Just like I thought Dusk might look, but he would never actually take.
Jim’s not here to save me this time. No one is.
Okay.
Okay.
I don’t know how just yet, but I’m going to do it. I’m going to have to save myself.
I go with the most obvious ploy first. I decide to remind him why he can’t. “But… permission.”
“You’ll give it to me.” He’s as cocky as he is arrogant. He licks his lips as he advances, enjoying my fear. “And then, when I own your soul, you’ll give me everything you have.”
“I won’t.” I’m sure of that. Look. He got rid of the gloves. He can’t hurt me if he can’t touch me, and he can’t touch me unless he wants to get hurt. “You can’t—”
He pauses. Grins. “You like Posey. Be a shame if something happened to her.”
My heart stops for a beat before it pounds in triple-time.
“You put me there on purpose,” I accuse him. My voice is a whisper.
How did I not see that before?
“Captain Helix thought it might be a good idea. I didn’t persuade him otherwise. I did say that, after a few days, I might have to move you again. Succubus magic… what if the other guards couldn’t resist you? What if you couldn’t resist them? I brought you back where the only one who could touch you is me.”
Because Rys could care less. I’m just a human.
“Why?” I ask again. I’m not even really trying to buy time right now. I just need to know. “Why me? Posey—” I stop. I don’t want to throw her under the bus. She might enjoy sleeping with all of the guards, but I’d never throw Dusk at her to keep him away from me.
I don’t have to.
Our mind is in the same place. Dusk lowers his bare hand, cupping the obvious erection pushing against his uniform pants.
Welp. There went any hope that he wanted to, I don’t know, just touch my face or something.
“Posey is a succubus,” he tells me, as if I wasn’t aware of that already. “My cock, Seelie cock, even the lower races… it’s all the same to her. She’s wet. She’s willing. She’s good for a visit after a long shift, but a human...” He groans. “I’ve been waiting a long time for someone like you. Untouched. Unclaimed…” His mirror-like eyes snap to me. “But not for long. Behave, Elle. Give in to me.”
Behave again?
Hell no.
“Go away—”
“Listen to me. I can’t use the traitor to control you. It only works to keep him in line. I could care less about him… but you. I’ve waited long enough. Come to me, Elle, or your friend will pay for it. Touch me, and you’ll feel nothing but pleasure. Leave me to find Posey and, I promise you, there will only be pain.”
With the shadow thickening beyond the bars, I know I’m running out of time. Once I’m behind his curtain, I’m stuck here with Dusk until he frees me. Rys is gone. He might’ve saved me, but no one else will interfere. I’ve seen it happen with Posey. The shadows or the flames are like scrunchies wrapped around a doorknob: the universal sign for KEEP OUT.
It doesn’t matter that I don’t want his touch. He wants mine.
“What about Veron?” I’m grasping at straws. “You said that you had to stay away because of him. What changed?”
“You refused him. I witnessed it myself. He gave up his claim which means that, finally, I can take you for my own.”
Wait—
So that’s why he left me alone for as long as he did?
“You can’t do this. I refused him. I’m refusing you, too. Leave me alone.”