Devil's Descent II: impure Chapter Eleven

Estimated reading time: 23 – 38 minutes

Image Credit: D.A.K. Photography @ Flickr

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Spine Up”

“Julian.”

“Lord Douglas to you, Lily.”

“Not my lord,” she replied while stepping away from him.

The sound of clapping pierced the night. Lily spun around with a sneer. Julian stood, hands clasped behind his back. “You’re in fine spirits tonight, Lily. Feisty and filled with self-righteous anger. It’s good to see you didn’t disappoint.”

“That’s too bad. I live to disappoint you.”

“I’m sure you’ll have your chances. Ah. I see one already. Where’s the blanket?”

“Don’t have one. I thought that would’ve been obvious by now.”

“The blanket was for you, my dear.”

Lily answered with a hostile glare.

Julian leaned forward with a conspiratorial air. “I assumed you’d want to keep your pretty dress free of stains.”

“I don’t get it.”

“You know. When I fucked you tonight. The blanket was to keep your dress clean.”

Lily’s back shot up straight. Her mouth opened into a perfect “O.” She stammered, “W-What did you just s-say to me?”

“You heard me perfectly well, Lily.” He walked about her, eyes roving her form with neutral regard. “I’m glad to know you are capable of obeying, even if you are still defiant. Turn around, darling.”

“No.” Lily crossed her arms in front of her chest.

The obvious fear on her face amused him. At least she wasn’t trying to hide her emotions from him. It spoke of acceptance. Julian couldn’t completely tamp down the rush of lust he felt as he studied her. He had to admit she was exquisite, in an odd sort of way. Although she was much too short, a tad bit too full, and definitely too dark, Lily managed to hold his attention. It had nothing to do with the successful attempt at femininity but more the way she fidgeted beneath his stare.

I always did like to play with my food.

Julian adopted a mournful look on his face. He reproached her with, “I don’t appreciate your naughtiness, Lily. I will only go that much harder on you.”

“Harder?”

The squeak drew forth a genuine smile. “Oh, yes. Harder. You wouldn’t want that, would you, Lily?”

“Wait!” Her eyes tried to pin him but Julian kept moving in a lazy, meandering circle. “I didn’t come here to meet you.”

“Really? Who did you come to meet?”

“No one!”

“Then why are you here?” He continued his slow walk, circling endlessly about her.

“Because I felt like it!”

“You’re lying to me. I can’t abide lying, Lily. It sickens me. You can be as filthy and disgusting as you want and it won’t sicken me like a lie will. Do try to remember. Now thank me for my kindness.”

“Thank you—whoa! No. I have to leave.”

Julian stopped behind her. When she attempted to face him he placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. “You’re not going to leave until we finish.”

“Finish what?”

“Finish what you came here for.”

Lily shook her head. “No. I don’t know what you’re playing at but I’m not…”

“Not what, Lily?”

“I’m not supposed to be talking to you. I’m not supposed to be anywhere near you. You put an order against me and it is being broken right now.”

“That doesn’t sound like a problem for me, Lily. It sounds like a problem for you.”

Lily shrugged his hands off her. She scurried away, refusing to look back at Julian. His laughter, low and mocking, competed with the panicked thumping of her heart.

“You’re afraid of me. I wonder why. After all, I thought we had made progress since last night. Don’t tell me I’ve misjudged you terribly.”

Lily stopped. She looked over her shoulder. His clothing was the same as the night before, only this time we wore a black tie. She vaguely wondered why he preferred to dress so formally. It suited him.

“Did I misjudge you, Lily? Are you a coward?” His knowing smirk did what his words couldn’t.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because it amuses.”

“And when it stops amusing?”

“You know the answer to that.”

Lily blinked rapidly. “You’re a sick fuck.”

“No sicker than you.” Again he graced her with a smile filled with sinister intent. “Come back here, little Lily.”

