Page 19 of The Demon Prince

“What?” he muttered as he tried to sit up. Then he must have realized his arms were bound behind his back because his eyes widened in shock before narrowing in distrust.

He didn’t know how to roll upright in this position, obviously, because he laid at her feet, glaring up at her. “What is this, pet?”

“This is me getting your attention.” Katherine leaned down, making sure he was staring into her eyes when she said her next words. “And I’m not your pet.”

“Perhaps not now. But you will be.”

“Big words for a man currently bound at my feet.”

Those red eyes flashed. “Maybe this is where I like to be.”

Katherine shrugged. “Then behave, and I’ll let you stay like this for a while.”

Heat sizzled between them. She’d never thought of herself as an overtly sexual person and yet here she was, tempting a demon king with what? Lies? She had no idea what she was doing.

Finally, he ground his teeth and asked, “What do you want?”

“I want you to get out of my room.”

“And I want you.” That was it. That was all he said. Just a period at the end of that sentence as though it explained itself enough.

What did he expect her to say to that?

“You can’t have me,” Katherine replied, although it felt like a lie. He could have her, she knew that. But she was going to make him work for it.

Again, those red eyes flashed. “I don’t like a challenge, pet.”

“Why not?”

“Because then I can think of nothing else but winning. And I will win.” He trailed his tongue over those sharp teeth. “Didn’t you ever learn not to taunt a predator?”

Katherine scoffed, although again she wondered how smart the sound was to make. “You are no more a predator than I am a beauty, demon king.”

“Perhaps I will prove you wrong on both accounts.” Those sizzling eyes trailed over her body again and she almost felt... wanted.

No, this was wrong. All of it was wrong.

But she had a feeling he wouldn’t leave her alone if she didn’t do something.

So she took a deep breath and said, “If you leave my room now, I will come and see you at your castle. But you must promise never to return here. No more staring in my window. No more stalking.”

“I’m not stalking you.”

Katherine lifted a brow.

And though he grumbled, eventually he responded, “Fine. Maybe it was a little light stalking.”

“No more of it.”

“Only if you come to my castle.”

Oh, this was stupid. She should kick him out of this room and then scream until her lungs burned. She should let every single person in this town know that he was hunting yet another of their women.

But she looked into those strange eyes and swore she saw a wound there that needed fixing. And Katherine was nothing if she wasn’t a healer first.

“I’ve already said I would,” she replied. “Do we have a deal, demon king?”

He eyed her before sitting upright. She’d thought he was rather stuck in that position, but he wasn’t. And then he broke through the ties she’d wrapped around him. Easily. He shredded through her shifts like they were nothing but cobwebs, then held one of them up in his hand. “You bound me with your underwear?”

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