Chapter 8: First Night

"Then he can keep chasing it," I said to Sylvie's reflection.

She stood there with her back against the locked door and her mouth slightly open.

I dried my hands on a towel, unlocked the door past her shoulder, and went out.

Elias was waiting in the corridor with his back against the wall.

He took one look at my face and said, "Car."

We did not speak on the drive.

The Keep's gates opened and closed behind us, and the lake was black under a half moon.

He walked me through the hall and up the stairs, and I thought he was taking me to my room.

He took me to his study instead, and shut the door.

It was a long room with a fire banked low in the grate, and a desk the size of a bed.

I stood in the middle of the rug in my black dress with my heart pounding.

"I'm not shaking because I'm sad," I said.

"I know."

"I'm shaking because for the first time in my life I walked into a room and told a man no, and the room clapped."

"I noticed." He leaned against the door. "You were magnificent."

"I want you to fuck me, Elias."

He did not move for a long second.

His eyes went gold, slow, from the center out.

"I said no mark."

"I didn't ask for a mark. I asked for you."

"You were rejected two nights ago."

"I know exactly what happened two nights ago." I reached behind my neck and found the zip.

"I'm not asking you to fix me."

"What are you asking?"

"Do what you did to my throat in front of that old man, but without the audience."

His breath went out of him in a rough sound.

He crossed the rug in three strides and had me against the desk before I'd finished the zip.

His mouth came down on mine, hot and hungry, and I opened to it at once.

I tasted coffee and something darker under it.

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