She walked away, careful in step and with an ear trained for his possible attack. “Totally wasted my time coming here. I don’t even know what I expected,” Lily muttered with quiet venom.

“Because you wanted to show me your pretty dress.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“It is pretty you know. I especially like the dots. Cute.”

“Stop.”

Julian flashed in front of her. “No.” His low whisper feathered across her temple. “Thank you for making yourself lovely for my favor.”

“It wasn’t for you.”

“Yes, it was. Don’t be ashamed.”

“No. Really it wasn’t.”

“Lying is a sin you shouldn’t indulge in, Lily. It makes you ugly inside. I know why you dressed up. I know you did it for me.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you were hoping that I’d see you in a different light. You wanted to be more than just my kill.”

Lily shoved him away. “I’m not going to be your kill. Do you really think I’d ever let you do that to me?”

“Of course you will. You’ll come to me, Lily, when you’re tired of all this. You’ll come to me because you’ll rather it be on your terms. And I’ll do it because I’m the only one who can.”

Julian’s face held none of his mocking flair. He believed in what he said. Lily was mostly repulsed and only a tiny bit fascinated. “You’re not. I’ve been attacked far many more times than you can imagine. Trust me—I’ll be able to line up a whole host of beings more than able to kill me. You’re not that special.”

“Oh, I beg to differ, darling. I am special to you. Probably the most.”

“Why?” she whispered.

“My very presence hurts you. That’s what makes me special.” Julian’s gaze snapped with triumph. “And as far as that imaginary host—no, no. That will never do. I can’t let that happen, Lily. You understand, don’t you?”

“No.” Fine tremors shook Lily’s legs. She felt raw and exposed. She wanted to draw inside herself and bury all these terrible emotions.

Julian barked, “Don’t do that!”

“What?”

He came closer and smiled when she remained rooted in place. “Don’t hide what you feel. Don’t become a doll for me, Lily. I want you to feel everything I make you feel.”

“I don’t want to.”

“But I do.”

Lily shook her head, languidly as if waking from a dream. “You don’t make any sense. All you’ve done is show me and everyone else how much you hate me. You put an order against me just yesterday. Now, you’re here telling me that you won’t let anyone else hurt me.”

“No, they can hurt you. Just not more than me.” He smiled in bliss. “My protection is against killing you, Lily. I can’t let anyone else have that pleasure, you understand?”

“I’m done with this. With you. Don’t come near me again. Don’t talk to me. Don’t fucking look at me. Ever.” Lily turned her back on him and ran away. She felt uneasy, dirtied. She felt something shift in her world, something she couldn’t touch or see but that was different nonetheless.

I don’t want him. I don’t.

Lily skidded to a stop. Julian stood before her once more, arms crossed and body leaning against her car. His glacial stare promised many things that she’d understand if she’d only let herself. Lily’s fingers scrabbled across her back, belatedly remembering she didn’t bring her sword.“We’re beyond that now, Lily.”

Lily didn’t know this man despite his face. “Get off the car.”

His mouth lifted in a smirk as if to convey, “That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“You’re going to scratch the paint! Get off!” Her voice, while firm held traces of panic they both knew had nothing to do with scratched paint.
Julian didn’t obey. “Too easy.”

She flinched. Lily didn’t understand the rules to this game and she hated feeling stupid. She gestured with her arm. “Go away.”

“This is the sum total of your wit. Go away? You’re boring me, Lily.” He pushed off the car and stalked towards her.

Lily’s feet moved in tandem in the opposite direction. Her eyes held his with macabre devotion. She was afraid of this man who wore the face of a trusted friend. Her heels dug into the ground, wobbling with every few steps.

“You don’t even deserve what you’re going to get.”

Lily’s face paled to color of parchment. Instinct bade her to reach for the Spirit. She listened.

And that’s when Lily learned her time was finite and she would eventually be abandoned.

Instead of experiencing the familiar rush of energy, Lily experienced the unfamiliar rush of terror. Lily’s mouth dropped and her eyes, still locked on Julian’s, told the impossible.

