My mind drifted to how the prick had looked. He wasn’t anything like I’d assumed he would be, but that wasn’t automatically a bad thing. The piercing graphite-colored smoldering eyes had dark, lushly thick onyx lashes surrounding them. The powerful jawline was carved in an intensely masculine balance, which fit the aristocratic nose. He had high cheekbones and a wickedly sensual mouth with full lips, which had twisted with arrogance I’d craved to slap from them—vehemently. The raven-hue hair brushed against his generous shoulders and wandering strands covered his ears, spawning a throb within my fingertips to reach up and push them away.
The jerk had a body that had started a throbbing pulse in my abdomen and coiled into my pelvis. I’d never noticed a body and felt that sensation before.
His powerful physique wasn’t in-your-face like the men’s who lingered in the gardens within the City of Gods. Instead, it was as if he’d been sculpted by an artist’s hand. Only someone with that level of detail could create angles that captured attention.
Even the whisper of hair beneath his navel was alluring. That had caused my attention to shift to the sharp lines that drove from his narrow hips toward his pelvis. Whoever had created him had taken extra time to chisel him into the personification of masculinity I’d felt tensing beneath my palms while dangling over certain death.
Puckering my lips, I shoved them toward my cheek and ignored the throb that was back to pulsing under my skin. Only an idiot would be thinking about that prick at a time like this. Me, I was the idiot.
“What are you thinking about that has you blushing so ravishingly, Kahleena?” he pried in a raspy tone, causing me to jolt in shock. The echo of his words bounced from the walls, slamming through the narrow path I’d entered.
I rotated in a complete circle, squinting to try to identify where he was within it. My foot brushed against something, and I twisted to shoot both palms forward to push him away, but they pushed through empty space. Pivoting, I kindled my power, generating a soft halo of golden light. The asshole dominating my thoughts leaned against the wall across from me with his arms folded over his chest. His mouth curved into an arrogant smirk as his gunmetal-colored stare held me prisoner beneath its intensity.
“I asked you a question, princess. What induced those liquid-gold eyes of yours to light so intensely to have your nipples straining against the fabric of your dress? So, what could make the princess so . . . lost inside her thoughts that she’d forget she was being hunted by monsters who meant to devour her?” He pushed from the wall, slowly striding closer to where I stood.
“I don’t recall,” I offered, noting the corner of his mouth lifting while he halted before me, dragging his stare slowly over my face.
My back went flush against the side of the tunnel, and a soft groan escaped my throat as his palm slapped down beside my face and he leaned in closer. Heated breath fanned my ear, and lips brushed over the skin below. That simple touch had the aching throb speeding up as the flutters of butterfly wings erupted in my stomach.
“Liar,” he murmured hoarsely, dropping his other hand to my hip. “Were you wondering if I’d force you to the ground and drive my hard need deeply into your pussy? Or were you imagining avoiding capture and arriving at your room untouched? You’re bold, but you’re not even quick enough to understand I’m not fucking playing with you. I informed you of my plan to fucking ravage and ruin you. And instead of finding you running for your life, I discovered you standing still with a smile on your poison lips while savage creatures swarmed in around you, slowly inching closer. So, tell me, what the fuck were you thinking about?” He nipped the skin below my ear, forcing a violent tremble to shoot through me.
His laughter vibrated against my shoulder as I pressed my palms against his heated abdomen. It tensed beneath my touch, and I jerked my hands away as if he’d burned me.
“I told you I don’t recall what I was imagining.” I whispered.
His skin carried a trace of citrus and something else I couldn’t discern. The hand on my hip slipped inside the loose material clinging low on my waist. My chest struggled to rise and fall beneath the maelstrom of conflicting emotions that him being against me created.
“You’re flustered, aren’t you? I can feel you trembling beneath my touch. You’re afraid, but there’s a dark wickedness in you craving to be unleashed to explore what I am offering you. Oh, how daddy and mommy are going to be so disappointed when they find out that you’re a filthy little slut, princess. Tell me this, does knowing that I’m about to fucking consume your soul have your princess parts clenching and dripping with invitation?” He slid his fingers over my flat abdomen, and I shut my eyes, breathing in a gulp of air.
“Are your bastard parts ready?” I asked in a husky tone that I wasn’t certain belonged to me. If it was mine, it was sexy and oozing the wrong impression.
“I’m always ready to wreck princesses and the virtues of those who assume they’re above me, Kahleena.”
I struck my knee into his groin hard enough to hurt me as well as him. A victorious smile danced over my mouth as he snarled and sank to the ground. “You lied, prick. Your bastard parts weren’t ready,” I grunted, reeling to scurry deeper into the darkness. His roared flurry of threats caused the hair on my nape to rise and tiny bumps of alertness to spread over my body.
My body collided against a barrier, and a groan of shock burst from my lungs. I shoved away from it, pumping my legs harder to evade the furious asshole that was likely to crave my head separated from my shoulders by the time he caught me. I wasn’t counting steps or even noting the symbols that should have been invisible but weren’t.
His strangled bark of rage echoed through the tunnels, forcing fear to course through me. I tripped and landed hard on the earthen floor, gasping as pain rocketed through me and rocks cut into my palms. I ignored it and hoisted my body up, and made myself move through one turn after another until my lungs seared from running and the strain of me forcing my endurance to continue. I hit wall after wall, growing more terrified with each one I moved through.
I paused before entering another tunnel, twisting around while continuing to take steps backward with dread flowing through my veins. Light erupted, and I raised my arm to keep from being blinded. After a second, I lowered it, only to find him a few feet away from me.
His fists were the hue of ebony, which gradually crawled up his forearms, causing them to become indiscernible from the darkness. As if he were becoming the eternal night itself. His lips crooked into an icy, vicious grin while he remained where he stood and onyx-colored wings slithered from his vertebra, extending behind him, twitching as they trembled from being freed.
“I was being gentle with you before. I won’t be now, and you’re about to learn what it means to be hunted down and savaged. Isn’t that correct, guys?” he announced, driving my stare to the individuals that walked from the darkness. They emerged from the shadowy surfaces around him, as if they’d been a part of it until he called them forward. Cruel stares shifted over my frame, and cocky smiles spread over their mouths. I swung my attention to the shadowy figures emerging from the darkness around us, processing the others calmly.
He angled his head slowly and shot forward, forcing me to dance back a step. I realized my mistake the second I felt cold stone against my shoulder blades, and the male in front of me smirked. When he was close enough that a deep breath would have his chest brushing against mine, he swept his nose against my cheek. His palm landed against my lower back, and he slammed me into the power of his body. His other hand glided up my spine, threading through my hair before he angled my head so he could caress the thundering pulse at the base of my throat with his tongue before kissing it gently.