“I’ve been engaged since I was thirteen. They would have killed me a long time ago if it weren’t for that.”

  Neither said a word at first. A soft “Huh,” came from Cam, and then he stood up. “I’m going to see Butcher.” He turned before walking out of the room and gave Luce a look I couldn’t decipher, shifting his silver-eyed gaze to me. “I’ll see you in the morning, all right?”

  I could be wrong or reading too much into things, but this sounded like a reassurance.

  Cam left and Luce moved to shut the door, twisting the lock like he’d done earlier. When he turned to face me, there was a look in his eyes that had the hair rising on the back of my neck. Not fear. This was something else entirely.

  “I don’t know what the fuck that was, but I can promise you this: no one can save you from me, dove.”

  To say I was taken aback would be an understatement. I blinked up at him, utterly confused. “Why would someone need to save me?”

  His answering grin was downright devilish, so fitting for him. He let that be his response, leaving me to wonder what it meant.

  “Get on the bed.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I need at least two hours of sleep.”

  His eyes skimmed over my body, and then he pulled off his shirt and carried it over to me. “Put this on.”

  I took it without complaint. The idea of sleep sounded more than nice when I considered the massive bed behind me. Compared to the way I’d slept these last few years, this was a dream come true. The problem was the man I had to lie next to.

  “I don’t ever need to take what I can so easily have.”

  “Huh?”

  “Pussy. I can get it whenever I want it, from whoever I want it from. I’m not going to force myself between your legs.”

  The conjured images of faceless women wrapped around him were not ones I cared to see.

  I’d heard he was choosey about who he gave that kind of attention to, but god… the stories about what he did with those he chose…

  I shook my head to clear that mess from my brain and rose from the ottoman. There wasn’t any logical reason to be bothered by what he’d said. I lengthened the distance between us and went to stand on the left side of his bed, giving him my back.

  “Is that jealousy already?”

  I could hear the amusement in his tone. I didn’t share the sentiment. I placed the T-shirt over my head so I could use both my hands, then shimmied down the top portion of the dress I was wearing. I shoved my arms through the sleeves, then finished removing it.

  I knew his shirt would be large enough that it’d basically be the same thing—only, it was ten times more comfortable, even if it smelled purely of him. Luce moved to the other side of the bed and stared me down without saying a word.

  Realizing I’d given him a great view of my back, I withheld a sigh and looked at him. My hair did a good job of covering them, but it wasn’t a magical barrier.

  “Is it the scars?”

  He didn’t bat an eyelid before responding. “I don’t give a shit about those. You’re beautiful.”

  “Oh…”

  That was all I could manage to say, because that damned heat was spreading through my cheeks again.

  Blushing. The word held no relevance to me, ever. Now it was becoming an annoyingly bad habit. I almost wished he’d said yes.

  My scars didn’t bother me in a self-conscious manner. Half my body was covered in them. There wasn’t anything I would ever be able to do about that. It wasn’t as if I’d asked for them, but they were a part of me.

  I had come to terms with this years ago. I’d never really considered what an outsider might have to think about them. Being called beautiful wouldn’t have come to mind, but I didn’t want to think too much into that. Suddenly, all I wanted to do was sleep.

  Without caring what he thought, I dragged down the left corner of his comforter and climbed up onto the bed.

  I had to withhold another sigh when his mattress conformed to the shape and weight of my body.

  This was by far the softest thing I had ever laid on. And his pillows were like balls of fluff. I dragged the blanket up to my shoulders then tucked it beneath my arms.

  Letting my lids fold over, I snuggled down and prepared for a hopefully uneventful night of slumber.

  Luce’s soft chuckle had my stomach flipping. This was becoming a common occurrence when it came to him.

  I heard him moving, but I didn’t open my eyes. If this was the part where he killed me, at least I would be free of A.R.C. There was a deeply rooted part of me that still believed he’d never do that, though.

  The bed dipped, and I tensed slightly.

  I took a quiet breath then slowly let it out. There was enough space between us that we couldn’t so much as breathe on one another without effort.

  “You are exactly what I thought you were, and nothing I could have ever fucking expected.”

  Whatever he meant by that I would have to figure out when my brain was more than exhausted mush.

  The eerie silence could only mean it was either very late or too early. I peeled open my eyes and allowed them to adjust to the darkness within the room. Luce had shut off the lamp.

  I could feel his presence behind me. His heated aura. The smell of him. He was close, way closer than he should have been. I angled my chin so that I could look over my shoulder and froze. It wasn’t him who’d moved all the way across the bed. I’d somehow wound up on his side.

  If I had to guess, Luce was lying on his back, and though his breathing was even, I had a feeling he wasn’t asleep.

  There wasn’t any way to roll back to my side of the bed without being completely obvious, so I slowly lowered my head, lying on a pillow that only he could have put here.

  His sporadic acts of kindness contradicted what I knew to be true about him. Luce was not a nice person.

  I didn’t need to debunk any rumors to tell me that. There was no way he would be so feared if he were.

  Him being heir to the Badlands was evidence enough.