No! What’s wrong? I can’t feel Her! I can’t feel Her power! I can’t…oh God! Is this it? Is this how it fucking ends? Mama! Jonathon! I want to go home! I don’t want this!

“What’s wrong, Lily? Why so scared? Your scent is” he inhaled deeply, “disgusting.”

Lily, consumed with her rapid descent into hysteria, committed her worst mistake of the night. Again. She dropped her shawl, turned tail, and ran.

Julian watched her for a moment. He approached and discarded many theories as to why his prey had abandoned all sense of self-preservation. While he would like to preen that it was due to his superiority Julian’s instincts thwarted vanity. Lily’s terror hadn’t been inspired by him.

Temptation toyed with letting her go.

Conceit refused.

If Lily was going to live in fear it would be in fear of him. Nothing less would satisfy.

Lily tore across the beach. Her entire focus centered on the cemetery. She would be safe behind the gate. Lily repeated it silently, believing with the devotion of self-preservation.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream of terror rent the night.

Lily wondered with distant curiosity as to whose scream had been silenced, never fathoming it was hers.

“Never turn your back on me, darling. I’ll always strike at you if you do.”

Julian’s words were empty of emotion. They fell against her ear and dissolved into the harsh pants spewing from her throat. His one arm was wrapped tightly around her small waist while the other snaked across her front to keep Lily’s fragile neck imprisoned.

“I let you do it once, as courtesy mind you, but don’t do it again. Not unless you like being food.”

Lily’s gaze skittered right to left, up and down, while her mind desperately tried to overcome the panic clogging her brain. Her bare feet kicked against Julian’s shins.

“Stop it.” Again his tone lacked emotion. When she didn’t obey him, Julian abruptly dug a newly exposed claw into her neck. “I said stop it.”

Lily crashed into stillness. Her body hung in his grip, limp and powerless. Panic oozed out of her, like a vein left to bleed. “L-Let go.”“You’re missing the point of things here, Lily. You don’t make the rules between us anymore—if you ever really did.”

“There is no us.”

Julian relaxed his hold on her neck. Lily’s focus drifted down. She stared at the blood droplet coloring his finger.

“You’re wrong, Lily. This is what makes us exist. As long as this runs through you, we exist. Understand?”

Lily’s frantic breathing calmed, bit by bit. Settled in his unyielding grip, she should’ve been thinking of how easy it would be for him to end things. She should’ve been using her wits in absence of power. Instead, Lily looked at the crimson stain in front of her face. She stared at it in a strange sense of wonderment. It gleamed with a disturbing aura of beauty.

Julian squeezed her waist once. “What has you so fascinated, darling? Is it this?” He moved the stained finger slowly, passing it left to right.

Lily tilted her head back. She rested it against Julian’s neck, nearly giving them the look of violent lovers. Her blood always fascinated her. Too much was frightening and made Lily feel out of control.

But this was different.

It was only one drop.

“Do you want to taste it, Lily?”

“I don’t need your permission, Julian,” she breathed.

“Oh, so wrong. You do, Lily. I never want to see this spilled except by my will, understand?”

She swallowed, her throat moving delicately against his cold hand. “You’re insane.”

Julian laughed with quiet intensity. “I’m hardly in a position to dispute that considering my lack of activity this past century or so. Questionable sanity or not I am still waiting for many, many things from you.”

“Like what?”

“Like an apology. A gift. Your obedience.” He bent closer to Lily’s ear. “Never fear. I am patient.”

She dropped her head to the left. Her mouth whispered against his shoulder. “You’re doing this because it amuses you.”

“Of course.”

“What about me amuses you so much?”

Julian waggled his finger. “This.”

“I think you’re lying.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I do. I think you want me and this is just your excuse to get close to me. It wasn’t just Ian, was it?”

