I cup her face. Maybe this is the most honest we’ll ever be with each other. “Do you want to keep fucking other people?” She may be the only one for me, but I’m well aware that I wasn’t her only client. A possessive part of me always ached knowing she’d be with others the way she was with me, but the thing that irked me the most was the fact that I was just another client to her. She was never truly mine, even if I was hers.

Eve’s lower lip trembles before she firms it. “I don’t know,” she whispers. “I won’t pretend I didn’t enjoy my work, but it was . . . work.”

I don’t know what to say to that. Even if I did, now’s hardly the right time for this conversation. I sit up and wrap my arms around her as she starts to ride me. No matter what else this time brings, I can’t regret it, because she’s here with me. At least for now. To chase the thoughts from my head, I kiss her. Better to lose myself in the moment, in her, than to worry about what comes next.

Eve doesn’t pick up her pace. She slides her hands up my chest and grabs my horns, using the leverage to angle my head back and drag her mouth over my throat. “Azazel?” Her voice is a demand for more. “I’m almost there.”

I grip her hips and guide her to grind harder, working her clit against my stomach. “I’ve got you.”

She orgasms with my name on her lips, and my heart is a fool ten times over because it’s certain this changes things, even as my brain knows better.

Some things can’t be forgiven.

The only thing I can do is remove the threat and send her home, pausing on the way out to ensure she has enough money that she never has to work again if she doesn’t want to. It will mean losing her forever—there’s no world where she’d welcome me as a client still, even if I were willing to continue endangering her. The contract will have to be nullified, but while that process is uncomfortable and will drain my power for a time, it’s a small price to pay. If I hadn’t been so damned selfish, Eve never would have been in danger.

Maybe, if I’d been honest from the start, it wouldn’t have come to this.

Eve reaches between my thighs to cup my balls. Her gaze is a little dazed, but she’s clearly not stopping until I come too. “Get out of that head, Daddy. You’re in my hands now.”

She squeezes, and there’s no holding back my orgasm. I forget myself enough to slam her down on my cock once, twice, four times, and then I’m spilling inside her.

Bargainers don’t believe in an afterlife the way humans do. Our gods are great and unknowable beings who formed the realms and then moved on to do whatever gods do with eternity stretching behind and before them. When we die, we become one with that universe, and sometimes a soul will be pulled back for another chance, many lifetimes in the future.

But if I believed in the concept of heaven—whatever that looks like—then this would be it. Exhausted and spent, Eve relaxes in my arms, tracing abstract patterns on my chest.

She sighs and kisses the spot she was just stroking. “Azazel?”

“Mmmm.”

“If you keep fucking me like that, I might not have any choice but to forgive you.”

She means it as a joke, but I can’t take it as such. Not when it’s about this. I hug her closer and press a kiss to her forehead. “You’ll always have a choice. If you ever do forgive me, then it will be in your own time, when your heart is ready. If your heart is ever ready.” I want that time to come, but I’m not confident it ever will. Not with everything I’ve done.

Eve makes a face like she wants to argue but finally shakes her head. “No, you’re right. I’m sorry. The sex is too good. It’s making me silly.”

I tip her chin up and kiss her slowly. “I like you silly.”

“Yeah?” She nips my bottom lip. “Well, you know what to do.”

“I do.” I kiss her again.

There are many hours left until dawn. I plan to use every one of them.

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CHAPTER 17

The next three weeks pass in a blur of . . . happiness. Azazel stops keeping me locked up in my room and starts bringing me with him as he takes up Ramanu’s duties. Not all the leaders of the villages we visit are as supportive of him as Alice is, but they clearly respect him and his policies. And his people love him.

We spend each night in his bed, fucking and cuddling and sleeping.

He even has me sit in on his meetings with Nuin and Ziven, where they give their reports on their efforts to locate and capture Brosh. I like them both quite a bit.

Nuin is shorter than me, with deep-purple skin and thin, straight horns like some antelopes. She’s clever and serious, laying out each stage of their search systematically.

Ziven is her opposite in every way. Ne is tall and lanky, with skin nearly the same shade as Azazel’s, curving horns, and a deep laugh that makes me smile no matter the situation. Ne seems to have plenty of experience with finding people who don’t want to be found.

It’s only a matter of time before they find Brosh and this all ends.

That’s what I should want. Azazel has promised to send me home once the danger has passed, which is what I was fighting for from the moment I woke up here.

Even so . . . I find myself hoping that Nuin and Ziven take their time.

The next morning, I wake up to find Azazel standing by the desk in his room, drinking his coffee and reading through an intimidating stack of papers. He’s usually up before I am, but after the disastrous moment the first morning I woke up in his room, he’s always here when I finally manage to roll out of bed.

I walk over, then wrap my arms around him from behind while pressing a kiss to his spine. “Morning.”

“Morning.” He squeezes my hand. “I have to go farther afield this morning, and unfortunately, it’s not safe for you to join me.”

I straighten. It’s on the tip of my tongue to protest, but I can’t truly argue that he’s being overprotective when he’s been working hard to ensure I don’t feel trapped. If he’s laying down this boundary now, then there’s a reason for it. Still . . . “Why?”

“I need to check in on the women with the other territory leaders. Ramanu was doing it regularly, but with them still gone, I prefer to handle this task myself.”

That makes sense. In the weeks since I’ve been here, it’s become increasingly clear how seriously bargainers take their contracts. They don’t fuck around when it comes to their humans’ safety. Since Azazel made the deals with these women, their safety is his responsibility.

I sigh dramatically. “I suppose I can find a way to entertain myself while you’re out flitting about the realm.”

He rises and gives me a quick kiss. “I promise not to be long. I have to leave now, though. I was just waiting for you to wake up.”

It’s sweet, but the warmth in my chest fades as he leaves the room. I take my time getting ready, as if that can stave off the reality of my situation.

Nothing’s really changed. I may have found peace with Azazel, but the moment I’m alone, I can’t quite forget the fact I’m trapped here. Maybe I’d feel differently if I knew exactly what I was doing when I signed that contract, if I went into this with open eyes instead of lies.

I wander about the castle, murmuring to it softly as I do. It hasn’t tried to fuck with me once since showing me what I’ve come to think of as my garden, and sometimes it brings me to new rooms and wings and what I can only describe as secrets. I’m hoping for one of those to distract me while Azazel is gone.

But it’s barely thirty minutes before tension rolls through the halls and I’m abruptly spit out into a new hallway between one step and the next. I spin around, squinting. “You’ve never done that before.” My stomach sloshes a little, but it’s clear the castle wants me to go somewhere.