He gazed at Laila with undisguised lust and a deeper sort of interest, as if she were fascinating to him.
Laila followed him away from the bar into the thick of the dancers. His hands wandered over her body as they danced, lingering at the exposed strip of skin at her lower back. He leaned in close to murmur in her ear, and she smiled at whatever he said.
Jealousy burned through my veins fast and hot. She wasmine. Except she wasn’t. That was nothing more than a wish that could never come true. My body didn’t seem to give a flying fuck what was or wasn’t possible though. I don’t think I’d ever been so hard and so angry at the same time. Laila was dazzling, and I wasn’t the only one who had noticed that. Eyes followed her as she moved with the music.
The touch of a hand broke me out of my Laila-watching trance. Two girls, the children of lords and ladies, stood in front of me. They wore dresses so short if they moved even just an inch, they’d be flashing someone. Though considering what some people were wearing, they wouldn’t be showing off anything that wasn’t being seen already.
“I’ve never met an angel before,” one of the girls said, sliding a hand over my arm. “What are you doing all by yourself?” Her fingers linked with mine, and she pulled me toward the dance floor, her friend following close behind.
I didn’t protest even though I had to hold back a shudder at the feel of the girls’ hands all over me. It was too similar to being in the prison realm, and it brought back memories of the years of unwanted visits. Only this time there were no chains. The only thing keeping me here was a need to survive the Devil’s court long enough to figure out how to get into Lucifer’s palace and get Laila out of Hell.
My eyes searched for her automatically as soon as I thought her name. Her back was to me, but the demon prince she was dancing with was looking directly at me. He smirked as he ran a possessive hand up her back.
For a heartbeat, all I could see was red. I was half a second from ditching my dance partners and breaking that hand when Laila glanced back at me. An emotion flashed in her eyes, gone too fast for me to decipher what it was. Then she turned back to her own dance partner and didn’t look my way again.
By the time we left Mammon’s, it was nearly dawn. Laila didn’t look at me on the ride back to Astaroth’s house. But that didn’t stop the energy that crackled between us, seeming to build more and more the longer we ignored it.
When we were inside, Astaroth made a beeline for the study and locked himself inside. I thought I heard him mutter not to destroy his house, but it was too low for me to be sure.
I followed Laila upstairs to our wing of the house. She pulled the tie out of her hair, letting it fall loose around her shoulders. The ends brushed the skin of her lower back, and my gaze wandered to her ass. The temperature in the room seemed to rise a few more degrees.
Laila turned around, and my eyes snapped up to her face.
“Good night,” she said, her voice dancing over my skin like little shocks of electricity.
My gaze dropped to her lips. “Laila,” I pleaded without even really knowing what I was asking for. I didn’t realize I’d moved until my hands hit the wall on either side of her head.
“Joriel.” She reached up to take my face in her hands, and the touch sent a jolt through my whole body. I shuddered, my control fraying at the edges. “What do you want?” she whispered.
I shook my head. What I wanted didn’t matter. It was about what she deserved. “Did you kiss him?” The question slipped out despite my better judgment.
“Would it bother you if I did?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned. Would itbotherme? Just the idea made me want to commit murder.
“I don’t understand you,” she said. “You act like you want me one second and like you couldn’t care less the next.”
“You think I don’t care?”
“I don’t know. Youapologizedthe last time you kissed me. What am I supposed to think exactly? And either way, I fail to see what gives you the right to dictate who I can or can’t do whatever I want—”
I brought my lips down on hers, effectively cutting her off. I’d changed my mind. I didn’t want to know if she’d kissed the grand prince she’d been dancing with, didn’t want her to spend another second thinking about him.
My tongue darted out to tease at her lips and she opened for me. God, she tasted so sweet. Her fingers fisted in my shirt, pulling me closer as we kissed like it was the air we needed to breathe.
Laila tore her mouth from mine. “Wait,” she gasped.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, starting to pull back. “Laila, I’m—”
“Don’t,” she snapped, her voice suddenly as cold as ice. “Don’t you dare apologize again. Do you want to do this with me or am I just your best option at the moment?”
I blinked in horror. She believed I’d kiss her without caring about her as a person? “It’s you.” I let my forehead drop to hers. “I only want you.”
“But every time you kiss me, you act like you regret it, and you made out with that siren in the realm of dead souls like she was the most important person in the world.”
“I was picturing you,” I whispered. “I had to make the siren believe it or she wouldn’t have let us pass. So I pretended it was you.”
It hurt to see the look of surprise on Laila’s face. She didn’t know how much I wanted her, longed to touch her every second we were together. She had no idea what I’d do for her.
