propositions, but she hoped it would work.
He blinked, moved slightly back as if she’d shoved him. She used that as traction to get inside the house, her heels clicking on the wood floor.
She saw a lot of April in the decorating, a mix of dark masculine tones and warm feminine touches. The throw pillows on the sofa. The vintage rugs. The huge framed print that read “Smash the Patriarchy.”
It wasn’t the stiff, upper-middle-class décor they had grown up with. Orion liked that. But she wasn’t here to read the interior décor. She was here for a purpose.
Yes, if she wanted to kill men, she should be able to stomach having sex with them. With him, at least.
Maddox closed the door and followed her into the living room.
His face was guarded, body language taut. His eyes assessed her. They appreciated her outfit, of course. Orion was too well in tune at experiencing the male gaze to not recognize that. But that quickly dissipated as he looked for signs of drug use, inebriation, anything that would explain this drastic change in behavior.
She couldn’t handle the inspection, cold and calculating as it was. She folded her arms across her chest. “Do you want me or not?”
His eyes snapped up. “Maybe you should sit down. We can talk—”
“I don’t want to talk,” Orion snapped. “I want to fuck. I want to fuck you. Either you do or you don’t.”
She was aware this was not the kind of conversation a woman had to try and seduce a man. You were meant to speak softly, make graceful yet feline movements. That was not inside of her. She didn’t know soft or graceful.
Maddox didn’t answer straight away. He folded his arms. A muscle in his jaw tensed.
“I’m not going to have sex with you,” he said, face stormy. He was pissed.
“Why not?” she shot back. “I’m too broken, too tarnished for you?” She uttered the words with force to cover up the shame and rejection that covered her skin.
He flinched as if she’d struck him. “No, Orion. Not because you’re broken. And you sure as shit aren’t tarnished. I would like to kiss you again. Move slowly with you. I want you—I always have. I think I’ve made that fucking clear. But I’m not going to have sex with you because you demand it. Because you’ve been drinking. I might not be able to read your mind, but I can see you’re doing this for some fucked-up, dark reason, and I’m not gonna be a part of it. I care too much about you for that.”
His words were iron. They were law.
It infuriated Orion on a level she knew didn’t make sense. He had every right to refuse her. But not fucking once over this past decade did she get the right to refuse a man she didn’t want to have sex with. In her cold, evil mind, she wanted to finally have the right to fuck who she wanted to.
Even if she didn’t really want to have sex with Maddox. Not her whole self, at least.
But that didn’t matter. That anger, that fury, was easier and more comfortable than the shame.
“Dark reason.” She repeated Maddox’s words, then she stepped forward. His body stiffened further, braced for attack. “Everything I do, everything I say, everything I feel is dark, Maddox. You’re a cop. A good one, a smart one, at that. You know what I’ve been through, where I come from, doesn’t foster any fucking sunshine. I’m a midnight person. The time of night where there’s nothing but darkness. Where the people sleep, and the monsters roam. That’s all I know anymore.”
She stepped forward again, speaking before he could protest. “I claw myself out of nightmares, only to find that reality is worse,” she whispered. “That I don’t have an escape, a respite, even in my dreams. This feeling follows me. My throat burns with the urge to scream, but my tongue knows there’s power in my silence. My legs ache to run, but my feet need roots. My brain craves a normal life, like one you might promise, but my heart, my dead soul, their thirst for blood and darkness is insatiable.” She moved farther forward. “So, you’re right. I want you for a dark reason. But that doesn’t change the fact that I want you.”
It was half true. Half of her did want him. The half that put on the human mask and sat at Italian restaurants drinking wine and eating tiramisu.
The dark half of