Julian set Lily on her feet. He turned her about with one hand, carefully and gently. His dead smile, lovely in its artifice, never faltered. Julian straightened the bow on her head and adjusted the netting so it would fall over her brow just so. He straightened the straps over her shoulders.

Lily stood pliant as the doll she was often accused of being. “It’s true—”

“Ssh!” Julian pressed the bloody finger against her mouth. Satisfied with her token acquiescence, he rubbed her bottom lip with a slow, easy rhythm.

Lily didn’t understand many things about the creature before her but she knew many more things about herself.

Just one drop of blood was enough to alert a predator to its victim.

Just one drop of blood was enough to cause a vampire to develop a ravenous appetite.

Julian didn’t seem the least bit affected by the scent of her blood. He didn’t seem offended by her rash statement. He didn’t seem to care at all.

But her one drop wasn’t enough because she wasn’t enough.

“Lily, I want you to come with me.” Julian tapped her bottom lip once.

She resisted the disastrous urge to let her tongue snake out and touch his skin. “I can’t.”

Her answer pleased him tremendously. It implied want but lack of confidence. “I want you to.”

Julian’s touch burned, making Lily’s entire body numb to everything but him. “Was there ever really an Order against me?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why all this then?”

“Why not?”

Lily curled her lip in disgust. “Jesus, none of you can never answer me directly. Why is that?”

“Who are you comparing me to?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“I asked you a question. Courtesy demands a reply.” Julian pressed his finger deeper into her plump lower lip.

“Answer me first. Why did you even put the Order out on me if you had every intention of breaking it from the beginning?”

Julian dropped his hand. He stepped back from her.

“I wanted to see.”

“What?”

“Many things. One, if you’d come to me. And you did.”

“So it was pointless.” Lily ignored the blush heating her face. Julian’s perfect smile deepened, inspiring a wave of revolting fascination in the much smaller girl.

“No. Not pointless. Just altered.”

“Why?”

“I answered your question, Lily. Now answer mine. Who are you comparing me to? Not another suitor, I presume.”

Lily called to the Spirit once more. Once more She ignored her.

“It’s not that hard of a question to answer, Resurrector.”

“Don’t call me that!” she snapped.

I should care more that the Spirit has apparently abandoned me. So why don’t I? Why do I feel…nothing?

“My, my. Someone’s a little testy. Manners like that inspire your bottom to be warmed.”

“My bottom…what?”

“Stop. I tire of this. Answer me. Who are you thinking of in a time when you should be focused solely on me?”

Lily drew her spine up. “Jonathon.”

“Jonathon? That was all?”

“That was all.”

Julian’s somber expression remained. “I see.” He turned away and walked back down the beach. Lily watched him go.

Just one drop was all he had taken. Julian hadn’t even tasted any of her blood—he had just given it to her. So why did she feel as if he had somehow gotten so much more from her?

Is he right? Am I really just ready for all this to be done? Does it have anything with being a Resurrector or is it just me? I think I already know the answer. I bet he already did.

Nothing matters because whatever I do leads me right here. I give myself over to this fucked up legacy, repent and be a good girl, or drive myself into the lake—none of it fucking matters.

I don’t matter.

Not to Ian. Not to Julian. Not to Daddy.

I won’t even be remembered by history because I don’t even exist. I already know this.

So why does it bother me?

After several minutes of morose contemplation, Lily followed. She found her shawl, snatched up her shoes, shook the sand out of them, and continued her trek bare foot. Her poor stockings had already been shredded. Their loss made Lily grit her teeth in frustration. It was hard enough to get the basics considering Vickery Hill residents were rarely allowed to leave the town. Stockings? She’d better be prepared for a long wait. Thankfully, Lily had five pairs left but still…

“If I had known it would take you this long I would’ve carried you here myself.”

Lily hung back, foot in and foot out so to speak. Longing doused with pain mixed with resentment and futility boiled over. “Didn’t I tell you not to lean your ass on my car? You’ll scratch the fucking paint, you prick!”

