glance up at him, and he's giving me an incredulous look, one that says I've grown another head. I can take a hint. "All right, that's a no go, fine."
"Whoever is there is likely thousands of years old and will not be affected by a paltry symbol or two." He shakes his head. "We will try to reason with him—or her—and see what it is they desire. I am near powerless in this world, so a battle is not an option we have."
Considering that he's invulnerable and I'm the one that has to die for him to be “defeated,” I agree with that assessment. "And if they want to fight?"
"Then we are doomed anyhow." He smiles down at me.
"You sure are smiley for a guy discussing doom," I grumble.
"I am Hedonism. I take my pleasure where I can. Right now, my pleasure is in how cranky my every word makes you." He grins, pausing and cupping my face. "Want to kiss me now? Before we race into danger and battle the gods?"
I push his hands away. "First of all, you said we weren't fighting anyone. And second…no? What makes you think I want to kiss right now? I want to run for the hills."
He shakes his head and loops an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in close despite my squirming. "Listen to me, Carly. I do not know the rules of this world, but I do know how gods think. We want to make sure that whoever is up there keeps their focus on me and not you. Understand?"
I stop struggling. This time, when he puts his arm around my shoulders, I stay still. "Why would they care about me?"
"I ask myself the same thing," Kassam agrees, and then I just want to punch him in his laughing face. "But then I remember that Lachesis sought you out. Not me, you. So there is something going on, perhaps, that I am unaware of. Either way, it worries me. I have vowed to keep you safe and I will do so." He pulls me in closer, until my face is practically pressed against his chest. "When we arrive, I want you to keep your focus entirely on me. Act utterly besotted. Act as if nothing matters to you but my pleasure. We want them to think of you as weak and useless and thus harmless. Do not let them realize just how clever you are."
Was…was that a compliment? I want to check Kassam's face to see if he meant it, but he squishes my cheek against his T-shirt-covered pectoral, and grabs my butt, squeezing. Right, because he's Hedonism and I'm supposed to be lost to his spell, not fighting it with crystals and every ounce of willpower I have. "Okay."
"Remember," he whispers. "You are completely in my control and you live for my amusement. You are my plaything, my way of passing the time until I return to my world."
"Okay."
"You mean nothing to me at all, but I have you so well trained I should like to keep you," he continues on.
I pinch his abdomen, slightly annoyed at that. He just squeezes my butt again, his fingers dancing over the cleft of my ass and making me quiver. "It's not going to be hard to pretend that I don't mean anything to you," I grumble. "That you're just using me out of convenience."
He tweaks my ear, sending a shiver up my spine. "Whatever you do, never mention that we are married. Understand?" When I nod absently, he grabs me by the chin and forces me to look him in the eye. "I mean it, little light. The gods do not marry mortals. Do not give them any reason to be intrigued by you."
"Got it," I say, pulling away.
"Good. Now, take off your jewelry." He holds a hand out. "If you know this trick about such things, they will, as well."
Wait, what? I pull back from his arms, suspicious. "If I take those off—"
"Exactly." Kassam wiggles his fingers at me. "Give them over. We will hide them somewhere out here so this interloper does not suspect anything."
I frown up at him. If I take them off, I'm going to be hit with the full force of his hedonism. Does he want me to just crawl all over him, panting, when we might be meeting our doom? "What if I say no?"
His eyes gleam. "Then I will pin you down right here and pull them off of you." At my angry huff, he adds, "Along with all of your clothing."
That makes me go still. "You wouldn't dare," I warn.
"To keep you safe? I absolutely would." He gives me a thoroughly lascivious look. "And then I think I would spank you, just for good measure. I should like to smack that delicious bottom of yours until it's bright red and you're whining for my mercy."
"Oh my god, you are the worst," I sputter. "The absolute worst."
Kassam just looks smugly pleased even as he tugs me against him again. "Do not retreat from me," he cajoles, his voice soft as he wraps his arms around me and hauls me against his chest. He ducks down, kissing my temple, and murmurs, "We might be watched, even now."
"Then it won't matter if I take my jewelry off, will it?" I grump, but my skin is prickling, not just with his awareness, but of that of some other nearby. The air feels like it does just before a storm, charged and waiting, and it's making me break out into goosebumps.
"We must be sly," Kassam murmurs against my ear, and then licks the shell of it.
Irritation explodes through me even as hot lust does. He's enjoying this, the bastard. He's going to have me crawling all over him like an oversexed hussy, and he's going to enjoy every damn moment of it. And me, I don't have much of a choice, and that's annoying as hell. It's either be a sex fiend, or risk calling attention to us…and specifically to me. "Let's go inside the building first. I'll take them off in the mail room and shove them into my mailbox." I shoot him a look. "And if I kiss you without my crystals on, it's because I'm out of my mind. It doesn't count."
He clutches a fist over his chest, grinning at me. "I am wounded that you think I would take advantage of you like that, my little light."
"Be wounded all you like," I say, even as we head for the doors to my building. "But I'm learning none of you gods are worth trusting."
"Good," he says. "Keep that at the front of your mind, because it will keep you safe."
19
To my relief, there's no one in the mail room. I don't have the key to my mail slot, so I glance around and decide to hide my crystal jewelry in the big, dusty plastic fern in the corner. Goodbye, earrings. Goodbye, chunky necklace covered in crystal. Goodbye, three rings with quartz studding them. I slip my bracelets off, too.
I catch a whiff of his scent—and my pussy practically spasms in reaction. I let out a choked sound of need as a wave of arousal washes over me. Oh good god almighty. The change is immediate. I look over at Kassam, at that fine-ass man who looms over me, and decide I need to ride that, right fucking now.