I took a deep breath. “Just a week? Will I be ready?”
“The city is already abuzz with the news of the one remaining succubus. The king demanded an introduction this evening. I had to negotiate.” He frowned. “But we’ll have a lot of work to do if you plan to fool them.”
When I crossed my legs, one bare thigh came into view from under my robe, and Orion’s gaze slid to it. The feel of my thighs rubbing against each other was also my reminder that I still wasn’t wearing underwear, which made me think about how Orion had perhaps seen me naked. And that reminded of the disturbingly pleasurable feel of Orion’s mouth on my neck, and how my body had responded to him dominating me. With those thoughts roiling in my mind, my pulse raced. I tugged down the silky bathrobe over my thigh, hoping that he couldn’t hear my pounding pulse.
He arched an eyebrow at me. “Why is your heart racing like you’re about to die?”
Well, there went that hope.
I pulled the robe tight. “Did you see me naked in the bathtub?”
His body was so still that I could feel the hair raising on my nape. Beautiful as he was, these eerie differences in body language marked him out as a predator. “Your heart races when you think of me seeing you naked?”
His implication was bang on, but I rolled my eyes anyway. “You don’t need to phrase it like that. I was just annoyed, that’s all. Do you know that being annoyed can make your heart race? It’s the raised cortisol levels. Anger.”
A reminder to yourself, Rowan: he is a different species with fangs, lethal magic, and eyes that turn black. Do not forget.
“Well, you needn’t be annoyed,” he said quietly. “Morgan dropped the bathrobe off for you, plus several bags of clothes in the guest room. I’m deeply aware of how uptight mortals are with their bodies. I was alive during the Puritan days. But as Morgan is not interested in females, I thought it was fine for him to enter the bathroom.”
I resisted the temptation to argue that I wasn’t uptight because, truth be told, I was. And I was especially uptight around Orion because he made me want to open my robe in front of him.
I frowned and tried to change the subject. “You were alive during the Puritan days? I thought you weren’t from this region.”
A wry smile. “There were Puritans in England, too. I knew one named Praisegod Barebones who led their parliament. In fact, when I first met you, your outfit reminded me of his clothing.”
“Goth-Puritan is my look,” I said defensively, still clutching the robe closed.
“You’re looking very flushed.”
I cleared my throat. “It’s hot in here.”
“Morgan will return soon with the rest of your new clothes. Mortana always dressed beautifully.”
I was still holding my bathrobe together as if I’d burst into flame if he saw an extra inch of my skin. “Okay. I guess I need to start learning as much as I can about Mortana and this world.”
“You will need to learn to appear less uptight, or you’ll end up thrown into a fire. She is a succubus.”
I raised my chin. “I’ll do fine.” I mean, I had to. “Will I get to see the city itself today?”
“As soon as you’re dressed. But for now, I’ll start with the background of the City of Thorns. What do you know?”
I closed my eyes, trying to remember my history lessons. “The city gates were erected after the Infernal War in the 1680s, when the Puritans and the demons tried to murder each other in the Massachusetts woods. I always thought the point of the gates was to keep the demons in, but apparently, you can leave.”
A hot breeze flowed into the room from the open balcony windows. “King Nergal negotiated the terms when he lost the war. Demons can briefly leave the city, but our magic fades after a few days. We become vulnerable if we live outside the city. Weak, slow-moving, and dull. No better than mortals, really.” There it was—a sharp little barb delivered in a velvety tone.
My lip curled. “Do you have to keep putting in the digs? It might get in the way of our professional relationship.”
“You need to understand how we think. We view ourselves as superior to mortals because—” He lifted a finger to his lips like he was thinking. “Oh, because we are. Demons are smarter, faster, and more graceful. For thousands of years, you worshipped us as gods. Sacrificed to us. Livestock, sometimes even your children. We’re basically divine. Even the tedious American demons are superior to mortals.”