“One day you will learn to speak with me without relying on your vulgarity. As it is, I will let this pass because you’re upset.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily tried lace her voice with as much disdain as her glare currently contained.

“You only talk like a piece of trash when you’re feeling upset. Now, Lily, what has you feeling so very badly?”

“You.”

“That’s a given. What else?”

“Nothing else. You’re enough.”

Julian blew out a long suffering sigh. “We’re back in circles again. Already it’s monotonous.” He stepped out from her car. “Stupidity or pride?”

“Back at you. Stupidity to think you can treat me like shit, even though I did nothing to you, and then have us talk like civilized people? Or pride to think you can do all that and I’d be so desperate for you I’d take whatever you give me?”

“No. Is it your rampant stupidity to come here without even a gun or a knife that has you upset or your pride that is keeping you from telling me that you’ve just lost a little bit of your hold in this world?”

Lily clutched her waist, hands whitened like tiny stones. “Shut up.”

“Very clever. You’d do your ancestors very proud.” Julian’s tone was ripe with sarcasm. “The Spirit didn’t come tonight. You know what that means.”

Lily’s chin quivered for an insignificant moment. “Nothing is what it means. It means nothing I don’t already know.”

Julian tucked his hands in his coat pockets. “Is this how you live? Accepting your life like a dog on a chain? Is that why you’re so mean?”

“I’m mean because I don’t like you.”

“You’re mean because you want me to like you.”

“Not true!”

Julian held up one hand. “This isn’t the game I want to play with you, Lily. I’ve played against much, much better and you’ll only get slaughtered.”

Lily swallowed down her frustration and bile. She opted to speak calmly, mimicking a woman who could hold a generous conversation with an ex-lover. “What are we really doing here, Julian? This isn’t about an Order or a stupid blanket. You really wanted to kill me last night. What changed from then to now?”

“What makes you think anything has changed? Because I speak to you? Then yes, that much has changed. I’m curious about you. That’s all. You’re curious about me. That’s all.”

“Putting a restraining order on me really drives that point home.”

“Why are you fixated on an insignificant order?”

“Because that ordinance makes me out to be some psycho stalker!”

“Trust me, my dear, you were already thought of as a psycho long before I ever arrived.”

Lily threw her shoes at his head. “I’ll show you psycho. In fact, I’ll tell Nephilim myself how psycho I was after I kill you.”

Julian giggled. The gleeful innocence made Lily wonder if he had heard her correctly.

“You’ve got it all backwards, silly girl. I’m going to kill you. Not the other way around.” He snatched her wrist and tugged her towards him. “I’m so bored with this conversation, Lily. I want to show something before I fuck you so come on.”

Lily wrenched her arm backwards only to have it captured again. When she fought him with a flurry of fists, teeth, and feet, Julian hauled her over his shoulder and delivered a very well-placed swat to her backside. “Behave, you foul-mouthed bitch!”

She instantly went limp. “Ian would never have called me bitch.”

“Are you looking to die so quickly? I’m not Ian.”

“So who are you?”

Julian squeezed her thigh. “The last man you’ll ever know.”

Lily rested her head against his back. She inhaled his cologne, not recognizing the scent. Everything about Julian was foreign, familiar but unknown.He fascinates me. It’s like his hate is more fascinating than his love. Which means Ian is becoming more like a dead memory…

It disconcerted Lily how insanely passive she’d become in his presence.

I always ruled Ian. I led. He followed. I was stronger than him…more ruthless. He ran away from violence. I never could understand why. Now I do and it makes me want to cry.

“My shoes. Pick them up.” Her voice, cold and dry as the snowstorms that rarely visited Vickery Hill, ran with aristocratic authority. It demanded obedience. It demanded submission. It demanded the impossible from Julian.

“No. You’ll just have to go without. It’ll teach you to be so violent and hasty.”

