Evangeline’s heart twisted again. She didn’t want to feel this. She didn’t want to feel anything for Jacks, and she especially didn’t want to be jealous of this girl he was about to kill. But jealousy wasn’t a reasonable emotion, all it saw was another girl being wanted and touched.
She told herself it was just the youth stone, but they were far from the party now, and this girl wasn’t wearing any gems. She’d had a tiara on earlier, but it had been discarded.
You should go, Jacks echoed in Evangeline’s thoughts. I’ll clean this up when I’m done.
His eyes met hers, more black than blue in the torchlight and utterly unmoved as the Darling girl undid another button.
How can you be so unfeeling? Evangeline thought.
Jacks stroked the Darling girl’s cheek, his eyes still on Evangeline. How can you keep mistaking me for someone who cares?
Go ahead, then. Evangeline crossed her arms over her chest. If he could be terrible, she could be stubborn. Let’s see if your kiss is really worth dying for.
The torch lamps flickered, and Jacks’s gaze darkened.
“What’s she still doing here?” the girl moaned. She reached for another one of Jacks’s buttons.
He grabbed the girl’s hands by the wrists and shoved her away.
“What are you doing?” she screeched.
Jacks sighed. “Go back to dinner, Giselle. Flirt with someone else until you find a nice husband.”
“But you said—”
“I lied,” he cut her off.
The girl’s face fell, cheeks bursting with pink, and Evangeline felt a brief surge of pity as Giselle quickly shuffled past, disappearing down the dim corridor and leaving Evangeline alone with Jacks.
“Happy now?” He took a threatening step toward her.
Evangeline resisted the urge to take a step back. She didn’t think she’d moved, but the cold wall was suddenly at her back, and Jacks was so close—and so much taller than she ever realized—she had to tilt her head to meet his heartless eyes. “You told me you wouldn’t kill anyone.”
“No,” he said. “You told me I wouldn’t kill anyone. I told you that was a terrible plan.”
“But you didn’t need to kill her,” Evangeline argued.
“What do you know about what I need?” Jacks’s long fingers grazed the slit of her skirt.
She swallowed a gasp. The touch had to be an accident.
He flashed a dimple as his fingers moved under the fabric, stroking her bare thigh as he gently parted the slit in her skirt.
This definitely wasn’t an accident.
The tips of his fingers were soft, deceptively gentle, as they traveled higher and … higher. She told herself to pull away—this was Jacks and he was evil—his hand was definitely doing wicked things. But the racing of her heart didn’t feel like fear just then. The rush of her blood and the tingling of her skin felt good. He felt good.
His touch was clearly making her delusional.
Evangeline really needed to push him away. But she grabbed his shirt instead, fisting the fabric in her hands.
He smiled, only it wasn’t kind. It was like the wicked end of a fairytale, all sharp teeth that glinted under the torchlight. This was a mistake. A dangerous mistake. She reminded herself he’d just been touching another girl. But it was hard to care when he knew exactly how to touch her. How to make her feel like she was the one he’d wanted all this time.
His other hand slowly reached for her hip and hitched it up over his.
Her breath caught in her throat.
“Still think you know what I need?” He pressed in closer, lips nearly grazing her jaw and sending a shiver over her skin as he whispered, “I’m not a human, Evangeline. And I’m not your friend, or your husband, or your lover.”
“I never said you were,” she breathed.
“Then don’t try to make me act like it. It doesn’t end well.” The fingers under her skirt turned rough and something vicious flashed in his eyes. Enough to make her finally feel a spike of fear. “This doesn’t end well.” His fingers pressed harder.
Evangeline gasped, and at last she pushed him away. “There is no this—I’m married.”
Jacks ran his finger over the smirk playing on his lips. “You keep saying that, Little Fox, as if it’s something I should care about.”
A heartbeat later, he was gone.
26
Evangeline’s head began to clear as soon as Jacks left her alone in the shadowy hall. She remembered the letter she’d written, warning herself not to trust him. She remembered all the things he’d done. Then she remembered Apollo.