fucking her with abandon. Complete abandon. My own release blindsides me, and I haul Brigit upright and back, using my free hand to skim my fingertips over her clit while I empty myself into her.
“Not like this,” she says, rocking her ass back against me. “Not like this, please, not like this.”
Yes, like this.
I pin both her wrists to her chest with one arm and add pressure with the other until I force the issue. Brigit comes with a final “No!” that becomes a howl that becomes a moan, her body throbbing around mine. Turning us into statues now. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to stay like this forever.
But there is no forever with a man like me.
When I’m completely spent, I let her fall to the bed. She curls up on her side, breathing hard, then covers her face with both arms.
I find a T-shirt in my closet and toss it over her naked body. I’m going to say something cutting, something horrible, but instead, I climb onto the bed and take her arms away from her face. Brigit blinks, pretty and flushed, and I kiss her.
She kisses me back.
It’s good.
21
Brigit
The day of the party comes too soon.
I still haven’t worked through what happened or why some sick, dark part of me wishes it was still happening. It’s not the pain. That’s not what I like. Is it? No.
“Get out of my way.”
Savannah reaches over me at the makeup table, where I’ve been trying to get my face to look like it does when the other girls do my makeup. That’s what I’m supposed to be doing—getting ready for tonight. Only there’s no instruction manual for Getting Ready to Sell Your Body at Auction. I’ve already had a facial and a full-body scrub. I had a manicure and a pedicure. What else do I do?
I bat Savannah’s hand out of the way. “You don’t have to be so rude.”
“Don’t I?” She rolls her eyes in the mirror. “You don’t have to be here. You could go anywhere else, and we’d all be happier.”
It stings, though it shouldn’t. “Why are you being such a bitch?”
Savannah narrows her eyes, her glare enough to break glass. “Is this something you want to get into right now?”
I want to get into anything right now. I would rather fight with Savannah than daydream about a mean man with a beautiful face who tore my clothes and gave me his own T-shirt in return. Who kissed my cheek and fucked my ass then kissed me again before he sent me out. I can still feel where he was. “Yes.”
The rest of the girls don’t notice when I stand up, or if they do, they don’t say anything. The volume of conversation in the spa stays exactly the same. They’re all talking about the party tonight. About the added decorations and the special catering and the tips, oh, the tips. You can even get tips for dancing. It starts at midnight, this fantastic party. The most exciting party of the month, maybe the year.
It sounds like the most magical nightmare.
I follow as Savannah stalks out of the spa and makes a turn down a long hallway. This place has too many long hallways. She goes to the end, where there’s an access door. I think it might open to the same alley that I came in through at the beginning of all this, which seems like it was a hundred years ago.
I think about Zeus kissing me.
His golden eyes lingering on my face.
I shouldn’t feel so warm about him.
Savannah rounds on me. “You’re ruining everything,” she spits. “You do understand that, right?”
“What’s everything? Because honestly, all I did was stop you from getting whipped. After you tried to poison me. You understand that, right?”
“I would let him do anything.” She steps toward me, and oh, I’ve made a mistake. I’ve made a big mistake, coming here with her, away from everybody else. There’s more than hate in Savannah’s eyes. There’s vengeance. “I would let him whip me all night. And there’s you,” she sneers. “You, putting yourself in the way. I don’t know what he sees in you.”
I don’t either. I don’t either, but I don’t care, because he does see me. Zeus saw me last night. This is the last moment on earth that I should be falling for him, wanting more from him, and here I am. The instant that thought touches down, it bursts apart like a pillar of salt losing its