Lily raised herself up on her palms while using his broad shoulders for leverage. “I’m serious, Julian. I can’t leave these shoes behind.”

He swatted her again. “Lord Douglas to you.”

“Lord Whatever. If you won’t get them put me down so I can get my shoes!”

“Very, very stupid and stubborn, aren’t you?” Julian shook his head as if in sympathetic grief. “I only reward obedience, Lily. I am in charge here—not you.”

Lily fisted her hand and drove it into his back. “Damnit! Why are you so damned hateful! Stop being a punk and—”

Julian whipped her off his shoulders. Holding her away from him with ridiculous ease, he reminded Lily of how very awful it was to be the one without power.

“You may think your screeching tantrums are cute. They’re not. You may think if you whine and yell enough you’ll get your way. Not with me. Do you understand?”

When Lily merely stared at him with snapping anger and mutiny, he shook her roughly. Her bare feet knocked against his thighs, speckling them with sand.

“I asked you a question.” His low voice ripened with displeasure.

Lily twisted her face in a snarling scowl. “Why do you think you have the right to tell me what to do? You don’t!”

“You give me that right. By being here with me, fighting with me, calling me Julian, all of it gives me the right. If you really didn’t like it you’d leave. You stay because you want to. You may like my face, you may lie to yourself and try to reason it must be because I get you closer to your memories of Ian, but the way I act, the way I am—you know it’s nothing like Ian.

“You want it. You want to know if you can tame me, make me your lapdog. It’s the challenge. I know it. I let you play because I know that won’t happen. But I do so look forward to watching you try.”

Lily mouth caved in on itself. She hung there in his outstretched hold like a puppet with broken strings. She didn’t know what to do, what to think or feel.

“Do you still see him, Lily?” His fanged smile held tenderness, mocking her with beautiful artifice. “Do you see enough of him to make playing with me worth it? Is that how you’ll justify it?”

Tears scalded her eyes. She wanted him to throw her to the ground, grind her beneath his expensive shoes, stomp her into the dirt, and make her oblivious to everything especially to the bitterness roiling in her stupid heart.

“Or have you forgotten him already? Does he seem more like a dream, a figment of your imagination?”

Julian’s persuasive voice neatly picked away at Lily’s grief.

“I’m willing to notice you, to give you what you need, and all I ask for is your compliance. That’s not all that hard, is it?”

“You want more than I can give.”

The whisper, broken and disconsolate, made the vampire tilt his head. He studied the pitiful scrap of girl dangling in his hold. Lily turned her face sideways. Her teeth buried into her lower lip, struggling not to let the pitiful mewls escape her throat.

“You are truly lost, little girl. You leave me no choice.” Julian pulled Lily close, arranging her limbs so that her legs encircled his waist. “Don’t let go.” He waited until she placed her arms around his neck. Her slow hesitation made him shake his head in exasperation. “There so much to teach you, so little time.”

Julian then walked back to the tiny shoes and plucked them off the ground. Lily murmured her thanks before resting her head against his shoulder. “Do you still hold me in utter contempt?” Her referral to the night before the Assembly didn’t go unnoticed by Julian.

“Does it matter?”

She closed her eyes. “Yes.”

“I hold all of you in contempt.”

Lily winced. She scrunched her eyes tighter. “Because you’re a Pureblood?”

“Because you’re all vermin.” Julian tightened his hold on her as if he expected Lily to struggle. She merely clutched him tighter. “Do you still hate me?”

Lily considered her answer. “Yes.”

A smirk ghosted his lips. “Good.”

Julian stopped by a sleek convertible. He opened the passenger door and placed her inside. Lily’s feet dangled outside. She watched him with weary focus as he knelt on the ground. Julian took her bare foot in his hand. His palm dwarfed it, making it seem impossibly delicate. Slipping her shoe on, he repeated his actions on the other foot.

“You can keep your stockings on this time. Although do try to be careful in the future. By the way, I noticed your feet aren’t as soft as they could be. That tells me you spend entirely too much time barefoot. Always wear your shoes if you go outside. Slippers inside the house. You have to take care of these things, Lily.”

