Were she any other girl, I would explain in detail what I just watched while she licked my cock, but I can’t seem to bring myself to utter the words. Why the fuck not? And this restriction, this consideration, reminds me of Tuscany. All the lies I’ve spoken in honour of her purity. The truths I keep from her, to keep her innocent.

“I can handle it,” she presses.

Reaching between my thighs, I hold her cheek and stroke my thumb over the soft, blushing skin. “My Trade is brutal and violent, yours never will be again.”

Fuck knows where that came from.

I clear my throat and lean back. “And the other question? Make it quick.”

“Are you pure Xin De?”

My eyes narrow at her audacity. Not a single person has asked me that, not since I ripped my own father’s head off. I ram the memory away.

But I answer her. “I am mostly, but no. Not pure.”

“Can I see your enhancements?” She straightens, lifting to her knees. “I have seen Iris’. But not up close. Can I see yours? Up close?”

“You’re quite a charming little creature.”

My half-smile turns into a tight line when she climbs onto my lap and sits that perfect little arse over my cock. Warmth from her needy pussy radiates on my lap.

I frown but restrain myself.

Her black hair falls forward, twin curtains covering her small, perky breasts, but unable to hide the tight peaks of her hard nipples.

I inhale her scent and hum.

Then she cups my cheeks and analyses me. I turn to stone. I say nothing. I barely respond, but for my fists that clench and unclench on the rests on either side of her as she studies my eyes.

I blink slowly.

“Triple lidded,” she mutters. That is first indicator of Xin De genes besides my obvious monstrous height and girth.

My frown twists to a scowl.

At her manner.

Blatant disrespect.

But then she runs her soft hands down my cheeks, fingers coasting casually, cooling a path down to either side of my neck. “Your skin is so… I don’t know the word for it.”

“There isn’t one,” I state, stiff.

“Smooth like suede,” she offers, continuing her exploration, finding the divot at the base of my neck. “Yet, harder and heavy. Dense even though I cannot feel the weight of it. And it moves over your muscles with a kind of elasticity more like that of a⁠—”

“Beast,” I warn, wanting her to get the fuck off me but unwilling to toss her aside… Fuck.

She smiles softly. “Yes.”

Unclenching my hands, I bring them forward. I sweep her warm, onyx hair backward over her shoulders, exposing her long, slim neck and the pulse that flutters inside like a captured butterfly.

I make her nervous, but not nervous enough. Not as much as I’d like to, perhaps when I cover her body with mine, sink inside…

“Why weren’t you afraid of Odio? He could pick you up and drop you to your death.”

I look down at her lips as she speaks.

“I am not frightened of birds.” Her hands move down either side of the thick column of my throat, to my shoulders, then fall off as she relaxes backward. “I grew up with birds in the Silk Aviary. Birds of all kinds. People are far more terrifying than birds. Even modified ones like Odio.”

“You used a different word.”

“What word?”

“I am enhanced, but he is modified. Explain.”

“Um.” She blinks, thinking. “Enhanced are new traits we didn’t previously have, like, erm, the membrane on your eyes, the film in your nose, but modified is, like…” She looks at the ceiling in a way that suggests she is picturing the sky. “Well, Odio could already fly and do all the things he does now, only, he’s bigger and better at it than his ancestors.”

I place my finger under her chin, lifting to examine the smooth plane of her porcelain skin, from her throat, across her collarbone…

Fuck me, she is pretty.

She is slim—two clavicles like bird wings open up to frame the top of her chest. I want to lick them, lap my tongue the entire length, and worship the delicate structure I could so easily crush. “You look like a Silk Girl, but you’re too clever to be one. Where did you learn such exact terminology?”

“I have thought about it.” Her eyes flutter under the intensity of my gaze. Unsettled, she shuffles on my lap, her arse slides over my groin, my cock pulses, and I grab her upper arms to hold her still.

“Don’t do that. Don’t move, or I will rip your skirt off and tear you in two, do you understand?”

Her breath catches, and she nods.

“Continue,” I order.

“That’s all, my king. I spend a lot of time thinking about the world. I spent a lot of time thinking and not much time talking… like, now.” She stares up at me dreamily, and it’s ridiculous. Silly little girl with a death wish. “This might be the longest conversation I have ever had. I know I am not meant to ask questions, but there are so many, the echoes have become permanent marks in my mind. I am not meant to think too much. It’s not a virtue—curiosity.” She shakes her head. “But I can’t seem to stop it.”

I look at her lips again, map them. A subtle lower curve holds the weight of a plump and defined heart-shaped upper lip.

Fuck… She will remain pure. It is a kindness on my part, as I have never been a gentle lover.

She will be a little pet that I play with, that tortures me with questions and her body, but that I do not fuck.

I will choose the redhead— the one with the Xin De genetics. “You should go now, little creature.”

I lean backward and ignore the disappointment that flashes in her glossy eyes as she slides from my lap.

Walking toward the double doors, she smooths her hair and then her skirt.

She stills, staring at the pool of blood for a long moment before following the crimson smear painted with a dead body as it was dragged to the doors.

I wait for her to sob or gasp or⁠—

“My king?” She looks back at me.

I stare deadpan at her. “Yes.”

“Did they deserve it?”

“Never ask me that again.”

“Were you going to shoot me?”

Fuck. This girl. Cairo would have her backside red and raw for such questions… I grit my teeth and force the words past the cage they create. “No more questions.”

Her breathing increases as she tiptoes over the bloody mess and reaches for the door handle.

“Little creature.”

She turns.

“Go back to your room.”

“But you said⁠—”

“You’re aroused.” My eyes drop to her legs. “You’re trying to hide it, but you’re pressing your thighs together, rubbing them.” I growl my restraint and fist my fingers in tight. “And every Xin De male out there will notice this.”

And I can’t very well execute them all. Can I?

Blood rushes to her cheeks again. She pinches the sides of her skirt, tucking one leg behind the other and bows like the perfect ballerina I know veils something much more interesting. And dangerous to my common sense, it seems.

“Goodnight, my king.”

She walks from the room.

No, little creature.

I was aiming at Odio.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Seven

Rome

“Rome. Sire? Are you listening?” Medan is losing patience, as he so often does.

Picking my teeth with a skewer and leaning back in my chair, I casually glance across the aged oak table surrounded by my Collective. “I am.”

“Then you need to prepare us.” He points at the table as he speaks. “What the hell happened with Darwin? Where did you go during the carnival? There will be questions.”

“I executed him,” I state plainly.

“Y-you, what?” Medan grips the bridge of his nose, shaking his head and breathing. It’s a mild panic attack, one that he’ll hide beneath concerns for Darwin and The Cradle, when really, he is fucking shit scared that his king is so quick to remove members of his Collective. Darwin isn’t the first. “I have known him my entire life…” He trails off, then clears his throat looking at me again.