the next room. I was sure his features had been lovingly carved by God, a careful hand sculpting his avenging angel. A slight furrow etched between his eyebrows as he read his book.
Looking at his face felt like I’d stumbled into a forbidden sanctuary of a church, a place where people like me weren’t allowed.
If I had to seduce him to save my country and avenge the dead, it wasn’t the worst thing that he looked like that.
His gaze flicked up to me again. “Will you sleep now?”
I took off my own damp cloak and draped it over one of the chairs before the fire. Despite the flames, the size of the hall meant it was freezing in here.
When I looked back at Samael, he had gone completely still. His eyes slowly brushed down my body, pausing at my breasts.
It was only then that I realized the rain had made my nightgown completely see-through. The curves of my breasts were on display, nipples peaked. A draft in the hall rushed over me like a sea wind.
I felt a surge of warm magic rush off Samael. My heartbeat seemed so loud, I felt like it was echoing off the high ceiling. With what looked like a tremendous effort, he pulled his gaze up off my breasts, meeting my eyes again. A muscle twitched in his jaw.
This was working.
“I’m cold from the rain.” I crossed my arms below my breasts. “Maybe I could take a bath. Just to warm up a little bit.” I nodded at the bathroom. “I saw that you have a bathtub in there. ”
He cocked his head. “Are you planning something? Some sort of machination?” He spoke quietly, but his tone had a sharp edge to it that made my spine straighten.
“Planning something?” I stepped even closer to him, my breasts only about six inches from his face.
But he was keeping his gaze locked on mine, and his eyes seemed to be darkening to a deep color of flames. After a moment he closed them, and leaned back in his chair. There was something about him that felt so much like a caged beast, a quiet sort of control that could snap at any moment. If I said the wrong thing, did the wrong thing, my death could be brutal and swift.
Or perhaps something else would happen …
The line deepened between his eyebrows as he opened his eyes again, now returned to pale gray. “I actually don't care if you take a bath. It doesn't matter to me at all.”
Given the tenseness of his muscles, I didn’t believe him.
“Okay.” I smiled.
I crossed through the stone arches to the bathroom—an octagonal space, with a copper tub on a raised dais. Tall windows gave a view of the stormy skies outside, and candlelight danced over a stone floor.
I turned on the tap, filling the tub with warm water. Shivering, I peeled off the wet nightgown. The cool air raised goosebumps on every inch of my naked skin. I felt acutely aware that at any moment, he could glance through the arches and see me completely exposed.
I shot a glance back at him to see if he was paying attention, but he was making a determined effort not to. Draped in his armchair, a book in his lap.
Steam curled from the bath as it filled, and I stepped into it. Would he be like Cassius—my posh former lover? Because all I had to do with Cassius was take my clothes off, and I had him mesmerized for the next twenty minutes. Which was perhaps generous. Ten minutes, maybe.
And in the Bibliotek Music Hall, I’d seen the real expert seductresses at work. When the burlesque dancers took the stage, they often pulled up a wide-eyed reveler from the crowd, sat him down in a chair. The dancer would slowly peel off her clothes, flashing a little bit at a time—just a hint of nipple, a bit of thigh. It was slow, controlled, a rising crescendo of desire, of breasts brushed against cheeks, fingers stroked over chests. It was a balance between the hidden and the revealed. Always, the man would look at the dancer like he’d been awestruck.
Of course, Samael would be more difficult, tightly wound and unearthly as he was. I needed to catch him completely off guard. The fact that I confused him seemed promising.
I dipped a toe into the bath, then climbed into the hot water.
The warmth felt amazing after being in the rain. As I sank into it,