"You're not my slave. But you are one of my subjects."

"Don't you mean one of King Eternus'?" I sneered. Feeling a moment of true joy at sending that jab home.

"It is he they serve, but I that protects them." Gray said flatly. Impossible to rattle.

I knew that. But it's still worth a try.

In truth, I found him incredibly intimidating when he was cold and calculatedly calm like this. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, or what he was up to. He seemed to operate very different then every other monster I knew.

And I found that threatening.

"Thus, you think they're yours?"

"Yes. Mine to protect."

"I am not yours. Nor do I need your protection." I sneered the word.

He stiffened and rotated to stare at the same wall I was locked on. "Just because you don't want it, doesn't mean you don't need it."

"Oh, you have me." I looked at him now. Less threatened when his dark blue eyes weren't picking me apart. "I need you, Gray..."

"So badly." I feigned a yearnful whine.

He grunted. "Careful. One day you may have to say those words with actual feeling."

"Oh? You going to order me to do that too?" I faced him.

"If I could order you to feel, I'd have done so a long time ago." He said nearly under his breath.

"I do feel for you, Gray." I looked straight ahead.

He gave me a questioning look.

"Pure hatred."

"If that were true, you wouldn't have to tell me so on every occasion."

"You need a bath, and you need food. You're far too skinny."

I was hungry. But I hated him for knowing it. "Don't pretend you care."

"I just want you bathed to wash the other man off you before I have you."

"Of course, you do."

I didn't know why that jab hit home, but for some reason it stung.

He went to the door and cracked it open. Stepping into the doorway.

I was already there, my hand on the door. Hoping he'd step out far enough I could close and lock it. Sealing him out.

Not that the barkeep wouldn't simply let him back in.

Gray had a distinct way of getting whatever he wanted.

Except me.

He glanced at my arm vanishing behind the door and gave a lopsided smile. Knowing exactly what I was doing. "Nice try."

He was careful to keep his leg and booted foot in the door.

A leg which was well-muscled. Hinting at the strong body of a warrior. He called to summon one of the barmaids.

She took the stairs, in such a rush that her feet thudded quickly.

Nearly stumbling up them in her haste.

Run, girl run. I thought contemptuously. Annoyed by her eagerness to accommodate him. I hated that everyone catered to his every whim.

"Is she not moving fast enough?" I queried.

"Plenty quick. You could learn something of it."

"I move quick enough."

"But never where I tell you to."

"You mean, not toward you?" I lifted a haughty red brow and batted my eyes innocently.

"That's precisely what I mean. As you damn well know."

"I'm sorry I'm not as biddable as your fair barmaids." I said in a honeyed tone. "Perhaps you should join one of them in their chambers."

"And enter the bed of a woman who begs me to?"

"Exactly."

"Why would I do that, when I can fight you down? Witness your inner battle, while I sink. Into. You." He leaned forward to emphasize each murmured word. Using that low voice to send shivers over me.

"She'd obey you."

"But you'll please me."

"She'll want you."

"So will you." He gave me a hooded study. "Soon as I get you down in the sheets where you can't resist me."

"I can resist you."

He scoffed. His head dropping back on what was an actual laugh.

That makes him laugh. I frowned. Of course it would.

"Go away, Gray." I said in a hushed voice.

"No chance. Stop wasting your breath." He averted his attention to the hall to speak to the barmaid. Ordering a large platter of food and a bath.

"No!" I started to slide past him. "I don't know him! I don't-"

My words were cut off by sputtering as he palmed my face to push me back inside the chamber.

I stumbled backward against his powerful hold. Glaring furiously at him as I caught the door to balance myself.

"Hush, Baby Girl." He hissed at me. His gaze flashing dangerously. "Don't infuriate me."

I heard her conceding she'd fetch it right away and then the swish of cloth and a pause.

Did she really just curtsy at him?

He rounded on me. Pushing the door closed behind him.

***

Make a mistake.

Leave it open. Just a crack. Just for a moment.

He slid sideways and stepped into my view. "Hoping you'll get away?"

"Planning."

"And where would you go?" He said contemptuously. "You're starving."

"I'd run all night to get away from you."

"I'm not as bad as that."

"I hate you."

"As you've said." He rolled his eyes boredly. "Yet you continue to melt under my hand."

I flinched. My hand rolling into a fist that yearned to strike him.

He tilted his head in warning. He didn't have to threaten me to tell me that there'd be costly repercussions for doing as I yearned to.

"I'd rather die of starvation then let you touch me." I hissed at him.

"Would you?" His voice rose in intrigue as he closed in on me, weaving like a snake about to strike. Backing me up to avoid being smashed against his chest. "Shall we test that theory?"

"I would."

"Hmm." His lips curled coldly sideways. He eyed me thoughtfully.

My back hit the wall and I huffed a small pant of air.

His elbows framed in my shoulders and his forearms draped the wall alongside my face as he leisurely leaned against me. Caging me with his body.

So close I couldn't inhale without sharing his breath.

Far too close!

"Do you know how telling it is?" He asked. "That you let every ruffian in your sweet, tight, little hole without fight...But me...You're truly terrified."

"Because your far worse!" I was breathing raggedly. Hating that my voice cracked.

"No." He shook his head. Leaning in until his bottom lip slid over mine leisurely. "Because it is mine that brings you to your knees."

"You wish I was on my knees!"

"I do." He grudgingly admitted. "Amongst other things. But all your crude words don't change the fact that I know exactly where you hide. That I alone, can touch you in all the places no other man can reach. That I find you when no one else can." His voice dropped with every sentence until it was barely audible. He slid his head side to side. Making his lip trail mine until my nervousness had my tongue darting out to moisten it. Licking his in the process.

"Mmm." He growled. One hand sliding slowly down the wall with a whispering scrape. Drawing down toward my waist where he palmed the bottom of my ribs and slid his flat hand upward to my chest, his fingertips just brushing the bottom of a rounded globe.

I swallowed, my mouth drying.

"Tell me," He whispered against my mouth, hovering it just over mine so I could already feel the heat of him. "that you're not already wet for me."

"You have me cornered, Gray." I said as angrily as I could. Pushing my head back as far into the stone as it could go and still slicking my lips along his as I spoke. "Stop toying with your food."

"Oh, I won't eat you..." His eyes slid down over me.

"Yet." He snapped flat, perfectly white, teeth in a sound that made me jump slightly.

Knowing that he was an Eternus made those words more than just a playful warning.

He could suck me dry.

Something I'd long been expecting him to do.

His kind are all soulless. The old familiar hatred bubbled to the surface.

The door opened. Unlocked. The barmaid was carrying two steaming buckets.

And peering at her over his shoulder, I glimpsed one fat nipple peeping just above her bodice.

I couldn't help wondering if she'd done that to tempt him.

It seemed so obvious.

It probably would've worked. I thought dryly.

My gaze returned to his which was staring at me unblinkingly. His dark blue eyes consuming me as if he could take in every detail of my face in a way he never had before. Touching me as I knew his hands soon would be.

If he didn't already have prey tonight.