Page 11 of Master of Storms
He’d only ever seen her in boots with heels a good three inches high.
All the better to crush you beneath them,she’d once taunted.
“My wards are impenetrable,” she said, and curse the gods but she was so glorious when her temper was roused. “I should have felt your presence the second you set foot inside this inn.”
“Sorry, sweetheart.” He couldn’t resist stroking the arch of her foot. “Perhaps you forgot to set them.”
“Get your hands off me.”
“What’s wrong?” Another mocking caress, this time digging his thumbs in a little harder. “You liked it last time.”
Murder.
She was trying to visually murder him.
“Why are you here? What do you want?” he demanded.
Her eyes narrowed to thin slits. “Haven’t you realized yet, mylove? I want your heart. In a box.”
“Then we have a problem, for I find I’m quite partial to it where it is. Go back home. Forget this foolish vendetta. I’ll pretend you never existed, and you can excise me from your life however you wish.”
“Vendetta?You think this a mere vendetta?”
He danced his fingers underneath the pads of her toes. “What else would I think it? An infatuation?”
Outrage exploded over her features, but to his delight, she also squirmed.
Ticklish. She was fucking ticklish.
And so he did it again, just to annoy her.
“Infatuation?” She yanked at her foot. “Get your hands off me!”
He let her go and held his hands up. “As my lady commands, though I will note that you put your foot inmylap.”
She glared at him, and despite the fact she was tied to the chair, she somehow exuded menace. “I will kill you, Marduk. I will never stop coming for you. It doesn’t matter what you do. It doesn’t matter how thick your dungeon walls may be, or how long you lock me away for, I will keep coming until I finally have what I want.”
Marduk slowly crossed his arms over his chest. “Dungeon? What kind of male do you think I am?”
Her arched eyebrow answered that question with exquisite explicitness.
“I’m not going to lock you away,” he said slowly. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to talk.”
“So you’re going to simply set me free?” The devil had a smile like that.
His eyes narrowed. “Maybe I’ll fly you home and dump you on your father’s doorstep, all tied up. I’ll even put a pretty bow in your hair.”
It was as though he’d set a match to the tinder of her fury. “Don’t you dare.”
“If I could trust you to behave, then I wouldn’t have to.” Pushing to his feet, he started pacing. No matter how much he wanted to stay and play with her, this was the worst time to deal with a scorned female. “You’ve become a problem. I was content to allow us to part on ill terms—”
“A problem?”
“Yes,” he growled. “A problem. I have important issues to deal with in regards to my court and my family. I can’t afford to be watching over my shoulder for you at every second.”
“You should have thought about that before you crossed me.”
“I never sought you out. I never intended for any of this to happen—"
