The Kraken's Sacrifice (A Deal With a Demon #2)(25)

“I know you’re back with me.”

I close my eyes harder and inhale his ocean scent. This is nice, especially with the echoes of pleasure still singing through me. Thane sighs above my head and continues our ascent. All too soon he stops and sets me carefully on my feet. “Go to bed, Catalina.”

At this point, keeping my eyes closed is silly, but I’ve never let logic dictate what I do and I’m not about to start now. “That was fun.” God, I hardly sound like myself. My voice is raspy and almost weak. “We should do it again sometime. Like now.”

I hear the sound of a door opening behind me, the slither of tentacles against stone. Thane takes my shoulders and turns me away from him. His cool breath brushes the shell of my ear. “If you can behave yourself for a full twenty-four hours, I’ll consider it.” He nudges me forward and into my room.

It’s only then that I realize he hasn’t actually promised anything. Only that he’ll consider it. I’m in the middle of turning as the door shuts behind me. My legs try to give out, but I stumble for the door and yank it open with fumbling hands.

The hallway is empty.

Thane is gone.

Again.





11





THANE





This time, I don’t leave the tower. I’ve tried to avoid the woman—to avoid this place—for weeks, and it took one encounter to have her wrapped up in me and cumming again.

Distance won’t work.

Maybe exposure will.

Even as I reason with myself, I know I’m looking for excuses to take what I crave. I barely recognize myself in these encounters with Catalina, but for the first time in five long years, I am not thinking about the past. Instead, I’m plotting the future.

Yes, that vision of the future ends with Catalina on my cock, but it’s still a change I’m not sure I welcome. Up until this point, pleasure has been something to seek in order to scratch an itch: a need like food or water or sleep. It hasn’t been something I’ve craved. I never thought I’d feel that draw again, and I can’t help the guilt that comes with it. Brant has been gone for years, but it feels like a betrayal to want Catalina this much.

It doesn’t matter. It’s inevitable.

I find Della in the kitchen first thing in the morning and relay my instructions. Perhaps I should leave again and return in twenty-four hours to enact my promise to Catalina, but there’s no point to a challenge that isn’t challenging. My presence seems to incite her as much as hers incites me. If she can manage to be . . . good . . . while spending the day with me, then I’ll reward her tomorrow night.

Anticipation licks through me, quickly followed by guilt. I shouldn’t be enjoying this woman. Her presence is something to be endured for the sake of the territory. She’s not a plaything to entertain myself with.

Even as I tell myself that, I make my way up the stairs to Catalina’s room. It’s different than the one from Ramanu’s first check-in. I had her moved to a lower part of the tower with a room better outfitted to serve her needs. If it also happens to be closer to the entrance pool, well, that’s simply coincidence. The door is a bit hidden when one is climbing the stairs, so she must have missed it during her first ascent.

I knock before I can find a reason not to.

Catalina doesn’t make me wait long, but when she opens the door, dark hair tumbled with sleep, clutching a robe around her, I wonder at the intelligence of this plan. She looks soft and touchable, but I must not touch her right now.

I move back. “Get dressed.”

She eyes the new distance between us and rubs her face. “It hasn’t been twenty-four hours.” Even her sleepy voice is enticing. Goddess, but I don’t understand what draws me to this woman. Why now, when I’ve finally settled into some semblance of normalcy?

“What is the point of a test if you’re not tested?”

She brightens, and the smile she gives is so true, it takes my breath away. “You’re going to spend the day with me? You mean it?”

My guilt grows, gaining layers. Guilt over letting her presence outshine the shadows of my past. Guilt for my obvious neglect. “I’ve ill-treated you, haven’t I? Why hasn’t the harm clause been enacted?”

“Oh, that. It’s not harm if it’s normal.” She waves it away, but she won’t quite meet my gaze. “I’m used to it.”

Used to it.

So much encompassed in those three little words. I can’t go back and change my actions in the past few weeks, but I can change them going forward.

Selfish. You want her, and you’re looking for an excuse.

Yes. Yes, it’s true.

“You shouldn’t be used to it,” I grind out.

Catalina tucks a long strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I don’t suppose we can leave the tower?”

“No.” I hate the way her face falls, hate even more the way she smiles to cover her disappointment. “Tomorrow,” I find myself saying. “I’ll take you out.”

She narrows her eyes. “Is there a caveat on this offer? Are you going to tell me to be good or that I have to scrub the entire tower before I can leave?”

“Do you view both of those things as equally impossible tasks?”

“Of course.” She turns and gives me a sultry look over her shoulder. “I think you’ll find I’m never good, Thane.” Catalina shuts the door in my face before I can come up with a suitable response.