He swallowed; the motion of his throat moving caught my attention, his skin shimmered with a sheen of sweat. His lips parted and then a bead of moisture slid along that smooth neck and trailed down his perfect chest.
“Hot?” I asked crossing my arms.
“Sirens don’t get hot,” he snapped, seemingly upset about his own body temperature. “I’m fine.”
“Are you?”
“Completely. Like I said.” He leaned back against the pillows. “I can do this all day.”
“Me too.” I closed my eyes. It would be easier to hate him if I didn’t have to look at him. It was hard to hate someone so beautiful, even if the inside was ugly.
The minute my eyes slid closed the heat intensified. I was going to die in that cement room with a siren by my side and all because my organs burned me alive from the inside out.
The smell of rain intensified.
It was absolute torture.
Finally, in an effort to cool down, I peeled the sweater from my body and tossed it on the floor.
But if anything — the heat merely intensified. What was happening to me?
Alex released a series of ugly curses before locking his blue eyes on mine. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”
“What?” I sighed. If he hated me so much why was he talking to me?
His hungry gaze roamed down my body. “Stripping in front of a man who takes his pleasure wherever he can. Whenever he can. However he wants.”
“But you don’t want me.” I shrugged. “Ergo,” I held out one hand. “Die of heat stroke.” I held out my other hand. “Or take off my ugly sweater.” I shrugged. “Seemed like the only choice I’ve been given since being trapped in here.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said quickly. “If I want you or if I despise every inch of you.” With a snarl, a faraway look passed across his perfect features, he was sweating more now, heavily, and I wished it looked horrible on him, but somehow it enhanced every single muscle on his body. “We cannot leave this room unless I make you my mate. The doors unlock the minute I claim you.”
I gulped. “That sounds….” Primitive. Exciting. Horrible.
“Elf.” He spat the name. “I would rather die than mate with one of your kind.”
“I’m not an elf or whatever you call it.” I waved my hand in the air. “So I’d appreciate it if you’d stop looking at me like I singlehandedly destroyed the entire universe by merely existing.”
Alex sucked in a breath, and his eyes roamed over me again. He leaned forward and then jerked away as his eyes flashed with something familiar. My chest flipped because of the way he had looked at me, as if he’d seen me before and my body physically responded to him like it knew him. Maybe it was a siren thing.
I, however, was still ready to die, and it seemed the hotter I became, the more irritated Alex got. It didn’t help that he smelled like fresh rain, that my brain had me completely convinced that if I just touched his skin, it would soothe me.
Which was stupid.
I mean he was just as hot.
Physically.
In every way.
I exhaled slowly and swiped his phone before he could stop me, which meant he probably let me since he didn’t seem to be the type who had slow reflexes. I turned off his heavy metal rocker music or whatever the heck it was and put on classical music.
“I’ve entered into Hell,” he muttered to himself. “And violins shall escort me there. Funeral music, how poetic.”
“You should like this music, after all, weren’t you born before any of it was created?” I joked. “You are old.”
That pissed him off.
Nostrils flaring, he sat up on his knees “Did you just call me… old? Me?”