  His family was brutal.

  I couldn’t care less about any of that. The Savage faction had never instilled the fear in me it seemed to drive into everyone else. I was more concerned with the ignorance spewed about who they were.

  I didn’t know Lucifuge Deville, but I wanted to. Even if he decided not to keep me, educating myself and learning who he was wouldn’t be a bad move.

  Hindsight: I should have thought more about this when I wasn’t half asleep.

  Foresight: If I wanted to get to know Lucifuge and his companions, I was going to have let them get to know me.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The next time I opened my eyes, Luce was no longer in bed. I hadn’t rolled over to confirm this, but I couldn’t sense him behind me anymore.

  The hustle and bustle of activity outside the room alerted me that it was daylight, or at least time to get up. I couldn’t believe I’d slept so soundly. That never happened.

  Hearing the familiar sound of running water, I sat up and pushed my hair out of my face.

  Luce appeared in the bathroom doorway fully dressed, a toothbrush wedged in the corner of his mouth. His eyes flicked over me and he made a come-hither motion with his finger before turning back around.

  I shoved the cover off me and slipped out of bed, quickly tugging down his T-shirt so my lower half wasn’t entirely exposed. Bare feet padding over smooth wooden flooring, I made my way into the bathroom just as Luce was finishing up.

  This space matched perfectly with the bedroom, only the floor was slate. Pops of lime green added a slight reprieve from all the black. I was going to go out on a limb and say this was his favorite color. Above a stainless steel toilet was an oval window that allowed a decent amount of warm sunlight to beam into the room.

  Luce poked me with something to summon my attention. I glanced down to see a toothbrush in his hand.

  “This is yours.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled absentmindedly as I took it from him. This one was much better quality compared to the wooden one I’d used the day before.

  “This too.” He tapped the side of a large cardboard box sitting on the bathroom counter. “You can’t roam around wearing the same thing every day. There’s fresh clothes, underwear and bras too.”

  I only wore underwear when I was menstruating, and I hadn’t ever worn a bra in my life.

  “How did you know what size I needed?”

  “I didn’t. I just sang my ABC’s and figured you’d be one of the first two letters.”

  It took me a moment to understand what his stupid joke meant. I pursed my lips and moved right past him, tearing the plastic wrapping off the end of my toothbrush.

  “Aw, don’t be mad.” He laughed softly.

  Our eyes met in the mirror and I frowned at him. “How would you like it if I said your penis was small?”

  He smirked. “I’m well aware it isn’t.”

  Absolutely infuriating. I grabbed what I hoped was toothpaste and proceeded to brush my teeth. I didn’t wear a bra, but I knew plenty of crude jokes about breast sizes. And I wasn’t an A or B. I was at least a C.

  Getting to know him was going to take more patience than I may have possessed.

  I was going to pretend he wasn’t in the room with me, although that was easier said than done with the weight of his gaze sinking into my spine.

  I finished brushing my teeth and sat the toothbrush along the back part of his sink, having to lean forward a bit to do so. It was an innocent action that caused a reaction on an entirely different spectrum.

  “What the fuck? I can see everything, dove.”

  I calmly turned around and fixed his shirt so that my lady bits weren’t on display. It was just an ass. Surely he’d seen a good couple hundred of those.

  “Were you like that all night?”

  If I wasn’t, wouldn’t that be implying I’d ditched some underwear in his room before coming in here?

  “I never had anything under this.”

  He took a breath and tilted his head to look up at the ceiling, then his eyes suddenly snapped to mine. It took effort not to flinch. I wasn’t afraid, but the way he was looking at me made me think I probably should have been.

  “What about under the dress?”

  “No. I don’t wear bras or underwear—”

  “Bullshit,” he cut in.

  “Unless I’m on a cycle,” I finished.

  “That ends today. You’re wearing that shit from this point on.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because I just saw your sweet ass and pussy. If any of my acolytes were around, I’d have to rip their fucking eyes out.”

  I crossed my arms and leveled him with a stare. “Does that mean your acolytes like their women’s bodies to have one of the first two letters of the alphabet?”

  He was in front of me before I could draw my next breath. Trapped between his solid body and the sink, the air between us sparked with an undeniable tension.

  The shirt rising wasn’t intentional, but me antagonizing him was. I thought myself a pretty intelligent young woman, so I had no idea why I allowed my mouth to continuously lead me to trouble. I blamed my late mother. Dad said I was just like her.

  Luce was the wrong person to go head to head with, though. He was eerily perceptive, intelligent, and twice more cunning than I was. But that wasn’t the worst part.

  It was his eyes that would be the cause of my demise. Every time I took a dip in those pools of Tartarus, I felt as if he collected another tiny piece of me to add to his arsenal.

  “You know…” he trailed off, situating his body against mine.

  “When a woman climbs into bed with the devil, she either wants to die by his hand or be fucked raw and bloody.”

  I swallowed and attempted to lean back, but there was nowhere to go. Having his body pressing against me sent my nerves into overdrive. He was warm and solid, a mass of muscle and heat.