Lily smothered a chortle of hysterical laughter.

He’s lecturing me over walking around barefoot. If only he knew that I hate wearing clothes. Would he lecture me over that too?

Julian loosely encircled her ankles with his hands. “Are you ready for me to fuck you, Lily?”

She stiffened. His crass question shocked her out of passivity. “You’re going to take my virginity in a Jaguar XK8?”

“You know the car.” He smiled.

“Yeah.”

“It’s actually an XKR.”

“Hmm. It’s nice. But…”

“But not nice enough lose your virginity in. I understand.” He smiled in a lopsided fashion. “I don’t if you’ve noticed but I’m not exactly a small man. There’s no way I could comfortably deflower you in this car.”

“You could put the top down and have me ride you.”

“Oh, my. Someone’s given this a considerable amount of thought.” He squeezed her ankles once when she flushed in embarrassment. “Nice as that may be I have no intention of taking you in this car. I want to take you somewhere else. Will you go?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“You always have a choice, Lily. You just may not always have obedience to that choice.”

Lily reached out once more to the Spirit. Once more the Spirit refused the call. Once more Lily forced herself to care.

How long before everyone knows? Does Nephilim already know? If so does Jonathon know? Did Jonathon already know this afternoon? Is that why he seemed distracted? What happens now? Will I even know when I die? Does it happen quickly or is it like a cancer? Killing me slowly from the inside out?

She linked her fingers together and laid them on her lap. Going with Julian made no sense whatsoever. It bordered between suicide and murder. Lily looked into vampire’s stare. The arctic blue entranced her humanity with its lack. Hypnotic. Lily found it near impossible to look away. She wondered what he thought when he stared into hers. Did he think of the earth, ripe with potential growth, or did Julian see decay?

“I’m not blonde.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“I’m not tall.”

Julian lifted one dainty foot and measured it with his hand. “Yes, I’ve noticed that too.”

“I’m never going to lose weight. I like having curves. I think women who starve themselves to be skinny are stupid.”

“What about those who aren’t blessed with such voluptuous physiques? What of they, Lily?”

“Don’t expect me to have sympathy for skinny girls, Julian. Not gonna happen. Ever.”

“Of course not.” He released her ankles and stood up. “Now that you’re done trotting out your finer qualities…are you ready to come with me?”

“You said you’d never consider a relationship with me.”

“True.”

“You said I was unstable and prone to fits of deadly temper.”

“Very true.”

“Are you lying now or were you lying before?”

“Neither.”

“But you want to fuck me?”

“I want to do to you what you’re doing to me.”

Lily pounced on that piece of information, grasping with needy emotional claws. “What do you think I’m doing to you?”

“Trying to kill me with all your questions,” he stated with a humorless drawl. “Come now, Lily, where’s your instability when I need it? You like to charge full force, ask questions never, and take it as it comes. Where’s that girl? That’s the one I expected to take home tonight.”

“Home?”

“Yes.”

Lily inhaled as deep as she could. She supposed she should mourn the outcome of this night. She should mourn the loss of the Spirit as well as hers. She should mourn that this was Julian promising to fuck her instead of Ian.

Ian. Would you ever have used the word fuck to describe what you wanted to do to me?

Somehow I doubt it.

Lily pulled her feet inside the car. She looked straight ahead and waited.

Julian leaned in, smiling at her tremor of surprise. He buckled her in and smoothed her dress afterward. “It truly is lovely,” he complimented before patting her hand. Julian walked around the other side and got in.

The engine started up with a rumbling purr. Lily wondered with sharp curiosity if Julian would sound like that when he came. Lust possessed her, making Lily look at him with a dangerous regard.

“That’s the girl I was looking for.” Julian’s eyes flashed gold before settling back into their arresting color. “Ready?”

“What do you think?”

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