  “I don’t want that. Ever.”

  “No? Then tell me what you want, dove, and I’ll make sure you get it.”

  For a split second I wondered why he would offer something like that.

  The honesty of the words caught me off guard. That’s precisely what made me remember who he was and his warning from the night before.

  I straightened my spine, bringing us chest to chest. Stomach flipping, I rolled my lips and then opened my mouth to answer.

  He was quick to cut me off.

  “Don’t waste your breath on another lie. I already know the answer, it’s screaming at me from behind your eyes.”

  A rebuttal sat at the edge of my mind. I wasn’t given the chance to use it, because his next words had it fizzling away.

  “Why are you so damned beautiful?” His voice had lowered, and it almost seemed as if the question had been meant for himself. I could have asked him the same thing.

  Lucifuge was beautiful in the same way that chaos was. Just like the devil should be.

  We stared at one another, speaking without words. His fingers touched my cheek, tracing over the scar that had never quite faded. It was the first and last time a guerilla marked my face.

  There was a subtle change in Luce’s eyes, one that had a fluttering erupting in my stomach.

  He gripped the back of my neck and slammed his lips to mine. All the air dissipated from my lungs. I could barely react before he his tongue was at the seam of my mouth, pushing to gain entry.

  I had no idea what I was doing, but my mind seemed to have it all figured out, like kissing him was the most natural thing in the world.

  I granted him access, and his tongue delved inside, meeting with mine. He tasted like the mint toothpaste we’d just used. His body eased further between my legs, his large hands going to my thighs.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling as if I were going to combust from tingling nerves and warmth flooding through my veins.

  His lips were so soft.

  The kiss was anything but.

  It was passionate and possessive, a small tease of what was to come. He drew back without warning just as a knock carried from the bedroom, but he didn’t let me go.

  My face felt feverish and the space between my thighs ached to the point I had to stop from rubbing against him.

  I stared up at him, trying to gather my thoughts. I didn’t want to stop, if I were being honest.

  No one had ever touched me like he was. I’d never been allowed a liberty like this. The tornado of feelings swirling within me was a whole other matter.

  “What was that? Why did you kiss me?”

  “The question you should be asking is why you kissed me back.”

  The knock came again, and he skimmed his lips over mine one last time. His eyes dipped down then flashed back to mine. “Better question, why is your pussy so wet I can see my reflection between your thighs?”

  I didn’t have a chance to think up a reply.

  “Get dressed,” he said, flashing a smile.

  With a light pat to the side of my hip, he stepped away and left the bathroom.

  He kissed me because he could.

  I kissed him back because I wanted to. That was a simplified version of events that didn’t require me going through emotional warfare to come up with one that held some deeper meaning.

  My pussy still ached for what I knew he could give me. I could still feel the fullness of his lips pressing against mine as I dug through the box he’d left. I didn’t want to sit and reminisce.

  I wanted to get some clarity on my future.

  I picked out a few pieces and hurriedly dressed. Wherever Luce got the clothes from, they were a perfect fit.

  In dark jean shorts and a solid racerback, bra and underwear added to keep an acolyte safe, I could almost pass as normal. The last time I’d worn denim was the day my dad, my brother, and I had stumbled upon the A.R.C. There was something freeing about being in it again.

  I had three pairs of shoes to choose from but only a set of black combat-ish boots were comfortable. Once I laced them up, I finished getting dressed, using all the basic hygiene products I’d had to go so long without.

  When I was done, I felt like a brand-new person.

  I took a good look at myself in the mirror, trying to see what others did. My reflection had grown a lot the past couple years.

  I’d been living as a prisoner and struggling to keep some small part of who I was once was alive. I wasn’t sure who this new version of Astraea was supposed to be, but I was looking forward to finding out.

  Someone knocked on Luce’s bedroom door and broke up my inner monologue. I exited the bathroom, wondering if I was meant to answer. But then, why else would they be knocking?

  I opened the door, finding a girl only a few inches shorter than me on the other side. She looked almost ethereal.

  “Oh, wow. You clean up nice. You’re really pretty.” She made a face and waved a hand in the air. “That was super weird, wasn’t it?

  “Sorry. I’m Belladonna. Most times Bell or Bella. Luce’s sister.” Her bright blue eyes showed the geniality of her smile.

  She was the girl with him and Cam that night. I’d placed her as being someone their age, but she was clearly younger.

  “Can I borrow a few minutes of your time? My brother told me to come up here and relay that he needed your ass downstairs, but he’s lacking in chivalry. Don’t take it personally. He gets it from our father.”

  I don’t think she paused for air while saying any of that. She was a ball of energy. I could practically feel it wafting off her. Picking up on the sound of multiple voices coming from below, I eased out into the hall.

  One stood out in sharp contrast amidst all the others, causing the air to freeze in my lungs.

  It didn’t take Luce’s perception skills for anyone to see I was not okay. Bella reached out and took my hand, giving it a firm squeeze. That small gesture made me feel marginally better. Me and the girls always comforted one another. God. I missed them so, so much.